Abstract
Background: The estimation of the real number of COVID-19 infected people is one of the concerns of the governments around the world. In this sense, this study seeks to assess the incidence and fatality of COVID-19 in Europe considering the expected number of the infected cases. Methods: A quantitative exploratory study was performed on the top 10 countries most affected by COVID-19 by 9th June in Europe. Furthermore, this study presents three propagation estimation models of the COVID-19 that help us to understand the real incidence of the pandemic in each country. Each model is briefly explained and applied. Results: The findings revealed a great heterogeneity of COVID-19 cases and deaths among the countries. The indicator of the number of deaths reveals the greatest disparity between other countries with the United Kingdom, recording about 6 or 7 times more deaths than Russia or Germany. Infection fatality rate (IFR) tends to be a more reliable indicator when analyzing data because it is less dependent on the number of tests performed. Conclusion: Several estimation models can be used to determine the incidence of COVID-19. However, their results in European countries are still quite asymmetrical although they are more reliable than just looking at the perspective of the number of cases or deaths recorded. The infection fatality rate (IFR) emerges as a more accurate indicator by estimating the expected number of registered cases, which includes asymptomatic cases and patients with mild symptoms that are not known and reported by health authorities. © 2020 The authors.

Abstract
This study investigates the impact of Technology Balance of Payments (TBP) on countries' international competitiveness. Using dynamic panel data estimations for 26 OECD countries over the period 2000-2017, the estimations unambiguously show that a TBP surpluses significantly foster countries' international competitiveness, regardless of how this latter is measured.

Abstract
The literature focusing on rural and urban entrepreneurship has so far overlooked the conditions in which different institutional contexts can affect firms' performance. The present study addressed this gap by investigating the extent to which institutional factors impact distinctively the performance of rural and urban newly created ventures. Based on data gathered through a direct questionnaire, we obtained 408 responses from newly created ventures located in Portuguese business incubators and science parks. Resorting to econometric binary (logit) models, we found that certain institutional factors, namely EU policy support, financial support from other sources than not banks, business advice for starting up/ ongoing activities, and collaboration to access new markets, are critical for new venture export performance, particularly those located in rural settings. To a larger extent than for urban, rural new venture economic-related performance positive and significantly depend on central government policy support, close relatives' role models, and technological support at the R&D collaboration level. Given the relevance of embeddedness-related factors in rural municipalities, public authorities should follow strategies that involve a growing connection between rural entrepreneurs and a variety of actors from industry, academia and the public and private sectors in order to foster newly created venture performance.

Abstract
In the last decade, a growing number of studies have addressed the ongoing debate about whether corruption "sands" or "greases" the wheels of business at the firm level. This study revisits this debate and proposes a comprehensive theoretical framework to test whether corruption harms or boosts firm performance, as well as the extent to which this relationship is mediated by the countries' institutional settings, the size and strategic behaviour of the firms, and market competition. Based on a sample of 21,250 firms located in 117 emerging and developing countries, and resorting to instrumental variable (IV) estimations, three main results were found: (a) regardless of the proxy used for corruption and firm performance, the former clearly harms the latter; (b) corruption "greases the wheels" of business for African firms but it "sands the wheels" for firms in Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Southern Asia; and (c) the negative impact of corruption on performance is mitigated for larger and exporting firms.

Abstract
Film consumers are continuously online and active in various social platforms. This phenomenon has led over-the-top (OTT) providers - empowered by social computing technologies - to establish a social media presence and incorporate elements drawn from social media into their services. However, little is known about existing OTT interfaces and their key social features. This study sought to provide a structured categorisation of the most salient social media features of the best-known applications in the OTT video business. In addition, a new social content network model, Avids, was proposed to connect individuals socially through films. Avids reaches beyond more fixed, functionality-based approaches applied in the development of OTT video sites and focuses on components related to sociality. This approach ensures a unified system in which the overall social media setting is embedded in every functional area of the platform's architecture, thereby allowing applications to trigger and support social behaviours absent from traditional OTT providers. A purpose-built international online survey was administered to 479 film lovers to assess how Avids' main features compare with traditional OTT video providers. The questionnaire was based on the technology acceptance model. The results confirm the critical role of sociality in film viewing-related activities.

Abstract
Scientific publications tend to influence policymakers significantly. Despite the scientific and social importance of poverty today, the attention the top economic journals (American Economic Review; Econometrica; International Economic Review; Journal of Economic Theory; Journal of Political Economy; Quarterly Journal of Economics; Review of Economic Studies) pay to the matter is not clear, particularly in the so-called "Blue Ribbon" journals (and Review of Economics and Statistics). On the basis of bibliometric techniques, we analyzed all 27,322 articles published in the "Blue Ribbon" journals from 1970 to 2018. This is the first study on the scientific attention paid to poverty by the most influential journals in the field of economics. Two main findings can be highlighted: (i) the scientific attention paid to poverty in the Blue Ribbon journals is relatively meager, but it has observed a positive trend, increasing from a modest 0.36 percent of the total articles published in the 1970s to 1.92 percent of total publications in the 2010s; and (ii) the relative weight of specific poverty subtopics has significantly changed over the last 50 years, shifting from a focus on defining and measuring poverty in the earlier decades to policy-related issues in the most recent period (2000 onward).