Paula Alexandra Veiga

Determinants Of Export Diversification And Sophistication In Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper studies the political and economic factors that determine successful export diversification (ED) and export sophistication (ES) strategies in the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and also the way in which successful ED and sophistication strategies contribute to explain the improving in some of the millennium development goals (MDG). We run separate regressions for the determinants of ES and ED, using disaggregated data of the 48 SSA countries, from 1960 to 2005. The results suggest that better governance is an important determinant for the success of diversification and sophistication strategies in SSA. In particular the level of corruption, transparency and accountability are important factors in limiting or promoting the scope of diversification and the level of sophistication of the exports. The results also suggest that increases in human capital in SSA countries promote both ED and ES, showing that the level of education of the workforce is positively related with ES and ED, with higher levels of education (tertiary) playing a more important role in explaining ES, while lower levels of education (primary) being more important as determinants of ED. In the second part we explore the links between ED and ES and growth presenting evidence that ED and ES are linked to growth stability in SSA. This study also suggests that the Sub-Saharan countries that were more successful in achieving ED and ES tend to be more successful in improving the living conditions of their population. Using different variables of Infant Mortality (one of the MDG) and life expectancy as dependent variables, we present evidence that suggests that in SSA higher ED and ES are associated with lower infant mortality and higher life expectancy. We show that this result is robust, presenting positive and significant results even when a large number of different control variables are introduced, or when fixed effects and instrumental variables are considered. The evidence suggests that ED and ES are part of the solution for a successful development of SSA.

Racionamento dos cuidados de saúde e a participação da sociedade: revisão do debate

Resumo Introducao O tradicional modelo discricionario de estabelecer prioridades na saude tem vindo a ser questionado por muitos decisores politicos que procuram lidar com esta realidade de forma mais explicita. Explicitar o modo de estabelecer prioridades tem suscitado intensos debates, sobretudo e em particular no que respeita a contribuicao da economia e ao envolvimento da populacao. Material e metodos A revisao bibliografica permitiu, nao apenas, rever o debate em torno da evolucao a que tem estado sujeito o processo de priorizacao dos servicos de saude ao longo das tres ultimas decadas como tambem descrever a problematica associada a participacao da comunidade no debate sobre o racionamento e conhecer algumas reformas internacionais que procuraram conferir ao racionamento um caracter mais transparente. Resultado A par das reformas para a adopcao de criterios sistematicos de racionar os cuidados de saude surge o debate sobre o papel a conferir a populacao nesse processo. Apesar de algum consenso sobre a necessidade de conferir um papel mais interventivo as populacoes, nao ha consenso sobre os limites e modelos de participacao. A tarefa, na pratica, tem-se revelado complexa e conflituosa. Conclusao A implementacao de sistemas de racionamento com caracter mais explicito e transparente continua em discussao na literatura. As solucoes parecem depender essencialmente da vontade politica e do contexto cultural de cada pais.

Avaliação de custo-utilidade como mecanismo de alocação de recursos em saúde: revisão do debate

Priority setting in health care involves choosing between alternative health care programs and/or patients or groups of patients who will receive care. Traditionally, health economists have proposed maximizing the additional health gain measured in QALYs as a way of setting priorities and maximizing social welfare. This requires that the social value from health improvements be a product of gains in years of life, quality of life, and number of people treated. The results of a literature review suggest that potential health gain is not a single relevant determinant of value, nor is the rule of maximizing this gain sufficient. The social value of a health gain appears not to be linear in terms of mortality and morbidity, or neutral vis-a-vis peoples characteristics or the ultimate distribution of health in society. In parallel with the review of the debate on the role and limitation of QALYs for prioritizing health care resources, the article attempts to justify the controversy over some empirical results, particularly in relation to the construction and expression of social preferences.

The changing consumer in Portugal

Abstract The 1980s for Portugal was a period of remarkable changes and a number of events influenced the decade significantly. Changes in environmental variables had great impact on the behaviour of Portuguese consumers and the marketing management of firms. This article reviews the changes along a number of variables which are relevant for decision-making in marketing in Portugal. Economic environment, demographic developments, cultural and attitude changes, variables related to Portuguese consumers and changes in macro marketing-mix will be assessed. The future trends of these variables will be reviewed and their implication for marketing management in the remaining years of this century will be considered.