Central Government Transfers and Regional Convergence in Portugal

Over the last decades, the Portuguese economy exhibited an outstanding growth performance. This period of fast economic growth allowed the country to consistently reduce its income gap with respect to the EU average. In spite of this, regions in Portugal exhibited large differences between each other in terms of GDP per capita. Yet, the Portuguese government did make attempts at regional intervention by means of some policy instruments, namely public transfers to local (and regional) government. How successful these policies have been in terms of achieving their goal is still an open question, especially as far as Portuguese Central Government transfers are concerned. The main purpose of the paper is to evaluate if the system of Central Government transfers has affected the intra-regional Portuguese convergence. We haven’t found unquestionable evidence that these policies have been effective at stimulating convergence among Portuguese regions and at improving the overall economies of the poorer regions. Keywords: Regional convergence, Central Government transfers, Regional policy JEL Classification: H71; O18; R58

Inequality of Outcomes and Inequality of Opportunities in Brazil

This paper departs from John Roemer's theory of equality of opportunities. We seek to determine what part of observed outcome inequality may be attributed to differences in observed 'circumstances', including family background, and what part is due to 'personal efforts'. We use a micro-econometric technique to simulate what the distribution of outcomes would look like if 'circumstances' were the same for everybody. This technique is applied to Brazilian data from the 1996 household survey, both for earnings and for household incomes. It is shown that observed circumstances are a major source of outcome inequality in Brazil, probably more so than in other countries for which information is available. Nevertheless, the level of inequality after observed circumstances are equalized remains very high in Brazil.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40016/3/wp630.pd

Women's participation in high performance work practices: a comparative analysis of Portugal and Spain

High-performance work systems (HPWS) can be seen as a set of new forms of work organization combined with flexible human resources (HR) practices that enhance organizational performance through employee involvement and empowerment. Although in the past two decades much research has been conducted on the effects that high-performance work practices can have on organizations, there is still much to know about the ideal conditions for the adoption of such practices. According to some research, there are organizational and employees’ determinants that can influence the adoption of high-performance work practices. On the other hand, gender, as an employee characteristic has not been much considered. However, according to the literature, female employees may be less likely to participate in HPWS (Heywood & Jirjahn, 2002). Women tend to have a greater need for flexible working conditions, such as part-time jobs or flexibility between work and home. This can lead to shorter tenure and less complex tasks, but also to more individualized job functions, which mean that workers with these kind of profile have less probability of making part of teams, a fundamental feature of HPWS. The main goal of this paper is to understand how employees’ characteristics can influence the adoption of high-performance work practices. Specifically, it will be given special attention to gender as a potential determinant of participation in HPWS. To accomplish this goal, we frame the debate in recent research on HPWS that include employees’ characteristics and then follow to an analysis of Portugal and Spain, using data from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS).Work organization; high-performance work practices; gender; Portugal; Spain