I feel wealthy: a major determinant of Portuguese households’ indebtedness?

This paper examines the response of household debt to households’ perception of house prices using data from the first wave of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. Whereas the literature has hitherto emphasized the effects of housing wealth on consumption, this study concentrates on the effects on debt accumulation—distinguishing mortgage debt from non-mortgage debt and inspecting over-indebtedness. Different measures of housing wealth are considered, controlling for tenure years. The findings reveal that the effects of housing wealth differ by type of loans and with the measure of housing wealth. Over-indebtedness is driven by the same factors that determine mortgage debt, suggesting a strong association between having outstanding liabilities from the primary residence and the risk of entering into default. Further estimations by different income and wealth classes revealed dissimilar housing wealth effects, with non-mortgage debt tending to rise among lower-income households and over-indebtedness tending to be larger among the wealthier.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Understanding intergovernmental cooperation in a context of devolution: an empirical study of collaboration among portuguese municipalities

Why do local governments engage in formal cooperative agreements to deliver municipal services? What are the determinants of these collaborative efforts? We review the literature on horizontal collaboration and intergovernmental relations developed by the political economy, public choice, institutional collective action, and network literatures and present a theoretical model that intertwines several arguments from these literatures. The theoretical model suggests that the decision to collaborate is a product of prior experiences of competition/cooperation between municipal governments, the incentives for efficiency gains derived from cooperation, and the institutional setting in which intergovernmental relations take place. Based on this theoretical model and using a research design inspired by the literatures on international conflicts and coalition governments, we develop and test a series of hypotheses concerning the decision to cooperate by Portuguese municipal governments in face of recent decentralization trends. We find support for our trust and centrality hypotheses as incentives to cooperation, but fragmentation within local governments poses a constraint to collaborative efforts between municipalities.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

New forms of local governance: a theoretical and empirical analysis of the case of Portuguese Municipal Corporations

This paper is an attempt to identify which factors influence Portuguese local governments to rely on municipal corporations to provide public services. Based on the ideas of the new institutional economics applied to public administration developed by Milgrom and Roberts (1990) and Horn (1995), we argue that influence costs of in-house production and bargaining costs of external delegation to municipal enterprises are the main determinants of the creation of municipal corporations and other types of local public sector organizations external to the local government. An event count model is employed to explain the differences across 278 Portuguese local governments in adopting municipal corporations/enterprises. Results indicate that organizational size, financial dependency, and fiscal stress, as well as ideological concerns and the activity of local interest groups drive the choices of local governance structures

New forms of local governance : a theoretical and empirical analysis of municipal corporations in Portugal

What factors influence local governments to rely on municipal corporations to provide public services? This article seeks to identify which factors lead local governments to use local corporate public sector organizations, particularly municipal corporations, for service delivery. Based on the ideas of the neo-institutionalism approach to public administration developed by Murray Horn (1995), we argue that local officials trade-off bureaucratic costs of in-house production with agency costs of external delegation to municipal corporations when deciding how to deliver local public services. Econometric models are employed to test this explanation for the adoption of municipal corporations by the 278 Portuguese local governments. The results indicate that organizational size, financial independency, and fiscal surplus, as well as ideological concerns and the activity of local interest groups, drive choices of local governance structures.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Substitutability between drugs, innovation, and fiscal policy in the pharmaceutical industry

A theoretical model is developed in order to examine and explain the growth and welfare effects of fiscal policies in the pharmaceutical industry. When the fiscal instrument is a tax over pharmaceutical firms' profits, R&D by firms in the pharmaceutical sector results in growth if there is a generic market. Otherwise, a subsidy over pharmaceutical firms' profits should be considered to generate innovation in medicines. In terms of policy implications, our empirical results suggest that stimulating generic competition in the pharmaceutical sector is a main instrument to contain costs and promote welfare.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Assessment and forecast of the culvert’s performance within a road infrastructure management system. Literature review

During the 21st century, within road infrastructure management there is a strong enforcement on preserving assets and prevent roadway collapses. As a result, public agencies have to implement periodic inspections and asset condition assessments. As pavements and bridges also culverts management play a special role in roadway safety, because they prevent roadbed erosion. The scope of this investigation is the assessment and forecast of culverts performance regarding rating condition and network reliability forecast. In addition, it intends to analyze hazards influence in the culvert serviceability, modelling the hazards actions on the infrastructure. In this paper, is performed the literature review of studies done during the past decade comparing advantages and limitations. Five main subjects are identified in the development of a culvert management system, since the inventory and inspection framework, to forecasting models and risk assessment. Moreover, it will determine the correlation between subjects and will find gaps for improvement.(undefined

Concreto autoadensável em regiões costeiras de clima quente

O concreto autoadensável (CAA no Brasil e SCC internacionalmente) já vem sendo aplicado há aproximadamente 20 anos e vem se tornando alternativa tecnicamente viável para aplicação em lugar do concreto convencional vibrado (CC). Atualmente, constata-se que os estudos sobre o SCC avançaram muito e já possível responder a quase todas as indagações acerca do comportamento do SCC frente ao CC, vantagens e possíveis desvantagens nos aspectos técnicos de aplicacação e utilização

Joining the open government partnership initiative: An empirical analysis of diffusion effects

Prior empirical studies of the Open Government Partnership have failed to take into account possible diffusion mechanisms contributing to the expansion in the number of countries joining the partnership since its beginning in 2010. Notwithstanding the increase in the study of open government policies over the past decade across multiple levels of government, the factors influencing the decision to join multilateral initiatives like the Open Government Partnership are still under-researched. Using data from 175 countries and covering a period that goes from the year prior to the establishment of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) until the year when the latest current members have joined the partnership (2010–2018), this article examines the diffusion mechanisms affecting a country's decision to participate in the OGP. Based on binary response logit regression models, this study analyses the effects of key diffusion variables while controlling for the countries' internal determinants of participation. The findings indicate that diffusion of the OGP takes place through regional proximity, common cultural and system of government traits, and membership in international organization. While democratic countries are more likely to join, autocracies also join conditional on other countries in the same group joining. This suggests further research is needed to uncover the way countries with different regime traits design and implement transparency and open government policies under the banner of this multilateral initiative

Delaying the timing of offshoring low-skilled tasks

WOS:000281106500009 (Nº de Acesso Web of Science)This paper examines the impact of uncertainty on offshoring low-skilled tasks. The model shows that greater demand uncertainty adversely affects the expected profit and timing of offshoring. It is also shown that a home-country tax rate deduction increases the volatility of the expected profits, making offshoring appear to be more risky. One policy implication of our results is that, in order to delay relocation of MNE's production from the home country, a government should adopt tax rate deduction rather than a direct subsidy because the former is more economical and effective than the latter

Assessing the intensity of cooperation: a study of joint delegation of municipal functions to inter-municipal associations

Talking is cheap, at least in the short term; elected officials may profess their preferences for IMC and yet deny IMA organisations the necessary resources to fulfil their missions. Driven by a focus on revealed preferences for inter-municipal cooperation, the article aims to answer two questions: Why do some IMA exhibit a high level of commitment on the part of their local government members whereas others remain underutilised, reflecting a choice by local governments to retain these responsibilities themselves? How does this commitment to IMAs vary over time? We use data from 25 IMAs over a 10-year period (2008–2018) in Portugal to assess the intensity of cooperation among Portuguese local governments through stand-alone organisations. The panel analysis regression supports the hypotheses that a larger number of local governments involved in IMAs and higher levels of heterogeneity among them make cooperation more difficult. In contrast, longer interaction in IMAs reinforces the intensity of cooperation.This work was supported by the Research Centre for Political Science (UIDB/CPO/ 00758/2020), University of Minho/University of Évora, supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science