Centro de Estudos de Economia Aplicada do Atlântico
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The Centre of Applied Economics Studies of the Atlantic (CEEApl-A) was created in 2003. Its mission is to promote fundamental and applied scientific research, engaging projects in the areas of business and economics. CEEApl-A in FCT's last evaluation was ranked as "Very Good".
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- Demand shocks and productivity growthPublication . Menezes, António Gomes deThis paper presents evidence on the relationship between cyclical shocks and productivity growth, for 20 2-digit SIC US manufacturing industries and a set of monetary policy, fiscal policy, and oil price shocks. The paper uses as a measure of productivity change a Solow residual corrected for a wide range of non-technological effects due to imperfect-competition, non-constant returns to scale, and cyclical utilization rates of capital and labor services. The empirical framework identifies policy shocks independently of productivity measurement issues via a two-step procedure. While the typical industry shows weak responses of productivity to the shocks considered, in some industries temporary contractionary policy shocks lead to increases in productivity. In addition, the results reveal that there are localized asymmetries, with contractionary policy shocks having larger produtivity effects than their expansionary counterparts. The results support the thesis that job reallocation is an important channel linking contractionary policy shocks and productivity growth. These results support the pit-stop view of downturns.
- Low-pay higher pay and job quality : empirical evidence for PortugalPublication . Vieira, José Cabral; Menezes, António Gomes de; Gabriel, PatríciaThis paper examines to what extent low pay jobs can be considered of low quality. For this purpose, we use three waves (1997-1999) of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) for Portugal. The results indicate that low pay workers report a lower level of job satisfaction when compared with their higher paid counterparts. Moreover, some of the determinants of job satisfaction differ between these two types of workers. This supports the idea that low wage employment mainly comprises low quality jobs and is consistent with the segmented labour market theory, which claims the existence of good and bad jobs. This is, however, at odds with some empirical evidence recently reported for the British labour market where low pay individuals report a higher level of satisfaction, which is more in line with the notion that these workers obtain compensating differences in the form of non-pecuniary benefits.
- On returns to training in PortugalPublication . Pereira, Pedro Telhado; Budría, SantiagoThis paper investigates the earnings effects of training in the Portuguese labour market. We use the Portuguese Labour Force Survey to classify training according to multiple criteria, including providing institution, purpose, duration, and content of the training activity. First, we establish some stylised facts about the extent and determinants of different types of training. We find that there are major differences in training participation across groups, with elder, low educated workers participating substantially less. Second, we measure the wage effects of training. We find that in Portugal returns to training are large and significant. The estimated coefficients are about 12% in the case of men and 37% in the case of women. We show that discriminating between gender, education level, experience, the public and the private sector, and industrial activity reveals important differences across categories of workers. Workers with low qualifications and long professional experience earn larger returns. On average, women receive larger returns than men, though they are subject to greater variation across education and experience groups. The average effect of training is similar in the private sector and in the public sector. Experience in the private sector and education in the public sector are key determinants of the returns to training. Further, training to improve current skills and training in a firm attract largest returns. Third, the paper investigates whether and to what extent training participation affects the probability of entering and leaving unemployment. We find that being trained does not affect significantly the transition probabilities.
- Determinantes da participação dos beneficiários no programa do Rendimento Mínimo Garantido no mercado de trabalhoPublication . Fortuna, Mário; Faria, Sandra Dias; Vieira, José Cabral; Menezes, António Gomes deWe present micro econometric evidence on the determinants of the probability that beneficiaries of the Minimum Guaranteed Income (MGI) participate in market production or in home production. We use a micro data set which covers all the beneficiaries of the MGI, up to 2001, for the Portuguese Region with the highest incidence of this program, namely, the Azores. We find striking diferences between women’s and men’s behaviour with respect to labour market participation decisions, with women heavily specialized in home production and men in market production. The probability of participating decreases with income support. Moreover, there are several aspects of household demographics that matter to female participation decisions. Therefore, policies designed to promote female labour supply should not be of the type one size fits all and must improve the terms of trade between home production and market production for women.
- On the effects of economic fluctuations on productivity growthPublication . Menezes, António Gomes deWe analyze the productivity effects of shocks to the real interest rate and to demand and supply conditions in a world where productivity enhancing activities are disruptive. The model predicts that temporary demand downturns may have positive productivity effects if the real interest rate is not too countercyclical, and that supply shocks do not affect productivity growth. The model is used to derive refined novel empirical tests on the so-called Opportunity Cost View of recessions (Aghion and Saint-Paul (1998)) vis a vis the competing theories of learning-by-doing and capital market imperfections.
- The development of the Portuguese hotel Business, 1950-1995Publication . Câmara, Maria BeneditaThis paper looks at the expansion of tourism in Portugal in the general context of the southern European countries, and focuses on the development of the hotel business in Portugal between 1950 and 1995. Some writers hold that the entrepreneurial fabric in the package holiday and mass tourism business is fragmented, overly dependent on tour operators, and usually adverse to foreign investment. We propose to analyse foreign investment in the hotel business over this period. Tourism is also seen as a sector little favoured for investment by the State, even though it is noted that Portugal in the seventies was an exception to this general rule. We propose to analyse public and private investment in the hotel business and to examine whether any changes took place over this period in the average size of hotels and of firms in this sector. We shall also seek to relate investment in capital goods with the growth in the number of occupations in the hotel sector requiring an average level of qualifications. On the basis of a typology of occupations in the hotel trade we will establish whether there was any improvement in a sector which is traditionally viewed as not absorbing a very large proportion of skilled labour. Finally, we will examine increases in unit labour costs and trends in those costs to determine what percentage they represent of total costs, together with the efforts made to save on such costs. The basis for this analytical exercise is the relationship between productivity gains and competitiveness in the hotel sector. This point is very important when we consider how productivity growth has been observed in services compared to commodity production. Angus Maddison points out that the general view is that productivity growth tends to be slower on services due to the intrinsic character of many personal services and partly because of measurement conventions, which sometimes exclude the possibility of productivity growth.
- An exploration of asset returns in a production economy with relative habitsPublication . Budría, SantiagoThis paper explores asset returns in a production economy with habit forming households. I show that a model with capital adjustment costs and relative habits is consistent with salient financial facts, such as the equity premium, the market price of risk, and the riskfree interest rate. These predictions are not at odds with good business cycle predictions. In the model economy investment is strongly procyclical and more volatile than output, which in turn is more volatile than consumption. Moreover, consumption growth is positively autocorrelated and negatively (positively) correlated with future (past) stock returns.
- Equalization effects of local financing models in PortugalPublication . Fortuna, Mário; Vieira, José Cabral; Mendes, MargaridaOne objective frequently found in models of decentralized financing is that of equalization. The concern is that poorer jurisdictions receive enough resources for basic services and for development promotion, thus eliminating horizontal and vertical imbalances. In Portugal, decentralization has occurred at two levels: the local, for the whole country and the regional for the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira. Decentralization to local governments has undergone several changes in recent decades. The current paper focuses on testing for the presence of an equalization effect in the models adopted to finance municipalities in Portugal, since the nineteen nineties. Using the theoretical background that maintains that for the presence of an equalizing effect it is necessary that, on a per capita basis, poorer regions or localities receive relatively more transfers than the richer jurisdictions, a test is made using a data set that includes all municipalities of Portugal. The situation of the two autonomous regions is controlled with dummy variables. The hypothesis that the models used have an equalizing effect is tested through the sign of the coefficient of the regression of per capita transfers on per capita own resources. In the presence of an equalizing effect the sign will be significant and negative. It is confirmed that, for the period under analysis, the municipalities with lower per capita own revenues are those that receive more transfers per capita. There is, therefore, an equalizing effect in the current transfer system to municipalities. Using pooled data, one can also conclude that the equalization effect has become stronger with the 1998 and 2002 reviews of the system, when compared to the system in effect in 1991.
- An azorean dairy farms typologyPublication . Silva, Emiliana; Barbel, JulioThe objective of this paper was to define types of Azorean farms from a panel data of 174 farms of The European database of Farm Accountancy Data Network of the Azores, Portugal. This study used cluster analysis, the Ward method. The results, allowed the identification of three types of grazing systems of dairy farms as follows: 1) extensive grazing systems (less than smaller 1.4 cows per hectare); 2) moderate intensive grazing system (1.4 to 2.4 cows per hectare); and 3) intensive grazing system (more than 2.4 cows per hectare).
- Metodologia para avaliar as atitudes face ao ambientePublication . Gabriel, Rosalina; Silva, EmilianaNeste trabalho apresentam-se algumas metodologias utilizadas para estimar as atitudes da população face ao ambiente, nomeadamente as que se referem ao Novo Paradigma Ambiental (NPA). Apresentam-se ainda os resultados de um inquérito piloto acerca das atitudes ambientais, efectuado em Julho de 2004 a 47 habitantes da freguesia da Terra Chã (Ilha Terceira, Açores). Este inquérito usa a escala original do Novo Paradigma Ambiental e inclui ainda questões relacionadas com recursos hídricos, resíduos sólidos e biodiversidade. A escala utilizada parece ser fiável (alfa de Cronbach = 0.75) e a análise de agrupamentos de Ward mostra que os items da escala do NPA relativos à conservação e ao equilíbrio da natureza formam grupos coerentes, tal como tem sido mostrado noutros estudos. Os resultados do inquérito mostram que a maioria da população inquirida se insere dentro dos valores do NPA, sobretudo os mais jovens e com maior nível de escolaridade.