CESA
Working Paper 110/2012: The Chinese ‘go global’ policy and the Portuguese kinship
Abstract:
With the objective of promoting trade and investment and implement common projects in various domains between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries (PSCs), the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation was created by the Chinese government in 2003. This Forum based in Macao, follow the theoretical rational that internationalization is largely driven by networks of relationships, very often based in a share culture and language and that the network relationships of a firm is capable of providing the context for its international activities. Being part of the soft power diplomatic approach to the Portuguese Speaking Countries – considering that some of these markets are very important for Chinese economic development, due to the need to expand its foreign markets and, most importantly, to guarantee the supply of critical raw-materials and sources of energy – this charm offensive utilizes as persuasive tools the cooperation for development, humanitarian aid, cultural ties, bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, and the OFDI. In order to be effective, this model of global cooperation requires that every participant perceives it as being mutually beneficial, i.e., a “win-win” situation for all. Therefore to be a positive contributor to the Chinese “Go Global” policy this Portuguese kinship network should have the perception that Macao Forum activities contribute to the development of its business objectives – increase exports, investment growth, and other business with positive economic results – with China, Macao and between themselves. The chinese ‘go global’ policy and the portuguese kinship was aimed at Portuguese companies (exporting and/or investing in China, Macao and HK) in order to get a clearer idea of their opinion about their perception of the Forum and its potential. Within this set of conclusions, we can consider that Macao Forum can do better for the perception of positive benefits for the Portuguese companies participating in its activities thus creating the perception of a “win-win” situation, reinforcing its utility in the increase of exports to China, growth of FDI in China, Macao and PSCs, the increase of business networks between companies of these economic spaces and the increase of business economic results in other kind of business rather than exports or investment. In the future we intend to conduct similar research on the perceptions of companies of other PSCs.
Quotation:
Ilhéu, Fernanda e Susana Pereira. 2012. “The chinese ‘go global’ policy and the portuguese kinship”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. CEsA/ Documentos de Trabalho nº110/2012.
Working Paper 109/2012: A política de cooperação para o desenvolvimento no contexto da crise económica do século XXI: o caso português
Abstract:
The Development Cooperation policy as a “field” of knowledge capable of articulating with the impact of the application of public policies in developing countries, is nowadays one of the most important areas in the scope of international relations. Susceptible to external and internal factors, Cooperation has been faced with the serious economic crisis that affects the world system, and it is not by chance that the countries receiving International Aid have been the most affected. Considered as one of the most dramatic scenarios by Peter Wahl (2008), Cooperation calls for a solution with international partners. It is therefore crucial to understand the impact that the economic crisis had on cooperation policy not in a global context, but in the specific Portuguese context. In this way, A política de cooperação para o desenvolvimento no contexto da crise económica do século XXI: o caso português intends to show to what extent the Portuguese Cooperation policy has been affected and how it has penalized (in its cooperation relations) countries such as Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Mozambique and S. Tomé and Príncipe. For this, the investigation will be based on the established priorities, on the government plans and on the investments granted by the IPAD (present in the tables of the Diário da República) since 2008.
Quotation:
Faria, Raquel. 2012. “A política de cooperação para o desenvolvimento no contexto da crise económica do século XXI: o caso português”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. CEsA/ Documentos de Trabalho nº109/2012.
Working Paper 108/2012: Os paradigmas de conhecimento sobre a cooperação internacional para o desenvolvimento e a evolução do papel da sociedade civil em Portugal
Abstract:
Os paradigmas de conhecimento sobre a cooperação internacional para o desenvolvimento e a evolução do papel da sociedade civil em Portugal intends to use one of the results of the ongoing Project on Decentralized Cooperation developed by the University of Aveiro, the NGO Association for Cooperation between Peoples (ACEP) and the Center for Studies on Africa and Development (CESA) of the Higher Institute of Economics and Management (ISEG), still in its first year of implementation. Thus, the objective of the communication is to contribute to the knowledge of the evolution that the Portuguese civil society institutions designated by NGOs present in the “field” of International Cooperation for Development (CID) had in the articulation with the dominant paradigms from the European heritage of the post-war 1939-45 of the Marshall Plan between the USA and the European States and of the twinnings between Municipalities and other local organizations until the Global Partnership for the Development of the Millennium Goals in 2000. The conviction that the knowledge about the processes promoting development taking the economy as the engine, it created an ICD based on State Integrated Development Plans and sectoral projects that prevailed until the debt crisis of the 1970s. In this paradigm, civil society played a secondary role and State institutions were the main actor. The debt crisis led to a radical change in this paradigm, with stabilization and structural adjustment policies – the Washington Consensus – asserting themselves as the dominant model. Civil society organizations then emerged as those actors that could complement and replace the State in the belief that “the less the State the better the State”. In the realization of the failure of this model of policies that worsened poverty and inequality, and delayed the construction of Public Administration institutions in less developed countries, another paradigm is developed – the Monterrey Consensus – where civil society articulates with the State in a global partnership for development, with the central objective of fighting poverty and setting concrete global goals for the first time – the Millennium Goals. And this partnership is valid both in recipient countries and in IADC funding countries. Knowledge of how the theory and practice of this international partnership in Portugal should be is still far behind and this communication seeks to clarify these Cooperation processes and the context in which they are inserted, articulated with the ongoing reform of the Portuguese Public Administration and the CID already existing with the countries concerned.
Quotation:
Sangreman, Carlos e Tânia Santos. 2012. “Os paradigmas de conhecimento sobre a cooperação internacional para o desenvolvimento e a evolução do papel da sociedade civil em Portugal”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. CEsA –Documentos de Trabalho nº 108/2012.
Working Paper 107/2012: Projecto de construção de um observatório de bem estar do bairro de Belém
Resumo:
In Projecto de construção de um observatório de bem estar do bairro de Belém we take this idea of “satisfaction” as a basis for defining the concept of well-being. In a society like the African one where the relationship with others is an important value, this idea is always applied considering the individual dimension articulated with the social group dimension. This concept has the consequence that the well-being of an individual cannot be understood without the family, and without the social groups with which its members identify. It is the articulation of these different social groups that defines the level of well-being of a collective, whether it is an ethnic group, a neighborhood or the whole national. in the neighborhoods there is a theoretical framework that starts from the idea that it is fundamental to determine what would happen if there had not been concrete actions to improve the well-being. Returning the results of surveys to respondents is an important element in the work done in a neighborhood, and in creating a sense of usefulness in the responses that the population gives to surveyors, whether in the current survey or in the future.
Citação:
Sangreman, Carlos e Nuno Cunha. 2012. “Projecto de construção de um observatório de bem estar do bairro de Belém”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão . CEsA –Documentos de Trabalho nº 107/2012.
Working Paper 106/2012: Performance, heterogeneity and managerial efficiency of African airports: the Nigerian case
Abstract:
The analysis of airport efficiency can yield significant insights into the competitiveness of airports and their potential for increasing productivity and improving resource use. The research on airports has adopted DEA models or homogenous production frontier models. Performance, heterogeneity and managerial efficiency of African airports: the Nigerian case innovates in this context, by analyzing a sample of Nigerian airports with the Alvarez et al. (2004) model and the cost frontier model. Therefore, this paper innovates in the airports context by going beyond DEA models and homogenous production frontier models adopting the Alvarez, Arias and Greene (2004) frontier model which enables to measure managerial effects on the frontier cost framework. This paper analyzes unobserved managerial ability as factors affecting the performance of a representative sample of Nigerian airports by means of frontier models. These airports are ranked according to their technical efficiency during the period 2003-2010 and homogenous and heterogeneous variables are disentangled in the cost function, which leads us to advise the implementation of common policies as well as policies by segments. Economic implications arising from the study are also considered.
Quotation:
Barros, Carlos Pestana e Ade Ibiwoye. 2012. “Performance, heterogeneity and managerial efficiency of African airports: the Nigerian case”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. CEsA – Documentos de Trabalho nº 106/2012.
Working Paper 104/2012: Os clusters como instrumento da cooperação internacional portuguesa para o desenvolvimento, o caso da Ilha de Moçambique
Abstract:
The cooperation policy between donor and recipient countries has changed significantly in recent years. Despite the problems themselves having changed, actors from developed countries together with national and international partners are trying to find new instruments and modalities of cooperation for development. Portugal is no exception, and a new cooperation policy was recently (re)discovered. This focuses on the cluster concept that has been used in recent decades by policy makers as an instrument to promote competitiveness and innovation (Porter, 1990, 1998, 2000). Under the guiding strategy entitled “A strategic vision of Portuguese Cooperation” adopted in 2005, Portugal has recognized the need to make efforts to adopt this new instrument. This “consists of a number of projects that are implemented by different institutions, in the same geographic area and within a common framework” (IPAD, 2005: 52). Within this scenario, Os clusters como instrumento da cooperação internacional portuguesa para o desenvolvimento, o caso da Ilha de Moçambique focuses on the Portuguese case, as a potential case to try to understand the potential as an innovation and the political coherence of the objectives and strategies underlying the creation of cooperation clusters. Thus, it is intended to account for the ongoing research not only from a perspective of (re)examining the theoretical arguments for the adoption of clusters, but also through an analysis of the current practices of cooperation with Mozambique.
Quotation:
Sangreman, Carlos e Sandra Silva. 2012. “Os clusters como instrumento da cooperação internacional portuguesa para o desenvolvimento, o caso da Ilha de Moçambique”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. CEsA – Documentos de Trabalho nº 104/2012.
Working Paper 103/2012: Inflation forecasting in Angola: a fractional approach
Abstract:
Forecasting is a way to evaluate price evolution and therefore it is a macroeconomic management tool. There is a well-established tradition of research on price forecasting. This study analyses price forecasting in Angola using long memory techniques and ARFIMA (AutoRegressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average) models. These models are an accepted reference in forecasting and are used extensively, due to the fact that they interpret the data with accuracy. ARIMA models are found to dominate alternative approaches. However, Doornik and Ooms (2004) found that the fractional ARIMA (ARFIMA) model better describes the inflation dynamics than non-fractional ARIMA models based on integer degrees of differentiation. Since then, inflation series have been examined in many countries by means of fractionally integrated or I(d) models. Inflation forecasting in Angola: a fractional approach applies an ARFIMA model for the first time to price forecasting in relation to the economy of Angola. The models are estimated using monthly data from 1991:1 to 2011:6. Inflation forecasts based on ARFIMA models suggest that inflationary pressures for the period 2011:7 to 2012:12 are expected to be relatively low.
Quotation:
Barros, Carlos Pestana e Luis A. Gil-Alana. 2012. “Inflation forecasting in Angola: a fractional approach”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. CEsA – Documentos de Trabalho nº 103/2012.
Working Paper 101/2012: Das limitações do PIB enquanto indicador às necessidades de medição dos níveis de desenvolvimento
Abstract:
Using as valid the definition of economy the allocation of scarce resources to unlimited needs, we arrive at a conception of economic policy as the action of public authorities in economic domains aimed at obtaining previously chosen results (Amaral, 1996). It is interesting, then, to reflect on the fact that, without the construction of statistical instruments and indicators that allow us to assess the consequences and interpret the results deriving from political action, it will be difficult to provide consistent guidance for economic policy-making. It is in this context that we start our essay with a meditation on the possible weakness of the economic activity indicator most used by mainstream economists and politicians. Das limitações do PIB enquanto indicador às necessidades de medição dos níveis de desenvolvimento seeks to problematise some limitations and insufficiencies of the traditional tools for measuring the economic performance and development of states, such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A brief comment is made on some indices which, with various scopes, attempt to complement this measure. The need to consolidate and stimulate the improvement of alternative indicators and measures is highlighted, so as to reduce the existing deficiencies in the current measurements of development that serve as reference.
Quotation:
Damásio, Bruno e Luís Mah. 2011. “Das limitações do PIB enquanto indicador às necessidades de medição dos níveis de desenvolvimento”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. CEsA – Documentos de Trabalho nº 89/2011.
Working Paper 100/2012: A diáspora cabo-verdiana: percepções e redefinições a partir do arquipélago
Abstract:
A diáspora cabo-verdiana: percepções e redefinições a partir do arquipélago analyzes the role that Cape Verde plays in the context of diasporic society, understanding that what we call here as a showcase function is attributed to it, or which stamps the certification of productions carried out in the space of the diasporic community. Not only does the archipelago seem condemned to seek its sources in its universe of emigration, but it also proves to be a favorable place as a source of the schemes by which the emigration experience is organized and reported by those who left, as society adapts to the conditions offered in the different historical periods of migration, to the setbacks or expansions of the migratory process, over time. In other words, Cape Verdean emigration will not be the same, not only because conditions abroad have changed but also because the society of origin has changed and has changed in relation to their emigration, which refers to the unique place they can have within the Cape Verdean diasporic society. The local community is constantly alert and listening to this part of itself that is separate from it, adapts its rhythms to the news, to the returns that occur on periodic dates and lives as if suspended, waiting for expressions that come from outside. At the same time, the reciprocity established between these two poles is better drawn, with Cape Verde redefining its role as a place of origin, now serving as the center of the syntheses of what the diaspora produces, at the same time that, through its hybridity, allows emigrants abroad to offer their nationality as an important business card.
Quotation:
Évora, Iolanda. 2012. “A diáspora cabo-verdiana: percepções e redefinições a partir do arquipélago”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. CEsA – Documentos de Trabalho nº 100/ 2012.
Working Paper 99/2012: Banking consolidation in Nigeria 2000-2010
Abstract:
Banking consolidation in Nigeria 2000-2010 focuses on the impact of banking consolidation in Nigeria on costs of banks during the period 2000-2010. This process started in 2004 after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced new capital requirements for Nigerian banks. The intention was to push banks to increase their average size through mergers and acquisitions. Some banks could neither satisfy the new capital requirements nor find a suitable merger partner, and therefore were forced to go into liquidation. As a result, the number of banks was considerably reduced. Not surprisingly, all foreign banks survived the recapitalisation as they usually relied on capital injections from the parent company to meet the capital requirements. The total number of Nigerian banks immediately after the consolidation, that is, before the Stanbic Bank/IBTC merger, was 25. The present study makes a threefold contribution. First, it provides evidence on the impact of consolidation on costs in the specific case of Nigerian banks, as this can vary from country to country, depending on their market characteristics and regulations . Second, it adds to the limited number of existing studies on banking consolidation by estimating a more suitable dynamic model rather than conducting the efficiency analysis typical of most papers. In particular, it adopts the dynamic GMM method. Third, it focuses on Africa, a region which has attracted only limited attention in the literature, most studies examining instead European or US banks.
Quotation:
Barros, Carlos Pestana e Guglielmo M. Caporale. 2012. “Banking consolidation in Nigeria 2000-2010”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. CEsA – Documentos de Trabalho nº 99/2012.
