Global supply chains of high value low volume products

Imperial Users onl

Ex-ante Moral Hazard and Primary Prevention, evidence from Portugal

This paper provides evidence on ex-ante moral hazard in Portugal. The issue is addressed in a setting where people buy voluntary private health insurance, on top of existing Government coverage. We identify the main factors that lead people to adopt healthy lifestyles, such as taking up sports and not smoking, which are associated with primary prevention. Moreover, it allows for an inference of the role of risk aversion of individuals in these decisions. We use a GHK recursive simulator of multivariate probit for insurance demand, smoking and sporting decisions, to provide joint estimates taking into consideration potential endogeneity of these decisions. Our results indicate that there is some evidence of ex-ante moral hazard with respect to primary prevention behaviors. Di¤erences in risk aversion across individuals do not seem to play a primary role in explaining distinct life styles.ex-ante moral hazard, prevention, lifestyles

Inequality and Growth: Uncovering the main conclusions from the empirics

The theme of the relationship between inequality and economic growth has gained considerable attention among economists over the last two decades. In this paper, we analyse the effect of inequality on growth, whose related literature has been producing inconclusive results. After an exhaustive study of the major empirical works in this specific research area, we are able not only to advance with some potential explanations for the apparent lack of consensus on the empirical assessment of the inequality-growth relationship, but also to achieve a better understanding of the nature of this relationship and the forces underlying it. We conclude that the disparities found in the results of the estimation of the reduced-form relationship are most likely due to three dimensions: differences in the estimation techniques, the countries and the periods included in the sample, and the variable used to measure inequality. The last two aspects have particularly important implications. First, country/region specificities play a crucial role in the relationship between inequality and growth, so more emphasis should be put on the estimation of such a relationship on a national/regional basis, rather than trying to establish universal patterns. Second, the time horizon of the analysis should be carefully chosen, as different transmission channels from inequality to growth tend to operate differently in the short and in the long-run. Third, the fact that inequality in wealth distribution has a stronger negative effect on growth than inequality in income distribution may indicate that the channels through which inequality affects growth are not the same in both distributions. Therefore, we argue that in order to produce an accurate assessment of both the reduced-form relationship and the underlying transmission channels these aspects should be accordingly considered, which has not been the case in most of the empirical literature.inequality, economic growth, transmission channels, income distribution, wealth distribution, taxation

Portuguese Population in France: a snapshot 25 years after their arrival

In year 2000 Portugal is celebrating the 500th anniversary of the arrival to Brazil. The Portuguese overseas adventure is now five centuries old and more than one third of the Portuguese nationals are living outside their homeland; in France they are the largest foreign community. This paper uses the data from the French Employment Survey (Enqujte de l Emploi) 1994 and 1995 to characterise the Portuguese population and to study individual decisions taken by the Portuguese migrants concerning naturalisation, family, residence and education. As a result of the analysis it seems that the decisions of the younger Portuguese are getting closer to the decisions of their French neighbours, increasing the gap with respect to the decisions of their countrymen who stayed in Portugal. In this very sense, we can say that some assimilation by the Portuguese is occurring in France. There is an educational convergence of the Portuguese migrants in France and the French.

Estudo de composto com propriedades funcionais em flor de cardo submetida a diferentes tratamentos de secagem

O cardo é uma planta que encontra-se associada ao fabrico de queijo, pois é responsável pelo fenómeno da coagulação do leite. No entanto, têm aumentado o número de estudos realizados nesta planta, relacionados com a composição química, de forma a perceber os benefícios para a saúde. O objetivo desta dissertação foi caracterizar a flor de cardo relativamente à sua atividade antioxidante, composição em compostos fenólicos e avaliar a sua estabilidade ao longo do trato digestivo. Para tal, foram estudas amostras de flor de cardo da espécie C. cardunculus spp flavescens, após liofilização e secagem em estufa com convecção forçada a diferentes temperaturas (40ºC, 50ºC e 60ºC). Após cada tratamento, efetuaram-se duas extrações sucessivas com soluções de metanol (98% v/v) e de acetona (60% v/v). Os extratos obtidos foram depois utilizados para quantificar os teores em compostos fenólicos totais, em orto-difenois e em flavonóides. A atividade antioxidante foi determinada utilizando os métodos DPPH e ABTS. Por fim, procedeu-se à avaliação da bioacessibilidade dos compostos presentes submetendo os vários extratos a condições simulantes do trato digestivo. Pela análise dos resultados obtidos foi possível constatar que a quantidade de compostos fenólicos e atividade antioxidante na flor de cardo varia consoante a temperatura de secagem, ocorrendo a diminuição à medida que se aumenta a temperatura. Os resultados obtidos para a bioacessibilidade mostraram um comportamento distinto dos extratos de metanol e de acetona. No entanto, em ambos os casos ocorreu uma diminuição na quantidade de compostos disponíveis para absorção intestinal.ABSTRACT: he thistle is a plant usually associated to the making of cheese, because it’s responsible for the phenomenon of the coagulation of milk. However, the number of studies of the quimical composition on this plant has risen, to understand the health benefits. The objective of this thesis is to characterize the thistle flower in relation to its antioxidant activity, the composition of phenolic compounds and evaluate its stability along the digestive tract. To this end, samples of thistle flower species C. Cardunculus spp flavescens were studied, after freeze-drying and oven drying with forced convection at various temperatures (40ºC, 50ºC and 60ºC). After each treatment two successive extractions with solutions of methanol (98% v/v) and acetone (60% v/v) were carried out. The extracts obtained were then used to quantify the levels of total phenolic compounds in ortodifenois and flavonoids. The antioxidant activity was determined using the DPPH and ABTS methods. Finally I proceeded to the evaluation of the bioaccessibility of the compounds present, subjecting the various extracts to stimulants conditions of the digestive tract. Through the analysis of the results it was found that the amount of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity on thistle flower varies depending on the drying temperature, leading to the degradation as the temperature is raised. The results for bioaccessibility showed a distinct behavior of methanol and acetone extracts. However, in both cases there was a decrease in the amounts of compounds available for intestinal absorption

Simple thermodynamics of jet engines

We use the first and second laws of thermodynamics to analyze the behavior of an ideal jet engine. Simple analytical expressions for the thermal efficiency, the overall efficiency, and the reduced thrust are derived. We show that the thermal efficiency depends only on the compression ratio r and on the velocity of the aircraft. The other two performance measures depend also on the ratio of the temperature at the turbine to the inlet temperature in the engine, T-3/T-i. An analysis of these expressions shows that it is not possible to choose an optimal set of values of r and T-3/T-i that maximize both the overall efficiency and thrust. We study how irreversibilities in the compressor and the turbine decrease the overall efficiency of jet engines and show that this effect is more pronounced for smaller T-3/T-i