Pedro Afonso Fernandes has a PhD in Urban Planning from Lusófona University, a MSc in Urban and Regional Planning from Technical University of Lisbon and a MSc in Economics from NOVA School of Business and Economics. Throughout a career with about 25 years, he participated in approximately 200 studies and consulting services in several thematic areas, namely, Evaluation and Impact Assessment, Urban Economics and Planning, Regional and Rural Development, Forecasting and Econometrics. Therefore, he has an important experience in scientific computing and data analysis tools such as R, Stata, MatLab, SPSS, Gretl, QGIS, DepthmapX or Prolog. Since 2013, Pedro Afonso Fernandes is Senior Economist at NECEP – Católica Lisbon Forecasting Lab and Researcher at CUBE – Católica Lisbon Research Unit in Business & Economics. His research interests cross Economics with Data Analysis, Computational Methods and Urban Planning.

• Business Cycles & Data Filtering with linear and non-linear methods;
• Forecasting, Econometrics & Data Analysis;
• Recursive Methods in Macroeconomics & Dynamic Programming;
• Logic Programming with Prolog;
• Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models;
• Regional, Rural & Sustainable Development;
• Urban Economics & Planning;
• Space Syntax.

Business Research Methods: data analysis with R

• Development and maintenance of the databases and forecasting models of the Portuguese economy at Católica Lisbon Forecasting Lab (NECEP).
• Participation in the development of NECEP’s quarterly newsletter about the short-term behaviour of the Portuguese economy.
• In-depth analysis of the Portuguese Government Budget.
• Trend-cycle-seasonal decomposition of time series using linear and non-linear filtering techniques.
• Development of traffic forecasting models for BRISA – Portuguese Highways with R programming.
• Compensation schemes between landowners, implementation programmes and financial plans for land management instruments (detailed plans for UP 12 tourist resorts in Lagoa, Meia Praia UOPG 3/11 – Lagos, Northern Setúbal and Historical Centre of Olhão; masterplan for KaTembe – Mozambique).
• Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses (detailed plans for the Historical Centre of Olhão and Faro beach; environmental measures of the river basin managements plans for Sado-Mira, Guadiana, Algarve and Madeira).
• Financial feasibility studies (bike lane between Alcobaça and Nazaré, rehabilitation of MERCOALCOBAÇA pavilion, adapt.local - Municipalities Network for Local Adaptation to Climate Change, UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Centre Region, Alcobaça’s water supply and wastewater sanitation systems, Bobadela’s Refugees Centre, Azores Industrial Free Trade Zone).
• Socioeconomic assessment in Portugal - Focus on demand for homes’ retrofits, within the European project EuroPACE - Developing, piloting and standardising on-tax financing for residential efficiency retrofits in European cities and regions.
• Impact assessment for Portugal of the trade agreements EU-MERCOSUR and EU-Japan with the application of the GTAP (Global Trade Analysis Project) database and computable general equilibrium model.
• Development of an algorithm in R for the delimitation of polarized regions, with application to the São Francisco river basin – Brazil.
• Analysis of water supply and wastewater sanitation tariffs and cost recovery (Alcobaça and river basins of Sado-Mira, Guadiana, Algarve, Madeira and São Francisco – Brazil).
• Prospective scenarios of water uses and needs (river basins of Sado-Mira, Guadiana, Algarve, Madeira and São Francisco – Brazil).
• Socioeconomic impact assessment of investment projects in utilities (container terminals in Barreiro and Sines; Aveiro’s harbour; Foz-Tua’s dam; pier in Pinhão; fishery harbour in Olhão; dredging works in Guadiana river; Alqueva’s dam hydraulic infrastructures; wastewater treatment plant in Portimão; retail park in Setúbal; São Tomé international airport) and touristic resorts (Alcácer do Sal, Monsaraz, Marvão and Vila Real de Santo António).
• Strategic assessment of socioeconomic risks and development opportunities (valorization of Aveiro’s and Ria Formosa’s coastal lagunas; several detailed plans in Lisbon, Loures, Costa de Caparica-Almada, Setúbal, Bragança, Póvoa do Varzim, Melgaço, Pombal, Idanha-a-Nova, Portimão, Vila Real de Santo António, Castro Marim, Alter do Chão and Tarrafal – Cabo Verde).
• Evaluation and design of services networks and territorial development programs (Portuguese Network of Vocational Training Centres – IEFP; Inter-municipal Action Plan for Collective Territorial Services and Facilities – NUTS III “Alto Trás-os-Montes” – Portuguese NE region; network “Rotas de Cerâmica”; Vale do Sousa’s Territorial Employment Pact; Centres of Enterprise Concentration in the Alqueva’s Region; Regional, Economic and Social Development Plan for KaTembe/Ponta do Ouro – Mozambique).
• Evaluation of interventions co-financed by the European Structural and Investment Funds – ESIF (Study on programming of EAFRD financial instruments in 2014-2020 Rural Development Plans – RDP; Role of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy in creating Rural Jobs in Portugal; synthesis of the ex-ante evaluations of 2014-2020 RDPs for Mainland Portugal, Azores, Madeira and Spanish Extremadura; mid-term evaluation of the following programmes for Portugal: LEADER+, RURIS, INTERREG, PRODEP III, Alentejo OP 2000-2006 and Environment OP 2000-2006; impact evaluation of the Cohesion Fund in Portugal 1993-2006).
• Design, application and statistical analysis of data collected by questionnaires (evaluation of ESIF, business best practices, vocational training activities, vocational guidance, internships, recognition and certification of lifelong skills, opinion studies on brands and credit cards).