Return on equity: A comparison between companies in Portugal and Brazil: Similarities and differences

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Return on equity: A comparison between companies in Portugal and Brazil: Similarities and differences

The purpose of this research is to study the Return on Equity of Portuguese and Brazilian companies, through the DuPont method. This project analyses whether differences in the ratios depend on specific features of the country, or if it is influenced by the industry where it is located. From the comparisons it is concluded that Brazilian companies pay higher corporate taxes and while the Portuguese companies are more leveraged, it is the Brazilian companies which pay higher interests. It is also noticeable that Portuguese companies take more advantage from the financing decisions and Brazilian on the investing decisions.

Measuring the impact with the social return on investment: the case of the social innovation HUB

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Economics from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Return on entrepreneurial passion: A study of funding success and timely delivery in crowdfunding

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Measuring impact with the social return on investment: the case of the social innovation hub

There is a growing interest in social impact assessment across the private, the public and the nonprofit sector. However, there is still limited academic research produced in this area, particularly in what concerns to the application of the Social Return of Investment (SROI) methodology. The goal of this Work Project is to give an overview of the social impact measurement literature and apply the Social Return on Investment, a flagship methodology to measure impact, to the specific case of the Social Innovation Hub (SIH). The findings suggest that each 1€ invested on the SIH generates 1,21€ in terms of social value. While this value seems very appealing to use, there are some risks in monetizing impact in such way, mainly due to the lack of reliable data available for benchmarking purposes.

Return on assets in the Tobacco Industry analysis of the four main Tobacco Manufacturers

This paper studies operating profitability drivers in the Four Main Tobacco Manufacturers for the period 2004-2014. The operating profitability is analyzed as return on assets (ROA) based on the DuPont Extended Model breakdown in degree of operational risk, gross sales margin and assets turnover. The sources of ROA are market share and price strategies appraised through the drivers: firm-size, global value and strategic choices. Using consolidated data, results suggest that firm-size and global value holds a positive relationship with ROA. Also innovation through less harmful tobacco products can lead to better ROA despite no correlation between R&D and ROA.

Exploring profitability diversity through financial statement analysis

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Has the time for renewables finally arrived? – An event study on EPA’s Clean Power Plan

The recent proposals presented by EPA aimed to reduce the dependency of fossil fuels and to lower current emissions levels, hoping to gradually shift electric generation units to renewable energy sources. Actually, the Final Rule Proposal announcement day exhibited a negative Abnormal Return on Fossil Fuels but the following days had positive Abnormal Returns, mostly due to legislative change perceived by financial markets which eased up implementation periods of the proposed measures in the Final Rule when compared to the Draft Rule. Oppositely, Renewables and Solar Portfolios exhibited negative Cumulative Abnormal Returns over the period surrounding the Final Rule.

Does a Tougher Competition Policy Reduce or Promote Investment?

The question of how interventions from the Competition Authority (CA) affect investment is not a straightforward one: a tougher competition policy might, by reducing the ability to exert market power, either stimulate firms to invest more to counter the restrictions on their actions, or make firms invest less because of the reduced ability to have a return on investment. This tension is illustrated using two models. In one model investment is own-cost-reducing whereas in the other investment is anti-competitive. Anti-competitive investments are defined as investments that increase competitors’ costs. In both models the optimal level of investment is reduced with a tougher competition policy. Furthermore, while in the case of an anti-competitive investment a tougher authority necessarily leads to lower prices, in the case of a cost- reducing investment the opposite may happen when the impact of the investment on cost is sufficiently high. Results for total welfare are ambiguous in the cost- reducing investment model, whereas in the anti-competitive investment model welfare unambiguously increases due to a tougher competition polic

Fearful asymmetry: An analysis of pre-earnings abnormal returns

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

The impacts of the Cape Verde self-employed social security scheme

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Economics from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Operating profitability in branded pharmaceutical firms

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Equidade na utilização de medicamentos em Portugal

RESUMO - Este estudo teve como objectivo contribuir para o conhecimento sobre a equidade no sector do medicamento, com uma análise empírica aplicada ao sistema de saúde português. Para o efeito avaliou-se se indivíduos com as mesmas necessidades em saúde, mas com diferentes níveis de rendimento, tiveram idêntica prestação no que diz respeito ao medicamento. Adicionalmente, aprofundou-se esta análise através da identificação de factores associados ao sistema de prestação ou ao utente que contribuíram para gerar iniquidades, com particular destaque para os comportamentos de não aquisição de medicamentos – não adesão primária. A avaliação da equidade foi efectuada através de duas abordagens distintas, mas complementares: uma sob a perspectiva da utilização e outra sob a perspectiva da distribuição da despesa pública com medicamentos. Para estas análises aplicaram-se métodos baseados nos índices de concentração, utilizando dados do Inquérito Nacional de Saúde 2005/06 e dados relativos aos encargos do Serviço Nacional de Saúde com medicamentos. Os resultados revelaram que, perante as mesmas necessidades, o sistema de prestação tende a favorecer os indivíduos de nível socioeconómico superior, quer na utilização quer na distribuição de recursos do Estado com medicamentos. Adicionalmente, a aplicação do método da decomposição do índice de concentração revelou que tanto o rendimento como o nível educacional são atributos individuais que estão associados à iniquidade na utilização de medicamentos. A iniquidade observada neste estudo pode resultar de barreiras em diferentes fases do processo terapêutico, entre as quais se destacam o não acesso à prescrição médica ou a não aquisição dos medicamentos prescritos. Foi este comportamento - designado de não adesão primária - que se analisou na segunda parte da tese. Para tal cruzaram-se os dados de prescrição electrónica com os dados de dispensa no Serviço Nacional de Saúde. Os resultados revelaram que a taxa de não adesão primária foi cerca de 20% e que este comportamento está associado ao sexo feminino ou ser jovem, assim como a características do sistema de prestação como o valor dos copagamentos. Estes dados indiciam que as barreiras na aquisição podem ser indutoras de iniquidades na utilização de medicamentos. A identificação de iniquidade na utilização de medicamentos e dos factores que contribuem para esta situação constituem o primeiro passo para uma estratégia de redução da iniquidade que, de acordo com os resultados desta tese, deve abranger não só o sistema de saúde mas também outras áreas das políticas públicas em Portugal.

Optimal choice between even- and uneven-aged forestry: the case of non-industrial private forest owners

An infinite-horizon discrete time model with multiple size-class structures using a transition matrix is built to assess optimal harvesting schedules in the context of Non-Industrial Private Forest (NIPF) owners. Three model specifications accounting for forest income, financial return on an asset and amenity valuations are considered. Numerical simulations suggest uneven-aged forest management where a rational forest owner adapts her or his forest policy by influencing the regeneration of trees or adjusting consumption dynamics depending on subjective time preference and market return rate dynamics on the financial asset. Moreover she or he does not value significantly non-market benefits captured by amenity valuations relatively to forest income.

Impact of corporate social responsibility in the European pharmaceutical market

The objective of this master thesis is to evaluate the impact of CSR measures in the financial performance of the European pharmaceutical industry. By definition, CSR measures is quantified as corporate social disclosure considering the published CSR keywords on the annual reports of the selected companies, over four fiscal years (2010-2013). The financial performance of the companies were measured as return on assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q. In order to defend the hypothesis developed, a multivariate regression is performed. The results obtained show no significant impact on the financial performance of a company nor in the short-time, nor in the long-time. Moreover, by comparison with other studies, it was possible to conclude that the financial performance is differently affected when considering different industries.