Leonor Freire Costa

Increased Interleukin-4 Production by CD8 and γδl T cells in health-care workers is associated with the subsequent development of active tuberculosis

We evaluated immune responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 10 health-care workers (HCWs) and 10 non-HCWs and correlated their immune status with the development of active tuberculosis (TB). Twenty individuals were randomly recruited, tested, and monitored longitudinally for TB presentation. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from donors were stimulated with M. tuberculosis and tested for cell proliferation and the production of interferon (IFN)- gamma, interleukin (IL)-5, and IL-4, by use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent or flow-cytometric assays. HCWs had higher levels of cell proliferation (24,258 cpm) and IFN- gamma (6373 pg/mL) to M. tuberculosis than did non-HCWs (cell proliferation, 11,462 cpm; IFN- gamma, 3228 pg/mL). Six of 10 HCWs showed increased median percentages of CD8+IL-4+ (4.7%) and gammadelta +IL-4+ (2.3%) T cells and progressed to active TB. HCWs who remained healthy showed increased median percentages of CD8+IFN- gamma+ (25.0%) and gammadelta +IFN- gamma+ (8.0%) and lower percentages of CD8+IL-4+ (0.05%) and gammadelta +IL-4+ (0.03%) T cells.

The Great Escape? The Contribution of the Empire to Portugal's Economic Growth, 1500-1800

Newly assembled macroeconomic statistics for early modern Portugal reveal one of Europe’s most vigorous colonial traders and at the same time one of its least successful growth records. Using an estimated model in the spirit of Allen (2009) we conclude that intercontinental trade had a substantial and increasingly positive impact on economic growth. In the heyday of colonial expansion, eliminating the economic links to empire would have reduced Portugal’s per capita income by roughly a fifth. While the empire helped the domestic economy it was not sufficient to annul the tendency towards decline in relation to Europe’s advanced core which set in from the 17th century onwards. We conclude that the explanation for Portugal’s long-term backwardness must be sought primarily in domestic conditions.

An Economic History of Portugal, 1143–2010

This book offers a fascinating exploration of the evolution of the Portuguese economy over the course of eight centuries, from the foundation of the kingdom in 1143, when political boundaries began to take shape in the midst of the Christian Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula, and the formation of an empire, to the integration of the nation into the European Communities and the Economic and Monetary Union. Through six chapters, the authors provide a vibrant history of Portugals past with a focus ranging from the medieval economy and the age of globalization, to war and recovery, the Atlantic economy, the rise of liberalism and patterns of convergence. The book provides a unique long-term perspective of change in a southern European country and its empire, which responds to the fundamental broader questions about when, how and why economies expand, stagnate or contract.

The alchemy of gold: interest rates, money stock, and credit in eighteenth-century Lisbon

This article addresses the partial equilibrium functioning of the short‐term credit market in eighteenth‐century Lisbon and its response to massive gold inflows from Brazil. Gold inflows were a colonial rent, and thus a source of income and a financial asset that increased the liquidity supply in a credit market populated by both (direct) participants and non‐participants in the colonial trade or in mining. As a source of income it would induce a positive upward pressure on interest rates, while as a financial asset it would lead to the opposite. A method is developed to extract interest rates from notarized personal credit, unbundling the aggregate and the idiosyncratic components of risk pricing. The results show that interest rates in Lisbon did not differ critically from those observed in other cities at the core of the premodern European economy, which were spared from devastation by the earthquake that struck Lisbon in 1755. A simple model relating the market interest rate series to gold stock variations finds that the liquidity channel dominated over the endowment channel, which explains the downward trend in interest rates up until 1757 when the interest rates were freely settled. Mild credit rationing may have been introduced by a 5 per cent ceiling on interest rates that was imposed after 1757.