Efficient redistribution policy: an analysis focused on the quality of institutions and public education

In this work we intend to study how the quality of the institutional factor may influence the efficiency of redistribution policy specifically associated with human capital accumulation. We develop a conceptual discussion building on the importance of income redistribution for economic growth and the key role of political institutions in securing growth-enhancing redistribution policies. We introduce endogenous growth theory elements into our analysis by considering as a fundamental source of economic growth human capital accumulation, motivated by tax-financed education secured through efficient redistribution policies. We outline crucial insights on the underlying mechanisms, emphasizing however that extensive research on the subject is undoubtedly still required. In particular, we identify the main factors negatively affecting the decisive role of political institutions and, consequently, distorting efficient redistribution policy. We then define a political-economic equilibrium as a combination of intermediately strong state and efficient control-rights institutions, implying simultaneous protection from expropriation and implementation of efficient redistribution policy, conducive to sustained economic growth.redistribution policy, human capital, institutions, taxation, public education, economic growth

Key determinants of elite rivalry: theoretical insights and empirical evidence

In this paper we empirically examine the key determinants of elite rivalry and identify their main channels of transmission, thus contributing to the sparse literature on the topic. Our results clearly indicate that the income level, human capital, the system of checks and balances, natural resources rents, and colonization experience (or, alternatively, the identity of a country's colonizer) are strong determinants of the observed elite rivalry levels. The determining effect of the first three factors is highly significant and positive, while that of the last two factors is highly significant and negative. These results imply that higher levels of education and income per capita and a more efficient separation of powers contribute to reduce the elite rivalry level, while past experience as a colony and higher rents from natural resources contribute to aggravate it. As regards the transmission channels, the quantification of effects shows that about 60% of the determining factors' overall effect on elite rivalry is transmitted through the legal system and property rights and the political risk channels, mainly coming from the income level and natural resources rents, which cumulatively account for around 45% of the total effect. In sum, our empirical findings indicate that a more efficient institutional model and specific historical and economic factors, can in fact determine the level of elite rivalry in the long run.E. Sochirca acknowledges the nancial support from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, through the post-doctoral grant SFRH/BPD/109307/2015. The authors are thankfull for the funding with COMPETE reference n. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683 (UID/ECO/ 03182/2013), with the FCT/MEC's (Fundaçãoo para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.) through national funding and by the ERDF through the Operational Programme on Competitiveness and Internationalization - COMPETE 2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Measuring political rivalry and estimating its effect on economic growth

In this paper we construct a composite indicator of political rivalry using factor analysis and then build a panel dataset of political rivalry levels for 125 countries during the 1984-2012 period. According to the factor analysis results, while specific institutional quality aspects are fundamental for defining the degree of political rivalry, political regime specific variables and natural resources rents do not appear significant. A preliminary analysis of the constructed indicator shows that political rivalry is clearly inversely related to the level of development, and that there are significant differences in political rivalry levels among countries, depending on their income and geographical location. The results of system-GMM estimations of the effect of political rivalry on economic growth clearly indicate a negative effect, which is equally maintained when other political and institutional variables are simultaneously considered, and when the model is tested on a number of restricted samples, thus confirming the robustness of the baseline results. Additionally, regression results for the restricted samples suggest that the negative effect of political rivalry on growth weakens as the development level increases.Comperte 2020, Feder, Portugal 2020, FC

Hipóxia tumoral: contribuição para a progressão do cancro e o papel terapêutico de pró-fármacos ativados pela hipóxia

Introdução: O cancro apresenta uma elevada taxa de incidência e de mortalidade, existindo a necessidade de desenvolvimento de novas abordagens terapêuticas. O microambiente tumoral é muitas vezes caraterizado por uma baixa concentração de oxigénio, condição designada por hipóxia, que foi associada a um pior prognóstico e representa, desta forma, um importante alvo terapêutico. Objetivos: Elaborar uma revisão de literatura sobre a hipóxia tumoral, no que toca à definição do conceito da hipóxia tumoral e dos seus fatores etiológicos, mecanismos celulares induzidos pela hipóxia tumoral e ainda sobre os pró-fármacos ativados pela hipóxia. Materiais e métodos: Foi efetuada uma pesquisa de literatura referente ao tema utilizando as bases de dados PubMed e ClinicalTrials.gov. Resultados: Hipóxia é definida como redução da disponibilidade de oxigénio e resulta da proliferação celular excessiva e da presença de uma rede vascular anormal, caraterísticos de neoplasias malignas. Provoca a estabilização do fator de transcrição induzido pela hipóxia que, por sua vez, regula várias respostas celulares que permitem a adaptação e sobrevivência das células cancerígenas no microambiente hipóxico, entre as quais a glicólise e a metastização. É ainda responsável pela resistência à quimioterapia e radioterapia apresentada pelas células hipóxicas, o que motiva o desenvolvimento de novas abordagens terapêuticas. Os pró-fármacos ativados pela hipóxia são ativados e atuam preferencialmente em regiões hipóxicas dos tumores. Ao longo do tempo vários compostos foram sintetizados e alguns deles avaliados em ensaios clínicos. Discussão: A literatura existente aponta para o papel da hipóxia tumoral na regulação de mecanismos celulares necessários para a progressão do cancro. Ao longo do tempo foram verificadas tentativas de melhorar as propriedades farmacológicas dos prófármacos ativados pela hipóxia. As limitações verificadas nos ensaios clínicos prendem-se com a possibilidade de ativação dos fármacos em tecidos normais e com a falta de estratificação dos doentes de acordo com os níveis de hipóxia apresentados pelos seus tumores. É necessário aguardar pelos resultados dos ensaios clínicos atualmente em fase ativa. Conclusão e perspetivas futuras: Ainda nenhum pró-fármaco ativado pela hipóxia foi aprovado para uso clínico. É necessário otimizar as suas propriedades farmacocinéticas e farmacodinâmicas de modo a permitir uma melhor difusão para as regiões hipóxicas do tumor. Para além disso, é necessário estratificar os doentes de acordo com os seus níveis de hipóxia em futuros ensaios clínicos.Introduction: Cancer has a high incidence and mortality rates, which results in a need for new treatment approaches. The tumour microenvironment is often characterized by a low oxygen concentration, a condition called hypoxia, associated with worse outcome; therefore, it represents an important therapeutic target. Objectives: To elaborate a literature review regarding tumour hypoxia, specifically the definition of tumour hypoxia and its etiology, cellular mechanisms induced by hypoxia and regarding the hypoxia activated prodrugs. Materials and methods: A literature search was done, using PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov databases. Results: Hypoxia is defined by reduced oxygen availability and is a result of excessive cellular proliferation and an abnormal vascular network often present in malignant tumours. It leads to the hypoxia inducible factor stabilization which, in turn, regulates cellular responses responsible for the adaptation and survival of cancer cells in the hypoxic microenvironment, such as glycolysis and metastasis. It is also responsible for the resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy of the hypoxic cells, which motivates the development of new therapeutic approaches. Hypoxia activated prodrugs are activated and act preferably in hypoxic regions of tumours. Over the time, multiple compounds were synthetized and evaluated in clinical trials. Discussion: The existent literature indicates the importance of tumour hypoxia for the regulation of cellular responses needed for cancer progression. Over the time, there was a positive evolution of the pharmacologic properties of hypoxia activated prodrugs. The limitations encountered in clinical trials are the possible activation of hypoxia activated prodrugs in normal tissues and the absence of patient stratification according to hypoxia levels of their tumours. Results of the active clinical trials are awaited. Conclusion and future perspectives: To this date, none of the hypoxia activated prodrugs has been approved for clinical use. It is necessary to optimize their pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties for a better diffusion to the hypoxic regions of a tumour. Also, it is necessary to stratify the patients according to their hypoxia levels in future clinical trials

Determinants of Youth Unemployment: Evidence From 18 OECD Countries

Youth unemployment rates are significantly and consistently higher than total unemployment rates, hitting especially high values in a crisis context. The aim of this work is to assess the determinants of youth unemployment in developed countries, relying on a youth to total unemployment ratio. Using data from 18 OECD countries from 1990 to 2019, the results of the estimations indicate that labor market flexibilization and economic growth have a widening effect of on the gap between youth and total unemployment rates, while post-secondary educational attainment contributes to reduce the gap

THE DEMOGRAPHIC QUALITY OF POPULATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

The demographic quality of population represents one of the basic components of the “population quality” concept. This study includes analysis of demographic quality of population in the Republic of Moldova, including three qualitative demographic indicators (growth rate, total dependency ratio, old/young age dependency ratio) for calculating the demographic development index. It serves as reference value in evaluating the aspects of demographic quality of population. This index is analysed in dynamics and in territorial aspects, in order to highlight the trend and the regional specific features of the demographic quality of population

The Impact of Offshoring on Employment: A Meta-analysis

Over the last decades, the intensification of offshoring movements has generated important impacts on labour markets. The literature on this topic has, however, produced divergent results. We develop a meta-analysis of the empirical literature that estimates the effect of offshoring on employment in the origin country. We find that, although the overall effect is weak, there are important differences in the effects reported by the primary studies that are explained by the development level of the countries included in the sample, the type of goods/services that are analyzed, the structure of the data, the estimation technique, the way offshoring is measured, and the unit of analysis. We also find that on average the effect for highskilled workers is not statistically different from the effect for low-skilled workers

Optimal policies, middle class development and human capital accumulation under elite rivalry

We build a dynamic mode lwith endogenous middle class development, human capital accumulation and policy choices,in order to analyse the interactions between the optimal policies implemented by the rulling elite and the key drivers of economic growth in the presence of elite rivalry. We consider that:(i) the specific policy choices depend on economic and political incentives of the elite; (ii) the individuals' decisions regarding their childrens' education are endogenously determined by specific economic and political factors. Our results suggest that, contrarily to the economically motivated policies, the politically motivated policy choices imply innefficient economic outcomes and limit the development of the middle class and human capital accumulation. The results also show that higher middle class and human capital accumulation growth rates can lower the degree of elite rivalry by reducing the level of the optimal tax rate, increase public investments in education and yield positive changes in all economic outcomes.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), FEDER, COMPETE, QREN, PT2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Automation and Off(Re)Shoring: A Meta-Regression Analysis

Offshoring characterizes much of the globalization phenomenon of the last century. However, the rapid development of automation technologies, combined with the disruption of Global Value Chains experienced at the international level, have put pressure on multinational's decisions regarding location of production activities.The ongoing debate on the effects of automation on off(re)shoring movements has gained growing attention. On the one hand, a relevant branch of related literature advocates that automation may facilitate the return of production to origin countries, thereby contributing to the increase of the reshoring movements. On the other hand, another branch of the literature argues that such increases are not directly related to automation and that the process of robotization may even contribute to increase offshoring.In face of these apparently contradictory results, we conduct a meta-analysis on the empirical literature that estimates the impact of automation on off(re)shoring. After correcting for publication bias, we find that the overall effect of automation on reshoring is positive and significant, both in developed and developing countries. We also find that the heterogeneity in the reported effects is explained by differences in the studies' methodological characteristics

Impact Analysis of Managerial Decisions on the Overall Performance of a Public Transport Operator: The Case of STCP

AbstractThis paper presents a case study from Porto-based public transport operator Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto (STCP) to closer investigate the relation between managerial decisions and economic indicators in public transport, such as efficiency and effectiveness. By means of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) the company's performance results between 1946 and 2004 are analyzed. The second part of the analysis serves to explore the managerial history of STCP and to point out main decisions, policies or other decisive factors in the framework of the company's performance. Our approach aims at identifying the magnitude of these decisions within the operational framework and their time-lags. The analysis has shown that certain managerial decisions directly influence the operational activity in the following years and considerably affect the overall performance of the services provided. The decisions are mostly linked to an increase of social benefits and privileges, political and social environment, the implementation of the single agent policy and operational leasing. Another essential conclusion is the identification of a certain time-frame of such influence. Results show the existence of time-lags between decisions and performance, usually representing medium term periods from 2 to 4 years. The results might be translated into policy recommendations, e.g. for setting up the regulatory framework that achieves a systems best performance