Free-trade agreements: challenges for global health

In this study new free-trade agreements are discussed, which are based on the breaking down of tariff and technical barriers and normally exclude most of the poorest countries in the world. Considering the current context of economic globalization and its health impacts, seven controversial points of these treaties and their possible implications for global public health are presented, mainly regarding health equity and other health determinants. Finally, this research proposes a greater social and health professionals participation in the formulation and discussion of these treaties, and a deeper insertion of Brazil in this important international agenda.

Motivations to participate in international trade fairs: the Portuguese experience

Motivations/barriers to participate in ITF

Participate (or not) in international trade fairs? Decision factors of Portuguese managers

Portugal is a small economy, with an open domestic market that needs competitive exporters to prosper. Trade fairs are an international promotion tool that can be used by firms when considering export development and expansion. This study identifies and evaluates the critical factors that influenced the decision making process of Portuguese SME’s (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) managers to participate (or not) in international trade fairs. The results indicate that the firm’s critical decisions factors to select an international trade fair were value for money and the stand (location, typology and size)

The determinants of trade credit: a study of portuguese industrial companies

Despite the relevance of trade credit as a source of business financing, the topic is far from being considered exhausted, especially because there is no general and integrated theory explaining the causes and consequences of trade credit.Our research aims to contribute towards the literature that studies the determinants for granting and receiving trade credit. In this sequence, the present study seeks to empirically test some theories about the reasons why companies grant and receive commercial credit. For this purpose we apply a fixed effect model to a panel of 11 040 Portuguese industrial companies, of which 360 are large companies and the majority 10 680 are Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) for the period between 2003 and 2009. We conclude that large companies (with greater access to credit market) serve as financial intermediaries to their clients with less access to finance. In addition, it was observed that the supplier companies use trade credit as a legal means of price discrimination. Finally, financially constrained enterprises, especially in times of financial crisis, use commercial credit as an alternative source of funding, endorsing the hypothesis of substitution between trade credit and bank credit.

The tricks of the trade (un)exposed

One of the filmic trends which has been neglected by the Academy Awards is the metacinema, which for practical purposes I will consider to be a cross between the complexities of the self-reflexive cinema (highly connoted with modernism) and the Hollywood Film (the classical films about the urge to ‘make it’ in Hollywood). Indeed, these films have always existed and some, as Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950, USA) and Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001, FRA/USA), have even made it to the ceremony, but were, predictably, defeated in the main categories, by other more ‘serious’ or less self-reflexive products. The United States has always insisted on not revealing the tricks of the trade while, ironically, generating films that deal with this theme, in order to cater to the curiosity of the metacinema-inclined spectator. For this reason such films are usually about the universe of cinema but not its medium, at least not in a way that discloses the operations of the technical apparatus. Why are these films not viewed as serious enough and artistic enough to be awarded Oscars by the Academy in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography? Are they being discarded for the same reasons that comedy and musicals usually are? Or are they being punished for being too unveiling? Or is the industry going for commercial products that can easily be pushed on a global scale and make a profit?

Trade-Off Performance Regions of Slotted ALOHA Protocol using Multi-Objective Optimization

10th Conference on Telecommunications (Conftele 2015), Aveiro, Portugal.

Strategic trade policy and signaling costs with differentiated goods

We consider a trade policy model, where the costs of the home firm are private information but can be signaled through the output levels of the firm to a foreign competitor and a home policymaker. We compute the separating equilibrium and the Bayesian Nash equilibrium, and we compare the subsidies, firms’ expected profits and home government’s welfare in both equilibria, for different values of the own price effect parameter.

The impacts of free trade agreements on use of antidumping

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

When do trade reforms imply larger poverty reductions?

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

Endogenous spillovers in the trade-off between centralization and decentralization

In this paper, we revisit the classical trade-off between centralized and decentralized provision of local public goods, in a setting where interregional spillovers depend on the level of a national public good. We compare the standard benevolent planner approach with a political economy in which decisions, in a centralized system, are undertaken by a non-cooperative legislature with no separation of powers. We observe that the policy-maker in a centralized system is able to play both with local public goods and spillovers, a mechanism that is not available under a decentralized system. When compared to the traditional exogenous spillovers assumption, this improves the case for centralization under the standard benevolent planner approach. However, the same is not necessarily true in the non-cooperative legislature, as in this case the interests of the legislator do not need to be aligned with those of the society. Finally, we extend the traditional political economy analysis by considering a legislature in which decisions are undertaken by different committees (separation of powers), and show that it performs better than the original non-cooperative legislature, greatly improving the case for centralization.

Reciprocity, inequity aversion, and oligopolistic competition

This paper studies how reciprocity and inequity aversion influence the behavior of firms in imperfectly competitive markets. The paper shows that if reciprocal firms compete à la Cournot, then they are able to sustain “collusive” outcomes under a positive reciprocity equilibrium. By contrast, Stackelberg warfare outcomes may emerge under a negative reciprocity equilibrium. The results for inequity aversion are similar. Cournot competition between inequity averse firms can be harmful to consumers if it leads to equilibria where firms feel compassion toward each other. However, in equilibria where inequity averse firms are envious of each other consumers are better off than if firms were selfish. The paper also shows that only under very restrictive conditions does reciprocity or inequity aversion have an impact on Bertrand competition. Finally, the paper shows that non-selfish preferences have a greater impact on equilibrium outcomes in markets with a small number of firms.

Determinants of Portuguese trade: 1986-2010

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

Collusion and reciprocity in infinitely repeated games

This paper extends the standard industrial organization models of repeated interaction between firms by incorporating preferences for reciprocity. A reciprocal firm responds to unkind behavior of rivals with unkind actions (destructive reciprocity), while at the same time, it responds to kind behavior of rivals with kind actions (constructive reciprocity). The main finding of the paper is that, for plausible perceptions of fairness, preferences for reciprocity facilitate collusion in infinitely repeated market games, that is, the critical discount rate at wish collusion can be sustained tends to be lower when firms have preferences for reciprocity than when firms are selfish. The paper also finds that the best collusive outcome that can be sustained in the infinitely repeated Cournot game with reciprocal firms is worse for consumers than the best collusive outcome that can be sustained in the infinitely repeated Cournot game with selfish firms.

The Nagasaki-Macao Trade between 1612 and 1618: Carlo Spinola S.J. Procurator of Japan

A nossa dissertação tem como objetivo analisar os compromissos e as obrigações do procurador da Companhia de Jesus no Japão durante os anos em que Carlo Spinola foi escolhido para ocupar tal posição, a segunda em ordem de importância, conforme o jesuíta italiano Francesco Pasio. O ofício de procurador era uma das posições que levavam os missionários da Companhia a lidar diretamente com as autoridades japonesas em Nagasáqui, uma vez que cabia ao procurador receber, verificar e distribuir os bens pertencentes à missão e que eram carregados no navio português de Macau. Além disso, o procurador, juntamente com outros padres superiores, tinha também incumbidas tarefas políticas relativas ao capitão-mor e aos Portugueses no Japão. Spinola assumiu o cargo quando o bakufu começou a mudar a sua atitude em relação à Igreja de Roma, devido a várias causas que, em parte, envolviam também a Companhia de Jesus, com conseqüências negativas para a missão. Para fornecer uma compreensão profunda deste cargo, propomos uma comparação entre o procuradorado de Spinola e outros procuradores no Japão, tendo escolhido em particular o caso do Português João Rodrigues Tçuzu. Além disso, uma vez que o Japão era um caso particular dentro do Padroado Português, parece-nos pertinente efectuar outra comparação e apresentar também o caso - embora mais conciso - do procurador da província brasileira da Companhia de Jesus. Através deste estudo de casos, tentaremos definir o procurador, tanto do ponto de vista prático - ou seja, os seus deveres, os seus compromissos e os seus recursos – como de uma perspectiva moral e filosófica – olhando para a literatura canônica produzida desde os primeiros tempos da Igreja Cristã. Até agora, a históriografia sobre e de autoria jesuítica apenas aborda o cargo de procurador de forma marginal. O nosso trabalho vai preencher essa lacuna. Além disso, o estudo do papel do procurador permite-nos, inevitavelmente, uma melhor compreensão dos mecanismos de participação da Companhia de Jesus no comércio entre Macau e Nagasáqui, desde o seu início – selado por Alessandro Valignano – até ao seu fim – contemporâneo do término do procuradorado de Spínola.