Afonso Eça, from Nova SBE Finance Knowledge Center, and Cátia Batista, from Nova SBE NOVAFRICA Knowledge Center gave an interview to Risco magazine where they explained the FinTech ecosystem in Portugal, Spain and developing countries, assessing the dimension and characteristics of this market in these geographical areas. They also explained that the relationship between FinTech and banks has evolved to become more collaborative.

The conclusions of the Nova SBE NOVAFRICA Knowledge Center study “Information Gaps and Irregular Migration to Europe” were presented at a workshop in Gambia with project authors Tijan L Bah, Cátia Batista, Flore Gubert (IRD Paris), David McKenzie (World Bank), and Gambian government representatives. The conclusions were reported in the Gambia Radio & Television Service, GRTS, AllAfrica and Gambia News. Still on the subject of migration, Cátia Batista to Impertinente, (Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos podcast) explained how international migration can simultaneously support economic growth in both host and origin countries; and which policies can maximize these economic gains while saving lives. You can also check out the new VoxDev article by Cátia Batista, Pedro Vicente e Sandra Sequeira (London School of Economics) about how combining training and access to mobile savings is particularly helpful for female microentrepreneurs in Mozambique.

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Nova SBE NOVAFRICA Knowledge Center was part of a global study that assessed the confidence and acceptance of the Covid-19 vaccine in 10 developing countries in Asia, Africa and South America. The work field results were published in the journal Nature. According to Mattia Fracchia, NOVAFRICA researcher involved in the project, it is that “acceptance (of the vaccine) in all developing countries is greater than in comparison countries”. Namely: an average of 80% of respondents against 65% of respondents in the United States and only 30% in Russia, chosen as high-income and middle countries. At the top of the acceptance is Nepal, with a score of 96.6% and in the antipodes appears Burkina Faso, with 66.5% – still above the average of the Americans' answers. The study was reported in the following media: Visão, Sapo and RDP

Pedro Vicente told Jornal de Negócios that the World Bank has “a small bazooka” to help Mozambique solve the crisis in Cabo Delgado, but it needs guarantees that the state will use the money well. He considers a mistake to hire mercenaries to try to resolve the conflict in Cabo Delgado and argues that this choice "is a symptom of the lack of quality in the military strategy". He also said that multinationals are doing nothing to help solve the problem in Northern Mozambique.

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Susana Peralta participated in the first conference of the “Janela de Esperança” cycle, a partnership between SIC Esperança, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, BPI and the “la Caixa” Foundation. In the debate about “Inequalities during a pandemic”, Susana Peralta underlined that “in 2019, before the clash of covid-19, 20% of people lived on the threshold of poverty. Two years later, 2020 data is not yet available, but expectations are not good.” For her, only education policies will be effective in solving problems of economic growth and inequalities in society. The event was on Expresso and SIC Notícias. Susana also participated in the Fórum TSF on how rising energy prices aggravate household debts.

According to the report "The pandemic and the labor market: What we know a year later", prepared by Susana Peralta, Bruno P. Carvalho and Mariana Esteves, from the Nova SBE Economics for Policy Knowledge Centre, "dismissal was the most common reason to stop working both in the second quarter of 2020 and in the first quarter of 2021, when the two general lockdowns due to the pandemic were decreed.” "From about 20% in the pre-pandemic period, this percentage rose to 25% in the second quarter of 2020 and in the first quarter of 2021". The report was developed under the Social Equity Initiative, of Nova SBE, Fundação la Caixa and BPI. The report was cited in the following media Correio da Manhã, Diário de Notícias, Lusa,  Visão, TVI24, Sábado, Forbes, Jornal de Negócios, RTP, SIC Notícias, Expresso and Rádio Renascença, among others.

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“New companies must be more agile, otherwise they will lose the train of revolution and, consequently competitiveness”, said Miguel Pina e Cunha to Expresso. The biggest difficulty that he identifies is the “ability to reinvent the organization and change its culture, alleviating the hierarchy without losing coordination. “I believe that a brave new world is coming, full of opportunities and full of threats”, he confirmed. 

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Pedro Pita Barros, in an interview to Visão magazine revealed that the cancellation of appointments and exams and the fear of contagion by the SARS-CoV-2 virus were the main barriers to healthcare access in the first months of the pandemic, when there was also a greater rush to hospital emergencies services. To Rádio Renascença, he affirmed that the Government and health authorities “always decide a little late” without the ability to look for mechanisms that put the system “a little further ahead” of the virus. He believes that the goal should now be to recover “the delay in patient care”, in a partnership between the SNS and the private sector, as well as “preparing the opening of the new academic year”. Pedro Pita Barros in Explicador  (Podcast from Rádio Observador) asked for "more ambition" from the Portuguese health system.

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The digital maturity of national companies is at level 2, on a scale of 1 to 4, which makes Portugal a 'Lecturer Digital' with “a long way to go” to achieve digital leadership, concludes the study “The path to a bionic Portugal: the digital maturity of the Portuguese enterprise sector” by BCG, with Google and the Nova SBE. In 2019, the digital  sector had a direct impact on the Portuguese economy of 13 billion euros, which already represents 6% of the national GDP. The study was cited by several media outlets including: Expresso, Forbes, Marketeer and Executive Digest..

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Pedro Freitas, from the Nova SBE Economics of Education Knowledge Center, participated in  the Podcast Explicador from Rádio Observador. ) He said that although we have the Learning Recovery Plan, we continue to need more information about the diagnosis of the learning situation. “We need to get a clear sense of what impact the pandemic has had on learning. I have no doubts that schools will be making this assessment together with their students, but we need a global diagnosis. For mainly two reasons: first for the families themselves, so parents understand what their children's current situation is at the moment, and second, from a public policy perspective, we need to know how to share well the resources that are included in this Learning Recovery Plan because some schools will need more resources than others.”

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Pedro Gardete, in the scope of his participation in a collaborative study that analyzed how consumers decide their purchases in light of the advertising message, was interviewed by Distribuição Hoje where he said that “we are miles away from the convenience that the digital medium provides to consumers in other countries”. The study examines pricing and advertising strategies when consumers can engage in prepurchase information acquisition. It shows that consumer information acquisition can increase valuation heterogeneity and undermine a firm’s ability to extract consumer surplus. As a result, interestingly, a higher product quality can exert a nonmonotonic impact on equilibrium information acquisition, hurt firm profitability, and lead to lower consumer surplus.

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José Tavares, participated in the Capa à Contracapa (Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos podcast), about the famous “bazooka” of millions of European funds. If we bring together the Recovery and Resilience Plan and the Multiannual Financial Framework, there will be more than 45 billion euros in non-repayable funds by the end of the decade. The podcast analyzed the use Portugal has given, so far, to European funds, debating the options to be taken with the money that will arrive. “It is necessary to understand how institutions will intelligently apply the next generation of funds. And here we have some constraints such as little institutional evolution. The way in which funds are managed in Portugal has changed very little and is not satisfactory”, said José Tavares.

João Duarte to Expresso, on the comparison of the European Central Bank's strategic review with the US Federal Reserve's (Fed) strategic review mentioned that “at the Fed, the target is in the form of an average. The ECB, on the other hand, is committed to a medium-term rate, which does not necessarily lead to symmetry”. Still to Expresso, he stated that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) "is a good indicator to measure inflation in the medium term, but in the short term it may be subject to some bias, especially when there are strong changes in relative prices". He recalls that the weights of goods and services in the CPI calculation “are only structurally adjusted every five years”. 

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Pedro Brinca, in an interview with Jornal Económico, said he believed “that the GDP growth in the second quarter will probably be the highest recorded in several decades. He said that “Portugal is able to have a deficit that allows for stronger support for the economy next year”, but he has "doubts that this will be the political option to be taken." To Expresso, he stated that "the emergence of the Delta variant has cast a shadow over the prospects of a more sustained recovery during the summer, with special damage to Portugal, whose economic activity has a strong component linked to tourism." He added that "in September, when the moratoriums end, it will be critical to realize the level of destruction of employment and companies and that will determine, to a large extent, the speed and sustainability of the recovery. Also to Expresso, he commented on the dynamics of house prices and rents, which have been on the rise since early 2020.

Francesco Franco was interviewed about sustainability of pensions by  Jornal Económico. He told that "given the current pension model in Portugal, the income from social contributions is the population growth rate", that is, "when the population growth rate was positive, the yield was positive; now that it is negative, the yield is negative and does not allow for an equilibrium to be reached".

Specialized credit is correlated with economic activity and can positively influence GDP, according to the study “Impact of Consumer Credit on the Portuguese Economy”, carried out by the Nova SBE, in partnership with ASFAC (Associação de Instituições de Crédito Especializado). The study indicates that an increase in the supply of credit that is sustained over time, rather than temporary, has a positive impact on the economy. This is because, according to the analysis, one euro of extra credit granted translates into another euro for GDP after one year. Two years later, this figure increases to 1.5 euros. The study was cited in TVI24.