CROSS-COUNTRY STUDY ON THE DETERMINANTS OF BANK FINANCIAL DISTRESS

ABSTRACTBank failures affect owners, employees, and customers, possibly causing large-scale economic distress. Thus, banks must evaluate operational risks and develop early warning systems. This study investigates bank failures in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the North America Free Trade Area (NAFTA), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union, newly industrialized countries, the G20, and the G8. We use financial ratios to analyze and explore the appropriateness of prediction models. Results show that capital ratios, interest income compared to interest expenses, non-interest income compared to non-interest expenses, return on equity, and provisions for loan losses have significantly negative correlations with bank failure. However, loan ratios, non-performing loans, and fixed assets all have significantly positive correlations with bank failure. In addition, the accuracy of the logistic model for banks from NAFTA countries provides the best prediction accuracy regarding bank failure.

Analysis of mediation and reciprocal effects of changes in weight, self-esteem, and exercise in a behavioral weight loss treatment

Improving the treatment of obesity remains a critical challenge. Several health behaviour change models, often based on a social-cognitive framework, have been used to design weight management interventions (Baranowski et al., 2003). However, most interventions have only produced modest weight reductions (Wadden et al., 2002) and socialcognitive variables have shown limited power to predict weight outcomes (Palmeira et al., 2007). Other predictors, and possibl alte nati e e planatory models, are needed to better understand the mechanisms by which weight loss and other obesity treatment-outcomes are brought about (Baranowski, 2006). Self-esteem is one of these possible mechanisms, because is commonly reported to change during the treatment, although these changes are not necessarily associated with weight loss (Blaine et al., 2007; Maciejewski et al., 2005). This possibility should be more evident if the program integrates regular exercise, as it promotes improvements in subjective well-being (Biddle & Mutrie, 2001), with possible influences on long-term behavioral adherence (e.g. diet, exercise). Following the reciprocal effects model tenets (Marsh & Craven, 2006), we expect that the influences between changes in weight, selfesteem and exercise to be reciprocal and might present one of the mechanisms by which obesity treatments can be improved.

Monetary and fiscal policies interactions in a monetary union with country-size asymmetry

Within a country-size asymmetric monetary union, idiosyncratic shocks and national fiscal stabilization policies cause asymmetric cross-border effects. These effects are a source of strategic interactions between noncoordinated fiscal and monetary policies: on the one hand, due to larger externalities imposed on the union, large countries face less incentives to develop free-riding fiscal policies; on the other hand, a larger strategic position vis-à-vis the central bank incentives the use of fiscal policy to, deliberately, influence monetary policy. Additionally, the existence of non-distortionary government financing may also shape policy interactions. As a result, optimal policy regimes may diverge not only across the union members, but also between the latter and the monetary union. In a two-country micro-founded New-Keynesian model for a monetary union, we consider two fiscal policy scenarios: (i) lump-sum taxes are raised to fully finance the government budget and (ii) lump-sum taxes do not ensure balanced budgets in each period; therefore, fiscal and monetary policies are expected to impinge on debt sustainability. For several degrees of country-size asymmetry, we compute optimal discretionary and dynamic non-cooperative policy games and compare their stabilization performance using a union-wide welfare measure. We also assess whether these outcomes could be improved, for the monetary union, through institutional policy arrangements. We find that, in the presence of government indebtedness, monetary policy optimally deviates from macroeconomic to debt stabilization. We also find that policy cooperation is always welfare increasing for the monetary union as a whole; however, indebted large countries may strongly oppose to this arrangement in favour of fiscal leadership. In this case, delegation of monetary policy to a conservative central bank proves to be fruitful to improve the union’s welfare.

Stabilization constraints from different-average public debt levels in a Monetary Union with country-size asymmetry

In the sequence of the recent financial and economic crisis, the recent public debt accumulation is expected to hamper considerably business cycle stabilization, by enlarging the budgetary consequences of the shocks. This paper analyses how the average level of public debt in a monetary union shapes optimal discretionary fiscal and monetary stabilization policies and affects stabilization welfare. We use a two-country micro-founded New-Keynesian model, where a benevolent central bank and the fiscal authorities play discretionary policy games under different union-average debt-constrained scenarios. We find that high debt levels shift monetary policy assignment from inflation to debt stabilization, making cooperation welfare superior to noncooperation. Moreover, when average debt is too high, welfare moves directly (inversely) with debt-to-output ratios for the union and the large country (small country) under cooperation. However, under non-cooperation, higher average debt levels benefit only the large country.

Risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome in a developing country

OBJECTIVE: To analyze whether previously identified risk factors for sudden death syndrome have a significant impact in a developing country. METHODS: Retrospective longitudinal case-control study carried out in Porto Alegre, Southern Brazil. Cases (N=39) were infants born between 1996 and 2000 who died suddenly and unexpectedly at home during sleep and were diagnosed with sudden death syndrome. Controls (N=117) were infants matched by age and sex who died in hospitals due to other conditions. Data were collected from postmortem examination records and questionnaires answers. A conditional logistic model was used to identify factors associated with the outcome. RESULTS: Mean age at death of cases was 3.2 months. The frequencies of infants regarding gestational age, breastfeeding and regular medical visits were similar in both groups. Sleeping position for most cases and controls was the lateral one. Supine sleeping position was found for few infants in both groups. Maternal variables, age below 20 years (OR=2, 95% CI: 1.1; 5.1) and smoking of more than 10 cigarettes per day during pregnancy (OR=3, 95% CI: 1.3; 6.4), significantly increased the risk for the syndrome. Socioeconomic characteristics were similar in both groups and did not affect risk. CONCLUSIONS: Infant-maternal and socioeconomic profiles of cases in a developing country closely resembled the profile described in the literature, and risk factors were similar as well. However, individual characteristics were identified as risks in the population studied, such as smoking during pregnancy and maternal age below 20 years.

Shane Meadows’ country: analysis of the film this is England (2006)

This Is England is social realist film portraying racism and poverty in 1980s Britain through the eyes of Shaun, a 12 year old boy, who has lost his father in the Falklands war and as to come to terms with his own identity, the difficult transition from childhood to adolescence and the need to fit in a determined group/tribe/gang. The following article aims at analysing relevant aspects depicted from the film emphasizing the so much debated reality of life during 80s. In This is England Shane Meadows manages to rediscover his own self geography, by revisiting his adolescent years. It is a biographical film about the importance of peer pressure and the results of an excess of nationalism, at the same time it typifies some issues related to the 80s youth culture.

The wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles: royal mediation and press mediatization

Bearing in mind the relationship between discourse and society at large, this article addresses the way the British monarchy represented Charles’s second marriage and the way the media constructed their accounts in the period from 10 February (announcement) until 9 April 2005 (wedding) in relation to wider issues such as power relations, newspaper economic structures and popular culture. Particular attention is paid to the multifunctional features of discourse (i.e. its ideational, interpersonal and textual functions), which requires a contextualized reading of a dual process of mediation: on the one hand, the staging of the ceremony by St. James’s Palace and its strategy for attaining monologic closure and, on the other hand, discursive representations by the British press open to a polyphony of voices and discursive frames

Workplace aggression in organizational changing processes: The mediation role of leader political (soft and hard) behavior

One of the main trends in workplace aggression research is studying its antecedents. But the literature also reveals that some predictors remain understudied, like organizational change [1]. Additionally, possible mediators of this relationship were not investigated. The main objective of this research is studding the mediating effect of the leader political behavior (soft and hard version) on the relationship between organizational change and workplace aggression. Participants representing a wide variety of jobs across many organizations were surveyed. The measures used in this research are an Organizational Change Questionnaire climate of change, processes, and readiness [2], a Workplace Aggression Scale [e.g. 3, 4] and a Political Behavior Questionnaire [5]. The results of the study and its theoretical and practical implications will be presented and discussed.

Multidimensional scaling analysis of the dynamics of a country economy

This paper analyzes the Portuguese short-run business cycles over the last 150 years and presents the multidimensional scaling (MDS) for visualizing the results. The analytical and numerical assessment of this long-run perspective reveals periods with close connections between the macroeconomic variables related to government accounts equilibrium, balance of payments equilibrium, and economic growth. The MDS method is adopted for a quantitative statistical analysis. In this way, similarity clusters of several historical periods emerge in the MDS maps, namely, in identifying similarities and dissimilarities that identify periods of prosperity and crises, growth, and stagnation. Such features are major aspects of collective national achievement, to which can be associated the impact of international problems such as the World Wars, the Great Depression, or the current global financial crisis, as well as national events in the context of broad political blueprints for the Portuguese society in the rising globalization process.

Congenital cytomegalovirus infection: occurrence in two socioeconomically distinct populations of a developing country

In São Paulo, Brazil, between November 1980 and July 1982, 1614 newborns of middle socioeconomic background and 1156 newborns of low socioeconomic background were examined for the occurrence of congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection by isolation of virus from urine samples or detection of specific anti-CMV IgM in umbilical cord serum tested by immunofluorescence. In the low socioeconomic population prevalence of CMV complement-fixing antibodies in mothers was 84.4%(151/179) and the incidence of congenital infection assessed by virus isolation 0.98% (5/508), as compared with 0.46% (3/648) in the group of newborns tested by detection of specific anti-CMV IgM in umbilical cord-serum. In middle socioeconomic level population prevalence of CMV complement-fixing antibodies in mothers was 66.5% (284/427) and the incidence of CMV congenital infection was 0.39% (2/518) in the group of newborns screened by virus isolation and 0.18% (2/1096) in the group tested by detection of specific anti-CMV IgM. In the present study none of the 12 congenitally infected newborns presented clinical apparent disease at birth.

Meta-analysis of gender and science research - Country report - Portugal

In Portugal, especially starting in the 1970s, women’s studies had implications on the emergency of the concept of gender and the feminist criticism to the prevailing models about differences between sexes. Until then, women had been absent from scientific research both as subject and as object. Feminism brought more reflexivity to the scientific thinking. After the 25th of April 1974, because of the consequent political openness, several innovating themes of research emerged, together with new concepts and fields of study. However, as far as gender and science relationship is concerned, such studies especially concentrate on higher education institutions. The feminist thinking seems to have two main objectives: to give women visibility, on the one hand, and to denunciate men’s domain in the several fields of knowledge. In 1977, the “Feminine Commission” is created and since then it has been publishing studies on women’s condition and contributing to the enhancement of the reflection of female condition at all levels. In the 1980s, the growing feminisation of tertiary education (both of students and academics), favoured the development of women’s studies, especially on their condition within universities with a special focus on the glass ceiling, despite the lack of statistical data by gender, thus making difficult the analysis of women integration in several sectors, namely in educational and scientific research activities. Other agglutinating themes are family, social and legal condition, work, education, and feminine intervention on political and social movements. In the 1990s, Women Studies are institutionalised in the academic context with the creation of the first Master in Women Studies in the Universidade Aberta (Open University), in Lisbon. In 1999, the first Portuguese journal of women studies is created – “Faces de Eva”. Seminars, conferences, thesis, journals, and projects on women’s studies are more and more common. However, results and publications are not so divulgated as they should be, because of lack of comprehensive and coordinated databases. 2. Analysis by topics 2.1. Horizontal and vertical segregation Research questions It is one of the main areas of research in Portugal. Essentially two issues have been considered: - The analysis of vertical gender segregation in educational and professional fields, having reflexes on women professional career progression with special attention to men’s power in control positions and the glass ceiling. - The analysis of horizontal segregation, special in higher education (teaching and research) where women have less visibility than men, and the under-representation of women in technology and technological careers. Research in this area mainly focuses on description, showing the under-representation of women in certain scientific areas and senior positions. Nevertheless, the studies that analyze horizontal segregation in the field of education adopt a more analytical approach which focuses on the analysis of the mechanisms of reproduction of gender stereotypes, especially socialisation, influencing educational and career choices. 1

“The past is a foreign country”? Acculturation theory and the anthropology of globalization

Etnográfica, 15 (2): 313-336

Under-Report and Underdiagnosis of Chronic Respiratory Diseases in an African Country

BACKGROUND: Chronic respiratory diseases (CRD) are greatly underestimated. The aim of this study was to assess the burden associated with reported CRD and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as defined on the basis of various standardized criteria, by estimating their point prevalence in a sample of individuals attending the Primary Health Care (PHC) level and Emergency Room (ER) Departments in Cape Verde (CV) archipelago. The second aim of the study was to identify factors related to airways obstruction and reported CRD in this population. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in CV during 2 weeks. Outpatients aged more than 20 years seeking care at PHC level and ER answered a standardized questionnaire and were subjected to spirometry, independently of their complaint. Two criteria for airways obstruction were taken into account: forced expiratory volume (FEV(1)) <80% of the predicted value and FEV(1)/forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio <0.70. RESULTS: A total of 274 individuals with a satisfactory spirometry were included. 22% of the individuals had a FEV(1) < 80%. Individuals older than 46 years had a higher risk of having airways obstruction. Asthma diagnosis (11%) had a clear association with airways obstruction. Smoking was a risk factor for a lower FEV(1). Working in a dust place and cooking using an open fire were both related to chronic bronchitis and asthma diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Under-report and underdiagnosis of chronic respiratory conditions seem to be a reality in CV just as in other parts of the world. To improve diagnosis, our results reinforce the need of performing a spirometry

Determinants of venture capital and private equity investments in renewable energy: A cross-country study

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

Determinants of host country for the financial subsidiaries of Portuguese companies

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