Has Trade Openness Increased all Portuguese Public Expenditures? A Detailed Time-Series Study

This work aims at identifying the public outlays that has been influenced by the growth of Portuguese trade openness since the end of World War II. For the Portuguese reality, it is one of the first attempts to discuss a large set of simultaneously tested control variables. For this purpose, the methodology started from a model that tries to the public expenditures to a system of simultaneous macroeconomic forces and, for testing, it followed the steps associated with cointegration analysis. Using the most convenient techniques, a restrictive set of four expenditures (subsidies, interest payments, other current expenditures, and total public expenditures as a proportion of GDP) was found among the wider set suggested by the Literature. The nature of these expenditures supports the claim that, for the Portuguese case, a particular validity of the compensation hypothesis has been observed. The achieved evidence promotes an important rule: in addition to there being a long-term relation between (some) public expenditures and trade openness, short-term relations may also appear.globalization, economic policy, government expenditure composition

Towards a Puviani’s Fiscal Illusion Index

This paper presents an index of Fiscal Illusion for 68 democratic countries from 1960 to 2006. The theory of Fiscal Illusion studied relates to a wrong perception of government budget aggregates from the voters’ and taxpayers’ perspectives. In the construction of the index, methodological issues were carefully taken into account. The results obtained reveal that Fiscal Illusion varies greatly around the world. Countries such as Mali, Pakistan, Russia, and Sri Lanka have the highest average values over the time period considered, while Austria, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and New Zealand have the lowest. Regarding the time dimension, between 1980 and 1995 there was a significant decrease in the average value of the index across countries, suggesting a reduction in the adoption of Fiscal Illusion practices during this period. After 1995, the index remained stable in most countries.Fiscal Illusion; Indexes/Indicators; Democracy.

Sins of the elder: Fiscal illusion in democracies.

This work discusses the implications of democratic maturity on levels of Fiscal Illusion. Its main contribution is to identify the relevance of good-governance institutions that prevent incumbents in established democracies from degenerating into electoral rent-seekers. This work develops a model that converges with a Gordon (1989) type theorem. This theorem predicts that some countries ruled by incumbents are more likely to revert to FI practices as the electorate’s maturity increases and if there are no strong restrictions on the social acceptance of political rents. Our empirical results show that democratic maturity tends to diminish fiscal illusion.Democratic maturity; Fiscal Illusion; rent-seeking.

Whether trade openness has increased all the components of Portuguese public expenditure

This work aims at identifying the public outlays that has been influenced by the growth of Portuguese trade openness since the end of World War II. For the Portuguese reality, it is one of the first attempts to discuss a large set of simultaneously tested control variables. For this purpose, the methodology started from a model that tries to the public expenditures to a system of simultaneous macroeconomic forces and, for testing, it followed the steps associated with cointegration analysis. Using the most convenient techniques, a restrictive set of four expenditures (subsidies, interest payments, other current expenditures, and total public expenditures as a proportion of GDP) was found among the wider set suggested by the Literature. The nature of these expenditures supports the claim that, for the Portuguese case, a particular validity of the compensation hypothesis has been observed. The achieved evidence promotes an important rule: in addition to there being a long-term relation between (some) public expenditures and trade openness, short-term relations may also appear

Contributo para uma visao económica do associativismo religioso - o caso da localizacao das confrarias activas de Lisboa

Where are the brotherhoods of the Patriarchate of Lisbon? Why are these brotherhoods located in such spaces? The present work answers to these two questions, being a pioneer attempt about the thematic, in Portugal. Through the empirical validation recurring to logit models, this paper identifies as determinants the human diversity of the spaces (parishes) and the related tradition, not confirming the hypothesis of the purchase power of the resident people. Therefore, it is confirmed that the resources constraint of this kind of social groups considers the cultural and the traditional richness as fundamental to the detriment of the exclusive budget restriction.regional economics, social economics, religious brotherhoods

Je li trgovinska otvorenost povećala sve komponente portugalskih javnih rashoda? Detaljna analiza vremenskih serija

Cilj rada je identificirati javne rashode koji su bili pod utjecajem rasta portugalske trgovinske otvorenosti od kraja Drugoga svjetskog rata. Za Portugal je to jedan od prvih pokušaja rasprave o velikom skupu simultano testiranih kontrolnih varijabli. Metodologija za tu namjenu sastoji se od modela kojima se pokušavaju identificirati javni rashodi do sustava simultanih makroekonomskih sila, koji je radi testiranja dopunjen kointegracijskom analizom. Uz pomoć najprikladnijih tehnika pronađen je restriktivan skup četiriju vrsta rashoda (subvencije, rashodi na kamate, ostali tekući rashodi i ukupni javni rashodi kao udio u BDP-u) unutar šireg seta koji se obično navodi u literaturi. Priroda tih rashoda govori da je, vezano za Portugal, potvrđena specifična valjanost kompenzacijske hipoteze. Postignuti dokaz promiče važno pravilo: osim dugoročne veze između (nekih) javnih rashoda i trgovinske otvorenosti, između te dvije varijable može se pojaviti i kratkoročna veza

Tax havens or tax hells? A discussion of the historical roots and present consequences of tax havens

Tax havens are not recent phenomena. However, in contrast to historical precedents, tax havens in the age of mobile capital allow for non-consensual transfers and are not profitable for every citizen. We discuss the four main groups of tax havens (former Western possessions, sovereign nations, countries controlled by cartels, and emerging economies). This article also synthesizes the history of tax havens and describes their current heterogeneity, discussing the main methods available to regulate tax haven flows. Some of the most efficient methods involve unilateral measures (such as the Fiscal Transparency of Outland Societies) but also encompass multilateral measures (such as Tax Harmonization and the Request for Information)

Women out, children out : the effect of female labor on portuguese preschool enrollment rates

This article tests whether Portuguese female activity rates have increased preschool enrollment rates. Particularly during the last 20 years, Portuguese women have assumed new roles in the marketplace and have become active workers outside of the home environment. This change has encouraged more sensible decisions with respect to preschool enrollment. Using cointegration techniques, we concluded that female activity rates and real income per capita caused a long-term increase in preschool enrollment rates. Although the percentage of agricultural gross value added to the gross domestic product and the number of preschool institutes were also found to be significant in the estimated vector error correction model, their causal relationship with preschool enrollment was only short term.COMPETE; QREN; FEDER; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Contribución a una visión económica del asociativismo religioso - el caso de la localización de las parroquias activas de Lisboa.

¿Donde están ubicadas las parroquias de Lisboa? ¿Qué explica la ubicación de estas parroquias? El presente trabajo, pionero en Portugal, responde a éstas dos preguntas. A través de la validación empírica, usando modelos logit, el artículo identifica como determinantes de la localización de las parroquias, la diversidad humana de las localidades y la tradición de las mismas; el artículo no confirma la hipótesis de la importancia del poder adquisitivo local. Consecuentemente, se confirma que las restricciones de recursos de éste tipo de grupos sociales incluyen la cultura y la tradición en detrimento de la exclusividad de las restricciones de presupuesto

Contribución a una visión económica del asociativismo religioso - el caso de la localización de las parroquias activas de Lisboa.

¿Donde están ubicadas las parroquias de Lisboa? ¿Qué explica la ubicación de estas parroquias? El presente trabajo, pionero en Portugal, responde a éstas dos preguntas. A través de la validación empírica, usando modelos logit, el artículo identifica como determinantes de la localización de las parroquias, la diversidad humana de las localidades y la tradición de las mismas; el artículo no confirma la hipótesis de la importancia del poder adquisitivo local. Consecuentemente, se confirma que las restricciones de recursos de éste tipo de grupos sociales incluyen la cultura y la tradición en detrimento de la exclusividad de las restricciones de presupuesto