Do the psychological impacts of war cause poverty? Evidence from Mozambique

This paper evaluates the extent to which war-related psychological distress causes poverty. The endogeneous nature of mental distress is addressed by using exposure to the civil war in Mozambique as an instrument. It is found that exposure to war has a significant and positive long-lasting impact on mental distress. Furthermore, the causal impact of war-related psychological distress on income and wealth is shown to be significant, negative, and nonnegligible. One standard deviation increase in mental distress decreases income by half a standard deviation. These findings are robust to alternative specifications, including the use of an alternative database on the incidence of PTSD in Mozambique.NSBE - UN

Essays in urban economics

This thesis consists of four policy impact evaluations that consider outcomes related to marriage, mental health, architectural valuation, and parenting. The first of these impact evaluations seeks to understand the extent to which accessing housing credit affects the decision to marry. To this end, it evaluates the impact of a series of maps, which the US government created in order to guide lending in the wake of the great depression. A federal government agency – known as the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) – assigned a grade to each neighbourhood block on a four point scale (A, B, C, D). These grades aimed to capture the extent to which houses in these blocks would appreciate or depreciate in the future. The maps were then circulated to banks. This chapter evaluates the impact of these maps on area-level marriage, finding that discriminated neighbourhoods had fewer married individuals. It also concludes that these effects are due to the mortgage mechanism per se, and are not simply a product of sorting. The second of these impact evaluations considers the effect of the covid-19 pandemic on mental health. It exploits quasi-exogenous variation in lockdown severity in the UK, paired with high-frequency mental health data derived from Tweets. It finds that the lockdowns did, indeed, have a negative effect on mental health. The third of these impact evaluations considers the extent to which architectural design is capitalised into commercial rents, with the goal of understanding whether passers-by value aesthetic features of the public realm. To this end, it uses Google Streetview data on the ornateness of London facades, and uses a town centre fixed effects specification. It finds that architectural ornateness of facades is capitalised into commercial rents, and that individuals are willing to pay for distinctive architecture within the public realm. The final impact evaluation considers the effect of neighbourhood crime on parenting, comparing effects for different populations. It finds that residents of social housing do not change parenting practices in response to increased crime, while private sector housing families do. These findings may be suggestive of dynamic complementarities between neighbourhoods and parenting investments

Incubators, accelerators and urban economic development

We combine theory and evidence on incubator and accelerator programmes, and their effects on urban economic development. These structured co-working programmes have grown rapidly. However, a rich descriptive literature reveals little about their impact on participants or surrounding urban areas. We situate programmes in a conceptual framework of co-location tools, theorise objectives and benefits, and report findings from systematic, OECD-wide reviews of the evaluation literature. These evaluations provide evidence that accelerators and incubators raise participant employment, with accelerators also aiding access to finance. Ecosystem features such as university involvement and urban economic conditions also influence programme outcomes. However, evaluation evidence is less clear on detailed intervention design. We consider wider lessons and lay out an agenda for future research

Obstrução nasal e o desporto

Trabalho Final do Curso de Mestrado Integrado em Medicina, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, 2016A obstrução nasal é bastante comum podendo afectar cerca de 40% da população. Portugal tem uma elevada prevalência de rinite e simultaneamente é dos países da União Europeia com maior sedentarismo. Embora perante a epidemia das doenças de estilo de vida como a obesidade ou a hipertensão arterial (e estando documentada a importância do exercício físico para a sua prevenção ou controlo), o elevado sedentarismo português faz questionar se as patologias otorrinolaringológicas influenciam esta diminuta actividade física na nossa população. Assim apresenta-se uma revisão das principais causas de obstrução nasal, sua etiologia, diagnóstico e terapêutica e exploram-se também hipóteses que possam clarificar a influência que a obstrução nasal trará para a performance desportiva. Na maioria dos casos, uma história clínica concisa e um exame objectivo dirigido poderão levar-nos ao diagnóstico. O seu tratamento quando não passa pela cirurgia pode ser controlado com o uso de corticoides tópicos nasais ou anti-histamínicos sem dano para o desempenho do atleta competidor em provas com controlo anti-doping. Tendo uma base fisiopatológica, diagnóstico e tratamento tão acessíveis, mas um enorme impacto na qualidade de vida, torna-se imperativo dar a conhecer como gerir estas patologias na vista de um clínico geral.Nasal obstruction is quite common, affecting almost 40% of the population. Portugal is one of the European Union countries where sedentarism is at its highest levels and with a high prevalence of rhinitis. Though we face a lifestyle diseases’ epidemic (e.g. obesity, hypertension) that can be prevented and controlled by the practise of physical exercise, having such a low rate of physical activity among the portuguese population, make us wonder if and how otorhinolaryngologic pathologies might be the cause of such low levels of physical activity. It is proposed a review considering the main causes of nasal obstruction, its etiology, diagnostics and therapeutics and also how nasal obstruction can influence sports performance.Normally, a concise anamnesis and a governed clinical examination may lead us to the diagnostics. Surgical or medical treatment can always be ensured in the majority of the cases. Medically, one can prescribe anti-histamine agents or topical nasal corticosteroids with no violation of the actual anti-doping legislation. Since it has such a basic physiopathology, diagnostic and treatment, even being so troublesome to the quality of life of patients, it is very important to divulge how to manage these pathologies in a general practicioner’s way of view

Incubators, accelerators and regional economic development

A growing wave of co-location programmes promises to boost growth for young firms. Despite great public and policy interest we have little idea whether such programmes are effective. This paper categorises accelerators and incubators within a larger family of ‘co-location' interventions. We then develop a single framework to theorise workspace-level impacts. We summarise available evaluation evidence and sketch implications for regional economic policy. We find clear evidence programmes are effective overall. But we know little about how effects operate – or who benefits. Providers and policymakers should experiment further to establish optimal designs

Transformação digital: competências técnicas para o futuro mercado de trabalho

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Efficiency in the European agricultural sector: environment and resources

This article intends to compute agriculture technical efficiency scores of 27 European countries during the period 2005–2012, using both data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) with a generalized cross-entropy (GCE) approach, for comparison purposes. Afterwards, by using the scores as dependent variable, we apply quantile regressions using a set of possible influencing variables within the agricultural sector able to explain technical efficiency scores. Results allow us to conclude that although DEA and SFA are quite distinguishable methodologies, and despite attained results are different in terms of technical efficiency scores, both are able to identify analogously the worst and better countries. They also suggest that it is important to include resources productivity and subsidies in determining technical efficiency due to its positive and significant exerted influence

Processing and characterization of polyurethane nanocomposite foam reinforced with montmorillonite-carbon nanotube hybrids

This study investigates the effect of montmorillonite carbon nanotube hybrids on the final properties of polyurethane (PU) nanocomposite foams. The hybrids were fabricated by chemical vapour deposition and dispersed in rigid polyurethane foam by an in situ polymerization process. The resulting morphology and dispersion were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. PU nanocomposite foams have revealed the presence of cells of smaller size and an increase of cell density when compared to neat polymer foams. Thermogravimetric studies revealed that addition of the hybrids nanoparticles improve the thermal properties of the resulting nanocomposites. Addition of small amounts of montmorillonite carbon nanotube hybrids has enhanced the compressive properties of the resulting PU nanocomposite foams making it suitable for several applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Digital transformation: technologies and competences for the future of work and professions

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