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The Covid-19 pandemic had different impacts across the globe, according to both country structure and conjunctural responses from local governments. This article aims to characterize the main traits of capitalism in Brazil, with a focus on its evolution over the last 20 years and the way these characteristics shaped both the impacts of the pandemic and the responses to the so-called "Corona-crisis". The hypothesis is that the socioeconomic impacts of any world crisis tend to be higher in peripheral countries, but the government reactions to such crises are important in determining the socioeconomic dynamics that evolve. The analysis is attentive to the interactions between aspects which are inherent to the capitalist system, aspects related to the Brazilian colonial history and the resulting insertion of Brazil in the global economy, and aspects related to the Brazilian current context - in particular the socioeconomic and political crises since 2014, the coup d'état against President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 and the outbreak of the pandemic in a country governed from 2018 to 2022 by a far-right government. The main conclusions are that the pandemic provoked no major changes, but rather accelerated ongoing movements and deepened some old traits of the Brazilian economy, especially its vulnerability, its structural heterogeneities, the precariousness of the labor market and social inequalities.

This paper shows how bank-specific, industry-specific, and macroeconomic determinants affect the profitability of 3046 banks across 19 Euro area countries, from 2006 to 2015. To assess the existence of potentially relevant asymmetries, we split our sample of Euro area banks into peripheral and core countries’ banks. Our results reveal that, compared to banks from core countries, the marginal effect of the loan loss provisions burden on profitability is, on average, at least 3 times larger in peripheral banks where a 1 p.p. increase in loan loss provisions reduces return on average assets by 0.6 p.p. Moreover, the impact of loan loss provisions on profitability levels during the 2008–2013 financial crisis period is found to be significantly more severe in peripheral banks. Our results likewise suggest that the improvement of efficiency levels and a more selective asset growth have stronger effects on the returns of peripheral banks. In contrast, the effect of customer deposits suggests that core countries’ banks make better use of this source of funding. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

UIDB/04209/2020 UIDP/04209/2020 Over the last decades, technological innovation became the new mantra in the Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) policy arena of the most different countries, including the world peripheries. By adopting a historical and global perspective, we identify in this article a scope of isomorphic pressures in the core elements of the policy process, which became increasingly evident, aligned with neoliberalism and the ideals of rationalization and bureaucratization: discursive and argumentative rationalities, primary goals definition, policy mechanisms, and legislation – all elements central to policy formulation and very similar across countries, independently of some degree of variation within national contexts. Therefore, one can observe that the reforms held in the STI policy arena of different Latin America and Iberian countries, to create an ‘innovation culture’ of entrepreneurship, are based on very similar discourses and incentives. In this piece, we conduct a conceptual discussion on the politics of STI given the realities and historical backgrounds of some peripheral countries – mainly Latin American ones, highlighting the relations between interests and their respective agency within STI’s complex policy process. publishersversion published

The purpose of the study is to examine the longitudinal trajectories of five selected South American countries in the period between 1990 and 2018, applying the Quintuple Helix Innovation Model (QHIM). The aim is to analyse the trends of each country through the relationship of its helices using indicators extracted from an international database in order to establish their articulation and synergies to go in search of sustainable development. Within this dynamic, Venezuela represents the axis country of the study and Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru make up the group that allows the comparison. The research focuses attention on two periods of Venezuelan politics since they allow measuring the variations of the countries under study. The base year is 1996 and is called the pre-Hugo Ch&aacute, vez Frias (HCF) period, the cutoff year for the comparison is 2014 and is called the post-HCF period. The study is longitudinal and descriptive. For the analysis, the five knowledge subsystems (helices) of the QHIM were redefined in order to have precise concepts, a database was designed based on World Bank indicators that were later thematically related to each of the helices. The interrelationships between the helices of each country were also specified in order to determine which were the weakest and which had the most positive or negative influence. In order to calculate the percentage variation of the countries, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method was applied. In this sense, the most relevant finding is related to the decisions made in the last twenty years from the political helix in Venezuela because it deactivated and disarticulated the others, causing that country to collapse.

Neste estudo analisamos os fatores específicos aos bancos, à indústria e à economia, que afetam a rentabilidade de 3.046 bancos da zona Euro entre 2006 e 2015. Para o efeito, dividimos a nossa amostra entre bancos dos países periféricos e dos países centrais e incluímos um número significativo de bancos não cotados, dado representarem a maioria dos bancos na União Europeia. Os nossos resultados confirmam a relevância das provisões de crédito, das receitas não decorrentes de juros, rácio de eficiência, crescimento do total dos ativos, parcela dos depósitos, crescimento do PIB e taxas de juro, como determinantes significativas da rentabilidade dos bancos da zona Euro, quando analisados em conjunto. A este respeito, uma vez atenuado o uso da política monetária menos convencional, que promoveu a existência de taxas de juro muito baixas por longo tempo, e encontrada uma solução para o problema Europeu do crédito vencido, espera-se que os lucros dos bancos sejam impulsionados. Inversamente, quando os bancos periféricos e dos países centrais são analisados em separado, encontramos efeitos assimétricos entre os grupos. O peso das provisões de crédito é, em média, pelo menos 3 vezes superior nos bancos periféricos. Similarmente, o impacto das provisões de crédito nos níveis de rentabilidade durante o período da crise financeira entre 2008 e 2013 foi significativamente agravado nos bancos periféricos. Por fim, verificamos que a melhoria dos níveis de eficiência e uma maior concentração bancária aumentam os lucros dos bancos periféricos. Em contrapartida, o efeito positivo dos depósitos de clientes sugere que os bancos dos países centrais fazem melhor uso desta fonte de financiamento. In this paper, we analyze how bank-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic determinants affect the profitability of 3.046 banks across 19 Euro area countries, from 2006 to 2015. We split our sample of Euro area banks into peripheral and core countries’ banks and include a significant number of unlisted banks, as they represent most banks in the European Union. Our results confirm the relevance of loan loss provisions, non-interest income share, cost-toincome ratio, total assets growth rate, deposit funding share, GDP growth and interest rates as important drivers of banks’ profitability, when all Euro area banks are analyzed together. In this respect, once eased the unconventional monetary policy measures, which stimulated a low interest rates environment for a long time, and a solution for the European non-performing loans problem is found, banks’ returns are likely to boost. Conversely, when peripheral and core countries’ banks are separately assessed, we find an asymmetric effect of some components between both groups. The loan loss provisions burden is, on average, at least 3 times larger in peripheral banks. Similarly, the impact of loan loss provisions on profitability levels during the 2008-2013 financial crisis period was significantly more severe in peripheral banks. Finally, our results suggest that the improvement of efficiency levels and higher bank concentration increase the returns of peripheral banks. In contrast, the positive effect of customer deposits suggests that core countries’ banks make better use of this source of funding.

Background: The European financial crisis has affected most of the EU member states, and European institutions have had to create new financial instruments to counter the impact. Most effects in the economic and political spheres can be attributed to high unemployment and changes in governments in peripheral countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Romania). Objectives: The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the economic and political effects of the European financial crisis in some peripheral countries that have implemented austerity policies. Methods/Approach: The methodology used is mixed: an analysis of the primary economic variables of the selected countries in comparison to those of countries with low-risk premium was performed, and the relation between the bailouts and elections was presented. Results: The exacerbation of the crisis in the Eurozone is mainly due to the high political costs of austerity measures and not the high level of public spending and/or the alternations in the governments of peripheral countries. Conclusions: The European financial crisis is primarily a result of weak economic governance, and its effects are differentiated. The peripheral countries possess the highest rates of unemployment, and there is a higher tendency towards political instability in rescued countries.

The experiences of 259 regions in 21 European countries with within country GDP per capita and labour productivity growth suggest that variables associated with pro-active, growth oriented strategies are consistently more important predictors of successful regional development than variables related to austerity for a range of measures of successful development. Since regions are the only historical examples of restructuring in currency unions, we therefore also argue for a more growth oriented strategy to solve the problems of the European periphery and outline some features of such a strategy.

This thesis aims to analyse the connection between the Eurozone's balance of payments crisis and the TARGET 2 balances. These balances represent mutual clearing relationship of the individual euro area member states to the European Central Bank inside the TARGET 2 system, which serves as a heart of the Eurozone's payment settlements. In fact, the central banks of the core countries hold significant positive balances while the peripheral central banks accumulated substantial negative positions. The TARGET 2 balances appeared mainly as a consequence of the liquidity outflow from the peripheral countries to the core due to the large imbalances in fundamental factors such as the NCA deficits, net foreign debt, public and private debt or competitiveness. The development of the balances was further facilitated via uneven liquidity provisions from the Eurosystem, as the peripheral countries effectively financed their balance of payments disequilibrium by issuing new liquidity that almost immediately moved to the core. The banking systems of the core started to operate in the liquidity excess status as the monetary base increased in 2011 and 2012. Assets with questionable quality collateralized the increasing refinancing operations in the periphery as the collateral requirements were repeatedly lowered. It resulted in an increase in the credit risk of these operations primarily in the periphery countries. This situation, among many others presented in this thesis, raises further questions about the parameters of the future single monetary policy as well as the continuance of the European monetary union.