Portuguese commercial banking: An assessment of competition in the 1960-2013 period

Strong consolidation is one of the most evident developments of banking markets around the world in recent decades. This change is raising questions on how and to what an extent competition is affected by the expansion of the largest banks. The aim of the present study is to measure the degree of competition in the Portuguese commercial banking market in the long-run, during the period ranging from1960 to 2013, by using the non-structural model developed by Panzar and Rosse. The main findings are that the Portuguese banking system, despite the legal restrictions in place, operated mostly in a market with some degree of competition and, at some points in time, presented some interesting competitive features. More recently, it has evolved into functioning as a cartel.

Competition effects from patient mobility in the European Union

This paper studies the effects of reimbursement for medical tourism within the European Union. We use a spatial competition framework to study the effects on prices, qualities and patient flows between two countries. Patient mobility increases with the implementation of reimbursement mechanisms. The resulting equilibria in prices and qualities depend on the rule of reimbursements and possible differences in country specific parameters. Soft budget constraints that public providers may have, pose a competitive advantage over private providers and divert demand toward the former. Supranational coordination concerning soft budgets constraints is needed to address the potentially detrimental effects on aggregate welfar

Proteomic analysis of a neurodegeneration cell model, treated with plant extracts with potential neuroprotective activity

Nowadays, a significant increase in chronic diseases is observed. Epidemiological studies showed a consistent relationship between the consumption of fruits and vegetables and a reduced risk of certain chronic diseases, namely neurodegenerative disorders. One factor common to these diseases is oxidative stress, which is highly related with proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and nucleic acids damage, leading to cellular dysfunction. Polyphenols, highly abundant in berries and associated products, were described as having antioxidant properties, with beneficial effect in these pathologies. The aims of this study were to evaluate by proteomic analyses the effect of oxidative insult in a neuroblastoma cell line (SK-N-MC) and understand the mechanisms involved in the neuroprotective effects of digested extracts from commercial and wild blackberry (R. vagabundus Samp.). The analysis of the total proteome by two-dimensional electrophoresis revealed that oxidative stress in SK-N-MC cells resulted in altered expression of 12 protein spots from a total of 318. Regarding some redox proteomics alterations, particularly proteins carbonylation and glutathionylation, protein carbonyl alterations during stress suggest that cells produce an early and late response; on the other hand, no glutathionylated polypeptides were detected. Relatively to the incubation of SK-N-MC cells with digested berry extracts, commercial blackberry promotes more changes in protein pattern of these cells than R. vagabundus. From 9 statistically different protein spots of cells incubated with commercial blackberry, only β-tubulin and GRP 78 were until now identified by mass spectrometry. Further studies involving the selection of sub proteomes will be necessary to have a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the neuroprotective effects of berries.

Competition policy costs to firms

The existence of competition policy forces companies to adjust their behaviour. This is also costly. Using a database from a company on contracts, I will try to estimate if a specific competition policy disposition, supply contracts cannot be longer than 60 months, has costs for the coffee suppliers operating in the Portuguese “on-trade” coffee market. The estimation method used in this paper will be OLS. The results suggest that limiting the duration of exclusivity contracts to 60 months can be harmful to the coffee suppliers and it can even seriously affect the market functioning. Key

Analysis of a controversial decision process: the case of the pumped hydro storage power plant Atdorf in Germany

Based on the report for the unit “Métodos Interactivos de Participação e Decisão A” (Interactive methods of participation and decision A), coordinated by Prof. Lia Maldonado Teles de Vasconcelos and Prof. Nuno Miguel Ribeiro Videira Costa. This unit was provided for the PhD Program in Technology Assessment in 2015/2016.