Self-Confidence and Timing of Entry

This paper analyzes the impact of overconfidence on the timing of entry in markets, profits, and welfare. To do that the paper uses an endogenous timing model where (i) players have private information about costs and (ii) one player is overconfident and the other is rational. The paper shows that for moderate levels of self-confidence there is a unique cost-dependent equilibrium where the overconfident player has a higher ex-ante probability of entering the market before the rational player. In this equilibrium self-confidence reduces the profits of the rational player but can increase the profits of the overconfident player provided that cost asymmetries are small. Finally, we show that overconfidence reduces welfare, except when cost asymmetries are very small.endogenous timing; entry; overconfidence

Game engine for location-based services

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 201

O desafio de minimizar os custos escondidos das reformas no sector público

Comunicação apresentada no 8º Congresso Nacional de Administração Pública – Desafios e Soluções, em Carcavelos de 21 a 22 de Novembro de 2011

Stresse e competências psicológicas : estudo com jovens atletas

Orientação: Ângela LeiteO presente estudo, de caráter exploratório, objetiva conhecer e compreender as relações e interações entre as competências psicológicas e os processos de avaliação cognitiva na emergência e na resposta de stresse aos estímulos e situações do contexto desportivo. 107 jovens atletas do sexo masculino, com idades compreendidas entre os 10 e os 16 anos, de diversas modalidades e escalões competitivos, participaram no presente estudo. A todos os participantes foi administrado um protocolo de avaliação psicológica que incluía: Questionário Sociodemográfico e Desportivo, Inventário de Competências Psicológicas para o Desporto e Escala de Avaliação Cognitiva da Competição Desportiva – Perceção de Ameaça. Os resultados do estudo demonstraram que as competências psicológicas desempenham um papel importante na avaliação cognitiva de ameaça, uma vez que, as competências psicológicas evidenciaram estar negativamente correlacionadas com a perceção de ameaça e também revelaram predizer negativamente os níveis de perceção de ameaça experienciados pelos jovens atletas durante a competição desportiva. O estudo contribui para a identificação dos principais conteúdos de perceção de ameaça em jovens atletas, bem como para a identificação das principais dificuldades apresentadas ao nível das competências psicológicas. Por último, este estudo evidenciou a existência de diferenças nas competências psicológicas em função da modalidade praticada, da idade de início da prática da modalidade e das horas semanais de prática desportiva. Desta forma, o estudo permitiu concluir quanto à importância das relações e interações entre diversas variáveis e processos psicológicos interdependentes na explicação da experiência de stresse em contextos desportivos. A informação disponibilizada no presente estudo pretende contribuir para a implementação de intervenções psicológicas mais eficazes na redução dos níveis de stresse experienciados pelos jovens atletas.This exploratory study aims to know and understand the relationships and interactions between psychological skills and cognitive appraisal processes in emergency and stress response to stimuli and situations in the context of sports. 107 young male athletes , aged between 10 and 16 years, of different competitive levels and sport modalities , participated in the study. A psychological assessment protocol was applied to all participants which included: Sociodemographic and Sports Survey, Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports and Cognitive Appraisal Scale in Sport Competition – Threat Perception. The results of the study demonstrated that psychological skills play an important role in cognitive appraisal of threat, since psychological skills seem to be negatively correlated with threat perception and they also seem to negatively predict the perception threat levels experienced by young athletes during sport competition. The study contributes to the identification of the main contents of threat perception in young athletes, as well as to identify the main difficulties presented at the level of psychological skills. Finally, this study showed the existence of differences in psychological skills depending on the practiced sport modality, the age of onset of the practice modality and the weekly hours of sports. Thus, the study allowed to conclude upon the importance of relationships and interactions between different variables and interdependent psychological processes in explaining the stress experience in the context of sports. The information available in the present study aims to contribute to the implementation of more effective psychological interventions in reducing stress levels experienced by young athletes

Melhoria do processo produtivo da Yazaki Porto Technical Centre

No actual contexto macroeconómico, a melhoria dos processos e o aproveitamento de todas as sinergias, são factores que se tornaram ainda mais importantes e nalguns casos, condição sine qua non para a sobrevivência das próprias empresas. Cada vez mais as empresas são obrigadas a produzir mais com menos recursos, com a qualidade desejada pelos clientes e a preços competitivos. A qualidade do produto final não deve ser afectada com a desculpa da implementação de uma política da redução de custos. Pelo contrário, deve existir a preocupação de eliminar da cadeia de valor tudo o que não contribui com valor acrescentado, melhorando nalguns casos a própria qualidade do produto final. A realização deste projecto tem como objectivo, analisar e implementar, através de ferramentas relacionadas com a metodologia Lean, melhorias na produção de aplicadores de cravação numa empresa multinacional ligada ao ramo automóvel. Pretende-se um aumento da taxa de produção diária em 50%, obtida essencialmente através do balanceamento dos recursos humanos e no desenvolvimento de um sistema kanban incorporado no sector produtivo. A parte inicial do trabalho incidiu no estudo e análise do produto e respectivo processo produtivo. Posteriormente e por várias fases efectuaram-se análises aos tempos de fabrico e ao sequenciamento das operações, com vista ao conhecimento de todo o processo de montagem de modo a identificar os aspectos de melhoria. Após o registo dos pontos a eliminar e/ou a melhorar, procedeu-se a uma análise criteriosa dos dados recolhidos, efectuando-se o balanceamento dos recursos de modo a tornar eficaz a implementação do sistema kanban. Este sistema é a base da melhoria proposta para este tema de dissertação. Após implementação do sistema kanban, foi avaliado o seu desempenho e foram registadas melhorias na produção diária dos aplicadores bem como no lead time despendido no processamento dos mesmos.In the current macroeconomic environment, the improvement of processes and the use of all synergies are factors that have become even more important and, in some cases, sine qua non condition for the survival of the companies. More and more, companies are obliged to produce more with fewer resources, with the quality desired by customers and competitive prices. The quality of the final product shouldn’t be affected under the pretext of implementing a policy of cost reduction. Rather, the concern must be to eliminate from the value chain, all that doesn’t added any value, improving in some cases the quality of the final product. The realization of this project aims to analyse and implement, through the tools related to Lean methodology, improvements on crimping applicators production for a multinational company linked to the automotive industry. An increase of daily production rate of 50%, obtained essentially through balancing of human resources and the development of a kanban system incorporated into the productive sector is the goal to achieve. The initial part of the work was focussed on product study and its analysis as well as the production process. Then, analyses were performed to manufacturing times and sequencing of operations, in order to identify aspects for improvement. After registration of the points to eliminate and/or improve, was performed a careful analysis of the collected data, which helped the balance of the resources, to make an effective implementation of the kanban system. This system is the basis of the improvement purposed in this dissertation theme. After implementation of kanban system, the performance was evaluated and improvements were registered on daily production of applicators as well as lead time spent on product processing

The impact of the ECB’s PEPP on Euro area bond spreads

We examine the impact of the European Central Bank’s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) on euro area banks, non-financial firms, and governments’ cost of borrowing. Using a large sample of 751 sovereign bonds, 2,116 corporate bonds, 469 covered bonds, and 725 asset-backed securities, issued in the 2018-2021 period, and subsamples of eligible bonds, we find that the PEPP successfully reduced corporate, covered, and sovereign bond spreads in both the announcement and purchasing periods, consistent with signalling, direct, and portfolio rebalancing channels of monetary policy. For asset-backed securities, the findings are mixed: while we show a spread reduction during the purchasing period for the full sample, we do not find any significant impact for bonds fulfilling eligibility criteria. Finally, we show that the PEPP’s impact on bond spreads is significantly higher for those issued in GIIPS versus core European countries

AiD-EM: Adaptive Decision Support for Electricity Markets Negotiations

This paper presents the Adaptive Decision Support for Electricity Markets Negotiations (AiD-EM) system. AiD-EM is a multi-agent system that provides decision support to market players by incorporating multiple sub-(agent-based) systems, directed to the decision support of specific problems. These sub-systems make use of different artificial intelligence methodologies, such as machine learning and evolutionary computing, to enable players adaptation in the planning phase and in actual negotiations in auction-based markets and bilateral negotiations. AiD-EM demonstration is enabled by its connection to MASCEM (Multi-Agent Simulator of Competitive Electricity Markets).This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under project DOMINOES (grant agreement No 771066) and from FEDER Funds through COMPETE program and from National Funds through FCT under the project UID/EEA/00760/2019info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio