A common and longstanding assumption in the economic growth literature has been that total factor productivity growth is lower in the agriculture sector than in the rest of the economy. Using a stochastic production frontier finite mixture model, labor productivity change is decomposed into...

With the recent wave of privatisation and liberalisation the number of state owned firms has remarkably decreased. In some industries, namely in healthcare and education, and in many countries, they go on playing an important role, alone or competing with private ones. In this paper we use a...

Understanding the causes of the dramatic rise in health insurance costs in the United States over the past two decades is of increasing importance to employers and policymakers. While past studies focus primarily on macroeconomic developments and changes in the health sector, little attention...

The promotion of a competition policy in air transport faces several obstacles. One of them is the absence of mobility airports’ slots. The European Commission has been preparing legislation on this matter, with the prime objective of encouraging an effective mobility that leads to a more...

Given the increased internationalisation of the Portuguese economy through outward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), particularly on the Portuguese-speaking countries, our main objective is to discuss the empirical relationship between this outward FDI and trade. We use panel data analysis within...

This paper revises the thesis that exporting firms learn to be more innovative and efficient as they have contact with certain information flows from their foreign activity (e.g., from buyers, suppliers or competitors). The paper begins by exploring the connections between two distinct concepts:...

This paper studies a non-degenerate price distribution for the homogeneous good within a model of endogenous directed technical change. A probability density function is analytically derived and shown to be related to the technology and innovation parameters of the model.

Using a theoretical model, we examine both the relationship between a downstream dominant firm’s market share and an upstream monopoly’s Lerner index and the relationship between upstream and downstream price elasticities of demand, in a regulated industry context. We undertake an empirical...

Academic and political interest in Academic Spin-offs (ASOs) has increased significantly in Portugal in the last few years. Although these firms, created to exploit the results of scientific research, are considered important contributors to employment and wealth creation, in the Portuguese...

As the global economy becomes more integrated, the international fragmentation of the value chain activities becomes regular. Despite the recent wave of domestic and cross-border vertical disintegration, vertical integration of R&D remains a decision for some firms. The aim of this paper is to...