José Pedro Pontes

• Full Professor
• Professor (Full) at University of Lisbon

In the model of agricultural land use and rent of Von Thunen (1826), manufacturing decentralization is viewed as the refining (or “distilling”) of an agricultural commodity near the cultivation site, which substitutes for its transport to an industrial mill located in the Town. As Friedrich List (1841) added, this substitution is economically feasi...

The transition from a traditional, constant returns technology to modern, increasing returns methods of production in manufacturing not only widens the scale of production but more crucially, it enhances product quality. Such a quality improvement consists mainly in a much higher level of transportability. The fact that products become “lighter” an...

In this paper, we establish a two-way causality between the phenomenon of infrastructure which is underused (the so-called “white elephant case”) and the aggregate productivity level (TFP) of the economy. On the one hand, the fact that a transport infrastructure is not used as much as it could be is itself a cause of low TFP because it represents l...

The learning group in regional economics works in a similar way to the Balint medical group. During a session, a ‘problem’ is presented by a group member, in the context of a rotation or ‘turn taking’. The other members do not try to ‘solve the problem’ by adding technical information or giving ‘advice’ to the presenter. Instead, they explore its m...

One of the European policy objectives, as envisaged by the EC Transport White Paper, is to reduce Europe's dependence on imported oil and to cut greenhouse gas emission from transport by 20% by 2030 and by 70% until 2050 (with respect to 2008 levels). For achieving this goal, the role of integrated energy and urban mobility systems are explored as...

Integrated energy and urban mobility systems are key components for achieving cities' sustainability. Several urban metabolism approaches are emerging as leading tools for quantifying energy consumption and use patterns of resources in urban environments. Examples are the mass balance accounting (or energy-materials flux approach) using several qua...

This paper studies the endogenous choice of transport technology, “traditional” versus “modern,” by a shipper. Although the “modern” technology is characterized by higher fixed costs and a higher speed of transport, it is chosen for intermediate distances, rather than to long distances. The reason is that, when the shipper switches to the “modern”...

The learning group in Regional Economics works in a similar way as the Balint medical group. During a session, a “problem” is presented by a group member, in the context of a rotation or “turn taking”. The other members do not try to ”solve the problem” by adding technical information or giving “advice” to the presenter. Instead, they explore its m...

This paper describes the implementation of a new protocol for the regular economics seminar run by the Economics Department of ISEG and the research center UECE during academic year 2010-2011. The main innovative features of this protocol were: the introduction of a discussant that explains the paper using a clear, non-technical language, thus givi...

In a set-up with intermediate production, we analyze how a shipper's choice of transport technology, traditional versus modern, interacts with the mode of foreign expansion by an service firm, export versus foreign direct investment (FDI). In terms of the mode of foreign expansion by the service firm, we obtain that: due to trade in intermediate go...

This paper models the location of two vertically related firms in a low labor cost country and in a country with a large market. The upstream industry is more labor intensive than the downstream industry. We find that spatial fragmentation occurs for low values of the input-output coefficient and intermediate values of the transport rate, particula...

This paper studies the issue of agglomeration versus fragmentation of vertically related industries. While the downstream industry works under perfect competition, the upstream industry is a duopoly where each firm supplies a differentiated input to the competitive firms. These process the inputs under a quadratic production function entailing decr...

This paper presents a non-monotonic relationship between foreign direct investment and trade based on the idea that, although FDI eliminates trade costs on the final good, the investing firm has to bear increased trade costs on an intermediate good.

This paper models the decision of vertically-linked firms to build either partitioned or connected networks of supply of an intermediate good. In each case, the locations of upstream and downstream firms are correlated. Input specificity is related both to variable costs (transport costs of the input) and fixed costs (learning costs of the use of t...

This paper examines the equilibrium of location of N vertically-linked firms. In a spatial economy composed of two regions, a monopolist firm supplies an input to N consumer goods firms that compete in quantities. It was concluded that, when there are increases in the transport cost of the input, downstream firms prefer to agglomerate in the region...

This paper models, in game-theoretical terms, the location of two vertically-linked monopolistic firms in a spatial economy formed by a large, high labor cost country and a relatively small, low labor cost country. It is found that the decrease in transport costs shifts firms towards the low production cost country. This process takes two different...

This paper presents a non-monotonic relationship between foreign direct investment and trade based on the idea that, although FDI eliminates trade costs on the final good, the investing firm has to bear increased trade costs on an intermediate good.

A classification of the locational patterns of firms (with economies of scale and scope present) is outlined in order to shed light on the location of the multiplant, multinational firm, which is driven by three forces: spatial economies of scale and scope that follow from the co-location of different activities sharing a common fixed input; transp...

This paper assesses the impact of the production and use of an intermediate good upon the location of productive activity in an economy consisting of two asymmetrically sized regions. The Nash equilibria of locations of an upstream and two downstream firms are completely defined in the the space of parameters “transport cost” and “intensity of vert...

This paper examines the location of three vertically-linked firms. In a spatial economy composed of two regions, a monopolist firm supplies an input to two consumer goods firms that compete in quantities. It is concluded that agglomeration is more likely to occur when the ratio between the transport cost of the intermediate good and the transport c...

This paper examines the equilibrium of location of N vertically-linked firms. In a spatial economy composed of two regions, a monopolist firm supplies an input to N consumer goods firms that compete in quantities. It was concluded that, when there are increases in the transport cost of the input, downstream firms prefer to agglomerate in the region...

In a two-region economy, two upstream firms supply an input to two consumer goods firms. For two different location patterns (site specificity and co-location of the suppliers), the firms play a three-stage game: the input suppliers select transport rates; then they choose outputs; finally the buyers select quantities of the consumer good. It is co...

Os estudos existentes sobre economias de aglomeração caracterizam o papel da mel-horia dos transportes, designadamente rodoviários, como conducente a uma descentral-ização no espaço da indústria transformadora e da actividade económica em geral. Esta visão tem subjacente modelos de localização assentes numa relativa imobilidade da força de trabalho...

Although empirical evidence shows that the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade is complex, theories of international investment (both vertical and horizontal) present simple patterns of relation.By allowing for different locations of vertically-related stages of production and distinguishing between trade in finished good...

A classification of the locational patterns of firms (with economies of scope present) is outlined, in order to cast light on the location of the multiplant, multinational firm. This is driven by three forces: economies of scope that follow from the co-location of different activities; transportation costs of the final good; and factor mobility cos...

This paper examines the location of three vertically-linked firms. In a spatial economy composed of two regions, a monopolist firm supplies an input to two consumer goods firms that compete in quantities. The interaction between the firms is modelled by means of a three-stage game, where the firms first select locations, then the upstream firm choo...

This paper is an appraisal of the economic feasibility of the location of clusters of firms in peripheral areas. In a spatial economy formed by two asymmetric regions, an upstream firm supplies an input to two downstream firms. This economy is modelled as a three-stage noncooperative game. In the first stage, the firms choose locations simultaneous...

In a game where firms select locations,technological interactions through the exchange of intermediate goods bring about a multiplicity of locational equilibria and entail a pattern of agglomeration of the productive activity with the variation of the transport costs that is opposite to the one usually proposed in the literature, namely in VENABLES...

In a regional integration area two processes take place simultaneously: the fall of trade costs and the regional convergence of per capita of the countries. The impact of these trends upon the location of the productive activity is examined through a static two person noncooperative game where each player(firm)selects one of three spatial strategie...

The paper surveys the main trends of per capita income convergence in the European Union. It stresses that income disparities have ceased to diminish across the European regions since 1980, although convergence between countries has continued in this period. Income levels have diverged inside each country in a weak sense with two exceptions. Theore...

The paper treats a noncooperative game where an upstream firm and two downstream firms select locations in a spatial system made by two asymmetric countries. The location of the upstream firm is indeterminate and it is assigned to the smaller country, in order to avoid triviality of the location problem. The Nash equilibria of locations of the down...

The importance and the impacts of horizontal multinational corporations in the context of integration and economic growth processes are examined. A noncooperative game with two firms that choose to have either one or two plants located in two asymmetric countries is used. The firms compete purely through location. Economic integration has an ambigu...

The paper surveys the main trends of per capita income convergence in the European Union. It stresses that income disparities have ceased to diminish across the European regions since 1980, although convergence between countries has continued in this period. Income levels have diverged inside each country in a weak sense with two exceptions. Theore...

Main trends of per capita income convergence in Portugal and the European Union are surveyed. An explanation is given to the fact that in the last two decades countries have converged, while no visible convergence has taken place among the regions belonging to a given country. A theoretical explanation is proposed in terms of regional growth. Assum...

A Hotelling-type model of spatial competition is considered, in which two firms compete in uniform delivered prices. First, it is shown that there exists no uniform delivered price–location equilibrium when the product sold by the firms is perfectly homogeneous andwhen consumers buy from the firm quoting the lower delivered price. Second, when the...

This paper examines the equilibrium of location of N vertically-linked firms. In a spatial economy composed of two regions, a monopolist firm supplies an input to N consumer goods firms that compete in quantities. It was concluded that, when there are increases in the transport cost of the input, downstream firms prefer to agglomerate in the region...

This paper deals with the location of input supply in a two country spatial economy. A duopoly supplies intermediate goods to a perfectly competitive consumer good industry that operates with a quadratic production function inspired in PENG, THISSE and WANG (2006). Since the consumer good is non-tradable, the downstream industry locates in both cou...