Literature earnings management aims to determine what causes/motivates managers to disclose earnings close to zero and to use this as an instrument to influence users' decisions. However, limited research has been carried out on this subject in the public sector. Therefore, the main purpose of...

In a period of heightened concern about fiscal consolidation in the euro area a politically expedient way of controlling the public budget is to cut public investment. A critical question, however, is whether or not political expediency comes at a cost, in terms of both long-term economic...

In this paper we find that public investment in durable goods has a positive effect on long-term economic performance in Portugal. We also find that these positive effects are not strong enough for public investment to pay for itself in the form of future tax revenues. Therefore, cuts in public...

In this work we use a VAR/ECM approach to determine the effects of aggregated public investment on output, employment and private investment for five EU countries. Based on impulse-response functions associated to the estimated VAR, we obtain long-term accumulated elasticities, long-term...

We focus on regional convergence based upon a sample of 19 European countries (1991-2008). After covering theoretical issues on -convergence and -convergence, we focused on the income distribution details. Our evidence confirms some results presented elsewhere, such as the convergence process...

<title/> Local government accounting in Portugal has changed significantly over the past five years bringing local government accounting closer to business accounting. The previous system was basically cash-based and budget-oriented, now cash-based budgeting is used with accrual-based financial and cost...

Several studies have demonstrated how physical activity in older people benefits their physical fitness, health and well-being. The relation between physical activity and perceived functional capacity and health is yet to be considered. This study is a quantitative research design that...

The Portuguese government recently launched a new program to refurbish the secondary schools all over the country. Along with this process more responsibilities are being transferred to local governments concerning pre and elementary schools. This is seen as the main motivation for the...