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Doutoramento em Estudos de Desenvolvimento ; This study engages with, and contributes to, the debate around the determinants of economic growth and prosperity, with special reference to the case of landlocked developing countries. Two main lines of explanation are confronted, summed up by the headings 'geography' – landlocked countries are poorer because of the geographical constraints to their participation in international trade – and 'institutions' – landlocked countries are poorer because they happen to have worse economic and political institutions, not because of landlockedness per se. The study adopts a cross-country empirical approach combining two main methods, both of which draw on institutional data from the Center for Systemic Peace, Freedom House, The Heritage Foundation and World Governance Indicators. In the first part of the empirical analysis, a comparative descriptive examination is undertaken of the political and economic institutions in various regional groups of landlocked countries. This confirms the hypothesis that European landlocked nations have better economic and political institutions than non- European landlocked countries, but also finds that several institutional variables are non- significantly or even significantly but negatively associated with GDP per capita across the various regional groups of landlocked countries. The second part of the empirical analysis adopts an econometric panel data approach, including a series of alternative models (namely Pooled Least Squares, Fixed Effects, Random Effects and Correlated Random Effects Models) and different specifications, to look at the impact of seventeen institutional variables, in interaction with alternative proxies for landlockedness, upon the (log) level of GDP per capita. We find that several institutional variables are significant predictors of the level of prosperity, but others are non-significant and others still are significantly but negatively associated with GDP per capita. By contrast, landlockedness appears as a powerful predictor of the income level even after controlling for the effect of institutions. We conclude that institutions probably do matter for economic growth and long-term prosperity, but some institutions probably have more complicated and complex relationships with growth than usually assumed, and the question of which institutions to consider and how to properly assess and measure them is not straightforward. Landlockedness, by contrast, seems to be an unequivocal obstacle to economic prosperity. ; Esta tese situa-se e procura contribuir para o debate em torno dos determinantes do crescimento económico e da prosperidade das economias no longo prazo, com especial referência ao caso dos países em desenvolvimento sem litoral ("landlocked"). São exploradas e confrontadas duas explicações principais para as dificuldades destes países, as quais dão prioridade respetivamente à 'geografia' – a ideia de que os países sem litoral são mais pobres devido aos constrangimentos geográficos à sua participação no comércio internacional – e às 'instituições' – os países sem litoral são mais pobres porque se dá o caso de terem instituições económicas e políticas piores e não devido ao facto de não terem acesso ao mar. A análise efetuada baseia-se numa abordagem empírica que combina dois conjuntos principais de métodos, ambos os quais assentam em dados institucionais produzidos pelo Center for Systemic Peace, Freedom House, The Heritage Foundation e World Governance Indicators. Na primeira parte da análise empírica, é levada a cabo uma análise comparativa- descritiva das instituições económicas e políticas de diferentes grupos macroregionais de países sem litoral. Esta análise corrobora a hipótese de que os países sem litoral europeus possuem instituições políticas e económicas superiores aos países sem litoral não-europeus, mas conclui também que diversas variáveis institucionais possuem associações não significativas, ou significativas mas negativas, com o PIB per capita em diferentes grupos macroregionais de países sem litoral. A segunda parte da análise empírica é de caráter econométrico, adotando um conjunto de modelos distintos (Pooled Least Squares, Fixed Effects, Random Effects e Correlated Random Effects) e diferentes especificações a fim de estimar o impacto de dezassete variáveis institucionais, em interação com diferentes variáveis proxy representativas da ausência de litoral, sobre o nível (em logaritmo) do PIB per capita. Conclui-se que algumas variáveis institucionais constituem preditores significativos do nível de prosperidade económica, mas algumas outras são não-significativas e outras ainda têm associações significativas mas negativas com a variável dependente. Em contrapartida, a ausência de litoral constitui um preditor significativo e robusto do nível de rendimento per capita mesmo após consideração do efeito das instituições. Conclui-se que, de uma forma geral, as instituições são provavelmente determinantes importantes do crescimento económico e da prosperidade de longo prazo, mas também que algumas instituições mantêm provavelmente relações mais subtis e complexas com o crescimento económico do que é habitualmente considerado, para além de que a escolha de quais as instituições que devem ser consideradas e de qual a forma adequada de medilas coloca os seus próprios desafios. A ausência de litoral, em contrapartida, parece constituir um obstáculo inequívoco à prosperidade económica. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Electric vehicles (EV) are becoming more common mobility in the transportation sector in recent times. The dependence on oil as the source of energy for passenger vehicles has economic and political implications, and the crisis will take over as the oil reserves of the world diminish. As concerns of oil depletion and security of the oil supply remain as severe as ever, and faced with the consequences of climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions from the tail pipes of vehicles, the world today is increasingly looking at alternatives to traditional road transport technologies. EVs are seen as a promising green technology which could lead to the decarbonization of the passenger vehicle fleet and to independence from oil. There are possibilities of immense environmental benefits as well, as EVs have zero tail pipe emission and therefore are capable of curbing the pollution problems created by vehicle emission in an efficient way so they can extensively reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the transportation sector as pure electric vehicles are the only vehicles with zero-emission potential. However, there are some major barriers for EVs to overcome before totally replacing ICE vehicles in the transportation sector and obtain appreciable market penetration. This review evaluates the technological aspects of the different power train systems of BEV technology and highlights those technological areas where important progress is expected by focusing on reviewing all the useful information and data available on EV architecture, electrical machines, optimization techniques, and its possibilities of future developments as green mobility. The challenges of different electric drive trains' commercialization are discussed. The major objective is to provide an overall view of the current pure electric vehicle powertrain technology and possibilities of future green vehicle development to assist in future research in this sector.