Redistribution and human capital: The impact on long-run growth

Given the controversy around the effect of income inequality on economic growth, we analyze if government intervention towards its reduction is desirable. Moreover, we test if human capital is a major vehicle through which redistribution operates. Using data on 174 countries, from 1960 to 2008, we verify that those who redistribute more present higher levels of 10-year growth more frequently. We also find that redistribution has a statistically significant positive effect on growth, and this impact is higher in developing economies. We did not find evidence that human capital captures this positive impact, which supports that other vehicles are responsible for this effect

Level, Slope, Curvature of Sovereign Yield Curve and Fiscal Behaviour

We study fiscal behaviour and the sovereign yield curve in the U.S. and Germany in the period 1981:I-2009:IV. The latent factors, level, slope and curvature, obtained with the Kalman filter, are used in a VAR with macro and fiscal variables, controlling for financial stress conditions. In the U.S., fiscal shocks have generated (i) an immediate response of the short-end of the yield curve, associated with the monetary policy reaction, lasting between 6 and 8 quarters, and (ii) an immediate response of the longend of the yield curve, lasting 3 years, with an implied elasticity of about 80% for the government debt ratio shock and about 48% for the budget balance shock. In Germany, fiscal shocks entail no significant reactions of the latent factors and no response of the monetary policy interest rate. In particular, while (i) budget balance shocks created no response from the yield curve shape, (ii) surprise increases in the debt ratio caused some increase in the short-end and the long-end of the yield curve in the following 2nd and 3rd quarters.yield curve, fiscal policy, financial markets.

Market Impact of International Sporting and Cultural Events

This paper investigates the impact of international sporting and cultural events on national stock markets. We study market reaction to the announcements of the selected country hosting mega-events such as the Olympic Games, the World and the European Football Cups and World Exhibitions. First, we evaluate the abnormal returns of winning bidders at (and around) the announcement date at market and industry-levels. Second, we analyze the determinants of the variation in abnormal returns across events and industries and control for the prior probability of observing the event. Third, on the basis of a simple model of partial anticipation, we reexamine the abnormal returns observed for the winning and losing countries. Our initial results suggest that the abnormal returns are not consistently different from zero. Further, when we look at particular industries, we find no evidence supporting that industries, that a priori were more likely to extract direct benefits from the event, observe positive significant effects. Yet when we control for the prior expectations, the announcement of these megaevents is associated with a positive stock market reaction in the nominated country and a negative reaction in the losing country. Overall we interpret our findings as supportive of rational asset pricing and partial anticipation.Market efficiency; Event studies; Mega-events

Market Impact of International Sporting and Cultural Events

This paper investigates the impact of international sporting and cultural events on national stock markets. We study market reaction to the announcements of the selected country hosting the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, the World Football Cup, the European Football Cup and World and Specialized Exhibitions. We also measure the market effects of the announcement of the nomination of the European Cultural City. First, we evaluate the abnormal returns of winning bidders at (and around) the announcement date using an event study methodology. We study the impact at market and industry-levels. Second, we analyze the determinants of the variation in abnormal returns across events and industries on the basis of a set of variables found important by previous studies and control for the prior probability of observing the event. Third, on the basis of a simple model of partial anticipation, we reexamine the abnormal returns observed for the winning and losing countries and perform a series of tests to disentangle the different theoretical arguments that could account for the observed stock market behavior. Our initial results suggest that the abnormal returns measured at the announcement date and around the event are not consistently different from zero. Further, when we look at particular industries, we find no evidence supporting that industries, that a priori were more likely to extract direct benefits from the event, observe positive significant effects. Yet when we control for the prior expectations, the announcement of these mega-events is associated with a positive market reaction in the nominated country and a negative reaction in the losing country. Overall we interpret our findings as supportive of rational asset pricing and partial anticipation.Market efficiency; Event studies; Mega-events

Socioeconomic indicators for a multidimensional farm system typology in a forest management model – methodology and some resultsEL – METHODOLOGY AND SOME RESULTS

In the Mediterranean forests there is a diversity of agro-forest farms, with different management objectives and socioeconomic characteristics, which need to be accounted in forest management models. Therefore, the following paper presents a proposal of indicators to characterize socioeconomically the farms located within these forests in order to define typologies. Different information sources were analysed and social and economical key indicators defined. The typology created is based on four key indicators which result in 54 typologies. The indicators were applied to the Forest Intervention Zone (FIZ) Arade-Alte/S. B.Messines, using the official statistics complemented with a survey. Results show that the dominant farm type is the Small Scale-Singular producer- Forest- Family labour farm. The resulting simulations of different profit scenarios using a forest management model for the FIZ revealed the applicability of the methodology proposed to the objective.Socioeconomic indicators; Farms’ typologies, Algarve; Forest management model.

Investment home bias in the European Union

The creation of the European Single Market (ESM) and the adoption of the Euro eliminated barriers for capital mobility. This paper analysis the dependency of investment on domestic savings across European Union (EU) economies over three different time frames split by major milestones in the economic history of the union. Using a panel error correction model, I find evidence of low capital mobility before the creation of the ESM and after the crisis of 2008, suggesting that a solvency constraint can bind investment to domestic savings even when barriers for capital mobility are eliminated. The estimates suggest that there is a long-run relationship between the aforementioned aggregates associated with a solvency constraint. However, this constraint does not appear to be binding between 1993 and 2007, matching with an increased spread in the current account balances between high and low income economies among the EU. Between 2007 and 2020, restrictions on borrowing faced by some EU economies reduced capital mobility, despite the absence of capital controls and exchange rate risk.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Terrace staircases of the Douro and Sabor Rivers (NE of Portugal, Iberia Characterizing the Last stages of the Douro Exhoreic System

In the Iberia Peninsula, the process leading to the fini-Cenozóic exoreic discharge of the Douro basin remains a major geomorphological challenge (Pereira et al, 2010; Anton et al, 2012), particularly, understanding the connection between the geomorphological evolution of the trunk river and its tributaries in the Portuguese sector with the Douro Cenozoic basin in Spain. Good geomorphological and sedimentological data available to interpret the process refers to the last stages of incision and enlargement of the valleys leading to the formation of fill and rocky terraces (Cunha et al., 2010), which are well individualized at confined areas of the Douro and Sabor valleys, as well as on other tributaries rivers of the Portuguese basin. The main objective is to present the research that is being done about the terrace levels present in the valleys of these rivers (Sabor is the second and longest tributary of the exoreic sector), and compare the fluvial staircases of those rivers located at the interface between the endorheic to the exoreic basin. Furthermore, it is interpreted the tectonic conditioning of the areas where the staircases are well preserved. This research is based on the analysis of altimetric and hydrographic data available from the Portuguese Military Maps (scale 1: 25,000), the analysis of detailed geological maps (scale 1: 50000), the analysis of digital terrain models and on the fieldwork performed on the area. The fluvial staircases of both rivers are similar for de first fill terrace above the actual alluvial plain (T1=±10/15m), which is composed mainly by sandy-silt deposits that have Upper Pleistocene/Holocene age and conserve archaeological remains from the Bronze Age (Gaspar et al., 2014). For the upper levels there are big differences in the fill terraces, more levels for the Douro (4-5 levels at Quinta da Canameira site) than for Sabor (2 at Quinta de Barrais), and huge differences in the sedimentary architecture. The second fluvial terrace above actual alluvial plain (T2), tend to be coarser and was explored by the Romans to extract mineral. The differences of the preserved fluvial staircases on the four main sites, Quinta da Canameira and Barca D’Alva sectors for the Douro River, and Quinta de Barrais and Quinta de Crestelos sectors for the Sabor River, despite of local geological/geomorphological conditions, seems to reflect regional tectonic conditioning, since these fill terraces are well preserved in small elongated depressions with NNE-SSW direction. The faults that bound these depressions are also responsible for the conservation on the area of Mio-Pliocene sediments along small sinistral strike-slip basins, which support the hypothesis of a reactivation of old strike-slip faults that are well impressed on the relief of the area

REPUBLICANISMO Y LIBERTAD

Mucha de la literatura más reciente sobre el liberalismo en el ámbito de la teoría política ha consistido en el desarrollo de teorías de la justicia. No deja de ser curioso notar que, en el contexto de la controversia suscitada por la Teoría de la justicia de John Rawls, se haya discutido sobre todo la dimen¬sión igualitaria de su construcción teórica. A pesar de propugnar una forma bastante radical de comprender las libertades individuales, Nozick tampoco presenta en Anarquía, Estado y Utopía un desarrollo teórico consistente del principio de libertad. El debate ha continuado, de hecho, polarizado por el concepto de igualdad

Franco Nogueira e o processo de reconhecimento da República Popular da China: uma perspectiva diplomática

Considerando a importância político-diplomática procedeu-se à análise da questão do reconhecimento da China, numa perspectiva dos diplomatas portugueses, do encerramento da Legação de Portugal à reabertura das relações diplomáticas. O presente artigo analisa esta questão através de depoimentos e reflexões de diplomatas portugueses que no decorrer do processo ou detiveram um papel fundamental ou indirectamente acompanharam o mesmo no quadro da diplomacia