O mercado único e as pequenas e médias empresas

Trabalho de projeto de mestrado em Políticas Comunitárias e Cooperação Territorial

As condições de financiamento das PPP em Portugal

Mestrado em Finanças

Declaración sobre la crisis económica global y su impacto en las compras consorciadas (19 de enero de 2009)

Redactada en nombre de los muchos consorcios de bibliotecas de todo el mundo que participan en ICOLC, esta declaración tiene dos propósitos. Tiene la intención de ayudar a los editores y otros proveedores de contenido con los cuales tenemos acceso a los recursos de información electrónica (de ahora en adelante simplemente llamados editores) a entender mejor cómo la actual crisis económica única afecta a la comunidad de la información de todo el mundo. El segundo propósito es sugerir un abanico de propuestas que creemos son de beneficio común para las bibliotecas y los proveedores de servicios de información.

Declaración sobre la crisis económica global y su impacto en las compras consorciadas (14 de junio de 2010)

Redactada en nombre de los muchos consorcios de bibliotecas de todo el mundo que participan en ICOLC, esta declaración tiene dos propósitos. Tiene la intención de ayudar a los editores y otros proveedores de contenido con los cuales tenemos acceso a los recursos de información electrónica (de ahora en adelante simplemente llamados editores) a entender mejor cómo la actual crisis económica única afecta a la comunidad de la información de todo el mundo. El segundo propósito es sugerir un abanico de propuestas que creemos son de beneficio común para las bibliotecas y los proveedores de servicios de información.

Modelling Interbank Relations during the International Financial Crisis

This paper examines the effects of the current financial crisis on the correlations of four international banking stocks. We find that in the beginning of the crisis banks generally show a transition to a higher correlation followed by a dramatic decline towards the end of 2008. These findings are consistent with both traditional contagion theory and the more recent network theory of contagion. JEL classifications: C51; G15 Keywords: Financial Crises; Contagion; Interbank Markets.

Three essays in international finance

Executive Summary The first essay of this dissertation investigates whether greater exchange rate uncertainty (i.e., variation over time in the exchange rate) fosters or depresses the foreign investment of multinational firms. In addition to the direct capital financing it supplies, foreign investment can be a source of valuable technology and know-how, which can have substantial positive effects on a host country's economic growth. Thus, it is critically important for policy makers and central bankers, among others, to understand how multinationals base their investment decisions on the characteristics of foreign exchange markets. In this essay, I first develop a theoretical framework to improve our knowledge regarding how the aggregate level of foreign investment responds to exchange rate uncertainty when an economy consists of many firms, each of which is making decisions. The analysis predicts a U-shaped effect of exchange rate uncertainty on the total level of foreign investment of the economy. That is, the effect is negative for low levels of uncertainty and positive for higher levels of uncertainty. This pattern emerges because the relationship between exchange rate volatility and 'the probability of investment is negative for firms with low productivity at home (i.e., firms that find it profitable to invest abroad) and the relationship is positive for firms with high productivity at home (i.e., firms that prefer exporting their product). This finding stands in sharp contrast to predictions in the existing literature that consider a single firm's decision to invest in a unique project. The main contribution of this research is to show that the aggregation over many firms produces a U-shaped pattern between exchange rate uncertainty and the probability of investment. Using data from industrialized countries for the period of 1982-2002, this essay offers a comprehensive empirical analysis that provides evidence in support of the theoretical prediction. In the second essay, I aim to explain the time variation in sovereign credit risk, which captures the risk that a government may be unable to repay its debt. The importance of correctly evaluating such a risk is illustrated by the central role of sovereign debt in previous international lending crises. In addition, sovereign debt is the largest asset class in emerging markets. In this essay, I provide a pricing formula for the evaluation of sovereign credit risk in which the decision to default on sovereign debt is made by the government. The pricing formula explains the variation across time in daily credit spreads - a widely used measure of credit risk - to a degree not offered by existing theoretical and empirical models. I use information on a country's stock market to compute the prevailing sovereign credit spread in that country. The pricing formula explains a substantial fraction of the time variation in daily credit spread changes for Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Russia for the 1998-2008 period, particularly during the recent subprime crisis. I also show that when a government incentive to default is allowed to depend on current economic conditions, one can best explain the level of credit spreads, especially during the recent period of financial distress. In the third essay, I show that the risk of sovereign default abroad can produce adverse consequences for the U.S. equity market through a decrease in returns and an increase in volatility. The risk of sovereign default, which is no longer limited to emerging economies, has recently become a major concern for financial markets. While sovereign debt plays an increasing role in today's financial environment, the effects of sovereign credit risk on the U.S. financial markets have been largely ignored in the literature. In this essay, I develop a theoretical framework that explores how the risk of sovereign default abroad helps explain the level and the volatility of U.S. equity returns. The intuition for this effect is that negative economic shocks deteriorate the fiscal situation of foreign governments, thereby increasing the risk of a sovereign default that would trigger a local contraction in economic growth. The increased risk of an economic slowdown abroad amplifies the direct effect of these shocks on the level and the volatility of equity returns in the U.S. through two channels. The first channel involves a decrease in the future earnings of U.S. exporters resulting from unfavorable adjustments to the exchange rate. The second channel involves investors' incentives to rebalance their portfolios toward safer assets, which depresses U.S. equity prices. An empirical estimation of the model with monthly data for the 1994-2008 period provides evidence that the risk of sovereign default abroad generates a strong leverage effect during economic downturns, which helps to substantially explain the level and the volatility of U.S. equity returns.

La red de alerta del sistema sanitario público de Andalucía, un dispositivo de respuesta inmediata ante posibles crisis

Boletín semanal para profesionales sanitarios de la Secretaría General de Salud Pública y Participación Social de la Consejería de Salud

Impacto de la crisis económica en la salud

Equipo de trabajo EASP: Guadalupe Carmona López, Luis Andrés López Fernández, Oscar Javier Mendoza García, Ignacio Oleaga de Usategui. No contiene fecha de edición.

Amazon Fund: financing deforestation avoidance

The Amazon Fund, created in 2008 by the Brazilian Federal Government, is managed by Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES). It is a pioneering initiative to fundraise and manage financial resources to cut back deforestation and support sustainable development for 30 million inhabitants in the Amazon Biome. The Amazon Fund has already received more than R$ 1.7 billion in grants (about USD 787 million). This essay analyzes the Amazon Fund's governance and management with focus on its operation and from its stakeholders' perspectives. A combination of research methods includes: documental research, in-depth interviews, and speech analysis. The study offers a comparative analysis of strengths and weaknesses related to its governance. Furthermore, it proposes ways to improve its management towards greater effectiveness. The essay also includes an assessment of the government of Norway, a major donor to the fund. The governments of Norway and Germany, in partnership with Brazil, reveal how important it is to experiment with new means of international cooperation to successfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions through rainforest preservation.

Las Finanzas autonómicas en boom y en crisis (2003-12)

En esta nota se introducen algunos ajustes a los datos presupuestarios disponibles sobre los ingresos y los gastos de las comunidades autónomas con el fin de corregir las distorsiones generadas por la forma en la que se han contabilizado algunas partidas. Las series ajustadas se utilizan para analizar la evolución de las finanzas regionales durante la crisis actual y la parte final de la expansión precedente. El ejercicio ayuda a poner en perspectiva la actual controversia sobre las finanzas autonómicas. En ella se suele poner el acento en la dureza de los recortes de los últimos ejercicios, olvidando la temeraria explosión del gasto durante los años anteriores al comienzo de la crisis. Cuando se toma el período en su conjunto, el proceso de consolidación presupuestaria que comienza en 2010 aparece como una corrección parcial y tardía de los excesos de años anteriores. De cara al futuro, convendría tomar medidas que ayuden a hacer menos procíclico el patrón de gasto autonómico. Aunque esto ya se hace en parte en la nueva Ley de Estabilidad Presupuestaria, se argumenta que sería conveniente crear un Fondo de Estabilización Presupuestaria para facilitar el alisamiento del gasto regional.

La representación del barrio del Raval de Barcelona en la prensa escrita catalana: análisis del discurso periodístico durante la crisis económica del 2010

En el contexto de la Sociedad red (Castells: 2007) los medios constituyen referentesfacultados para reproducir discursos socialmente legitimados. La inseguridad ciudadana y el temor hacia el otro son algunos de los tópicos recurrentes de estos discursos. Esto puede contribuir con laestigmatización de ciertos grupos y los barrios urbanos en los que habitan.Este trabajo analiza el discurso periodístico sobre el Raval de Barcelona con el fin de determinar cuáles son las estrategias que emplean los diarios de referencia para describir al barriodurante un periodo específico de crisis económica (2010).La investigación se fundamenta en la premisa teórica de que los discursos mediáticosinfluyen en las percepciones que tienen los receptores acerca de los otros y de su entorno. La investigación se articula a partir de tres ejes de análisis: el estudio de la relación entre el contexto yel medio de comunicación, el análisis crítico del discurso periodístico y la recepción de este discurso.

Macroprudential policy, countercyclical bank capital buffers and credit supply: Evidence from the Spanish dynamic provisioning experiments

We analyze the impact of countercyclical capital buffers held by banks on the supplyof credit to firms and their subsequent performance. Spain introduced dynamicprovisioning unrelated to specific bank loan losses in 2000 and modified its formulaparameters in 2005 and 2008. In each case, individual banks were impacteddifferently. The resultant bank-specific shocks to capital buffers, coupled withcomprehensive bank-, firm-, loan-, and loan application-level data, allow us toidentify its impact on the supply of credit and on real activity. Our estimates showthat countercyclical dynamic provisioning smooths cycles in the supply of credit andin bad times upholds firm financing and performance.

Audit report on the Iowa Water Pollution Control Works Financing Program and the Iowa Drinking Water Facilities Financing Program, joint programs of the Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for the year ended June 30, 2007

Audit report on the Iowa Water Pollution Control Works Financing Program and the Iowa Drinking Water Facilities Financing Program, joint programs of the Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for the year ended June 30, 2007

2008 Annual Report of the Iowa Railway Finance Authority

The Iowa Railway Finance Authority (IRFA) was created in 1980 by the 68th General Assembly to provide for the financing of rail facilities and to enhance and continue the operation of essential rail facilities. IRFA was authorized to offer financial assistance for the acquisition, rehabilitation, construction, refinancing, extension, replacement, maintenance, repair, or leasing of any rail facility. Rail Revolving Loan and Grant Program The 2005 legislative session amended Iowa Code 327H.20 by assigning all repayments of IRFA and other Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) rail assistance loans to the Rail Revolving Loan and Grant Program (RRLGP). In addition, the following annual appropriations were allocated to the fund: • FY 2007: $235,000 • FY 2008: $2 million • FY 2009: $2 million Since the creation of the RRLGP in 2005, IRFA has awarded funding to 23 projects totaling over $7.2 million in grants and loans in its three rounds of competitive funding. These projects have pledged to create 1,672 jobs within two years of project completion and 1,361 jobs have been retained. Funded projects are associated with over $2 billion in total private capital investment. In 2008, the IRFA Board directed all available funds be used to help repair railroads devastated by summer flooding. On July 31, $3.9 million in deferred payment loans were offered to seven Iowa based railroads to allow for immediate repair of rail beds, including the cost of materials, labor and equipment.