“A long-term mortality analysis of subsidized firms in rural areas: an empirical study in the Portuguese Alentejo region”

Studies have demonstrated that public policies to support private firms’ investment have the ability to promote entrepreneurship, but the sustainability of subsidized firms has not often been analysed. This paper aims to examine this dimension specifically through evaluating the mortality of subsidized firms in the long-term. The analysis focuses on a case study of the LEADER+ Programme in the Alentejo region of Portugal. With this purpose, the paper examines the activity status (active or not active) of 154 private, rural, for-profit firms in Alentejo that had received a subsidy to support investment between 2002 and 2008 under the LEADER+ Programme. The methodology is based on binary choice models in order to study the probability of these firms still being active. The explanatory variables used are the following: (1) the characteristics of entrepreneurs and managers’ strategic decisions, (2) firm profile and characteristics, (3) regional economic environment. Data assessment showed that the cumulative mortality rate of firms on 31st December 2013 is over 20 %. Interpretation of the regression model revealed that he probability of firms’ survival increases with higher investment, firm age and regional business concentration, whereas the number of applications made by firms has a negative impact on their survival. So it seems that for subsidized firms the amount of investment is as important as its frequency

Government size, composition of public expenditure, and economic development

This paper analyzes the effects of government size and of the composition of public expenditure on economic development. Using the system-GMM estimator for linear dynamic panel data models, on a sample covering up to 156 countries and 5-year periods from 1980 to 2010, we find that government size as a percentage of GDP has a quadratic (inverted U-shaped) effect on the growth rate of the Human Development Index (HDI). This effect is especially pronounced in developed and high income countries. We also find that the composition of public expenditure affects development, with the share of five subcomponents exhibiting non-linear relationships with HDI growth.COMPETE, QREN, FEDER, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Development and Security.

This paper reviews the connections between development and security both within developing countries and globally. It interprets security as human security, and within this category focuses on political violence as an important source of insecurity. Three connections are hypothesised: that human security forms an important part of people’s wellbeing and is therefore an objective of development; that lack of human security has adverse consequences on economic growth and poverty and thereby on development; and that lack of development, or imbalanced development that involves sharp horizontal inequalities, is an important cause of conflict. Evidence supporting these relationships is surveyed for developing countries. A brief overview of the current global situation suggests similar relationships obtain. Hence for both developing countries and to prevent global terrorism, it is essential to promote inclusive development. A focus on military solutions alone – the usual interpretation of ‘security’ – will not succeed

Trading with Security: Trade Liberalisation and Conflict

The aim of this chapter is to provide a more nuance understanding of the impact of liberal peace policies on weak and fragile states in the developing world. By focusing on the effects of trade liberalisation and its impacts on security we go to the heart of the contemporary development–security nexus, and explode the myth that current practices in trade liberalisation, symbolised by the Washington consensus, hold the key to peace and development. For the most part the focus here is on the LDCs, as they are most in need of both sustainable development and security. As a group they have the highest statistical risk of conflict (UNCTAD, 2004a; Collier et al., 2003). It is in these countries that trade policies need to be sensitised to the particular conditions of vulnerability and weakness if trade is to enhance, rather than undermine, security for all