Argentino Pessoa

University of Porto | UP · Faculty of Economics

This paper follows an institutional approach to the Euro Zone (EZ) crisis. So, prevailing explanations are criticized, and arguments for rejecting the officials' belief in expansionary austerity are offered. The origins and implications of the most dangerous component of the crisis - the structural imbalance between core and periphery - are explain...

The above article, published online on 4 December 2015 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the author, the journal Editor in Chief, Professor Roberta Capello, and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The retraction has been agreed due to overlap between this article and the following article published in Bel...

O que é a inovação? Qual o contributo da inovação para o desempenho das diferentes economias? Que factores estimulam a capacidade inovadora de sectores, regiões e países? Como pode a inovação ser influenciada pela Ciência e Investigação? Qual o papel das políticas no apoio à inovação? São algumas das questões às quais se procura dar resposta nos se...

O objectivo último deste livro é fornecer ferramentas para compreender a necessidade de Políticas de Inovação, os problemas a que estas podem dar resposta e os instrumentos que utilizam. O primeiro capítulo faz uma introdução à política de inovação, enquadrando-a no contexto da política económica, e explicando os fundamentos da sua existência. Foca...

Current innovation policy is the result of decades of research about the nature and role of innovation in economic growth. Such investigation has contributed to redesign our knowledge not only on the role played by innovation in economic development but also about the relationship between innovation and territory. Although the huge literature exami...

This paper explores the existence of different types of static and dynamic externalities and shows the relationship between externalities, interregional trade, and cluster policy. By guiding policy in choosing the most appropriate strategy for facing some frequent dilemmas, this paper has clear implications in regional development policy and adds t...

While the study of the economic impact of big science has been an area of research, there is little work dedicated to the impact of astronomy projects. The present work shows and discusses empirical data concerning the perceived impact by European Southern Observatory's suppliers of collaborating in the construction, update and operation of the Ver...

While the world’s urban population has yearly expanded by 65 million people, the context and environment of local economic development is quickly evolving. Globalization and technological change, together with rapid development in some world regions are redesigning the world’s urban sceneries. If high economic growth rates are likely to carry afflu...

Along time the European Union (EU) has been pointed as the most succeeded example of regional integration. Now, this example has been cruelly shaken by the EZ (Euro Zone) crisis, originating increasing doubts about the integration process. It is evident that the proposed solutions for attacking the crisis have hurt the European cohesion making more...

This paper reviews the most important theoretical foundations of the concept of spatial competitiveness. To that effect it deals with three levels of competitiveness: the country, the region and the tourism destination. It draws attention to the main aspects that such concepts of competitiveness must include, and it links the regional competitivene...

Essentials of Economic Growth is divided into seven chapters. Every chapter follows the same outline. It begins with a box that contains several questions to motivate study. Next, specific subjects are analysed and discussed. Chapter ends with a summary and conclusions section, followed by exercises and review questions, which allow students to tes...

In the past Portugal managed to grow at a significant rate, but the pace has getting slower and slower from decade to decade, until becoming practically stagnant in the first decade of the 21st century. This stumpy growth together with the current debt crisis has fed the rhetoric of structural reforms in a so obsessive way as if they are a panacea....

Nowadays, policy makers in charge of designing innovation policies, especially at the regional level, are more and more looking at the cluster approach either with a view to accelerate the existing clusters or for providing the basis for the emergence of new ones. In fact, not only as a consequence of their appeal as an interactive and territoriall...

Nowadays, policy makers in charge of designing innovation policies, especially at the regional level, are more and more adopting the cluster approach either with a view to accelerate the existing clusters or for providing the basis for the emergence of new ones. In fact, not only as a consequence of their appeal as an interactive and territorially...

Innovation & Knowledge Economics examines the chief perspectives that have emerged in the last decades about the role of innovation in the economy and in society. Its main aim is to provide readers with the needed instruments to answer questions such us: what is innovation? How does innovation contribute to the different economies' performance? Wha...

After the beginning of the euro area, countries in its periphery engaged in weighty borrowing from foreign private investors, allowing domestic spending to outpace incomes. Now, these countries face debt crises reflecting a loss of creditor confidence in the sustainability of their finances from which results an abrupt end in private foreign lendin...

The literature on clustering has highlighted several advantages of industrial agglomerations. Persons and firms benefit from the production and innovation activities of neighbouring companies in the same and related industries. Considering such benefits, which are viewed as positive externalities, Michael Porter argues that clustering is an importa...

The present note examines the relationship between R&D outlays and economic growth in the OECD context and presents an argument, which confronted with data, cast doubts on the effectiveness of an innovation policy that attempts to improve aggregate productivity only based on increasing R&D intensity.

This paper reviews the most important theoretical foundations of the spatial competitiveness conception, dealing with three levels of competitiveness: the country, the region and the tourism destination. Consequently, it draws attention to the main aspects that such concepts of competitiveness must include and it links the regional competitiveness...

The current wave of PPPs in developing economies was not determined by an endogenous process; on the contrary, it was due to a coincidence of interests between international organizations that shared the view of the Washington Consensus and a set of countries that have considered divestiture the best way to alleviate the public deficit constraints....

Natural resources and physical cultural resources, referred to in this paper as “Environmental Resources”, can be important assets for regional competitiveness and innovation. In recent years, these types of assets have been increasingly taken into consideration in the design and implementation of regional development strategies, as a consequence o...

Clusters, as spatial concentrations of economic activity, constitute an important form of coordination with significant repercussions in the configuration of firm and territorial strategies. They are recognized, both by academics and policymakers, as a territorial pattern of economy yielding critical issues in terms of competitive advantage, innova...

Five decades ago, Simon Kuznets expressed an important hypothesis about the relationship between the degree of income inequality within a country and its level of economic development: the Kuznets's inverted-U hypothesis. The lack of longitudinal data has forced the use of cross-section or pooled datasets in order to draw conclusions about that rel...

Natural resources and physical cultural resources, referred to in this paper as “Environmental Resources”, can be important assets for regional competitiveness and innovation. In recent years, these types of assets have been increasingly taken into consideration in the design and implementation of regional development strategies, as a consequence o...

The paper looks at recent changes in the role of government in the provision of education in Developing Countries. It begins with a reflection about the concept of public-private partnership (PPP), discusses the rationale that inspires the ‘contracting out’ of educational services and describes several cases of private sector involvement in educati...

The present paper deals with the role of political authorities and institutions in explaining growth failures. We aim to search answers for three related questions: is there a natural resources curse? Are all types of natural resources exposed to a curse? Can good institutions, measured by a single indicator, avoid this “curse”? Although the estima...

The developing world needs far more financing for infrastructure than can be provided by domestic public finances alone and through Official Development Aid (ODA). Around middle 1980s a new strategy based on the use of public–private agreements, relying on ODA to enhance the quality of projects, reduce risks and raise profitability was gradually im...

This paper reviews arguments and empirical findings on two related aspects of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment)—its positive effects on host country firms, and the correlation between FDI and economic growth. With the exception of the unambiguous result of microeconometric studies, which is the superior productivity of foreign firms, the main conclus...

Beginning with a snapshot of the recent raise in food prices, the present paper put in question the hypothesis of it be a response to the near end of resources. Examining some medium and long-run factors that explain the evolution of food production, with special focus on cereals, using data of the World Bank for the last 45 years, and a regression...

Using a framework that articulates the most important factors of competitiveness to evaluate the regional economic strategies, and applying this framework to the Portuguese NUT III Douro, we show that this region is relatively weak in terms of internal linkages, subject to ageing and out-migration and lacking in innovation and entrepreneurship, apa...

In this paper we examine the relationship between inward FDI and total factor productivity (TFP) in a framework motivated by the OLI paradigm. A panel data approach is used to study the effects of FDI and payments of royalties and license fees (R&L) on aggregate TFP in a sample of 16 OECD countries, between 1985 and 2002. Our empirical tests show t...

This paper deals with the relationship between innovation and economic growth in the context of developed world. After examining the correlation between economic growth and R&D (research and development) intensity, and given that the impact of R&D on economic growth is mediated by the rate of growth of technology, we proceed trying to assess the li...

This paper reviews arguments and empirical findings on positive effects of FDI on host country firms. With the exception of the only unambiguous result of microeconometric studies, which is the superior productivity of foreign firms, the main conclusion extracted from empirical studies is the diversity of results. This diversity suggests that FDI w...

It is well known that researchers in several traditions have argued that innovation is essential to ensure countries’ economic growth (Schumpeter, 1912; Freeman, 1987; Pavitt, 1982; Romer, 1990; Jones, 1995). At the same time, others researchers have stressed the role of imitative capacity in economic catching-up (Rosenberg, 1963; Abramovitz, 198...

Many developing countries are searching positive impacts on the efficiency, equity and quality provision of the public services through increasing competition and active participation of the private sector, considering public-private partnerships (PPPs) as the appropriate instrument to attain such endeavour. Accordingly, PPPs have been used for man...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) can be a source not just of capital, but also of new technology and intangibles such as organizational and managerial skills, and marketing networks. In this study, a panel data approach is used to study the effects of FDI on aggregate Total Factor Productivity in a sample of 16 OECD countries. We have implemented a...

This paper estimates the parameters of the ideas production function crucial to recent ideas-driven growth models. Using U. S. patents granted to residents in OECD countries to generate the stock of commercially used ideas, we provide evidence for two main findings. First, at the level of the production of ideas, we find evidence of increasing retu...

Por que é tão difícil para tantos países, e parece tão fácil para alguns, alcançar a convergência com os padrões de vida prevalecentes nos países mais avançados? Este artigo procura responder a esta questão, analisando o desempenho de alguns países em desenvolvimento, e o modo como esses países desenvolveram algumas inovações institucionais. A comp...

The aggregate picture of world economic growth shows a remarkable diversity in growth performance, both geographically and across time. We find high growth countries and low growth countries; countries that have grown rapidly throughout time, and countries that have experienced growth spurts for a decade or two; countries that took off around 1980,...

The developing world needs far more financing for infrastructure than can be provided by domestic public finances alone and through ODA. Around middle 1980s a new strategy based on the use of public-private agreements, relying on ODA to enhance the quality of projects, reduce risks and raise profitability was gradually implemented for the provision...

The literature on clustering has highlighted several advantages of industrial agglomerations. Persons and firms benefit from the production and innovation activities of neighbouring companies in the same and related industries. Considering such benefits, Michael Porter states that clustering is an important way for firms fulfilling their competitiv...

This paper reviews the most important theoretical foundations of the spatial competitiveness conception, dealing with three levels of competitiveness: the country, the region and the tourism destination. Consequently, it draws attention to the main aspects that such concepts of competitiveness must include and it links the regional competitiveness...

Dissertação de Doutoramento em Economia apresentada à Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto