FDI, income inequality and poverty : a time series analysis of Portugal, 1973–2016

Using time series data for Portugal between 1973 and 2016, this paper examines to what extent, inward FDI contributes to income inequality and poverty in the long-run. It was found that increased flows of inward FDI are associated with a less unequal income distribution and lower poverty rates. The results further suggest that, in the Portuguese case there is mutual causality between inward FDI and poverty in the long run, i.e., FDI significantly reduces poverty, and lower levels of poverty lead to higher inward FDI flows. In the case of inequality, the evidence shows that FDI does not contribute to higher (or lower) income inequality. Instead, more unequal income distributions significantly and negatively impact on inward FDI in the long run. Finally, human capital emerged as a key determinant to mitigate income inequality and circumvent poverty, contributing, indirectly, to fostering additional FDI inflows. Such results call for integrated public policy interventions that emphasize social and institu- tional dimensions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Lepton masses and mixings in orbifold models with three Higgs families

We analyse the phenomenological viability of heterotic Z(3) orbifolds with two Wilson lines, which naturally predict three supersymmetric families of matter and Higgs fields. Given that these models can accommodate realistic scenarios for the quark sector avoiding potentially dangerous flavour-changing neutral currents, we now address the leptonic sector, finding that viable orbifold configurations can in principle be obtained. In particular,it is possible to accomodate present data on charged lepton masses, while avoiding conflict with lepton flavour-violating decays. Concerning the generation of neutrino masses and mixings, we find that Z(3) orbifolds offer several interesting possibilities.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures. References adde

Organizational Characteristics and Performance of Export Promotion Agencies: Portugal and Ireland compared

Export Promotion Agencies (EPAs) have been in operation in developed countries since the beginning of the 20th century to improve the competitiveness of firms by increasing knowledge and competences applied to export market development.Export Promotion Agencies; Organizational Performance; Portugal; Ireland

How Has the Portuguese Innovation Capability Evolved? Estimating a Time Series of the Stock of Technological Knowledge, 1960-2001

The importance of promoting innovation has been elevated up to a status of official standard since the Lisbon European Summit in 2000. Here research and development (R&D) was singled out as an essential element of the foundation on which innovation could be built. R&D has been a growing area of investigation namely at level of firms micro studies aimed at uncovering firms’ innovation capability. At the macro level, the relevance of R&D for countries’ innovation capability has been, in a dynamic perspective, more often presumed rather than effectively tested. This latter limitation is, to a large extent, explained by the paucity of aggregated continuous time series on innovation indicators specifically those based on R&D expenditures. This paper aims at filling this gap by providing an estimate of the Portuguese innovation capability over the two last four decades based on the accumulated R&D efforts. Such indicator, albeit preliminary, will desirably endorse new investigation on the Portuguese catching-up process and, in this way, might inform present and future public programs related to R&D policies in particular and innovation policies in general.Innovation; R&D expenditures; measurement, economic growth

Spontaneous CP Violation in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model Revisited

We re-examine spontaneous CP violation at the tree level in the context of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) with two Higgs doublets and a gauge singlet field. We analyse the most general Higgs potential without a discrete Z_3 symmetry, and derive an upper bound on the mass of the lightest neutral Higgs boson consistent with present experimental data. We investigate, in particular, its dependence on the admixture and CP-violating phase of the gauge singlet field, as well as on tan(beta). To assess the viability of the spontaneous CP violation scenario, we estimate epsilon_K by applying the mass insertion approximation. We find that a non-trivial flavour structure in the soft-breaking A terms is required to account for the observed CP violation in the neutral kaon sector. Furthermore, combining the minimisation conditions for spontaneous CP violation with the constraints coming from K0-K0bar mixing, we find that the upper bound on the lightest Higgs-boson mass becomes stronger. We also point out that the electric dipole moments of electron and neutron are a serious challenge for SUSY models with spontaneous CP violation.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX2e, 5 figures; matches the published versio

Integrated graphical framework accounting for the nature and the speed of the learning process: an application to MNEs strategies of internationalisation of production and R&D investment

Existing illustrations of the learning phenomenon either stress the relationship between flows and stocks, neglecting the chronological time variable, or the speed of knowledge accumulation along time, neglecting the nature of the underlying learning process. In this paper we present a graphical depiction stressing, in an explicit way, both the nature of interplay between flows and stocks and the intensity of the learning process. The four-quadrant graphs that we develop overcome considerable simplification in literature by deriving, by construction, a measure of dynamic gains of knowledge following the interplay of stock of scientific and technological knowledge and the flow of effort in R&D. This scheme is then applied to study the internationalisation of production and R&D, which are strategies followed by multinational firms. Two types of innovation – process innovation and product innovation – are therefore studied constructing, in each case, an industry performance measure adequately indexed to the cumulated knowledge stock at a given moment in time. In any case, the dynamic efficiency measure adopted naturally takes into account both the absolute changes in the technology indexes and the time delays to reach them, which are properly discounted. Regarding multinationals strategies - internationalisation of production and R&D investment -, we begin with the question of finding a new location for using a now well developed production technology, and then deal with the problem of selecting a region of excellence in research to take gains of concentration advantages and local externalities.Learning; knowledge; technology; R&D; MNEs

A model of the learning process with local knowledge externalities illustrated with an integrated graphical framework

In this paper we present a theoretical model of the learning process with knowledge externalities to R&D and other learning inputs within a region, a technological district, an industry or a technological cluster with fast rates of accumulation of new technological knowledge. As there are several definitions of localized technological and learning opportunities (according to the technical space, or to the regional space) and of localized technological knowledge, we can therefore find several possible applications to the generic model. The analysis of the learning firm interacting with a specific region in the production of new technological knowledge is just one of them. The analytical model we develop is amenable to a graphical representation. Thus we provide in the first place a unifying graphical framework, consisting of a four-quadrant picture to analyze the process of knowledge accumulation by learning firms located and operating in a specific region or industry, which simultaneously stresses the nature of the basic learning process and the importance of true knowledge spillovers in the generation of new knowledge. We adopt the following approach to the construction of spillover stocks or pools. First, the magnitude of the state of aggregate knowledge in a region or industry is reconstructed through the historic accumulation of flows of knowledge. Thus, the aggregate level of knowledge can always be updated after every learning loop, or at every moment of discrete time, whose unit of measurement we might assume at the outset of our analysis. Secondly, every firm within a region or industry is treated symmetrically regarding spillover effects and magnitudes. Such statement meaning that the amount of aggregate knowledge borrowed from any available source, either the region or industry under analysis or some other distant region or industry, is regarded as the same by every firm. And finally, we model both the loss of appropriation of benefits from innovation and the distance between different technological bases or regional sources in terms of single parameters, or instantaneous rates of growth, weighting respectively the leakage and the absorption intensities of flows and stocks of knowledge. Several theoretical predictions about the direction and magnitude of the knowledge spillovers can therefore be deducted from parametric changes in the leakage and absorption functions of our model arising from, among other things: - Improvements in information technology and falling communication costs observed in the economic system at general. - Improvements in technological communication systems within specific technological districts. - The establishment of explicit cooperative relations and effective access to the pool of collective knowledge, or instead any improvements of the mutuality and trust conditions, within the group of firms located and operating within a specific region. - The increasing of competitive pressures, or the working of any other mechanism for lowering the appropriation of a firm’s gains from innovation, in an array of industrial sectors. One interesting theoretical result is then derived from our full model. With such purpose in mind, we consider first the existence of a relevant competitive situation where appropriation and communication are both dependent upon the number of receiving and sending firms within the region. Whereas the amount of technological leakage per firm increases with the number of firms effectively operating within the region, ceteris paribus; the extent of absorption per firm also increases with the number of firms effectively communicating within the region, ceteris paribus. Apparently, there is a trade-off between such appropriation conditions and communication conditions. In the long-run, the addition of firms eventually exhausts the net positive effects of taking part in an effective network, and so we can establish an equilibrium number of firms operating in the region.

A Model of the Learning Process with Local Knowledge Externalities Illustrated with an Integrated Graphical Framework

We present a unified graphical framework accounting for the nature and impact of spillover effects. The dynamics of the learning process with a specific spillover transfer mechanism can be illustrated by recurring to this four-quadrant picture. In particular, a whole cycle of technological learning is explained with help of such a graphical representation of the basic learning process in the presence of knowledge spillovers. We hypothesize two different functional specifications of spillover exchanges among firms within a local innovation system. Each conceivable shape for the knowledge transfer relationship among firms expresses a possible mode and intensity of information processing arising from technology spillovers. A general proposition regarding the relative efficiency of the two alternative formal models with spillovers effects is derived. The basic models with spillover effects are then extended in several relevant directions.Learning; knowledge; technology spillovers; knowledge externalities; local innovation systems

Lepton flavour violation: physics potential of a Linear Collider

We revisit the potential of a Linear Collider concerning the study of lepton flavour violation, in view of new LHC bounds and of the (very) recent developments in lepton physics. Working in the framework of a type I supersymmetric seesaw, we evaluate the prospects of observing seesaw-induced lepton flavour violating final states of the type e \mu + missing energy, arising from e+ e- and e- e- collisions. In both cases we address the potential background from standard model and supersymmetric charged currents. We also explore the possibility of electron and positron beam polarisation. The statistical significance of the signal, even in the absence of kinematical and/or detector cuts, renders the observation of such flavour violating events feasible over large regions of the parameter space. We further consider the \mu-\mu- + E^T_miss final state in the e- e- beam option finding that, due to a very suppressed background, this process turns out to be a truly clear probe of a supersymmetric seesaw, assuming the latter to be the unique source of lepton flavour violation.Comment: 30 pages, 48 figure

Potential of a Linear Collider for Lepton Flavour Violation studies in the SUSY seesaw

We study the potential of an e+- e- Linear Collider for charged lepton flavour violation studies in a supersymmetric framework where neutrino masses and mixings are explained by a type-I seesaw. Focusing on e-mu flavour transitions, we evaluate the background from standard model and supersymmetric charged currents to the e mu + missing E_T signal. We study the energy dependence of both signal and background, and the effect of beam polarisation in increasing the signal over background significance. Finally, we consider the mu- mu- + missing E_T final state in e- e- collisions that, despite being signal suppressed by requiring two e-mu flavour transitions, is found to be a clear signature of charged lepton flavour violation due to a very reduced standard model background.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. To appear in the proceedings of "DISCRETE 2012 - 3rd Symposium on Prospects in the Physics of Discrete Symmetries", Lisbon, Portugal, 3-7 December 201