Fiscal dynamics and electoral behavior in the Eurozone

Abstract: The Stability Growth Pact and the 3% rule did not prevent countries from running large deficits. Countries in the EMU administrate fiscal policies differently, despite the existence of a common quantitative goal. The main focus of this work project is to study differences in the fiscal dynamics of eight EMU countries and assess the role of political variables in shaping those dynamics. We find that elections negatively affect government revenue in Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Germany. Expenditure, on the other hand, responds positively to incoming elections in Portugal, Italy, France and Netherlands, and negatively in the case of Germany.

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.

Consulting project for the marketing oil department of Galp Energia evaluation of marketing campaigns

Field lab: Consulting lab

NSP work project investment styles

This paper analyzes the Nova Student Portfolio (NSP) with the objective to understand performances of the fund. Each investment style has been analyzed (growth, value and momentum) in order to highlight what style allocation contributed positively and which had a negative impact. The results show that the team mainly invested in value stocks, which contributed positively but that its growth investments had a negative impact on the stock picking performance. The stock selection shows a major influence of the value investment style. A statistical approach shows that the market factor was the one explaining the most the NSP returns.

Economics consulting project for the Iberian Marketing Oil department of Galp Energia: Strategy and Marketing guidelines for Galp Energia’sconvenience business in the Iberian market

Field lab: Consulting lab

Consulting project for the Iberian marketing Oil department of Galp Energia: Strategy and marketing guidelines for Galp Energia's convenience business in the Iberian market

Field lab: Consulting lab

Consulting project for Câmara Municipal de Cascais street vending in Portugal- creation and development of a new sales channel

Field lab: Consulting lab

An essay on agile project management practices

The main goals for the current dissertation is to research on how practices and concepts from Agile Project Management can be applied in a non-IT context and to discover which aspects should be considered when deciding if whether an Agile approach should be implemented or not. Previous studies reflect on the adoption for the identified context. However, the recognition of these practices and concepts by the Project Management field of studies still remains unresolved. The adoption of Agile Project Management emerges as a manifestation against traditional approaches, mainly due to their inability of accepting requirements’ changes. Therefore, these practices and concepts can be considered in order to reduce the risks concerning the increase of competition and innovation – which does not apply to the IT sector solely. The current study reviews the literature on Agile Project Management and its adoption across different sectors in order to assess which practices and concepts can be applied on a non-IT context. Nine different methods are reviewed, where two of these show a higher relevance – Scrum and Extreme Programming. The identified practices and concepts can be separated into four different groups: Cultural and Organizational Structures, Process, Practices, and Artefacts. A framework based on the work by Boehm & Turner in 2004 is developed in order to support the decision of adopting agile methods. A survey intended for project managers was carried in order to assess the implementation of the identified practices and concepts and to evaluate which variables have the highest importance on the developed decision support framework. It is concluded that New Product Development is the project type with the highest potential to implement an agile approach and that the Project Final Product’s Innovativeness, Competitiveness, and the Project Member’s Experience and Autonomy are the most important aspects to consider an implementation of an Agile approach.

How to reduce the causes of call center contact by implementing web self-service at Sonae MC?

This project aims to provide feasible solutions to improve customer´s Help Area at Continente Online. The goal is to increase satisfaction and loyalty by reducing the main causes that lead customers to appeal to Call Center or abandon the website. The pursued solution is the implementation of Web Self-Service and the vision taken is focused not only on providing customers basic help tools but also innovate with international best practices to sustain Sonae MC´s present and future market leader position. Customer´s feedback, costs and impact are taken in consideration to find the best fit for the company.

On project finance and the first road concession in Portugal

In broad sense, Project Financing1 as a mean of financing large scale infrastructural projects worldwide has had a steady growth in popularity for the last 20 years. This growth has been relatively unscathed from most economic cycles. However in the wake of the 2007 systemic Financial Crisis, Project Financing was also in trouble. The liquidity freeze and credit crunch that ensued affected all parties involved. Traditional Lenders, of this type of financial instrument, locked-in long-term contractual obligations, were severely hit with scarcity of funding compounded by rapidly increasing cost of funding. All the while, Banks were “rescued” by the concerted actions of Central Banks and other Multi-Lateral Agencies around the world but at the same time “stressed” by upcoming regulatory effort (Basel Committee). This impact resulted in specific changes to this type of long-term financing. Changes such as Commercial Banks’ increased risk aversion; pricing increase and maturities decrease of credit facilities; enforcement of Market Disruption Event clauses; partial responsibility for project risk by Multilateral Agencies; and adoption of utility-like availability payments in other industrial sectors such as transportation and even social infrastructure. To the extent possible, this report is then divided in three parts. First, it begins with a more instructional part, touching academic literature (theory) and giving the Banks perspective (practice), but mostly as an overview of Project Finance for awareness’ sake. The renowned Harvard Business School professor – Benjamin Esty, states2 that Project Finance is a “relatively unexplored territory for both empirical and theoretical research” which means that academic research efforts are lagging the practice of Project Finance. Second, the report presents a practical case regarding the first Road Concession in Portugal in 1998 ending with the lessons learned 10 years after Financial Close. Lastly, the report concludes with the analysis of the current trends and changes to the industry post Financial Crisis of the late 2000’s. To achieve this I’ll reference relevant papers, books on the subject, online articles and my own experience in the Project Finance Department at a major Portuguese Investment Bank. Regarding the latter, with the signing of a confidentiality agreement, I’m duly omitting sensitive and proprietary bank information.

Social venture move

This study has the purpose of presenting the path of a social microcredit start-up in Mozambique. Its members had just gotten out of college and decided to put in practice what they had learnt. Even though the whole foundation of the project was developed in Mozambique, the team has extended its experience to other countries: São Tomé and Timor. However, the focus of this study will be solely in the Ilha de Mozambique’s project and the difficulties that it is facing right now, in order to try to find answers that would allow the project entrepreneurs to overcome what is keeping them from having a more successful return rate. The main issue of the project and the worse and unexpected default rate is within the fishing sector. This is peculiar, since the mission is in an island where there are plenty of fish and shellfish. By addressing this problem, and presenting the whole structure of the venture, it is its goal to understand better ways to deal with the difficulties. Its format will be as a case study and it will present as well the macroeconomics of Mozambique to justify the choice of the place, align with the team itself, and why it is possible to have a successful project with as many contacts and sponsors as this one does.

Escolha de indicadores para um relatório

This dissertation is aimed at helping organizations that implemented a Business Intelligence (BI) system without documenting to identify the reasons for the indicators choice either in the conception phase of the project or other. The example taken to present the methodology is a fictitious case study of an organization named BestBread. The aim of this dissertation is to demonstrate not only the necessary indicators in a report but also to describe why they are needed through a business goal representation. This dissertation approach focus mainly in using two methodologies, a simplified notation of the Business Intelligence model (BIM) and a systematic approach that aims to justify BI indicators through modelling report goals. This approach provides guidance to organizations that already implemented a BI tool by presenting a method to compare intuitive and systematic selection of indicators with the BI system existing indicators. The approach is applicable to define in a report its significant indicators. The steps needed to be executed are the following: 1- Model business goals; 2- Select indicators through an intuitive perspective; 3- Verify the indicators existence identified in the intuitive perspective; 4- Select indicators through a systematic perspective; 5- Verify the indicators existence identified in the systematic perspective; 6- Make a global comparison. The dissertation approach allowed an easier way to identify and explain the purpose of indicators to be used in a report. Also, the methodology presented could help the BI deployment phase to be quicker since users would be able to visualise through the representations the evaluation that the indicators could evoke in their business goals. Therefore, it could improve the use of the BI tool, its acceptance and maybe even users’ satisfaction with the tool.

Inventário e valorização do património arqueológico do concelho da Chamusca : da época Romana à época Moderna

O presente relatório resulta do estágio efetuado na Câmara Municipal da Chamusca. O mesmo teve como objetivo a realização de um inventário do património arqueológico do concelho da Chamusca, centrado nos períodos da época Romana à Moderna, elaborando conjuntamente uma observação sobre o respetivo povoamento do território. O inventário realizado compilou toda a informação identificada nas fontes bibliográficas nos documentos da época já publicados e nas informações orais que se foram recolhendo. Posteriormente, procedeu-se à confirmação dos dados no terreno, através de uma prospeção dirigida aos sítios nos quais havia indícios de ocorrências patrimoniais. O desenvolvimento deste projeto e deste tipo de investigação possibilitou a identificação/relocalização de um número muito significativo de sítios e potenciais sítios arqueológicos, num total de 136 sítios. O seu inventário foi sistematizado e permitiu, assim, a compilação do conhecimento do património arqueológico deste município, contribuindo diretamente para a sua salvaguarda, preservação e valorização junto da comunidade. A autarquia passou agora a ter um instrumento essencial para a definição das políticas de salvaguarda do património, bem como para a definição das estratégias de desenvolvimento do seu território.