CEEAplA Working Paper Series 2010
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- Angola renasce : um estudo sobre as perspectivas de ampliação das relações económicas entre Portugal e AngolaPublication . Couto, João Pedro Almeida; Barata, Paulo Alexandre AmaralO objetivo deste trabalho é a identificação dos produtos portugueses, a quatro dígitos da Nomenclatura Combinada (NC), com maiores perspetivas de ampliação de comércio em Angola, através da avaliação da competitividade exportadora portuguesa e do dinamismo importador angolano. Usamos o Índice de Vantagem Comparativa Revelada (IVCR) para analisar a competitividade exportadora portuguesa, e apuramos o dinamismo importador angolano através da avaliação daqueles produtos que apresentaram maior crescimento das importações, no período de referência deste estudo (2005 a 2009). Além disso, identificou-se o grau de intensidade tecnológica desses produtos com maior potencial de crescimento das exportações portuguesas para a Angola. A análise qualitativa desses produtos mostrou que eles são, na sua maioria, de média-baixa e média-alta intensidade tecnológica e residualmente de baixa tecnologia, não existindo commodities ou produtos com alta intensidade tecnológica. Outro aspecto importante deste estudo é a constatação que os produtos identificados pela metodologia utilizada já se encontram na pauta de exportações efetivas de Portugal para Angola, embora os produtos com maior IVCR não sejam necessariamente os produtos mais exportados.
- Azorean agriculture efficiency by PARPublication . Noncheva, Veska; Mendes, Armando B.; Silva, EmilianaThe producers always aspire at increasing the efficiency of their production process. However, they do not always succeed in optimizing their production. In the last years, the interest on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a powerful tool for measuring efficiency has increased. This is due to the large amount of data sets collected to better understand the phenomena under study, and, at the same time, to the need of timely and inexpensive information. The “Productivity Analysis with R” (PAR) framework establishes a user-friendly data envelopment analysis environment with special emphasis on variable selection and aggregation, and summarization and interpretation of the results. The starting point is the following R packages: DEA (Diaz-Martinez and Fernandez-Menendez, 2008) and FEAR (Wilson, 2007). The DEA package performs some models of Data Envelopment Analysis presented in (Cooper et al., 2007). FEAR is a software package for computing nonparametric efficiency estimates and testing hypotheses in frontier models. FEAR implements the bootstrap methods described in (Simar and Wilson, 2000). PAR is a software framework using a portfolio of models for efficiency estimation and providing also results explanation functionality. PAR framework has been developed to distinguish between efficient and inefficient observations and to explicitly advise the producers about possibilities for production optimization. PER framework offers several R functions for a reasonable interpretation of the data analysis results and text presentation of the obtained information. The output of an efficiency study with PAR software is self- explanatory. We are applying PAR framework to estimate the efficiency of the agricultural system in Azores (Mendes et al., 2009). All Azorean farms will be clustered into homogeneous groups according to their efficiency measurements to define clusters of “good” practices and cluster of “less good” practices. This makes PAR appropriate to support public policies in agriculture sector in Azores.
- Canonical correlation analysis and DEA for azorean agriculture efficiencyPublication . Mendes, Armando B.; Noncheva, Veska; Silva, EmilianaIn this paper we will document the application of canonical correlation analysis to variable aggregation using the correlations of the original variables with the canonical variates. A case study, about farms in Terceira Island, with a small data set is presented. In this data set of 30 farms we intend to use 17 input variables and 2 output variables to measure DEA efficiency. Without any data reduction procedure several problems known as “curse of dimensionality” are expected. With the data reduction procedures suggested it was possible to conclude quite acceptable and domain consistent conclusions.
- The determinants of length of stay in the Azores : a count model approachPublication . Menezes, António Gomes de; Moniz, Ana Isabel Arruda; Vieira, José CabralThis paper employs count data models to estimate the determinants of length of stay, as count data models naturally lend themselves to overcome the censoring and truncation data issues associated with the non-negative, integer nature of length of stay. This paper employs a rich micro data set gathered through questionnaires ministered to a representative sample of tourists departing from the Azores: the fastest growing touristic region in Portugal. It is found that sociodemographic profiles, such as nationality and Azorean ascendancy, and trip attributes, such as repeat visitation rates and type of flight, are important determinants of length of stay. In addition, it is found that destination image and attitudes regarding environmental initiatives, constructed from a factor analysis exercise, also influence length of stay. In particular, the results suggest that marketing strategies that promote the Azores for its nature, landscape, remoteness, weather and safety may increase length of stay, whereas cultural heritage has the opposite effect.
- The determinants of Spanish language proficiency among immigrants in SpainPublication . Budría, Santiago; Swedberg, PabloThis article uses micro-data from the Spanish National Immigrant Survey (Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes-ENI in Spanish) carried out in 2007 among immigrants in Spain. In recent years, Spain has received unprecedented immigration flows. A substantial number of immigrants cannot communicate adequately in the language of the country to which they immigrate. Among the multiple reasons for the lack of host language proficiency one can distinguish factors such as a low level of educational attainment, not having been provided with adequate opportunities to learn the host language, living in ethnic enclaves or having arrived at an older age. Language skills (including oral and written ability) play a crucial role in the determination of the immigrants’ social and economic integration in the host country. As a consequence, analyzing the source of foreign language acquisition is crucial for understanding the immigrants’ economic, social and political involvement. The results show that an increase in educational attainment is associated with a higher level of Spanish spoken proficiency. Language ability is also associated with the country or region of origin. The results show that immigrant men and women from the Maghreb and Asia, as well as men from Eastern Europe and Sub Saharan Africa show a significantly weaker command over spoken Spanish than Western Europeans.
- The Future of the Asylum Institute in the WorldPublication . Rodrigues, José NoronhaWhat is the future of the Asylum Institute? In our opinion it is of the utmost importance to urgently proceed to universalize and to uniform the rights and obligations of asylum seekers and sheltered, the qualified entities who evaluate the asylum requests, the essential and necessary criteria and requirements for the concession of asylum, and to trigger the necessary processes and procedures which will enable to successfully achieve the so yearned for international protection.
- Grau de inovação das pequenas e médias empresas nas Regiões Periféricas da Guarda e AçoresPublication . Natário, Maria Manuela; Couto, João Pedro Almeida; Sousa, Maura Helena CoutoEste trabalho enquadra-se conceptualmente numa visão sistémica do papel da inovação, considerada como o modo como as empresas criam valor explorando a mudança. A mudança pode, por conseguinte, ser associada a avanços tecnológicos, mas também a modificações no contexto estrutural de uma indústria, a mudanças nas preferências dos consumidores, a mudanças da composição demográfica, ou, até mesmo, a grandes mudanças da geopolítica global. A presente investigação analisa o grau de inovação das Pequenas e Medias Empresas (PME’s) em zonas periféricas, nomeadamente no distrito de Guarda e Açores. O objectivo foi o de verificar quais os factores que condicionam e/ou potenciam a inovação, aliado ao grau de envolvimento das empresas com universidades/politécnicos e outros actores, de onde resultam a maior parte do capital humano, essencial à criação de valor. Foi construído um inquérito realizado às empresas das zonas anteriormente referidas e a metodologia empregue consiste na estimação de um modelo logit que permite verificar a influência de factores como o sector, idade da empresa, dimensão, actuação e região na definição de inovação. As conclusões apontam para a existência de um relacionamento positivo entre a introdução de inovações no mercado e o sector de actividade, a idade da empresa e o tipo de actuação e uma relação inversa no que se refere a dimensão da empresa e uma relação pouco significativa em relação à variável região.
- Higher Education attainment : the case of intergenerational transmission of education in PortugalPublication . Pereira, Pedro TelhadoThe lack of formal education and competences of the Portuguese workers is one of the biggest problems of the country. This lack is disappearing as quickly as desired and the young generations still lag far behind those in other OECD countries. This paper studies the intergenerational transmission of education achievement, in particular higher education completion, seeking to determine the influence on future attainment of parents’ education and labor market conditions while the child was growing up. We conclude that the education of the parents is very important, even if it is only one of them that has it. This influence seems not to be independent of the gender of the parent who has it. The fact that the parents face unemployment has a negative effect on the educational achievement of the child. Females generally perform better than males, but there are exceptions. For instance, it is significantly lower if the father has low education and the mother has secondary or higher education.
- How fast do wages adjust to human-capital productivity? Dynamic panel-data evidence from Europe and the United StatesPublication . Andini, CorradoThe standard human-capital model is based on the assumption that the observed wage of an individual is equal to the monetary value of the individual net human-capital productivity, the so-called net potential wage. We argue that this assumption is rejected by micro data for Belgium, Denmark and Finland. The empirical evidence supports a dynamic approach to the Mincer equation where no equality is imposed but an adjustment between observed and potential earnings is allowed to take place over time. Controlling for regressors’ endogeneity and individual unobserved heterogeneity, we estimate a dynamic panel-data wage equation and provide measures of the speed of adjustment in Belgium, Denmark and Finland. Further, we elaborate on the implications of a dynamic approach to the Mincer equation for the computation of the return to schooling, including the implication that the return is not independent of labormarket experience, as suggested by Heckman et al. (2005) and Belzil (2007). Finally, we show that a dynamic wage equation can be seen as the solution of a decentralized wagebargaining model and argue that this model can fit both European and US data better than a simple adjustment model but requires more theoretical assumptions.
- The impact of Spanish language proficiency on the labor market outcomes of immigrants in SpainPublication . Budría, Santiago; Swedberg, PabloThis article uses micro-data from the Spanish National Immigrant Survey (Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes-ENI in Spanish) carried out in 2007 among immigrants in Spain. In recent years, Spain has received unprecedented immigration flows. The economic assimilation of immigrants is crucial for keeping a cohesive and stable society, especially under the particular circumstances of Spain. As a consequence, immigrants need to invest in human capital since it plays a crucial role in determining their economic status. Educational attainment and destination language ability are two essential components of human capital of migrants. As a result, the immigrants’ labor market participation and their earnings are closely mediated by their host language proficiency and level of schooling. We carry out an analysis of the impact of Spanish language ability on the likelihood of full-time employment and earnings among immigrants in Spain. The results indicate that educational attainment and belonging to a higher Spanish speaking proficiency category both lead to an increase in the probability of holding a full-time job. In contrast, there is no significant impact of schooling and host language ability on earnings.