Low-wage employment in Portugal: Social dimension and recent evolution

Low-wage employment is one of the main origins of poverty and social exclusion in Portugal, along with low pensions granted to elder citizens. In this paper our aim is to provide a first approach of the social dimension of low-wage employment in Portugal, analysing its incidence and profile among regions, sectors, professions, skill levels and gender. This decomposition analysis will stress the most important factors underlying the phenomenon. At a first stage we shall study wage structure and wage inequality evolution in the last decade. The incidence and evolution of low wages and minimum legal wages will be compared whith average wages, in order to evaluate the situation of the low payed vis a vis the other better paid workers. We proceed analysing low-wage decomposition by the criteria mentioned above, taken separately and in interaction, to identify the main determinants and the cumulative effects of these factors in the explanation and evolution of low wages. The main data set available is "Quadros de Pessoal" (Data base of worker characteristics provided by firms) from the MESS ( Employment and Social Security Ministry). In this study we will use directly this data base. Other statistical sources will also be used for complementary aspects. We must say that the data on these area of research are still insufficiently developed in Portugal, and that, in consequence, socio-economic knowledge on low-wage employment as a mechanism of social exclusion is still incipient. Low-wage are but one of the dimensions of social exclusion, closely related with poverty as insufficient economic resources, and is often associated with other dimensions of social exclusion in the labour market, such as unemployment vulnerability and job instability. The crucial role in this triad - low-pay, unemployment, job instability - is played by skill levels, which are particularly low in our country, as we?ll try to demonstrate. Social exclusion must however be analysed at the family unit. As long as income is concerned, wages are far the most important source, particularly for low income active families, and the ?low skills - low pay - low income? chain seems to be the major determinant of social exclusion. The evidence about this mechanism can be found in recent data on Family Budgets.

Experimental minimum-error quantum-state discrimination in high dimensions

Quantum mechanics forbids perfect discrimination among nonorthogonal states through a single shot measurement. To optimize this task, many strategies were devised that later became fundamental tools for quantum information processing. Here, we address the pioneering minimum-error (ME) measurement and give the first experimental demonstration of its application for discriminating nonorthogonal states in high dimensions. Our scheme is designed to distinguish symmetric pure states encoded in the transverse spatial modes of an optical field; the optimal measurement is performed by a projection onto the Fourier transform basis of these modes. For dimensions ranging from D = 2 to D = 21 and nearly 14000 states tested, the deviations of the experimental results from the theoretical values range from 0.3% to 3.6% (getting below 2% for the vast majority), thus showing the excellent performance of our scheme. This ME measurement is a building block for high-dimensional implementations of many quantum communication protocols, including probabilistic state discrimination, dense coding with nonmaximal entanglement, and cryptographic schemes.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figure

Port wine characterisation and positioning in Portugal

Port wine is a fortified wine produced in the demarcated region of Douro. This region is situated in the northeast of Portugal, in the Douro hydrographical basin, surrounded by mountains that give it exclusive mesologic, climacteric and agrologic characteristics that enable the production of quality wines. Port wine is the most successful of all Portuguese wines throughout the years, home and abroad. This article aims at characterizing and analysing the positioning of the Port Wine brand in the context of Portuguese wine brands, and to define strategies for this brand. In order to achieve this, indicators and management tools such as SWOT Analysis, General Electric/McKinsey Matrix and Porter Generic Strategies were used. From the analysis it can be understood that the Port Wine brand occupies a favourable position in the wine market with an important role in the national economy, and as such it should be ever more promoted and its potential further reinforced abroad to make the most of its brand value and potential for the brand, the country and other national wines. JEL: M10; M30

Microeconometric evaluation of undergraduate students’ results a matching methodology application to a portuguese polytechnic

During the academic years of 2004/05 and 2005/06 a new teaching methodology, inspired in the Bologna’s Treaty, was implemented in one of the nine undergraduate programmes offered by the School of Technology and Management of Bragança (Portugal). The aim was to increase the positive results for the students, concerning the acquisition of knowledge and skills. To expose one undergraduate programme to a treatment – this is the teaching methodology - without expose the others created the conditions to a process of microeconometric evaluation that aims to quantify the causal effect of the exposition to the treatment. Following the lessons of the evaluation literature, the present paper adopts a propensity score matching methodology choosing as the interest parameter the average treatment on the treated (ATT). To compare only what is comparable, the evaluation was carried out on those subjects that were common among all the undergraduate programmes, like mathematics or statistics, or subjects that were common among the undergraduate programmes in the management’s scientific area, like accounting or marketing. Results show a positive effect of the treatment on those students who had been exposed to the teaching philosophy in 2004/05. Indeed the treated students present a bigger percentage of positive results comparing with the non treated colleagues. However, the results in terms of the grades’ quality are less obvious. Even if the treated students achieve a positive grade, this grade is often smaller than the grade achieved by the colleagues. Results for 2005/06 are not so clear

Pode uma nova metodologia de ensino melhorar resultados? Avaliação microeconométrica do sucesso escolar

No ano lectivo de 2004/2005,a Declaração de Bolonha inspirou a introdução de uma nova metodologia de ensino num dos cursos leccionados por uma instituição de ensino superior em Portugal. Assim, seguindo as lições da literatura de avaliação microeconométrica, adopta-se a metodologia de Propensity Score Matching para realizar de um processo de avaliação do impacto da filosofia de ensino no sucesso escolar dos alunos a ela sujeitos. Os resultados mostram que a introdução de uma nova metodologia de ensino melhorou as taxas de aprovação dos alunos sujeitos a uma medida que tem na base a participação obrigatória nas aulas, um maior acompanhamento do aluno pelo docente e uma avaliação contínua. De facto, o observa-se para alunos sujeitos à medida uma maior percentagem de notas positivas quando comparados com os colegas dos restantes cursos leccionados pela instituição. No entanto, quando se compara a qualidade dessas taxas de aprovação os resultados não são tão óbvios. Mesmo que o aluno sujeito à medida alcance uma classificação positiva tal é frequentemente mais baixa relativamente aquela obtida pelos colegas não expostos.In the academic year of 2004/2005, the Bologna’s Declaration inspired the implementation of a new teaching methodology in one of the nine undergraduate programmes offered by a public institution in Portugal. Following the lessons of the microeconometric evaluation literature, the present paper adopts a Propensity Score Matching Methodology choosing as the interest parameter the average treatment on the treated. The results show a positive effect of the treatment on those students who had been exposed to a teaching philosophy which heart is the student’s mandatory participation in classes, a higher follow-up, by the teacher, of the student’s scholar progress and a continuous evaluation of their results. Indeed the treated students seem to show a bigger percentage of positive grades comparing with the non treated colleagues, in all the evaluated subjects. However, the results in terms of the grades’ quality are less obvious. Even if the treated students achieve a positive grade, this grade is often smaller than the grade achieved by the non-treated students

Assimetrias regionais na região Norte de Portugal: uma análise de cluster

Portugal, como todos os restantes países do mundo é constituído por regiões heterogéneas. O aspecto económico só por si é insuficiente para a caracterização de um país ou região, pelo que se torna necessário analisar outros indicadores. O Norte de Portugal continental encontra-se dividido em 8 regiões (NUT III), regiões estas que diferem entre si originando assimetrias. As assimetrias regionais normalmente traduzem-se, em diferentes níveis de desenvolvimento económico e social, que poderá induzir a processos de vulnerabilidade das regiões levando a aplicação de políticas de desenvolvimento regionais incoerentes, com consequências preocupantes para a coesão social e territorial. Assim, com o presente artigo pretende-se quantificar, caracterizar e classificar as diferentes NUTS III, da região Norte de Portugal, aplicando uma análise de clusters no sentido de encontrar uma homogeneidade sócio-económica. Para tal, utilizaram-se diferentes indicadores que permitem caracterizar sócio e economicamente as NUT III, para os anos de 2004 e 2008. Dos resultados obtidos visualiza-se nitidamente 3 regiões diversificadas, diferenciadas e classificadas com distintos graus de desenvolvimento, sendo elas, “Regiões Menos Desenvolvidas”, “Regiões Desenvolvidas” e “Regiões Mais Desenvolvidas”. Esta classificação revela a “velha” assimetria regional vs interior. Pretende-se ainda com este estudo facultar dados que sejam úteis para a aplicação de políticas de desenvolvimento regionais coesas

O posicionamento da marca vinho do Porto no panorama nacional

A vitivinicultura desempenhou sempre um papel muito importante na agricultura portuguesa, exercendo o vinho um papel relevante na economia nacional. De entre os vinhos portugueses, aquele que mais sucesso conheceu em Portugal e além fronteiras foi o Vinho do Porto. O Vinho do Porto é uma bebida licorosa produzida na região demarcada do Douro, região situada a Nordeste de Portugal, na bacia hidrográfica do Douro. As condições singulares (mesológicas e climatéricas) verificadas na região, a selecção criteriosa de castas, a delimitação geográfica, os processos de fabrico são alguns dos factores que contribuem para a elevada qualidade dos produtos marca Vinho do Porto. Já a longevidade da marca e a confiança dos consumidores garantem-lhe um posicionamento de destaque na hora de escolha do produto. Tendo em conta o sucesso alcançado pelo Vinho do Porto, os autores procuraram, neste artigo, posicionar a marca Vinho do Porto no contexto das marcas de vinho portuguesas, através da aplicação de alguns indicadores e instrumentos de gestão estratégica. Da análise concluiu-se que o Vinho do Porto apresenta-se numa posição de destaque no mercado dos vinhos, desempenhando um papel importante na economia nacional, cuja qualidade e preços superiores orienta a estratégia da marca para o mercado internacional

Uniaxial stress effects on the structural and electronic properties of BaFe2As2 and CaFe2As2

Starting from the orthorhombic magnetically ordered phase, we investigate the effects of uniaxial tensile and compressive stresses along a, b, and the diagonal a+b directions in BaFe2As2 and CaFe2As2 in the framework of ab initio density functional theory (DFT) and a phenomonological Ginzburg-Landau model. While -contrary to the application of hydrostatic or c-axis uniaxial pressure- both systems remain in the orthorhombic phase with a pressure-dependent nonzero magnetic moment, we observe a sign-changing jump in the orthorhombicity at a critical uniaxial pressure, accompanied by a reversal of the orbital occupancy and a switch between the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic directions. Our Ginzburg-Landau analysis reveals that this behavior is a direct consequence of the competition between the intrinsic magneto-elastic coupling of the system and the applied compressive stress, which helps the system to overcome the energy barrier between the two possible magneto-elastic ground states. Our results shed light on the mechanisms involved in the detwinning process of an orthorhombic iron-pnictide crystal and on the changes in the magnetic properties of a system under uniaxial stress.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Pode uma nova metologia de ensino melhorar resultados? Avaliação comparativa de dois anos de implementação

During the academic years of 2004/05 and 2005/06 a new teaching methodology, inspired in the Bologna’s Treaty, was implemented in one of the nine undergraduate programmes offered by the School of Technology and Management of Bragança (Portugal). The goal was to increase the positive results for the students concerning the acquisition concerning the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Following the lessons of the evaluation literature, the present paper adopts a propensity score matching methodology aiming to quantify the causal effect of the new teaching methods. Preliminary results had shown a positive effect of the adopted teaching methods on the results of those students who had been exposed to them, in the first implementation year. However if the results of the methodology are observed one more year the conclusions are not so clear

La contribución de la animación turistica en la elección y la experiencia turística

El presente trabajo de investigación tiene como principal objetivo analizar la contribución de la animación turística como factor de elección del destino turístico Alto Trás-os- Montes (ATM), según la perspectiva del visitante. En este sentido, se optó por una metodología con abordaje cuantitativo, con la aplicación de cuestionarios. El estudio incluye un total de 536 visitantes nacionales y extranjeros que se desplazaron a la Región ATM en 2013/2014, con un error muestral final de 4.2% y un nivel de significancia de 5%. Para el tratamiento de los datos se utilizaron diversos procedimientos estadísticos como el análisis descriptivo exploratorio, el análisis factorial exploratorio, el análisis inferencial, el análisis de clusters, el uso de la matriz importancia-satisfacción y la aplicación del modelo probabilístico Logit. De los resultados obtenidos en el análisis factorial exploratorio se extrajeron cuatro factores motivacionales que explican el 60.87% de la variancia total, y cuatro factores de atracción que explican el 62% de la estructura de los datos. Con la aplicación del análisis de clusters se encontraron cinco segmentos. Por el posicionamiento de los Factores de Atracción en la matriz importancia versus satisfacción se concluye que las ‘atracciones naturales’, la ‘hospitalidad’ y la ‘simpatía de las personas’ son los factores que posicionan favorablemente la región como destino turístico. Las actividades de animación turística practicadas contribuyen positivamente con la experiencia turística, a pesar de no ser consideradas como un factor de elección.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio