We review the main budgetary measures not accepted by the Portuguese Constitutional Court in the Budget Laws of 2012, 2013 and 2014. Considering the feedback effect of the fiscal impulse, the impact on the budget balance is -0.42% and of -0.34% of GDP respectively for 2013 and for 2014; in both...

This article presents an evaluation of the economic adjustment program negotiated between the Portuguese government and the Troika (European Commission, ECB and IMF) in May 2011, with an assessment different from the usual exercises. Instead of an ex-post comparison between the actual results...

The redistributive effect of the Portuguese welfare state through pensions, benefits and taxes is investigated in detail over the 2006-10 period using disposable income as benchmark. All social and fiscal policy instruments analysed contribute significantly to the reduction in inequality and...

The Portuguese elderly poverty rate has decreased significantly in recent years as elderly incomes have increased, and inequality and material deprivation levels have converged to their national levels. This paper investigates whether this improved situation is widespread across the elderly, but...

This paper is about the relative economic performance of clustered and non-clustered companies in the different phases of the cluster life cycle. It starts with the explanation of a puzzling localization behaviour, namely that most of the Portuguese cork manufacturing firms are concentrated in...