REGIONAL EMPLOYMENT IN PORTUGAL: DIFFERENCES AND CYCLICAL SYNCHRONISATION

Leonida CORREIA

Assistant Professor Department of Economy, Sociology and Management (DESG), Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies (CETRAD), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD) Quinta de Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal. Tel: +351 259 350699;

lcorreia@utad.pt

Marina ALVES

Master’s degree in Economic and Management Sciences in UTAD

alves2_marina@hotmail.com

Abstract

This paper analyses the specificities of employment in Portuguese regions at a disaggregated level of NUTS III, comparing the differences of several indicators between the last two censuses. It also examines the synchronisation of regional employment cycles over the 2000-2014 period, using the information provided for the new nomenclature of NUTS. The comparison of several employment’s characteristics (total and by sex, age group, sector of activity and main occupation) across the 7 regions and 25 sub-regions allowed us to conclude that Portugal is marked by substantial regional specificities. The analysis of the evolution of employment ‘cycles highlight the substantial reduction in the employment rate since the beginning of the 2000s, with particular intensity in the period of the recent crisis, and considerable differences across regions and at the intraregional level. The results from the synchronisation reveal a great heterogeneity in the degree of correlation between the sub-national cycles and the national cycle. Additionally, they suggest that, in general, the cyclical pattern of the sub-regions is more closely related to the regions that they belong to than that of the Portuguese cycle. The paper concludes that this heterogeneity should be addressed in the context of policy making, by means to construct appropriate responses to counteract the regional differences.

Keywords: employment, disparities, cycles, Portuguese regions

JEL classification: E32, J21, R11, R12

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PRODUCTIVE EFFICIENCY OF PORTUGUESE VINEYARD REGIONS

Ana MARTA-COSTA

Corresponding author. Assistant Professor. University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) and Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies (CETRAD), Portugal, www.utad.pt

amarta@utad.pt

Vítor MARTINHO

Coordinator Professor. Agricultura School, Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, Portugal

vdmartinho@esav.ipv.pt.

Micael SANTOS

Research fellow. University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) and Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies (CETRAD)

micaels@utad.pt

Abstract

The overall globalization in wine industry and the search for sustainability of the sector has increased competition which highlights the importance of productivity gains. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the productive efficiency of the viticulture sector for the Portuguese regions, over the period 1989 to 2007, with data from the EUFADN, using both a deterministic and stochastic approach. The results show an increase of Technical Efficiency (TE) when used the stochastic frontiers analysis (SFA) in all regions, while the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach through the Malmquist index reveals a stabilization of TE.

Keywords: Efficiency, productivity, Portuguese regions, viticulture.

JEL classification: C6, Q1

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