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ISSN: 2344 - 102X
ISSN-L: 2344 - 102X
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Volume 1, Number 2, Year 2013
| 2. PROJECT FINANCE IN THE ITALIAN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM: CONSIDERATIONS ON THE STATE OF ART | 
Download | | Author(s): Gustavo Barresi, Carmelo Marisca | | DOI: 10.4316/EJAFB.2013.121 | | Abstract: In the last few decades, Project Finance (PF) has assumed particular relevance in the healthcare sector. PF is developed as a solution to the frequently observed lack of financial resources, technical-specific and managerial skills in public entities. With reference to the Healthcare sector, the Italian experience shows discontinuous recourse to PF in the last decade. The most intense growth period, in terms of on-going project numbers and relative value, was between 2003 and 2006. From 2007, there was an evident slowdown in the number of projects which, however, after this initial drop, did not hinder growth in total value of projects, which was more marked in 2011 and 2012. The actual convenience of these operation is not always clear. In many cases, it is the very asymmetry of skills between the parties involved, usually to the detriment of the public party, which leads to an unbalance in apportioning costs and benefits associated with implementation of the PF. This aspect, along with the financial difficulty of public actors, and therefore their difficulty in accessing different instruments of infrastructure financing, can significantly influence the contractual power of the parties. The high level of frequently seen public contributions in public works is therefore explained in this way. The aim of this paper is to analyze the Italian experience of PF in the healthcare system, trying to underline, from its application, the state of art and the pros and cons of this tool. | | Keywords: Public Private Partnerships (PPPs); Project Financing (PF); Healthcare System; Public Infrasctructures; Public Investments |
| 3. THE RISK AND THE BANKING ACTIVITY IN PORTUGAL - A PANEL DATA APPROACH |
Download | | Author(s): Jose R. Pires Manso, Joao Monteiro, Sara Ferreira | | DOI: 10.4316/EJAFB.2013.122 | | Abstract: This study tests the Portuguese banking performance, studying which are the exposition risks of the banks and their financial robustness to shocks like the ones they have been exposed recently. The article uses data from the period 2005-2009. The idea was to capture the effects of the international liquidity crises triggered by the end of 2008 that Portugal felt very seriously. In order to do this we used a panel of 36 banks installed in Portugal at that time with data collected from the entire bank sample.
The main contributions of this article are related to the utilization of panel data analysis - fixed and random effects - applied to a sample of all the banks operating in Portugal with the exceptions of the mutual banks like Montepio Geral and the agricultural local banks (that have special characteristics) and use it to identify the explicative factors of the performance of the Portuguese banks.
In methodological terms, the article uses two panel data - a balanced and an unbalanced one - either with fixed or with random effects. The idea is to analyze the sustainability of the Portuguese banks that cross an enormous international finance turbulence since 2008.
The analyze took us to the conclusion, that among other elements, that there are bank that have a bigger exposition than others, that it is possible to identify which are the factors that are positively or negatively related to the performance or sustainability of the banking system of this EU country. The results also show that the best panel data model to study the banking performance is the fixed effect one, that the determination coefficient is very high (R2=99,9%) and highly significant in statistical terms (Prob=0.00), that indicators like the credit risk, Deposits, operative Costs, Liquidity, the banking ownership (public or private), and the years 2007 and 2009, are not significant in statistical terms, but are significant factors like capital, profit, productivity, interest rates, bank size and the year 2008, that there are positive associations between the banking performance and the factors capital, profit, productivity and the interest rates, and a negative association between banking performance and bank size; it is also shows that these results are in accordance with the specialized literature, namely with the articles whose reference is Iannotta et al. (2007) and Athanasoglou et al. (2008), among others. | | Keywords: Banking Performance, Banking Risks, Panel Data, Fixed Effects, Liquidity Crisis. |
| 4. EVOLUTION ON THE LABOUR MARKET IN THE ROMANIAN BANKING SECTOR |
Download | | Author(s): Gheorghe Morosan | | DOI: 10.4316/EJAFB.2013.123 | | Abstract: Staff is the most important capital of banks. For a long period of time, the Romanian bank staff experienced important growths. In the recent years the number of employees in this field faced an important decline. This phenomenon is analysed in this study. The purpose of this paper is to determine the causes of bank staff reduction, methods of layoff and the implications upon the bank profitability. The conclusions are strengthened by comparisons and examples taken from countries with banking systems superior to the Romanian one. The analysis may lead us to find solutions on human resources management in banks. | | Keywords: Bank Business Model; Economic Crisis; Efficiency; Bank Staff; Productivity |
| 5. SUSTAINABILITY IN FISCAL POLICY IN BOOM AND RECESSION-THE CASE OF ROMANIA |
Download | | Author(s): Mihaela Gondor | | DOI: 10.4316/EJAFB.2013.124 | | Abstract: This paper examines the interrelated aspects of the recent economic and fiscal crisis - such as the GDP growth, budgetary deficit and public debt, fiscal policy and austerity measures in Romania by comparing the different effects caused by different fiscal policies within a boom period and a downturn period.
The paper reveals that the boom period is characterized by tax rate cuts and rising of expenditures and the downturn period, by the increasing of fiscal burden and sharply reducing the government spending. In this perspective, the aim of this paper is to provide some empirical basis for the argument that pro-cyclical fiscal policy does not assist in dampening the GDP shocks. | | Keywords: Fiscal Policy, Pro-cyclical, Counter-cyclical, GDP Growth. |
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