Behavioural determinants of Foreign Direct Investment

The paper presents a behavioural economics approach to foreign direct investment. Starting from the behavioural finance literature, it uses content analysis based on interviews and questionnaires covering 12% of the Portuguese firms with investments abroad. The study presents evidence of several behavioural rules (e.g., herding, cascading, anchoring, overconfidence, mental accounting) in firms’ location decisions that originate a new set of determinants of FDI flows and complement the neo classical paradigm. Moreover, it confirms the Heiner model (1983, 1985, 1989) by showing that the higher is the uncertainty faced by decision makers the more frequent is the use of behavioural rules. The central role of uncertainty helps explaining why FDI flows occur more frequently among developed countries.Behavioural, Foreign Direct Investment, Uncertainty

BEHAVIOURAL DETERMINANTS OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

The paper presents a behavioural economics approach to foreign direct investment. Starting from behavioural finance theory, it uses content analysis from interviews made to Portuguese managers with investments abroad. The study presents evidence of herding, anchoring, overconfidence, mental accounting and other behaviour rules in firms’ location decisions that originate a set of determinants of FDI flows and complement the neoclassical paradigm. Moreover, it confirms the Heiner model (1983, 1985, 1989) by showing that the higher the uncertainty faced by decision makers the more frequent will be the use of behavioural rules. The central role of uncertainty helps explain why FDI flows occur more frequently among developed countries.Foreign Direct Investment, Behavioural economics, Uncertainty.

The standard neo-classical view on tax competition. A diagrammatic survey and some deductions for small open economies

This paper presents a diagrammatic survey of the standard neo-classical theory of tax competition for foreign direct investment and tax coordination between countries. It has four aims: to give a detailed view of the main theoretical and empirical results; to extract from it some general deductions for small and less developed open economies; to discuss different angles to improve the existing literature; and to put these in the context of fiscal policy in the European Union. It argues that eventual benefits brought by corporate tax harmonisation in the EU are not sufficient to compensate the risk of doing harm to small and relatively poor economies. Further research on equity issues is therefore needed before proceeding to harmonisation.Foreign Direct Investment; Tax competition; Tax coordination; Small countries

The Ease of Doing Business Index as a tool for Investment location decisions

The Ease of Doing Business Index (EDBI) uses 41 variables to compare the business environment of different countries. It is widely used by policy makers, researchers and multinational companies. This paper aims to assess EDBI’s consistency and validity in representing the business environment by using factor analysis. It is found that the EDBI presents a limited consistency and descriptive power of a country’s business environment. The consequence of these findings is that multinational firms should handle carefully the EDBI in their investment decisions.Location Decisions, Factor Analysis, Cross-Border Investments, Institutional Environment

FDI and institutional reform in Portugal

This article analyses the effects of several geographic, economic and institutional factors on bilateral inward FDI in Europe. Moreover, it assesses the required reform effort, and the expected benefits, for Portugal to converge with the EU in the institutional variables that are relevant to attract investment. We conclude that good institutions favouring economic freedom and the ease of doing business, and geography, market size and labor costs, affect bilateral inward FDI. Political risk does not lead to significant differences in FDI across the EU. The results are robust to different methods – principal component analysis, factor-based scores and by considering several institutional indicators successively. We also find that most promising reforms arise in the financial system, corruption, property rights, and in some business regulations associated with starting a business. Increasing labor market flexibility to the EU level has also a large impact on inward FDI, but this reform comes at a comparatively higher effort.FDI, Institutional reform, Institutions, Portugal, EU

Regulação de Mercados por Licenciamento

As alterações legais realizadas em Portugal após 2003 visaram simplificar o regime de licenciamento industrial de modo a não desincentivar o investimento das empresas. A aplicação do modelo infinito de filas de espera indica que as mudanças na lei contribuíram para a redução dos prazos de licenciamento. Contudo, a nova legislação segue uma tendência comum aos países desenvolvidos ao focalizar-se numa regulação ex-post baseada na fiscalização das empresas, aumentando o risco de que a ausência de regulação ex-ante sobre o funcionamento dos mercados tenha efeitos prejudiciais para o bem-estar socialRegulação de mercados, Modelos de filas de espera

Behavioural determinants of Foreign Direct Investment

The paper presents a behavioural economics approach to foreign direct investment. Starting from the behavioural finance literature, it uses content analysis based on interviews and questionnaires covering 12% of the Portuguese firms with investments abroad. The study presents evidence of several behavioural rules (e.g., herding, cascading, anchoring, overconfidence, mental accounting) in firms’ location decisions that originate a new set of determinants of FDI flows and complement the neo classical paradigm. Moreover, it confirms the Heiner model (1983, 1985, 1989) by showing that the higher is the uncertainty faced by decision makers the more frequent is the use of behavioural rules. The central role of uncertainty helps explaining why FDI flows occur more frequently among developed countries

Behavioural determinants of Foreign Direct Investment

The paper presents a behavioural economics approach to foreign direct investment. Starting from the behavioural finance literature, it uses content analysis based on interviews and questionnaires covering 12% of the Portuguese firms with investments abroad. The study presents evidence of several behavioural rules (e.g., herding, cascading, anchoring, overconfidence, mental accounting) in firms’ location decisions that originate a new set of determinants of FDI flows and complement the neo classical paradigm. Moreover, it confirms the Heiner model (1983, 1985, 1989) by showing that the higher is the uncertainty faced by decision makers the more frequent is the use of behavioural rules. The central role of uncertainty helps explaining why FDI flows occur more frequently among developed countries

Estudo dos biomarcadores associados a doenças renais

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia BiomédicaAs matrizes biológicas, como o sangue ou a urina, requerem métodos selectivos e caros de preparação da amostra, para posterior identificação dos seus componentes. Assim, dada a grande variedade de compostos orgânicos voláteis (VOCs) presentes no ar exalado humano, tornou-se bastante relevante a sua análise. Muitos destes VOCs têm origem endógena, resultado de processos metabólicos do organismo, podendo ser encontrados no sangue. A sua passagem através da membrana alveolar pode fornecer informações relevantes do estado patológico do paciente. No entanto, a matriz respiratória é complexa pelo que a sua análise exige uma técnica analítica não só extremamente sensível assim como rápida. Com este intuito, surge a técnica de espectrometria de mobilidade iónica associada a uma coluna multicapilar (MCC-IMS) que combina alta sensibilidade (limites de detecção de ppbv pptv) e portabilidade. O presente trabalho experimental teve como objectivo analisar o ar exalado de doentes renais, em tratamento de hemodiálise, utilizando o BreathSpec R , que recorre às potencialidades inovadoras da MCC-IMS. Realizou-se um estudo do tipo prova de conceito, adquirindo espectros dos participantes em hemodiálise, comparativamente com um grupo de controlo. O estudo foi realizado em colaboração com o serviço de Nefrologia do Hospital Garcia de Orta. Durante a realização do trabalho ocorreu um período de aprendizagem desta técnica única em Portugal, com a realização de um workshop teórico-prático: "Introdução à Espectrometria de Mobilidade Iónica no contexto de análise de ar exalado". Procedeu-se também à requalificação da mobilidade do aparelho para facilitar o transporte até ao local. O estudo realizado é pioneiro a nível nacional e internacional, com uma comunicação no ciclo de conferências iMed 4.0 e no “Breath Analysis Summit 2013”, na Alemanha, e ainda com submissão de um artigo no Journal of Breath Research. Futuramente, pretende-se que esta técnica seja utilizada como forma de detecção precoce dos estágios de doença renal dos pacientes