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Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2017-04-21"

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  • TTIP, EU-GCC FTA and lessons learned from free trade, comparative analysis between two free trade negotiations weaknesses strengths, and the future of free trade
    Publication . Roios, Ana Teresa; Pereira, María Lívia Beltrão Franco Marques
    Free trade agreements aim at promoting trade, investment, economic growth, job creation and innovation. On the one side, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States – the world’s largest economies – aims to become one of the biggest trade agreements ever. On the other side, the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council free trade agreement, (EU GCC FTA) would equally innovate as the first region-to-region trade agreement. Neither of both treaties have (yet) been concluded. This thesis drew conclusions from a comparison between the EU-GCC FTA and the TTIP negotiations regarding free trade. The findings may be summarized as follows: First, TTIP encounters stumbling blocks when compared to the EU GCC FTA. It has evoked civil interest because its broad scope would influence people’s lives, it includes the controversial Investor-State Dispute Settlement system and it was accompanied by a plethora of unclear communications. Second, TTIP also presents its own advantages, compared to the EU GCC FTA negotiations. The EU and the US share common cultural convictions, they would equally, economically benefit from the agreement and it would be an FTA of the future because of its comprehensiveness. Third, a geopolitical analysis renders conclusions which apply to both the TTIP and the EU GCC FTA negotiations. With regard to (comprehensive) free trade agreement, it is hardly possible to distinguish between economic left-wing and right-wing parties. Globalization has awoken a vibrant feeling of national identity, which is buttressed by current-day events such as Brexit, the latest US presidential elections and the rise of nationalist movements. In order to continue to strive for the welfare and prosperity that comprehensive free trade agreements promise; it is thus imperative to inform and democratically convince the people that globalization should not be feared, but can rightly be embraced.
    2017-04-21Master thesis Restricted access Show more
  • A viable solution to finance social projects? : case study "aTTitude 3D - educate, teach and integrate"
    Publication . Marques, Bibi Sattar; Neves, João Luís César das
    The aim of this dissertation is to analyze whether Social Impact Bonds are a viable instrument to finance the social project “aTTitude 3D – Educate, Teach and Integrate”. For this purpose, firstly, a literature review was carried out to obtain information regarding Social Impact Bonds, including background information, structure, and market analysis. Secondly, this information was used to conduct an analysis about the main strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats (SOWT analysis) of Social Impact Bonds. The general assessment of this analysis suggested 3 major threats for the continuous development of Social Impact Bonds market: (1) Lack of existing capacity of service providers to scale up social services; (2) Government role, election cycles and change of willingness of government to support social project and/or SIB transaction; and (3) Short pool of investors due to financial risk. Finally, a Case Study was used to analyze the feasibility of a Social Impact Bond to finance a particular social project: “aTTitude 3D – Educate, Teach and Integrate” intervenes in the education area with the objective of reducing retention rates. For this purpose, a financial model was built representing the investment mechanism. The results of the model developed suggested that a Social Impact Bond is a viable instrument to fund and scale this specific project, according to the risk profile (i.e. return and impact) assumed in this thesis for the private investors. Despite this, as already noted from the SWOT analysis, the three major threats were analyzed regarding the sustainability and the practical implementation of a Social Impact Bond model for this specific Case Study.
    2017-04-21Master thesis Restricted access Show more