CRATMedia

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Desenvolvimento de Software e Sistemas Interactivos, realizada sob a orientação científica do Doutor Nuno Filipe Alves Gaiola Castela, Professor-adjunto do Departamento de Engenharia Informática da Escola Superior de Tecnologia do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco.

Microcrédito emancipatório no nordeste do Brasil? : estudo de caso do Crediamigo Comunidade nos municípios de Caucaia-Ce e Maranguape-Ce

This piece of work consists in a study case of Crediamigo Comunidade, a product from the portfolio of Crediamigo Program of Banco do Nordeste, that uses the methodology of the Comunitary Banks in the concession of low amount loan to poor communities. The main question consists to understand how the Crediamigo Comunidade is characterized faced to the conflict of emancipatory versus liberal paradigms, that exists in the microcredit area. The main objective will analyze how the mechanisms: social capital, empowerment, formation to credit education and better conditions for economic and social issues promoted in the specific objectives of this product, before the dipute between these paradigms. The method adopted analyzed, in a longitudinal perspective, the three years of the product s existence (jun/2005 to jul 2008). Primary and secondary data made possible to identify qualitatively, emancipatory and non emancipatory attributes in the actions and results of Crediamigo Comunidade. It is concluded that the Crediamigo Comunidade works in a liberal logic of the Crediamigo Program, consequently, his focus is not in the emancipation of the poorest clients. The empowerment is individual and not communitary or Freiriano ; the social capital relations enlarges itself in its bounding and bridging ties, but not in its linkage ties, to have access to politic actors and consequently communitary strengthen. All the formation in the Crediamigo is strictly commercial. These characteristics happen by the liberal paradigm in the Crediamigo management and of all of its products, including the Crediamigo Comunidade

Making Change, Increasing Value: Reorganizing Your Access Services Department

Presentation from the Towson Conference for Academic Libraries: Collaborating Across the Library, August 16, 2016, Towson University, Towson, MD

Essays in Personal Transportation Demand and Consumer Finance

This dissertation is composed of three essays covering two areas of interest. The first topic is personal transportation demand with a focus on price and fuel efficiency elasticities of mileage demand, challenging assumptions common in the rebound effect literature. The second topic is consumer finance with a focus on small loans. The first chapter creates separate variables for fuel prices during periods of increasing and decreasing prices as well as an observed fuel economy measure to empirically test the equivalence of these elasticities. Using a panel from Germany from 1997 to 2009 I find a fuel economy elasticity of mileage of 53.3%, which is significantly different from the gas price elasticity of mileage during periods of decreasing gas prices, 4.8%. I reject the null hypothesis or price symmetry, with the elasticity of mileage during period of increasing gas prices ranging from 26.2% and 28.9%. The second chapter explores the potential for the rebound effect to vary with income. Panel data from U.S. households from 1997 to 2003 is used to estimate the rebound effect in a median regression. The estimated rebound effect independent of income ranges from 17.8% to 23.6%. An interaction of income and fuel economy is negative and significant, indicating that the rebound effect may be much higher for low income individuals and decreases with income; the rebound effect for low income households ranged from 80.3% to 105.0%, indicating that such households may increase gasoline consumption given an improvement in fuel economy. The final chapter documents the costs of credit instruments found in major mail order catalogs throughout the 20th century. This study constructs a new dataset and finds that the cost of credit increased and became stickier as mail order retailers switched from an installment-style closed-end loan to a revolving-style credit card. This study argues that revolving credit's ability to decrease salience of credit costs in the price of goods is the best explanation for rate stickiness in the mail order industry as well as for the preference of revolving credit among retailers.

Essays on Supply Chain Finance

I study how a larger party within a supply chain could use its superior knowledge about its partner, who is considered to be financially constrained, to help its partner gain access to cheap finance. In particular, I consider two scenarios: (i) Retailer intermediation in supplier finance and (ii) The Effectiveness of Supplier Buy Back Finance. In the fist chapter, I study how a large buyer could help small suppliers obtain financing for their operations. Especially in developing economies, traditional financing methods can be very costly or unavailable to such suppliers. In order to reduce channel costs, in recent years large buyers started to implement their own financing methods that intermediate between suppliers and financing institutions. In this paper, I analyze the role and efficiency of buyer intermediation in supplier financing. Building a game-theoretical model, I show that buyer intermediated financing can significantly improve supply chain performance. Using data from a large Chinese online retailer and through structural regression estimation based on the theoretical analysis, I demonstrate that buyer intermediation induces lower interest rates and wholesale prices, increases order quantities, and boosts supplier borrowing. The analysis also shows that the retailer systematically overestimates the consumer demand. Based on counterfactual analysis, I predict that the implementation of buyer intermediated financing for the online retailer in 2013 improved channel profits by 18.3%, yielding more than $68M projected savings. In the second chapter, I study a novel buy-back financing scheme employed by large manufacturers in some emerging markets. A large manufacturer can secure financing for its budget-constrained downstream partners by assuming a part of the risk for their inventory by committing to buy back some unsold units. Buy back commitment could help a small downstream party secure a bank loan and further induce a higher order quantity through better allocation of risk in the supply chain. However, such a commitment may undermine the supply chain performance as it imposes extra costs on the supplier incurred by the return of large or costly-to-handle items. I first theoretically analyze the buy-back financing contract employed by a leading Chinese automative manufacturer and some variants of this contracting scheme. In order to measure the effectiveness of buy-back financing contracts, I utilize contract and sales data from the company and structurally estimate the theoretical model. Through counterfactual analysis, I study the efficiency of various buy-back financing schemes and compare them to traditional financing methods. I find that buy-back contract agreements can improve channel efficiency significantly compared to simple contracts with no buy-back, whether the downstream retailer can secure financing on its own or not.

2015 Mortgage Log Analysis Report

The South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs publishes an annual mortgage log report as a requirement of the South Carolina Mortgage Lending Act, which became effective on January 1, 2010. The mortgage log report analyzes the following data, concerning all mortgage loan applications taken: the borrower’s credit score, term of the loan, annual percentage rate, type of rate, and appraised value of the property. The mortgage log report also analyzes data required by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, including the following information: the loan type, property type, purpose of the loan, owner/occupancy status, loan amount, action taken, reason for denial, property location, gross annual income, purchaser of the loan, rate spread, HOEPA status, and lien status as well as the applicant and co-applicant’s race, ethnicity, and gender.

Huambo Microbiology Laboratory : economical and financial viability

Mestrado em Finanças

Enhancement to the Mortgage Licensing Process

The Consumer Finance Division of the South Carolina State Board of Financial Institutions is responsible for the supervision, licensing and examination of all consumer finance companies, deferred presentment companies, check cashing companies, and non-depository mortgage lenders and their loan originators. This project specifically focuses on the licensing of Mortgage Lender/Servicer ( company), Mortgage Lender/Servicer Branch (branch) and Mortgage Loan Originator (loan originator) licenses. The problem statement is how the Division can handle increasing the number of mortgage loan originators in the state without delaying the time to process applications. The goal of this project is to make the current licensing process more efficient so that the Division can handle the increased workload without having to hire additional personnel.

Executive order no. 2016-42

This executive order by Governor Nikki R. Haley declares October 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12, 2016 to be legal holidays for banks and savings and loan institutions in the State of South Carolina that were forced to close due to my Orders, other State actions, or hazardous weather conditions caused as a result of Hurricane Matthew.

BM: Tributación y concentración en el sistema financiero Colombiano 1989 - 2003

El presente documento analiza los determinantes del margen de intermediación para el sistema financiero colombiano entre 1989 y 2003. Bajo una estimación dinámica de los efectos generados por variables específicas de actividad, impuestos y estructura de mercado, se presenta un seguimiento del margen de intermediación financiero, para un período que presenta elementos de liberalización y crisis.

Correlacion entre hemoglobina glicosilada con hallazgos sintax score ii en pacientes con sospecha clínica de enfermedad coronaria, hospitalizados en la unidad coronaria del hospital San José centro en enero a septiembre del año 2015

Se realiza un estudio de corte transversal en el periodo de enero a septiembre del año 2016 en la unidad coronaria del Hospital San José Centro de la Ciudad de Bogotá; en pacientes con sospecha de enfermedad coronaria (Síndrome coronario agudo y angina estable) y antecedente de Diabetes Mellitus Tipo 2, se recolectaron 42 pacientes con los criterios de inclusión a quienes se realizó angiografía coronaria como parte del protocolo de estudio y manejo de la unidad, el objetivo primario fue demostrar la posible correlación entre niveles de hemoglobina glicosilada y la escala de severidad SYNTAX Score I y II de enfermedad coronaria, como objetivos secundarios; caracterizar las variables sociodemográficas, comorbilidades y posible relación con el tipo de presentación de enfermedad coronaria. Como hallazgos relevantes no se encontró correlación importante ni significativa entre niveles de hemoglobina glicosilada y la escala Syntax score II ni Syntax score I, a pesar de que la mayoría de pacientes mostraban mal control crónico de su diabetes mellitus tipo 2, con niveles mayores > 7%, como hallazgo positivo se encontro asociación estadísticamente significativa con niveles de LDL y las diferentes formas de presentación de enfermedad coronaria, a mayor niveles de LDL mayor probabilidad de IAM e IAM con elevación del segmento ST. Se considera que con estudios multicentricos en diferentes ciudades y unidades de cuidado cardiovascular con diferentes niveles de riesgo, se podría demostrar la posible correlación entre niveles de hemoglobina glicosilada y los grados de severidad de enfermedad coronaria representados por las escalas Syntax score I y II.

Las reformas emprendidas en Túnez de la mano del FMI y el BM ¿Precedente para la revolución de los Jazmines?”(1987-2010)

El estallido de la “Revolución de los Jazmines” cuestionó el éxito de un país que por más de dos décadas fue exaltado por el Banco Mundial (BM) y el Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) por los logros alcanzados gracias a un programa de restructuración económica. Las exigencias e inconformidades de los manifestantes, que iban más allá de la falta de garantías democráticas, permitieron ver que el país sufría de problemas estructurales relacionados a los altos niveles de desempleo, la precariedad de la situación laboral y la desigualdad. Esta monografía pretende evaluar el papel que tuvieron las reformas económicas y en general el modelo de desarrollo que siguió Túnez de la mano del FMI y el BM, en el surgimiento y consolidación de las condiciones que dieron lugar a la Revolución de los Jazmines a finales del año 2010.

“Productivity and Employment in Firm’s Acess to Public Funding to Support Innovation”

Innovation is at the heart of the Europe 2020 Strategy, in order to promote higher levels of employment and productivity. Special attention is given to increasing the effectiveness of innovation policy instruments, mainly as some authors found evidence that productivity could be negatively affected by subsidies. The aim of the study is to assess how the expected impact on firm productivity and employment is taken into account, when firms apply for public funding for innovation. The analysis is based on the case study of the Portuguese Innovation Incentive System in the Alentejo region. In order to understand which factors influence the public decision to financially support private investment, we estimated a logit model based on firms’ and applications’ characteristics, controlling for the macroeconomic environment. The results indicate that government preferences for promoting exports, exploiting firms R&D results and stimulating the level of qualified employment are shown to be more relevant than the impact on firm productivity. Furthermore, the cost to the government of new jobs created, measured at least by exemption of interest and financial charges on the loan, is almost twice as much for non-SMEs as for SMEs.

The Selection Process of Applications to the Portuguese Innovation Incentive System: Who Gets Financial Support?

Public policies to support entrepreneurship and innovation play a vital role when firms have difficulties in accessing external finance. However, some authors have found evidence of long-term inefficiency in subsidized firms (Bernini and Pelligrini, 2011; Cerqua and Pelligrini, 2014) and ineffectiveness of public funds (Jorge and Suárez, 2011). The aim of the paper is to assess the effectiveness in the selection process of applications to public financial support for stimulating innovation. Using a binary choice model, we investigate which factors influence the probability of obtaining public support for an innovative investment. The explanatory variables are connected to firm profile, the characteristics of the project and the macroeconomic environment. The analysis is based on the case study of the Portuguese Innovation.Incentive System (PIIS) and on the applications managed by the Alentejo Regional Operational Program in the period 2007 – 2013. The results show that the selection process is more focused on the expected impact of the project than on the firm’s past performance. Factors that influence the credit risk and the decision to grant a bank loan do not seem to influence the government evaluator regarding the funding of some projects. Past activities in R&D do not significantly affect the probability of having an application approved under the PIIS, whereas an increase in the number of patents and the number of skilled jobs are both relevant factors. Nevertheless, some evidence of firms’ short-term inefficiency was found, in that receiving public financial support is linked to a smaller increase in productivity compared to non-approved firm applications. At the macroeconomic level, periods with a higher cost of capital in financial markets are linked to a greater probability of getting an application for public support approved, which could be associated with the effectiveness of public support in correcting market failings.

Real effects of the IFRS 9 adoption in banking

The recent adoption of IFRS 9 is a highly disruptive accounting reform, with significant impacts on how and when negative news (i.e., negative adjustments to reported earnings) are recognized on the financial statements. Using a unique dataset of two major banks operating in one European country we provide evidence of a tightening of the corporate loans pricing after the IFRS 9 adoption. Furthermore, by focusing on the post reform period, we show that the tightening is driven by the new staging classification. Higher risk premiums are associated to clients with previous underperforming exposures (stage 2) and higher probability of default. We also observe that the staging classification is not affecting climate risk premiums. Our results highlight that the lenders, as expected by the regulation, change their risk appetite by charging higher spreads to discourage loan origination for clients that became too risky and expensive under the new standard.