Capital services estimates in Portuguese industries, 1977-2003

This paper presents capital services estimates for 26 Portuguese industries for the 1977-2003 period. The estimation procedure follows an integrated approach under which the flows of capital services are approximated as a proportion of the capital stock converted into standard efficiency units. Our findings suggest a close proximity between the evolution of capital flows and the observed fluctuations of Portuguese macroeconomic growth. TFP growth estimates based on growth accounting reveal, furthermore, a very disappointing performance of the Portuguese economy during the period under study,with an average annual rate of TFP growth of 0.8% being observed. Performance varies across industries, but the bulk of activities show very modest rates of TFP growth.Capital services, TFP, Portugal

Portugal and Spain: catching up and falling behind. A comparative analysis of productivity trends and their causes, 1980-2007

A number of studies in the literature have recently explored the causes behind the European productivity slowdown from the mid-1990s onwards and the correlative increase in the productivity gap between Europe and the United States (e.g., van Ark et al, 2008; Maudos et al, 2008; van Ark and Inklaar, 2005). Much less attention has been given, however, to the specific role of the EU peripheral countries in the process. In this paper we focus on the growth performances of two of such countries: Portugal and Spain. After a period of successful catch-up relative to the EU core, the two countries, which have a number of historical and economic features in common, have recently faced increasing difficulties in closing the gap to the EU. In the last decade, Spain has shown one of the worst productivity growth records among EU-members, whereas Portugal remained quite distant from European average productivity levels, and has increased the gap in per capita income levels. In this paper an attempt is made to shed light on the causes behind the overall disappointing performance of both countries, by focusing on the role of structural change on the process. An extensive literature, from both mainstream and more heterodox streams of research, suggests that sectoral specialization may have a major impact on productivity growth, by influencing the extent to which innovation and technological progress can be achieved. In order to account for these effects, an analysis of productivity trends both at the macroeconomic and industry levels of analysis is undertaken, using growth accounting and shiftshare techniques. The analysis is based on data from the EU-KLEMS database for Spain and the EU-core, and on an update and refinement of Silva´s (2010) labor and multifactor productivity estimates for Portugal. By investigating the different sources of productivity growth between 1980 and 2007, it is argued that an important factor explaining the growth difficulties in both countries is related to their difficulties in promoting important changes in their economic structures. In particular, the recent deterioration of economic growth may be seen as reflecting their incapacity in making a strong leap towards a more ‘modern’ industry structure.Productivity, Economic growth, Structural change, Technology

Are Voters Rationally Ignorant? An Empirical Study for Portuguese Local Elections

The application of the rational choice postulate to a political context invariably leads to the conclusion that most voters are ill informed when making the decision for whom to vote. In this paper, the authors do an empirical evaluation of the rational ignorance theory, based on the results of the 1997 Portuguese Local Elections. The results only partially sustain the hypothesis of rational ignorance, although it is also possible to identify several limitations that prevent the establishment of definite conclusions in this specific field.JEL Classification: H7 Key words: Voter’s Behaviour; Local Elections; Local Governments; Portugal.

Surveying structural change: seminal contributions and a bibliometric account

The main aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive survey of the economic literature on structural change. Along with an insightful literature review of the seminal contributions in the field, we perform a quantitative analysis that takes into account all the theoretical and empirical articles on the subject that were published from 1969 onwards. This effort to gather the relevant documentation is based on a review of 910 abstracts from articles published in all the economic journals found in the Econlit database over the past forty years. According to our quantitative analysis, structural change analysis received a major boost in the 1990s, with a considerable increase in the number of articles published on the matter. The marked rise in interest seems to be primarily related to the growing concern to find explanations for the process of technological change and its effects on the economy. In the first half of the current decade technological change comprises a predominant area of research, accounting for about one quarter of the articles published. Despite the increased formalism observed in the 1990s, our results further highlight that the bulk of the research in this field remains empirically led. Furthermore, and quite surprisingly, discussions concerning ICTs do not seem to have been translated so far into a substantial increase in research on structural change-related issues.Structural Change; Bibliometrics; Econlit

Does structure influence growth? A panel data econometric assessment of ‘relatively less developed’ countries, 1979-2003

Neo-Schumpeterian streams of research emphasize the close relationship between changes in economic structure in favour of high-skill and high-tech branches and rapid economic growth. They identify the emergence of a new technological paradigm, strongly based on the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs), in the 1970s, arguing that in such periods of transition and emergence of new techno-economic paradigms the relatively less developed countries have higher opportunities to catch-up. Although this debate is theoretically well documented, the empirics seem to lag behind the theory. In this paper, we contribute to this literature by adding illuminating evidence on the issue. More precisely, we relate the growth experiences of countries which had relatively similar economic structures in the late 1970s, with changes occurring in these countries’ structures between 1979 and 2003. The results reveal a robust relationship between structure and (labour) productivity growth, and lend support to the view that producing (though not user) ICT-related industries are strategic branches of economic activity.Structural change, Economic growth, Technical change

A criança e o adolescente sob guarda e o direito ao benefício previdenciário da pensão por morte

TCC(graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro de Ciências Jurídicas. Direito.Esta monografia aborda as origens e consequências da alteração legislativa operada pela Lei 9.528/97, dando nova redação ao artigo 16, § 2º ao Plano de Benefícios da Benefícios da Previdência Social, Lei 8.213/1991, retirou as crianças e adolescentes sob guarda do rol de dependentes do segurado previdenciário, fazendo com que perdessem o direito à percepção da pensão por morte de seu guardião. Anteriormente, eles tinham esse direito previdenciário garantido, desde que fossem dependentes econômicos do segurado. Essa alteração provocou um conflito entre normas previstas na Lei nº 8.213/91 e o Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente, uma vez que este expressamente declara que crianças e adolescentes sob guarda são dependentes de seu guardião para todos os fins, inclusive previdenciários. A existência desta antinomia jurídica tem provocado polêmica sobre qual lei deveria ser aplicada no caso concreto. Para oferecer um embasamento para uma compreensão adequada sobre o tema, este trabalho analisa os fundamentos do direito da criança e do adolescente, e os institutos de inserção em família substituta, especialmente a guarda. Assim como os principais aspectos para a compreensão do sistema previdenciário e do benefício da pensão por morte. Devido a este conflito normativo, foram propostas diversas ações na justiça, buscando a manutenção deste direito. Apesar da justiça federal geralmente tenha reconhecido esse direito, decisões do Superior Tribunal de Justiça tem prestigiado a interpretação pela especialidade da norma previdenciária para afastar a aplicação do Estatuto da Criança e do adolescente. Também foram propostas Ações Diretas de Inconstitucionalidade e Projetos de Lei buscando reverter os resultados da referida alteração legislativa

Natação Escolar E Desenvolvimento Motor De Crianças Do Primeiro Ciclo De Ensino

TCC (Graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina - Centro de Desportos - Educação Física - Licenciatura.O presente estudo teve como objetivo verificar se a natação escolar figura como uma possibilidade de intervenção pedagógica para potencializar o desenvolvimento motor de crianças do primeiro ciclo de ensino. A pesquisa caracterizou-se como uma pesquisa de campo com delineamento transversal, quantitativo. A população do presente estudo foi composta por alunos que tinham aulas de Educação Física com natação, do Centro Educacional de Barreiros, e por alunos com aluna de Educação Física sem natação, da Escola Adventistas da cidade de Florianópolis. A amostra do presente estudo foi constituída por 33 crianças de ambos os sexos, na faixa etária de 6 a 10 anos de idade. Foi utilizada para a avaliação a Escala do Desenvolvimento Motor do Rosa Neto (2002), com intuito de verificar o nível de desenvolvimento motor de crianças, obtendo um perfil do desenvolvimento destes grupos. Para a análise dos dados foram utilizados procedimentos de estatística descritiva e inferencial, com valor de significância em p≤0,05. Para a comparação dos resultados desenvolvimentistas foi utilizado o teste t de medidas independentes realizado no pacote estatístico SPSS v.22. De maneira geral, o desenvolvimento do presente estudo demonstrou os alunos da escola que tem a natação inserida em suas aulas de Educação Física apresentaram melhor desenvolvimento motor geral que seus pares sem natação na Educação Física

Are dictatorships more unequal? : economic growth and wage inequality during Portugal's estado novo, 1944-1974.

This paper relates the changes in the structure of the Portuguese economy to changes in wage inequality, during 1944-1974, when Portugal had its golden age of growth under a dictatorial regime. We present a new wage data set based on surveys conducted by the Portuguese Statistics Office (INE). Our data set covers the whole economy, including 16 sectors, and data on skilled and unskilled labor for manufacturing, and on male and female labor force for agriculture. To measure the evolution of wage inequality we estimate a Theil index. The results reveal an inverted-U curve with a peak in 1959. We proceed by estimating econometrically the relationship between wage inequality and per capita income growth, controlling for the influence of additional variables that capture the effects of industrialization, investment in human and physical capital, emigration, foreign trade and the size of the government. We find a significant relationship between wage inequality, real GDP per capita, human capital and the share of government spending.Wage inequality; Structural change; Portugal;