What hides behind the fixed-term contracts wage gap?

In Portugal, about 20% of full-time workers are employed under a fixed-term contract. Using a rich longitudinal matched employer-employee dataset for Portugal, with more than 20 million observations and covering the 2002-2012 period, we confirm the common idea that fixed-term contracts are not desirable when compared to permanent ones, by estimating a conditional wage gap of -1.7 log points. Then, we evaluate the sources of that wage penalty by combining a three way high-dimensional fixed effects model with the decomposition of Gelbach (2014), in which the three dimensions considered are the worker’s unobserved ability, the firm’s compensation wage policy and the job title effect. It is shown that the average worker with a fixed-term contract is less productive than his/her permanent counterparts, explaining -3.92 log points of the FTC wage penalty. Additionally, the sorting of workers into lower-paid job titles is also responsible for -0.59 log points of the wage gap. Surprisingly, we found that the allocation of workers among firms mitigates the existing wage penalty (in 4.23 log points), as fixed-term workers are concentrated into firms with a more generous compensation policy. Finally, following Figueiredo et al. (2014), we further control for the worker-firm match characteristics and reach the conclusion that fixed-term employment relationships have an overrepresentation of low quality worker-firm matches, explaining 0.65 log points of the FTC wage penalty.

The reasons behind the progression in PISA scores: An education production function approach using semi-parametric techniques

Research Masters

The role of implicit contracts: Building public works in the 1840s in Portugal

Business History, Vol 50 No 2, p147-162

Efficient advertising strategies for the fragrance market

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Internationalization process of h3 to the UK market

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

How differently do our non-large companies listed on the Portuguese Stock Exchange perform?

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Economics from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

The strategic drivers of the 'revolution': Harley-Davidson and Porsche

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Determinants of the Portuguese government bond yield spread

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

The Portuguese Administrative Elite, 1851-1910

The aim of this article is to examine the composition and patterns of recruitment of the ministries’directors-general, as well as to assess the interconnections between bureaucracy and politics, from the beginnings of Regeneração (1851) until the breakdown of Monarchy (1910). The post of director-general was considered one of “political trust”, that might be filled by individuals from outside the civil service, and the selection and de-selection of officeholders depended exclusively on the ministers’ will. Nonetheless, most directors-general were experienced bureaucrats, boasting a steady career as civil servants, and remained in office for long terms, regardless of ministerial discontinuities. In other words, High Administration became relatively immune to party-driven politics. Due to their professional background and lengthy tenure, directors-general were usually highly skilled specialists, combining technical expertise and practical knowledge of the wheels of state bureaucracy. Hence, they were often influential actors in policy-making, playing an active (and sometimes decisive) part behind the scenes, in both designing and implementing government policies. As regards their social profile, directors-general formed a cohesive and homogeneous elite group: being predominantly drawn from urban middle class milieus, highly educated, and appointed to office in their forties.

The establishment mode choice of German multinational enterprises in Brazil: A comparative approach

We examine the drivers behind the establishment mode choice of German multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the sectors of Automotive, Chemicals and Mechanical Engineering in Brazil for the years 1993-2013 using a novel sample of primary data obtained directly from German MNEs. Based on prevalent theories found in the literature, we test the most common hypotheses on our sample. Firms with high R&D activities and firms with prior market knowledge in Brazil in from of previous sales offices are more likely to enter Brazil by a Greenfield investment. We also show that it is the specific private ownership of the German so-called hidden champions that drive those specific SMEs to enter Brazil by Greenfield, a sneaking suspicion that has been made before. Finally, we show that the establishment mode choice between Brazil and the USA only deviates to a low extent, with German MNEs preferring to enter Brazil by Greenfield and the USA by M&A. Thereby, we provide valuable insights for future research in this field.

Statistics as a basis for discrimination in the insurance business

The European Court of Justice has held that as from 21 December 2012 insurers may no longer charge men and women differently on the basis of scientific evidence that is statistically linked to their sex, effectively prohibiting the use of sex as a factor in the calculation of premiums and benefits for the purposes of insurance and related financial services throughout the European Union. This ruling marks a sharp turn away from the traditional view that insurers should be allowed to apply just about any risk assessment criterion, so long as it is sustained by the findings of actuarial science. The naïveté behind the assumption that insurers’ recourse to statistical data and probabilistic analysis, given their scientific nature, would suffice to keep them out of harm’s way was exposed. In this article I look at the flaws of this assumption and question whether this judicial decision, whilst constituting a most welcome landmark in the pursuit of equality between men and women, has nonetheless gone too far by saying too little on the million dollar question of what separates admissible criteria of differentiation from inadmissible forms of discrimination.

Does the existing Corporate Governance structure and strict Legal Framework, affect the strategic decisionmaking of CEOs?

This thesis is a case study on Corporate Governance and Business Ethics, using the Portuguese Corporate Law as a general setting. The thesis was conducted in Portugal with illustrations on past cases under the Business Judgment Rule of the State of Delaware, U.SA along with illustrations on current cases in Portugal under the Portuguese Judicial setting, along with a comparative analysis between both. A debate is being considered among scholars and executives; a debate on best practices within corporate governance and corporate law, associated with recent discoveries of unlawful investments that lead to the bankruptcy of leading institutions and an aggravation of the crisis in Portugal. The study aimed at learning possible reasons and causes for the current situation of the country’s corporations along with attempts to discover the best way to move forward. From the interviews and analysis conducted, this paper concluded that the corporate governance structure and legal frameworks in Portugal were not the sole influencers behind the actions and decisions of Corporate Executives, nor were they the main triggers for the recent corporate mishaps. But it is rather a combination of different factors that played a significant role, such as cultural and ethical aspects, individual personalities, and others all of which created gray areas beyond the legal structure, which in turn accelerated and aggravated the corporate governance crisis in the country.

Actividade ígnea pós-paleozóica no continente português (elementos para uma síntese crítica)

The Author presents a synopsis about the post-Paleozoic igneous activity in continental Portugal. Subvolcanic massifs of Sintra, Sines and Monchique and the basaltic complex of Lisbon-Mafra are interpreted. The large network of dikes and sills occuring at north of Tagus river in Lisbon- Torres Vedras region as the dikes of Algarve and also those of diapiric formation are studied and compared. Also the doleritic dikes cuting the Hesperic Massif and the Great dike of Alentejo are studied. The Author presents an attempt of petrological and geochemical correlation-among these post-Paleozoic igneous rocks. For this more than 350 chemical analysis are used in order to elaborate several diagrams and some general conclusions are derived from them. The correlation between the origin of these igneous rocks and the opening of North Atlantic and the counter-clockwise rotation of the Iberia are also tried.

Fisioterapia e reabilitação em Portugal : o financiamento como factor crítico do desempenho

RESUMO - Num contexto em que a prestação de cuidados de Fisioterapia e Reabilitação é identificada como apresentando uma desigualdade e desajustamento da oferta regional superior à dos restantes cuidados de saúde, assim como uma falta de adequação dos preços praticados, perante as condições de oferta e procura actualmente existentes, o presente trabalho tem por objectivo investigar, no domínio do Desempenho, a influência do Financiamento na definição da prestação destes cuidados, tendo como pressuposto genérico que as decisões estratégicas e a reestruturação produtiva das organizações de saúde são condicionadas pelo sistema de preços. Considera-se que o actual sistema de Financiamento/Pagamento provoca um constrangimento na qualidade da resposta destes cuidados a dois níveis: um primeiro nível, ao colocar o pagamento no âmbito dos Meios Complementares de Diagnóstico e Terapêutica (MCDTs) a contratar pelo Serviço Nacional de Saúde, com isso determinando a configuração organizativa do sistema; um segundo nível de constrangimento que incide sobre as estruturas das organizações prestadoras, pela modelação que induz, nomeadamente a nível da sua produção. Na impossibilidade de tratar as duas dimensões do problema, pela falta de indicadores de desempenho deste sector, analisou-se, relativamente ao segundo nível de constrangimento, a produção de fisioterapia de três organizações que, potencialmente, teriam o mesmo o mesmo perfil de oferta por se enquadrarem num mesmo perfil de procura. Os resultados reflectem o pressuposto genérico do trabalho e abrem espaço para colocar como futura hipótese de investigação a razão da(s) causa(s) que poderão estar subjacentes à discrepância encontrada na média de tratamentos por sessão (duas vezes e meia) na produção das duas organizações que foi possível comparar.------------------- ABSTRACT - In a context where the provision of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation care is identified as having a regional mismatch of supply and inequality above all the others health cares, and a lack of adequacy of prices in the current conditions of supply and demand, the present work has, as main purpose, to investigate, in the field of Performance, the Payment’s influence in shaping the provision of such health care. The general assumption tracking this analysis is that the strategic decisions on productive structure of health care organizations are influenced by the price systems. It is considered that the current Finance / Payment system causes two levels of constraints on the quality of such health care: a first constraint, as it putts its payment under the Supplementary Means of Diagnosis and Therapy (MCDTs), witch ends up establishing the organizational setup of the system; a second level of constraint by modelling the internal structure of these organizations. The lack of indicators characterizing the performance of this sector, addressed the present study to the second dimension, in witch was analysed the physical therapy production in three organizations that, potentially, would have the same profile of supply responding to similar characteristics of demand. The results reflect the above mentioned general assumption that supported the work, and leave an open space for future research, about the reason (s) that lay behind the discrepancy found between the average of treatments per session (two and a half times) in

Talk on water ecological economics and participatory watershed governance

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Ambiente pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia