The COVID-19 pandemic intensified concerns about mental health and highlighted the importance of supportive and inclusive human resource practices, particularly in frontline professions. This study examined perceived stress and coping strategies among members of the Portuguese Republican Guard (GNR) and, from a gender-sensitive perspective, assessed whether differentiated human resource practices are needed in military security forces. A quantitative methodology was adopted, based on survey data collected from 383 GNR members across Portugal. Stress levels before and during the pandemic were measured with the DASS-21, and coping strategies were assessed using the Brief COPE scale. The findings show that the GNR personnel experienced significantly higher stress during the pandemic. Higher stress levels were reported by women, personnel with children, those in lower hierarchical positions, and those who feared contracting COVID-19. The most frequently used coping strategies were acceptance, active coping, and planning. Women reported greater use of emotional support and religion and showed a stronger tendency towards emotion-focused and avoidance coping, whereas men relied more on problem-focused coping. Avoidance was the least effective coping style, as it was associated with higher stress levels. These findings support gender-sensitive human resource practices and targeted mental health interventions in military organisations.

This study examines how two forms of financial literacy—objective financial literacy (OFL; demonstrated knowledge of interest rates, inflation, and diversification) and perceived financial literacy (PFL; self-assessed confidence in financial matters)—relate to financial wellbeing through distinct capability pathways, and whether self-regulation conditions these links. We use three nationally representative cross-sections from Portugal (2015, 2020, 2023; N = 3648), a European setting marked by declining objective literacy and constrained market participation. Guided by capability theory, we propose a dual-lane model in which OFL operates through behavioural capability (BC; enacted saving, investing, and planning behaviours) to shape objective financial wellbeing (OFW; resilience, assets, and saving), while PFL operates through perceived capability (PC; financial self-efficacy and perceived control) to shape subjective financial wellbeing (SFW; perceived security, satisfaction, and freedom from financial stress). We also test whether non-impulsive, future-oriented behaviour (NIB) strengthens the associations along the objective lane. Structural equation models provide partial support for the dual-lane model, revealing three asymmetries with implications for European policy: (1) the link between behavioural capability and objective financial wellbeing weakens in 2023, suggesting that macroeconomic conditions can undercut even prudent financial behaviour; (2) perceived financial literacy directly predicts subjective financial wellbeing, but perceived capability does not mediate this association, indicating that financial confidence shapes wellbeing independently of self-efficacy; and (3) non-impulsive, future-oriented behaviour amplifies the association between objective literacy and objective wellbeing in 2015 and 2023 but not in 2020, showing that the benefits of self-regulation are context-dependent. The findings inform financial education and policy across Europe by distinguishing intervention levers for objective versus subjective outcomes and identifying conditions under which behavioural interventions are most effective.

Research on dark tourism and industrial heritage has largely evolved in parallel, despite their shared focus on sites shaped by death, suffering, and socio-environmental transformation. This study aims to map and synthesise the empirical and conceptual literature at this intersection in order to clarify how the darker dimensions of industrial and mining heritage are conceptualised, experienced, and interpreted, and to develop an integrated framework for their analysis. Following the PRISMA 2020 framework, it systematically reviews 33 peer-reviewed studies published between 2009 and the first quarter of 2026. Three main findings emerge. First, sanitisation—the marginalisation of suffering and exploitation in favour of narratives of technological achievement—is a dominant feature of industrial heritage interpretation and research. Second, visitors consistently experience emotional responses to dark heritage, with distinct affective profiles linked to environmental damage, human suffering, and labour histories. Third, labour exploitation remains under-theorised despite its centrality, reflecting its structural and long-term character, which challenges event-based dark tourism models. Building on these findings, the study proposes a tripartite typology of industrial darkness and introduces the concept of the evidence landscape to explain how sites communicate difficult pasts beyond formal interpretation.

Over the last decades, OECD countries have steadily reduced their level of infrastructure investment. Furthermore, the economic and financial shocks that occurred in the last decade have adversely affected many economies around the world, in terms of fiscal deterioration and public debt buildup. Under this context, governments around the world are going to invest massively in new projects to sustain economic and social development, with private capital becoming considerably relevant in complementing public investment. Therefore, governments have been resorting to various forms of asset-based structured finance solutions to finance public infrastructure projects. This paper examines how project finance, asset securitization, and structured leases can support the financing of public infrastructure projects, namely, to improve resilience and meet the Sustainable Development Goals. We provide an overview of the theoretical and empirical background of infrastructure investment as an asset class and the core financial economic foundations of asset-based structured finance. In addition, we characterize the main structured finance instruments and present the main reasons behind and limitations of their usage. Finally, we describe the recent trends in asset securitization, non-recourse project financing (project finance and PPPs), and structured leasing markets, and examine the deals originated in the worldwide markets over the 2000-2020 period.

Over the next decade, governments around the world will invest massively in new projects, aiming at closing the long-identified infrastructure gap, in order to sustain economic and social development, and recover from recent adverse shocks. This paper examines this topic from two perspectives: (i) how should these projects be valued and selected? and (ii) how should these projects be financed? We discuss conceptual, methodological and governance issues raised in the context of infrastructure investment project valuation with variable capital structures. The commonly used free cash flow (FCF) valuation approach may prove inappropriate, or even imprudent, for valuing, namely, very long-term infrastructure projects financed with variable capital structure arrangements. Under this framework, the literature recommends using the Capital Cash Flow (CCF) or the Adjusted Present Value models to mitigate some of the biases of the standard FCF approach. We show that despite dealing with tax benefits differently, FCF and CCF models are algebraically equivalent, the latter being a way to value future cash flows using the same assumptions made in the context of the FCF methodology, while overcoming some of its shortcomings.