The Impact of FDI, Cross Border Mergers and Acquisitions and Greenfield Investments on Economic Growth

This paper investigates whether aggregate foreign direct investment (FDI), cross border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and greenfield investments affects economic growth based on a panel data of 53 countries over the period 1996-2006. Both causality tests and single growth equations are applied to examine this relationship. The evidence suggests that there is bidirectional causality between FDI, M&A and growth. We can also conclude that economic growth Granger causes greenfields, but the reverse is not true. The estimation of the growth equation leads us to conclude that FDI through greenfield investments exerts a positive impact on economic growth in both developed and developing countries. Oppositely, M&A has a negative effect on the economic growth of developing countries, but insignificant on developed countries.Foreign Direct Investment, Cross Border Mergers and Acquisitions, Greenfield Investments, Economic Growth

Creativity and innovation: A contribution of behavioral economics

Innovation in products and services is seen by scholars, by specialized media in management, and by some managers as the main currency in modern economies. This is because it allows high average market profits, fame for innovators, or brand growth, for example. However, in practice, most managers still treat innovation as a secondary issue on their agendas. This problem results from the inability of market professionals to analyze people inside and outside their companies. It is not possible to develop innovative products in a systematic way without treating this point effectively. Moreover, in this process, creativity is a necessary, but not necessarily sufficient, condition to be fulfilled and requires behavioral transformation. In this context, it is believed that behavioral economics can make a sufficient contribution in the form of an analytical marketing tool by offering an analysis closer to human beings' reality, and, thus, allow a better understanding of people's behavior in the process of innovation in the market

Para uma didática das Ciências transdisciplinar: o contributo da Aprendizagem Baseada na Resolução de Problemas

Partindo de uma breve contextualização epistemológica e pedagógica, na qual se identificam os eixos estruturantes do pensamento contemporâneo, discutem-se os seus potenciais reflexos na educação e, por extensão, na didática das ciências, assumindo-se que a investigação e as práticas neste campo devem ter como horizonte a marca da transdisciplinaridade. Analisam-se, a seguir, os princípios estruturantes das abordagens transdisciplinares e da Aprendizagem Baseada na Resolução de Problemas (ABRP), concluindo-se que esta poderá dar um importante contributo a caminho de uma educação transdisciplinar. Esboçam-se, por fim, implicações pedagógicas dos argumentos aduzidos, com particular ênfase na formação de professores de ciências

Nutrition and malnutrition in kidney transplant recipients

Kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for end-stage kidney disease, offering better quality of life and life-expectancy compared to dialysis. Nevertheless, life expectancy remains considerably lower compared to the general population. Nutrition is increasingly being recognized as an actionable risk-factor for the prevention and management of chronic diseases and we explored whether nutritional factors could serve as potentially modifiable risk-factors after kidney transplantation. We investigated the associations between dietary intake of marine-derived omega-3 fatty acids, fruit and vegetable intake, adherence to healthy dietary patterns such as the DASH- and Mediterranean diet and nutritional status with long-term outcomes after kidney transplantation. A higher intake of marine-derived omega-3 fatty acids and high vegetable intake were associated with lower mortality risk after kidney transplantation. Moreover, higher vegetable consumption was associated with a lower risk for development of diabetes after kidney transplantation, notwithstanding the use of diabetogenic medication, i.e steroids. Also, adherence to healthy dietary patterns such as the DASH- and Mediterranean diet was beneficial, as apparent from a lower risk for kidney function decline and graft failure after transplantation. Moreover, 1 out of 10 outpatient kidney transplant recipients were malnourished and that quality of life and life-expectancy was significantly worse in these patients, further underlining the importance of nutrition after kidney transplantation. In conclusion, evaluation of nutrition data revealed multiple targets for intervention, some hitherto unexpected, that can improve outcome in kidney transplant recipients. Monitoring of nutrition and nutritional status should become part of routine care after kidney transplantation, to guide better nutrition counseling, and eventually, better outcomes

Limits of tangents of quasi-ordinary hypersurfaces

We compute explicitly the limits of tangents of a quasi-ordinary singularity in terms of its special monomials. We show that the set of limits of tangents of Y is essentially a topological invariant of Y

Moduli of germs of legendrian curves

We construct the generic component of the moduli space of the germs of Legendrian curves with generic plane projection topologicaly equivalent to a curve y^n = x^m

The Macroeconomic Determinants of Cross Border Mergers and Acquisitions and Greenfield Investments

When a company decides to invest abroad, it can do it through the establishment of a new firm (greenfield investment) or by the purchase of an already existing firm. Although there is a vast empirical literature on the macroeconomic determinants of aggregate FDI, there are just a few studies examining the location-specific determinants of each entry mode. The aim of this study is to extend the previous work by Globerman and Shapiro (2005) through the analysis of panel data of 53 countries over the period 1996-2006, in order to identify the potential location-specific determinants of both M&A and greenfields. We have found evidence that there is a group of mode-encompassing variables which are common to all entry modes (such as economy’s size, openness, governance and human development index) and mode-specific variables. Investor’s protection and cultural variables seem to play an important role in the explanation of M&A and greenfields, respectively.Foreign Direct Investment, Cross Border Mergers and Acquisitions, Greenfield Investments

A contribuição de um Wiki Luso-Angolano para o desenvolvimento

A possibilidade de se constituir uma “network”, neste caso um wiki Luso Angolano para o desenvolvimento, onde fosse colocada e disponibilizada a informação que seja possível recolher mediante o contributo voluntário da comunidade que se consiga dinamizar em torno deste problema, poderá ter um impacto muito grande no desenvolvimento de Angola. Os objectivos deste trabalho são: (1) realçar o valor económico da informação; e (2) mostrar que é possível a criação de uma PLATAFORMA de INFORMAÇÃO - Wiki, sobre a Internet, e evidenciar o potencial da mesma no processo de desenvolvimento de Angol

The contribution of a Portuguese Angolan wiki for development promotion

At the present time, it is understood by almost everybody that either the technology or the entrepreneurial decisions are conditioned by the quantity and quality of information available. Angola is a very large country with great amount of natural resources of very good quality, and in the present state of Angola development, the value of the marginal productivity of information is very high in almost all sectors of activity and in that sense crucial to promote development. There is plenty of specific information about Angola from research made in Angola, from the time when it was a Portuguese colony. Although, some of this information is written or recorded in magnetic support, most of them are possessed by private persons. The great part of the information is still in the minds of thousands of persons that used to teach, to research or to live there. In this context, the potential of the so called Web 2.0 or the Social Web and one of its most interesting collaborative platforms, the wiki is particularly relevant, to promote the development of a knowledge management strategy. In fact wikis are receiving growing attention since they are being used at a growing rate to build the most diverse information spaces, gathering people who are interested in a specific subject, building themselves as truly communities. In this way, building a virtual community, in this case, a Portuguese-Angolan wiki, where all the available information could be gathered and stored, through the spontaneous contribution of the community, could have a great impact on Angola development. The aims of this paper are: (1) to emphasize the economic value of information; (2) to show that it is possible to build a platform of information (a wiki), over the internet and stress its potential in the developmental process of Angola