The Portugal situation during the financial crisis

Today it's frequently used the terms PIGS or PIIGS, acronyms used by economic journalists to refer to different countries of the European Union for their statement of affairs. The bad connotation is evident from the fact that pigs in English suggest the bad state of the economies of these countries. PIGS has been used at the beginning of the years 1990 to indicate four countries of southern Europe: Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. Ireland has sometimes been added during the year 2007, so the acronym is modified in PIIGS. Nevertheless, the alarms of BCE about the public accounts of these States it seems to exclude Italy from the group of the countries characterized by very bad statements of affairs. The aim of this work is to analyze especially during the financial crises the situation of the public accounts in Portugal, one of the countries with greater difficulties and probably with the worse condition if we exclude the dramatic Greek case. In Portugal, the economic growth has been superior to the average UE, for big part of the decade 1990-2001, even if the remains under the 75% of the principal European economies' PIL

The effects of ageing population on health expenditure and economic growth in China: A Bayesian-VAR approach

The increasing proportion of the population aged 65 or over has generated a global rise of health spending due to higher demand for medical and long-term care services, which has become a growing challenge to the sustainability of public finances across countries. This phenomenon is especially prominent in China, which has experienced accelerated rates of both economic growth and population ageing over the past four decades. Using Bayesian-VAR (B-VAR) models we compute the impulse response functions (IRFs) and the forecast error variance decomposition functions (FEVDs) to empirically examine the dynamic relationships between ageing index, life expectancy, economic growth and health expenditure in China. We compare China with the USA which has distinct trajectories of population structure and economic development to better understand the former’s dynamic patterns. We find a pronounced response for both the USA and China of ageing index to life expectancy and of health spending per capita to GDP per capita, while ageing population induces a relatively strong reaction from health expenditure per capita in China. Our results are robust with either nominal or real variables. These findings suggest that, in China, a well-rounded policy accommodating economic, social and health factors is needed to improve the quality of life of the ageing population for a sustainable development of the economy

Realidad actual. Lo que podemos aprovechar

Presidente de ACARO Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentin

Analyzing the emotional impact of COVID-19 with Twitter data: Lessons from a B-VAR analysis on Italy

: The novel coronavirus 2019 revolutionized the way of living and the communication of people making social media a popular tool to express concerns and perceptions. Starting from this context we built an original database based on the Twitter users' emotions shown in the early weeks of the pandemic in Italy. Specifically, using a single index we measured the feelings of four groups of stakeholders (journalists, people, doctors, and politicians), in three groups of Italian regions (0,1,2), grouped according to the impact of the COVID-19 crises as defined by the Conte Government Ministerial Decree (8th March 2020). We then applied B-VAR techniques to analyze the sentiment relationships between the groups of stakeholders in every Region Groups. Results show a high influence of doctors at the beginning of the epidemic in the Group that includes most of Italian regions (Group 0), and in Lombardy that has been the region of Italy hit the most by the pandemic (Group 2). Our outcomes suggest that, given the role played by stakeholders and the COVID-19 magnitude, health policy interventions based on communication strategies may be used as best practices to develop regional mitigation plans for the containment and contrast of epidemiological emergencies

Assessment of the Presence of Women in Subnational Cabinets of Argentina (1992-2016)

¿Cuáles son los factores que explican la inclusión de las mujeres en puestos políticos subnacionales? La literatura convencional ha examinado las designaciones de mujeres en gabinetes nacionales, pero escasa atención se ha prestado a los gobiernos provinciales. Para abordar este vacío, adoptamos el enfoque de oferta y demanda. De este modo, utilizando una base de datos sobre las 24 jurisdicciones subnacionales argentinas desde 1992 a 2016, encontramos que los factores del lado de la demanda son más relevantes. Esto se explica, en primer término, ya que la probabilidad de que sean nombradas ministras aumenta junto al tamaño del gabinete, cuando hay una gobernadora mujer y, finalmente, si el gobernador pertenece a la coalición peronista. Por otro lado, se ven perjudicadas a medida que aumenta el contingente legislativo del partido del gobernadorWhat explains women’s inclusion in sub-national cabinet positions? While much of the existing literature has examined women’s appointments to national ministerial cabinets, scholars have not considered women’s access to provincial level cabinets. To address this gap, we adopt the conventional wisdom of a supply and demand approach to evaluate the findings at the subnational level. Using an original time series dataset from 1992-2016 across all 24 subnational jurisdictions, we find that demand factors are more relevant as the probability that women are appointed ministers increases when cabinets are larger, when there is a female governor, and when the governor belongs to a peronist coalition; conversely, a larger legislative contingent of the governor’s party decreases the probability of appointing women.Fil: Barnes, Tiffany D.. University of Kentucky; Estados UnidosFil: Ciocci Pardo, Tomás. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. Departamento de Ciencia Política y Estudios Internacionales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lopreite, Debora Cecilia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales; Argentin

The Global Health Networks: A Comparative Analysis of Tuberculosis, Malaria and Pneumonia Using Social Media Data

Global health networks (GHNs) of organizations fighting major health threats represent a useful strategy to respond to the challenge of mobilizing and coordinating different types of health organizations across borders toward a common goal. In this paper we reconstruct the GHNs of malaria, tuberculosis and pneumonia by creating a new unique database of health organizations from the official Twitter accounts of each organization. We use a majority voter Multi Naive Bayes classifier to discover, among the Twitter users, the ones that represent organizations or groups active in each disease area. We perform a social network analysis (SNA) of the global health networks (GHNs) to evaluate the structure of the network and the role and performance of the organizations in each network. We find evidence that the GHN of malaria, TBC and pneumonia are different in terms of performance and leadership, geographical coverage as well as Twitter popularity. Our analysis validate the use of social media to analyze GHNs, their effectiveness and to mobilize the global community toward global sustainable development

State feminism in democratic Argentina (1983-2021): aspirational model or institutional reality?

Desde 1983 con la vuelta a la democracia hasta 2021, la agencia de política para las mujeres en Argentina muestra una trayectoria institucional no lineal. Utilizando una tipología de agencias propuesta por la teoría de Feminismo de Estado, este artículo caracteriza, en primer lugar, las diferentes expresiones institucionales de las agencias de políticas para las mujeres según su nexo con los movimientos de mujeres y feministas. En segundo lugar, el artículo explica estas variaciones a partir de las dinámicas y los cambios de los movimientos de mujeres y feministas, y el uso instrumental de las agencias de las mujeres, por parte del Poder Ejecutivo, en la negociación y regulación de conflictos con diversos actores. El artículo busca contribuir a los debates de feminismo de Estado enfatizando la heterogeneidad y dinámica de los movimientos feministas y las decisiones pragmáticas de los líderes políticos.With the return of democracy in 1983 until 2021, the women’s policy agency in Argentina shows a non-linear institutional trajectory. Using a typology of agencies proposed by the theory of State Feminism, this article characterizes, in the first place, the different institutional expressions of women’s policy agencies according to their nexus with the women’s and feminist movements. Secondly, the article explains these variations based on the dynamics and changes of women’s and feminist movements, as well as the instrumental use of women’s agencies by the Executive Power when regulating conflicts with conservative actors. The article seeks to contribute to the debates on State Feminism by emphasizing the heterogeneity of feminist movements vis-à-vis political leaders’ pragmatic decisions at critical conjunctures.Fil: Lopreite, Debora Cecilia. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Rodríguez Gustá, Ana Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones y Políticas del Ambiente Construido. - Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones y Políticas del Ambiente Construido; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Escuela de Política y Gobierno. Área de Políticas Públicas; Argentin