Ajuda externa e crescimento económico: o Millennium challenge account em Cabo Verde

A discussão sobre a questão da efectividade da ajuda externa já dura há décadas. Se por um lado estão estudos que consideram que a ajuda externa tem um impacto positivo no crescimento económico, por outro estão aqueles que concluíram que os fluxos de ajuda apenas contribuem para aumentar a corrupção, a pobreza e perpetuar maus governos. Este trabalho de investigação discute a questão da efectividade das ajudas externas no caso concreto de Cabo Verde. O país passou recentemente a beneficiar de um novo programa de ajudas externas, o Millennium Challenge Account, pelo que é pertinente perceber se os fluxos de ajudas externas, em geral, e do programa MCA, em particular, têm dado resultados positivos para o país. Para a análise empírica, foram analisados os relatórios anuais do Banco de Cabo Verde e outras fontes complementares, e os dados usados são referentes a 23 anos. A conclusão da análise econométrica sugere que a ajuda externa se tem repercutido de forma positiva no crescimento económico de Cabo Verde, apesar da variável Assistência Oficial ao Desenvolvimento não ter apresentado significância estatística. Os fluxos privados são contudo fortemente positivos e significativos. O impacto do programa MCA também se revelou positivo para o crescimento económico do país, reforçando a ideia de que quando a ajuda é direccionada para sectores que dinamizam o crescimento da economia, o seu impacto no mesmo é positivo. ABSTRACT; The debate about the question of foreign aid effectiveness goes back decades. While on one side, there are researchers that conclude that foreign aid have a positive impact on economic growth, on the other side, there are those who conclude that the flows of aid only contribute to promote corruption, poverty and perpetuate bad governments. This work investigates the question of foreign aid effectiveness in the economic growth rates of Cape Verde. Since Cape Verde became recently a beneficiary of the new program of foreign aid, the Millennium Challenge Account, it would be interesting to understand if the flows of foreign aid and the MCA have given positive results in the case of Cape Verde. To reach these goals, the annual reports of the Central Bank of Cape Verde, together with other sources, have been analysed and the data refers to 23 years. The results of the econometric analyses suggest that foreign aid has had a positive impact on economic growth in Cape Verde. Even though the Official Development Assistance did not present statistically significant coefficient, the Private Flows seem to be largely positive and significant. The impact of the MCA program also revealed a positive impact on the economic growth of the Cape Verdean's islands, and it reinforces the idea that when the flow of aid is directed at those sectors that promote economic growth, its impact on the economy is largely positive and significant.

The 1998-2001 submarine lava balloon eruption at the Serreta Ridge (Azores archipelago): constraints from volcanic facies architecture, isotope geochemistry and magnetic data

The most recent submarine eruption observed offshore the Azores archipelago occurred between 1998-2001 along the submarine Serreta ridge (SSR), ~4-5 nautical miles WNW of Terceira Island. This submarine eruption delivered abundant basaltic lava balloons floating at the sea surface and significantly changed the bathymetry around the eruption area. Our work combines bathymetry, volcanic facies cartography, petrography, rock magnetism and geochemistry in order to (1) track the possible vent source at seabed, (2) better constrain the Azores magma source(s) sampled through the Serreta submarine volcanic event, and (3) interpret the data within the small-scale mantle source heterogeneity framework that has been demonstrated for the Azores archipelago. Lava balloons sampled at sea surface display a radiogenic signature, which is also correlated with relatively primitive (low) 4He/3He isotopic ratios. Conversely, SSR lavas are characterized by significantly lower radiogenic 87Sr/86Sr, 206Pb/204Pb and 208Pb/204Pb ratios than the lava balloons and the onshore lavas from the Terceira Island. SSR lavas are primitive, but incompatible trace-enriched. Apparent decoupling between the enriched incompatible trace element abundances and depleted radiogenic isotope ratios is best explained by binary mixing of a depleted MORB source and a HIMU­type component into magma batches that evolved by similar shallower processes in their travel to the surface. The collected data suggest that the freshest samples collected in the SSR may correspond to volcanic products of an unnoticed and more recent eruption than the 1998-2001 episode.

Provenance and technological analysis of selected cuneiform tablets from the late second millennium BC

The aim of the present study is to examine a group of clay tablets by thin-section petrography and thermogravimetric analysis in order to assess specific problems related to their provenance and manufacture technology. Two sets of documents dating to the fourteenth-thirteenth centuries BC will be considered separately throughout the thesis, with different research questions in mind for each case study. The petrographic data will be compared when possible with the chemical composition of the tablets, determined by pXRF and/or INAA in previous studies. On the whole, this dissertation is an attempt to combine textual, archaeological, petrographic, chemical and thermogravimetric information in order to get a better understanding of the materiality and the historical implications of the objects under examination; Resumo: O objetivo do presente estudo é examinar um grupo de tabuletas de argila por petrografia e análise termogravimétrica, a fim de avaliar problemas específicos relacionados com a sua proveniência e tecnologia de fabricação. Dois conjuntos de documentos que datam dos séculos XIV-XIII a.C. serão considerados separadamente ao longo da tese, com diferentes questões de pesquisa em mente para cada estudo de caso. Os dados petrográficos serão comparados quando possível com a composição química das tabuletas, determinada por pXRF e/ou INAA em estudos anteriores. No seu conjunto, esta dissertação é uma tentativa de combinar informação textual, arqueológica, petrográfica, química e termogravimétrica a fim de obter uma melhor compreensão da composição material e das implicações históricas dos objetos em análise.