The implementation of innovation has a central role in the dynamic knowledge economy of the twenty-first century. The ability to assemble new expertise and commercialise new business propositions constitutes one of the central characteristics in today’s globalising, learning-intensive, fast...

The Stability and Growth Pact and the process of fiscal consolidation in several European countries have enhanced the role of fiscal rules at sub-national level. This paper analyzes the combined effect of a rule to allocate capital and current block grants to local governments and the “golden...

In this paper we review the European macroeconomic policy framework, and address the issue of setting safe deficit targets - targets that make it very unlikely that a country exceeds the 3 per cent ceiling of the Stability and Growth Pact. In this context, the scope for an increase in public...

In spite of the increasing efforts on behalf of the administrations to meliorate qualitatively the prevention and combat measures undertaken, the wildfire scenario in Mediterranean regions has been worsen and one fears that the situation will be aggravated. Within a backdrop scenario of resource...

In order to assess the existence of expansionary fiscal consolidations in Europe, panel data models for private consumption are estimated for the EU15 countries, using annual data over the period 1970–2005. Three alternative approaches to determine fiscal episodes are used, and the level of...

We develop a measure of core inflation in the UK over the period January1987 - December 1998, following the work of Bryan and Cecchetti (1996),Bryan, Cecchetti and Wiggins (1997) and Roger (1997). Disaggregation is into85 price categories. Given the high kurtosis of the price change distribution...

This study, continuing work executed in 2006, determines, analyses and publishes rankings concerning the functionalities of information services of Portuguese municipalities, based on the direct observation of their web sites, executed between March and June of 2007. It summarizes information...

This paper investigates the impact of foreign direct investment on the productivity performance of domestic firms in Portugal. The data comprise nine manufacturing sectors for the period 1992-95. Relatively to previous studies, model specification is improved by taking into consideration several...