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The investment fund market has not only attracted increasing interest from investors seeking alternative investments but has also become increasingly important among professionals and academics. Within this framework, this study seeks to contribute to the research developed through identifying the inducers of investment fund performance in Portugal. The sample consists of 78 funds, covering the timeframe from 2006 to 2016, incorporating stock funds, bond funds, mixed funds and treasury funds analysed in accordance with the panel data methodology. This work finds variables such as risk, rotation, size, age, interest rates, commissions and benchmarks as highly significant determinants of mutual fund performance and when followed by mutual fund managers, may enhance their returns. The originality and value of the work stands on completing certain gaps and deepen knowledge about the Portuguese market, carrying out additional research on the funds marketed in Portugal, focusing on a more diversified asset market, expanding both the number of funds under study and the sampling period while seeking to identify the most relevant factors for performance and how they condition it. The main limitation of this study stems from the difficulties of collecting information due to limitations imposed by current data protection legislation, which restricted both the scope and the depth of analysis. When choosing the Portuguese context, we face constraints in comparison with studies made in more developed contexts where this theme has been studied for a longer period of time.

The recent IPCC Special Report on global warming of 1.5 °C emphasizes that rapid action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is vital to achieving the climate mitigation goals of the Paris Agreement. The most-needed substantial upscaling of investments in GHG mitigation options in all sectors, and particularly in manufacturing sectors, can be an opportunity for a green economic development leap in developing countries. Here, we use the Brazilian manufacturing sectors as an example to explore a transformation of its economy while contributing to the Paris targets. Projections of Brazil's economic futures with and without a portfolio of fiscal policies to induce low carbon investments are produced up to 2030 (end year of Brazil's Nationally Determined Contribution—NDC), by employing the large-scale macro econometric Energy-Environment-Economy Model, E3ME. Our findings highlight that the correct mix of green stimulus can help modernize and decarbonize the Brazilian manufacturing sectors and allow the country's economy to grow faster (by up to 0.42% compared to baseline) while its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions decline (by up to 14.5% in relation to baseline). Investment levels increase, thereby strengthening exports' competitiveness and alleviating external constraints to long-term economic growth in net terms. ; This research was funded by CAPES Foundation, grant number BEX 0885/13-4 and by European Union's Horizon 2020 Program, PARIS REINFORCE project, grant number 820846.

There have been reports that pediatric cardiology is an increasingly competitive field and that it has become difficult for recent graduates to find employment. In Canada, empirical observations are consistent with these findings, but this has not been formally evaluated. The aim of this study was to survey pediatric cardiologists (PCs) on their perception of the current workforce in Canada. A survey was sent to PCs and trainee members of the Canadian Pediatric Cardiology Association in November 2017. Eligible nonmembers of the Canadian Pediatric Cardiology Association were also contacted with the help of Canadian program directors and division chiefs. A total of 68 of 83 PCs completed the survey (82%). The proportion of respondents reporting difficulties in finding a stable position in pediatric cardiology was 83% for those finishing training after 2014 compared with 33% between 2010 and 2014. There was a concomitant increase in the duration of additional subspecialization, which more than doubled after 2014. This contrasted with most PCs (57%) and division chiefs (86%) reporting being understaffed, and with a higher number of anticipated openings compared with available trainees. Division chiefs reporting being understaffed mostly attributed this to government regulations or institutional budgetary constraints. We observed a discrepancy between a perceived need for additional PCs and a reported increasing difficulty in finding employment by recent graduates. This coincided with an increasing number of additional subspecialization years by recent graduates. Institutional and government restrictions may contribute to this situation.

On 28th April 2019 parliamentary elections were held in Spain, which won the left-wing Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. As a result of the elections the party system, which was characterised by the dominance of two main political forces (the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and the People's Party) continued to transform significantly. The People's Party suffered one of the worst election results during the three decades of its history, which could be explained by the strengthening of Ciudadanos and the emergence of the radical political force, Vox.It must be noted that neither the left-wing, nor the right-wing political parties succeeded gaining absolute majority (176 mandates) in the Congress of Deputies. Taking into account of the division of political sphere and the ideological differences among the parties, it will probably take a long time until the main political forces can strike a compromise to form a coalition government in the Iberian country. This requires mutual concessions by the Spanish political elite.Besides the evaluation of the antecedents of parliamentary elections the objective my paper is to analyse the peculiarities of election campaign, but I will also highlight which factors played crucial role in the transformation of the party system in Spain. In my essay emphasis will be given to the different scenarios as regards negotiations for constructing a stable government. Because of length constraints, I will not deal with the foreign affairs- and economic policy of the socialist government.

International audience ; In this study, we provide an overview of relevant national and local regulations and policies for smart mobility, focusing on carsharing services. In particular, we highlight the importance of parking policies. Given this importance, we propose a mathematical optimization model that can be used by a local government to analytically choose the best subset of parking slots to rent to carsharing companies, in order to improve urban mobility. Government that must choose which parking slots to rent to carsharing companies in a city, while finding an optimal balance between the interest of the population and those of the profit-oriented companies. Specifically, we propose to formulate this decision problem as a Binary Linear Programming problem, which includes boolean variables to represent the possibility of renting or not a cluster of parking slots. We present the results of testing the model using realistic data related to the City of Rome. Such data are defined on the basis of the experience gained within the collaboration with our industrial partners in EGo , a carsharing service launched at the University Roma Tre with the support of the electric utility company Enel. The application of the model to a set of realistic data of city of Rome shows that the model can return a fair territorial distribution of the parking slots, satisfying various families of constraints limiting the distribution.

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, with the world in search for new economic engines, China and Japan have explicitly given their answer through their expansion of overseas infrastructure investments. This study focuses on the flagship sector of high-speed railways (HSR) and examines what kinds of development financing China and Japan have adopted in making these investments. It asks the following questions: What similarities are there in the Chinese and Japanese approaches to investments in overseas infrastructure, and how do they differ from traditional Western development financing? Also, in what ways have China and Japan changed their approaches to overseas infrastructure projects during this process? It argues that in the process of expanding overseas infrastructure investments and competing for infrastructure projects, China and Japan have become 'competitive partners' in challenging the traditional norms of development financing represented by the Washington Consensus and the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). To be more specific, China and Japan have adopted each other's practices of tied commercial financing, heavy government involvement, focusing on physical infrastructure and industrialization, and showing respect for host-country forms of governance. In particular, by joining China in the new game of exporting infrastructure and through its own 'quality infrastructure investment' initiative, Japan has broken out of the constraints of DAC norms as an aid donor and endorsed some fundamental Chinese approaches to development and development cooperation, which in their turn were inspired by earlier Japanese practices. (Pac Rev/GIGA)

This paper examines evolving models and experiences of domestic resource mobilization in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. Grounded in UNRISD's Politics of Domestic Resource Mobilization and Social Development project, the study explores key questions around the nature and dynamics of resource bargaining over revenue mobilization and allocation; the changes in relationships among key actors; and the forms and outcomes of institutional development surrounding resource bargaining processes. It adopts a historicalcomparative approach to explore the evolving balance of forces among actors and emerging institutional constraints that are seen as catalyzing the formulation of successive resource mobilization strategies and associated development outcomes. Three case studies of divergent resource mobilization innovations underscore the complexity of challenges faced by governments whose actions are shaped by uneven state capacity and policy autonomy; a weak formal sector in which established business actors wield significant power and influence; and growing contestation over legitimacy and participation by political and social actors. The Zimbabwean case underscores the critical importance of political undercurrents and contesting interests in resource bargaining and the shaping of development policy. It also highlights the uneven nature of social actors' access to and influence in bargaining processes; and of the state itself, in the wake of neoliberal austerity, state capture and intra-elite competition. At the same, the study finds, evidence from Zimbabwe points to the benefits of more transparent, inclusive and capacitated forms of revenue mobilization involving a wider array of social actors.

This paper reviews developments in fiscal rules in the European Union (EU) from the entering into force of the Treaty on European Union (the 'Maastricht Treaty'), which laid the foundations for the euro, until today. It seems safe to say that fiscal positions in the EU and the euro area are now more favourable than they would have been in the absence of the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). However, the aggregate picture masks significant cross-country heterogeneity, with less progress where it would be needed most. Furthermore, the design of the rules has not always followed economic logic and has often been the product of political constraints, giving rise to some flaws in the framework from the outset. Repeated attempts to adjust the fiscal framework to a multitude of circumstances over the past 25 years have made it overly complex and incoherent. The paper concludes that, in its current shape, the SGP is an insufficient disciplining device in economic good times, with the consequence that there are no fiscal buffers, particularly in high-debt countries, to support growth in economic troughs. This, together with the absence of a central fiscal stabilisation instrument, puts the burden of stabilisation mostly on the single monetary policy. The paper also reviews reform options on how to render the fiscal framework more effective in bringing about sounder public finances and avoiding the procyclicality observed over the past two decades.

Around the world, women face persistent barriers in seeking to enter the labor force, attain leadership positions, and launch businesses. Gender inequality not only prevents women from achieving their full potential and gaining economic independence, but also inhibits the growth of national economies. In a context of growing global competition for private investment, policymakers face the timely challenge of ensuring that women are not left behind in the development agenda. This working paper identifies and analyzes investment incentives that governments can provide to businesses with the aim of promoting gender equality. Barriers to gender equality in the workplace include supply-side barriers that make it difficult for women to find jobs or investment financing, and demand-side barriers that make it more costly for firms or investors to hire or fund women. The paper discusses three main types of investment incentives that governments may use to address these barriers: (i) subsidies and grants, (ii) tax incentives, and (iii) public procurement incentives. Because incentives run the risk of creating market inefficiencies and leading to redundant outcomes, their use should be carefully conceived and implemented. The effectiveness of these instruments will depend on the underlying constraints to gender equality, the targeted policy goals, implementation features, and the broader enabling environment. Relevant studies and experiences from several countries are used to explore when and how governments might use investment incentives to promote gender equality.

While the European Parliament's two largest political groups, the European People's Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, have been used to sharing its presidency, they decided to fight with each other in January 2017 during the mid-term election. The S&D, indeed, decided to break the coalition agreement they had signed with the EPP after the 2014 European elections. Media and commentators talked about the end of the grand coalition and predicted a new era of decision-making, more political and conflictual. This study aims at analysing the evolution of coalition formation since the end of the 2014 coalition agreement. It uses both quantitative data (roll-call votes in plenary between 2014 and December 2017) and qualitative data (interviews). The grand coalition has remained determining for adopting legislation and non-legislation but has been activated less often when it comes to non-legislative amendments. Moreover, we found that the end of the agreement mostly impacted policy areas that were already conflictual in the past. We assume that coalition formation in the European Parliament is affected by institutional, interinstitutional and conjectural constraints, regardless of the deal signed between the three centrist political groups. In other words, the coalition agreement has only been a reference framework that justified cooperation practises already existing before the 2014. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Responsible public procurement can be understood as a new conception of public procurement, which could reaffirm the role of public actors in the institutionalization of sustainable development, especially on a territorial scale. There is nearly no academic literature in economics about responsible public procurement, as the concept is rather recent. The point of this article is to present several practical and theoretical perspectives around responsible public procurement, not pretending to any form of exhaustiveness. These perspectives were discussed during a study day organized within the RSECO project « CSR and public procurement, between constraints and performances » which took place on November 23rd, 2017 at the MESHS (Lille, France). ; L'achat public responsable peut être compris comme une nouvelle conception de l'achat public, qui pourrait permettre de réaffirmer le rôle des acteurs publics dans l'institutionnalisation du développement durable, notamment à l'échelle des territoires. L'achat public responsable étant une notion récente, il n'existe aujourd'hui quasiment aucune littérature académique en économie sur le sujet. L'objectif du présent article est d'exposer différents points de vue pratiques et théoriques autour de l'achat public responsable, sans prétendre à une forme d'exhaustivité. Ces différentes perspectives ont été abordées durant la journée d'étude « RSO et achats publics, entre contraintes et performances » ayant eu lieu le 23 novembre 2017 à la MESHS (Lille) organisée dans le cadre du projet « Une RSE repensée – de l'implication des acteurs à une réappropriation des politiques publiques » (RSECO).

Climate change is a significant obstacle for farmers in the least developed countries like Afghanistan and adaptation support is exceptionally scarce. This paper provides evidence on the impact of the agriculture-related external support on farmers' adaptation to climate change in the Central Highlands of Afghanistan. To this end, we collected primary data from 1434 farmers whom we interviewed across 14 districts in Bamiyan, Ghazni, and Diakundi provinces. We employ quasi-experimental econometric methods, including an endogenous switching regression analysis, to estimate the treatment effects on various adaptation-related outcomes. We find significant impacts of support interventions on the use of improved types of seeds and farmers' access to irrigation water. Further impacts on the risk of flood, economic and financial as well as government and institutional adaptation constraints appear to be significant, but sensitive to the existence of unobserved factors. We conclude that farmers perceived changes in the climate, and most of them tried to adapt by employing measures available to them. The impact of external support has been partially effective in addressing immediate and short-term farming challenges related to climate change and extreme weather events. They, however, have not been effective in treating long-term fundamental climate change-related risks. Based on our analysis of the past treatments and farmers' self-reported priorities, we provide a list of policy recommendations for adaptation to climate change in farming communities in Afghanistan.

A wireless sensor network (WSN) has achieved significant importance in tracking different physical or environmental conditions using wireless sensor nodes. Such types of networks are used in various applications including smart cities, smart building, military target tracking and surveillance, natural disaster relief, and smart homes. However, the limited power capacity of sensor nodes is considered a major issue that hampers the performance of a WSN. A plethora of research has been conducted to reduce the energy consumption of sensor nodes in traditional WSN, however the limited functional capability of such networks is the main constraint in designing sophisticated and dynamic solutions. Given this, software defined networking (SDN) has revolutionized traditional networks by providing a programmable and flexible framework. Therefore, SDN concepts can be utilized in designing energy-efficient WSN solutions. In this paper, we exploit SDN capabilities to conserve energy consumption in a traditional WSN. To achieve this, an energy-aware multihop routing protocol (named EASDN) is proposed for software defined wireless sensor network (SDWSN). The proposed protocol is evaluated in a real environment. For this purpose, a test bed is developed using Raspberry Pi. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm exhibits promising results in terms of network lifetime, average energy consumption, the packet delivery ratio, and average delay in comparison to an existing energy efficient routing protocol for SDWSN and a traditional source routing algorithm.

The large number of land in DKI Jakarta province that have not yet beenregistered is a significant potential tax in increasing BPHTB tax revenue. But in its implementation, the imposition of BPHTB tax for granting new rights to this land is still experiencing obstacles. The constraints experienced are the imposition of BPHTB administrative sanctions based on the time of debt due to the signing of the BPN Decree (SK). In this case, Jakarta's citizenas tax payers felt disadvantaged because they were subjected to administrative sanctions due to the delay in receiving the BPN Decree. Based on the results of the analysis through data collection in the field, literature study as reference material and in-depth interviews with related parties, author concluded that BPRD DKI Jakarta, DKI Jakarta Regional Office of BPN and PPAT DKI Jakarta have been cooperating well in the imposition process of BPHTB tax. But in reality, there are still problems in the case of the imposition of BPHTB administrative sanctions for granting new rights to land due to delays in receipt of SK BPN by taxpayers. To minimize this, a more comprehensive collaboration is needed between agencies, namely BPRD DKI Jakarta, Regional Office of BPN DKI Jakarta and PPAT in DKI Jakarta by conducting Collaborative Governance. With Collaborative Governance, it is expected that services to taxpayers will be better and BPHTB tax revenues in DKI Jakarta will increase.

This book provides an authoritative insight on the Loss and Damage discourse by highlighting state-of-the-art research and policy linked to this discourse and articulating its multiple concepts, principles and methods. Written by leading researchers and practitioners, it identifies practical and evidence-based policy options to inform the discourse and climate negotiations. With climate-related risks on the rise and impacts being felt around the globe has come the recognition that climate mitigation and adaptation may not be enough to manage the effects from anthropogenic climate change. This recognition led to the creation of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage in 2013, a climate policy mechanism dedicated to dealing with climate-related effects in highly vulnerable countries that face severe constraints and limits to adaptation. Endorsed in 2015 by the Paris Agreement and effectively considered a third pillar of international climate policy, debate and research on Loss and Damage continues to gain enormous traction. Yet, concepts, methods and tools as well as directions for policy and implementation have remained contested and vague. Suitable for researchers, policy-advisors, practitioners and the interested public, the book furthermore: • discusses the political, legal, economic and institutional dimensions of the issue • highlights normative questions central to the discourse • provides a focus on climate risks and climate risk management • presents salient case studies from around the world.