Divergent competitiveness in the eurozone and the optimum currency area theory

As the euro is on its second decade, the European sovereign debt crisis and the ever more evident disparities in competitiveness among member states are prompting many to question whether monetary union is bringing more benefits than costs. The optimum currency area (OCA) theory provides a framework with several criteria for such analysis. Most literature focuses either or on OCA individual criteria or on an aggregate analysis of these criteria, using meta-properties. Differently, we start by a descriptive analysis of the first twelve euro countries under six criteria between 1999 and 2009. We detect signs of labour geographic mobility. However, nominal wages growth largely outpaced productivity growth in some periphery countries, resulting in losses of competitiveness. Financial markets seem to be deeply integrated. Total intra-EMU trade increased, though core countries seem to have benefited more, as their relative competitiveness improved. We detect no increased homogeneity of exports structures of EMU countries. Inflation rates alternated between periods of convergence and of divergence, though prices levels consistently converged between EMU countries. Finally, budgetary indiscipline was frequent preventing several countries from having fiscal room to face asymmetrical shocks.We conclude by estimating the impact of five OCA criteria on countries’ relative competitiveness, using real effective exchange rates as a proxy. Differences in the growth of unit labour costs, the dissimilarity of trade and the differences in output growth were found to be significant. With a higher confidence level, bilateral trade is significant and points towards the specialization paradigm. Thus, we identify some causes of the divergent competitiveness between some EMU countries that contributed to weaker economic growth in parts of the euro area.Optimum currency area, Euro Area; Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), Competitiveness

Differences in portuguese credit institutions' lending and investment behaviour in a time of slump

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the different property rights models of credit institutions (public, private, cooperative or mutual) in their credit policy and investment behaviour and in response to the current crisis and regulatory framework adjustments. Taking Portuguese credit institutions as the object, it concludes that overall banks' business models are qualitatively identical and their lending and investment behaviours are similar, except for the saver profile of cooperative banks and the deeper focus on loans to customers to the detriment of financial investments of the mutual savings banks. Moreover, the reactions to the crisis were equivalent, except for the state-owned banks, which presented the most favourable reaction, albeit not deep enough to be significant.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Governance control mechanisms in Portuguese agricultural credit cooperatives

Over the last decade Portuguese Agricultural Credit Cooperatives (ACCs) have increasingly face survival challenges related to their difficulty in gathering equity. The main source of ACCs equity is the net benefit; thus, understanding how ACCs governance can work on correcting bad economic performance is of crucial importance to overcome this constraint. The main objective of this paper is to describe the governance control mechanisms in the ACCs. Five governance mechanisms are identified: board and chairman change (internal mechanisms), central ACC intervention by an agent or by management board replacement and merger. Empirical analysis proved that the internal governance mechanisms activity is not related to the ACC performance. Additionally: (a) ACCs with a central ACC agent and merged ACCs hold a weaker credit management and a heavy administrative costs structure and profitability problems; and (b) ACCs with a management board replacement by the central ACC hold a weaker credit management and present solvency problems

Emotional Intelligence in the Management of Educational Institutions in Portugal

En el concepto actual de sociedad mundial en la que el ser humano ha de ser entendido como un todo en su interacción con el medio ambiente que lo rodea, se enmarca el concepto de la inteligencia emocional en la que el ser humano ya no es sólo un ser racional ya que se constituye, al mismo tiempo, como un ser humano portador de emociones y afectos, y como se describe en recientes estudios neurológicos, el resultado de lo que hacemos, pensamos y decidimos es el fruto de lo que los sentidos recogen y los procesos del intelecto. Enmarcado en el concepto de inteligencia emocional nace una nueva perspectiva de gestión con el fin de verificar las características de la inteligencia emocional en la gestión de las instituciones educativas portuguesas. A través de un caso de estudio, de carácter exploratorio y descriptivo y que tenía como instrumento de auto-descripción un cuestionario, aplicado al universo de los directores más eficaces en Portugal, se ha podido concluir, al igual que en otros estudios internacionales, que, actualmente, poseer características propias de la inteligencia emocional es esencial para una gestión eficaz de las organizaciones educativas.In the current concept of global society in which the human being has to be understood as a whole in interaction with the environment that surrounds it, fits the concept of emotional intelligence in which the human being is no longer just a rational being to constitute himself, at the same time, as a human being also carrier of emotions and affections, as described on the recent neurological studies that convey that the result of what we do, we believe and we decide is the result of what the senses collect and intellect processes. Framed in this concept of emotional intelligence comes a new perspective of management, where was developed this research, in order to verify if the characteristics of emotional intelligence are present in the management of portuguese educational institutions. Through a case study, of descriptive and exploratory nature, which had as an instrument a self-description questionnaire, applied to the universe of the most effective managers in Portugal, it was possible to conclude, like other international studies, that currently to possess characteristics of emotional intelligence, is essential to an effective management of educational organizations.Na atual conjuntura de globalização, em que o ser humano deve ser percebido como um todo, em interação com o meio que o rodeia, destaca-se o conceito de inteligência emocional, que nos obriga a olhar para o indivíduo, não apenas enquanto ser racional, mas também, e paralelamente, como ser portador de emoções e afetos, já que, à luz dos estudos neurológicos mais recentes, o resultado do que somos, fazemos, pensamos e decidimos é fruto do que os sentidos recolhem e do que o intelecto processa. Enquadrado neste novo conceito de inteligência emocional surge uma nova perspetiva de gestão das organizações educativas, quadro em que se desenvolveu a presente investigação, procurando verificar-se se as características de inteligência emocional se encontram presentes em gestores escolares. Através de um estudo de caso, de natureza exploratória e descritiva, que teve como instrumento um questionário de autodescrição, aplicado ao universo dos gestores educativos considerados mais eficazes em Portugal, pôde-se concluir que possuir características de inteligência emocional é um factor essencial a uma gestão eficaz dessas organizações educativas.peerReviewe

Ownership and governance of Portuguese credit co-operatives: the legal framework

Today, financial system enterprises operate in an environment full of global opportunities and threats; and in the sequence of corporate scandals and world financial crisis, the banking activity is constrained by ethical self-restraining as well as innovative regulations enforced by domestic and global governance institutions. The dual nature of credit cooperative is reflected by their formal and institutional solutions. They need to meet both banking and cooperative regulations, especially for those dedicated to relations between the two areas; hence, they result from considering their singularity and consistency. The main aim of this paper is to provide an insight of the Portuguese legal framework of cooperative credit

The Portuguese agricultural credit cooperatives governance model

The Portuguese Agricultural Credit Cooperatives (ACC) play a significant role in the national banking system. At the present, they face the challenge of matching the application of the traditional cooperative rules (which leads to a resulting set of vaguely defined property rights) with being successful in an ever more strong and competitive banking sector. The main objective of this paper is to understand the Portuguese ACC governance model, focusing on the strategies used to ameliorate the decision and investment problems arising from the strict application of traditional cooperative rules. Contrary to most of their pairs, Portuguese ACC choose to focus their efforts on the cooperative activity and performance rather than on the cooperative rules it selves. Although that strategy proved to be financial fruitful, it drives Portuguese ACC to a growing conflict of interests and to an identity crisi

Innovation in wine SMEs: the Douro Boys informal network

Globalisation needs to be perceived by wine small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located in wine regions characterised by a terroir model as a challenge and an opportunity to innovate. The aim of this paper is to present a business strategy that can be adopted by wine SMEs located in regions with high production costs and where tradition and innovation are relevant factors to be introduced in the decision process. To achieve this goal, the case of five small wine producers (Douro Boys), located in the Portuguese conservative Douro Demarcated Region (DDR), that are adopting an informal horizontal network is presented. The conducted analysis allows us to conclude that Douro Boys is a very simple and informal structure of prospectors, with a high culture of innovation, searching for niches in international wine markets

Measurement of soil tillage using uav high-resolution 3d data

PTDC/CTA-OHR/32360/2017 UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020Remote sensing methodologies could contribute to a more sustainable agriculture, such as monitoring soil preparation for cultivation, which should be done properly, according to the topographic characteristics and the crop’s nature. The objectives of this work are to (1) demonstrate the potential of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology in the acquisition of 3D data before and after soil tillage, for the quantification of mobilised soil volume; (2) propose a methodology that enables the co-registration of multi-temporal DTMs that were obtained from UAV surveys; and (3) show the relevance of quality control and positional accuracy assessment in processing and results. An unchanged-area-matching method based on multiple linear regression analysis was implemented to reduce the deviation between the Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) to calculate a more reliable mobilised soil volume. The production of DTMs followed the usual photogrammetric-based Structure from Motion (SfM) workflow; the extraction of fill and cut areas was made through raster spatial modelling and statistical tools to support the analysis. Results highlight that the quality of the differential DTM should be ensured for a reliable estimation of areas and mobilised soil volume. This study is a contribution to the use of multi-temporal DTMs produced from different UAV surveys. Furthermore, it demonstrates the potential of UAV data in the understanding of soil variability within precision agriculture.publishersversionpublishe