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.

Urban-rural connections and development perspectives in Portugal

Portugal is characterized by a significant asymmetry in the population distribution/density and economic activity as well as in social and cultural dynamics. This means very diverse landscapes, differences in regional development, sustainability and quality of life, mainly between urban and rural areas. A consequence coherent with the contemporary dynamics: urbanization of many rural areas that loose their productive-agricultural identity and, simultaneously, the reintegration in urban areas of spaces and activities with more rural characteristics. In this process of increasing complexity of organization of the landscape is essential to restore the continuum naturale (between urban and rural areas) allowing closer links to both ways of life. A strategy supported in the landscape, which plays important functions for public interest, in the cultural, social, ecological and environmental fields. At the same time, constitutes an important resource for economic activity, as underlined in the European Landscape Convention. Based on this assumption, and using a multi-method approach, the study aims to analyse a) the links between urban and rural areas in Portugal and b) the reasons why these territories are chosen by individuals as places of work and mobility, residence or evasion, culture and leisure, tranquillity or excitement – meaning overall well-being. Primary information was obtained by a questionnaire survey applied to a convenience sample of the Portuguese population. Secondary data and information will be collected on the official Portuguese Statistics (INE and PORDATA). Understanding the urban-rural links is essential to support policy measures, take advantage from the global changes and challenge many of the existing myths.

Measuring persistence in nominal exchange rate: Implications for Angola’s entrepreneurship and business development

The purpose of this paper is to measure the degree of persistence in the Kwanza to US Dollar exchange rate. First, our results indicate that nominal exchange rates both in levels and in first differences are I(0), thus implying that the relative purchasing power parity hypothesis for Angola is not rejected. Secondly, we find a significant degree of persistence in both the formal and informal nominal exchange rates. Thirdly, the degree of persistence in the official market is significantly lower than in the formal market, while In first differences, persistence in the official exchange rate is substantially higher than in the informal exchange rate. Lastly, we could not find strong evidence that persistence has changed in levels throughout the sample period. By contrast, there is significant evidence that persistence in first differences has consistently increased after September 2003. These results have important policy implications as the National Bank of Angola is preparing to change its monetary and exchange-rate policy focus to a more inflation-targeting regime and to a more a flexible (or low-managed) exchange-rate regime.