Sandra Silva

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Verified

Sandra verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD in Economics at FEP, U.Porto
• Associate Professor at University of Porto

The composite indicator (CI) is a powerful tool to observe the performance of various alternatives when several dimensions are in question. Normalisation, weighting and aggregation are known as the three obligatory steps to build a CI. The current paper proposes a new and unconventional method, that does not require any of these steps to construct...

The issue of population ageing is no longer exclusively centred on developed countries. Empirical studies have proven that the rise in the proportion of the older age group has been already visible in the least Developed Countries (LDCs). The primary concern of population ageing in LDCs is that ageing is approaching LDCs even faster than approachin...

The European transnational cooperation process, implemented via the ongoing 15 EU IN-TERREG-B programmes, is integrated in the second objective of EU Cohesion Policy: Euro-pean Territorial Cooperation. Aiming to promote better cooperation and regional development processes within the European Union by a joint approach to tackle common issues, the E...

We propose a North-South model that reconciles trade and production strategies, flows of innovators and the path of economic divergence, or convergence, between countries. We explain the mechanisms behind these forces and show how the technological and economic gaps can be reversed if southern countries stop imitating northern goods and, instead, p...

Understanding the causes of the Industrial Revolution, namely the process of transition from a Malthusian equilibrium to modern economic growth, has been the subject of passionate debate. This paper contributes to insights into the process of industrialization and the demographic transition that followed. We present a model that proposes a mechanis...

While the effects of innovation on employment have been a controversial issue in economic literature for several years, this economic puzzle is particularly relevant nowadays. We are witnessing tremendous technological developments which threaten to disrupt the labour market, due to their potential for significantly automating human labour. As such...

While public intervention in Research and Development (R & D) is generally supported by economic theory and R & D subsidies are being implemented in most OECD countries, evidence on their effectiveness fails to reveal conclusive results. Exploring data from approved and rejected applicants to two R & D funding instruments in Portugal, we provide fu...

Ageing is no longer an issue belonging just to developed countries. In the present paper we examine the presence of this phenomenon and its expected evolution in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), from 1950 to 2100. The empirical work carried out sustains that LDCs are in the process of becoming ageing countries. Indeed, the old age dependency r...

This paper proposes a new theoretical framework aimed at understanding the link between technological change, skill premium, and employment. We build an endogenous growth model of directed technological change with vertical research and development (R&D) in which low-skilled workers might be organized in a trade union. This union can act as a monop...

Studies relating ageing and countries’ economic performance address mostly developed economies. However, extant studies demonstrate that less developed countries (LDC) and emerging economies (EE) are reaching the transition process faster than those from developed regions, which renders the speed of ageing, besides ageing, a critical variable to ex...

This paper studies the effect of intellectual property rights (IPR) on economic growth, in the light of population ageing, i.e., in a more realistic context. The analysis is motivated by the implications of population ageing on economic growth. Moreover, this study analyses this relationship in a north–south framework where there is a healthcare se...

We propose an endogenous growth model with new political economy elements in order to (1) examine how political incentives affect economic allocations and (2) study the effects of political rivalry on human capital accumulation and income inequality. Focusing on two important policies affecting economic performance—fiscal policy and public investme...

There are a vast number of studies on the relationship between R&D and exports. However, the results are not always clear-cut. This study evaluates whether, in the case of a small, open and peripheral country in which exports are the engine of economic growth despite a noticeable laggardness in terms of R&D, the firms’ R&D impacts on and/or is infl...

In this paper we intend to empirically examine the impact of political rivalry on four selected macroeconomic variables: public investments in education, school enrolment, GDP per capita and income inequality. We first construct a political rivalry indicator and examine how it varies across different groups of countries. We then perform a series of...

Although a myriad of important theoretical and empirical contributions on ageing populations exist, these are diffuse and lack an integrated vision of the distinct mechanisms through which ageing populations affect economic growth. This being the case, in this paper we survey the literature that provides insights regarding the ageing population and...

This paper develops a meta-analysis of the empirical literature that estimates the effect of inequality on growth. It covers studies published in scientific journals during 1994-2014 that examine the impact on growth of inequality in income, land, and human capital distribution. We find traces of publication bias in this literature, as authors and...

Although a myriad of important theoretical and empirical contributions on ageing populations exist, these are diffuse and lack an integrated vision of the distinct mechanisms through which ageing populations affect economic growth. This being the case, in this paper we survey the literature that provides insights regarding the ageing population and...

Literature shows that a high level of new firm creation significantly contributes to regional economic performance and is a clear sign of a thriving economy; hence, the understanding of the factors promoting new firm formation is crucial for economic development. Typically, literature has shown the influence of several variables such as the unemplo...

Population ageing and its influence on the economic growth has long been the focus of major concern. Using bibliometric techniques we found that: (1) although ageing has increasingly attracted more researchers within economics literature, the relative weight of ageing and economic growth related papers does not evidence a clear positive trend; (2)...

This study provides a relevant contribution to literature on the macroeconomic determinants of multidimensional deprivation in developed countries; this type of analysis is not as frequent in the literature as that explaining poverty stricto sensu. After a review of the macroeconomic mechanisms of poverty, we propose a composite index to capture mu...

It is widely recognized that scientific research has a dramatic impact on economies since it is crucial to foster technological knowledge. Today’s migratory movements and concentration of highly educated population and population with high scientific potential in developed countries play an essential role in enhancing research and boosting economic...

In this paper, we develop a general equilibrium endogenous growth model that emphasizes the IPR enforcement effects on growth, in a scenario of north–south technological knowledge diffusion. The economy consists of three sectors, and firms are engaged in step-by-step innovation. In line with the literature, we introduce an IPR parameter that makes...

This paper is a critical survey of the empirical literature on the effects of inequality on economic growth. We conclude that it is most likely that the disparities found in the results are due to differences in the type of countries and time periods included in the samples, the variable used to measure inequality, the structure of the data, and th...

The construction of formal models that deal with space observed a huge increase since the late 1980s. As Fujita et al. (1999) stress, the field of regional economics experienced a revival with the emergence of new analytical tools such as the diffusion of imperfect competition models, networks and mathematical programming. One of the most powerful...

The demographic transition process, mostly associated with the increase in longevity and the decrease in fertility, has introduced the world to the era of “ageing population”. Hodgson (1988) and Bloom et al. (1998) argue that the ex post effect of the demographic dividend was the main reason behind the ageing problem. According to Hodgson (1988), i...

The relation between growth and unemployment is being studied throughout a diverse set of contributions over the last years. Taking into account the current economic situation, this topic is regaining attention amongst economists essentially due to the importance of this relationship as a way to overcome the high unemployment rate that has been cha...

Institutions, crucial for the analysis of how agents deal with uncertainty, have been gaining increasing relevance on the Economic research agenda. In this paper, we analyze the institutional literature that provides insights into different research fields, aiming to explain why this perspective obtains better results than others, in the field of g...

Despite her sadly short academic life, Leonor Vasconcelos Ferreira has left us a set of publications of noticeable scientific quality and explicitly social relevance, focusing on the study and measurement of poverty and income inequality. The present article briefly summarises the outcome of her work and the concerns underpinning it.

This paper studies the relations between micro credit and territory, assuming that micro credit is an important instrument for fighting against poverty and social exclusion. Based on a micro-level database provided by ANDC (Associação Nacional de Direito ao Crédito), a statistical and econometric study has been undertaken in order to identify the t...

In the first part of this paper the effects of trade cycles on economic growth are discussed to test the hypothesis of autocatalytic trade cycles, which indicates that more innovation is produced in countries that are a part of these cycles. Using United Nations data, a trade network is constructed and from this network, a set of variables that rep...

Microcredit and microfinance emerged in the 1970’s in Bangladesh and other developing countries and expanded rapidly worldwide as a business model financially sustainable and able to fight poverty and social exclusion. Empirical evidence confirms microcredit ability to mitigate poverty but its financial sustainability is controversial. Using 2006-2...

In this work we intend to study how the quality of the institutional factor may influence the efficiency of redistribution policy specifically associated with human capital accumulation. We develop a conceptual discussion building on the importance of income redistribution for economic growth and the key role of political institutions in securing g...

Within evolutionary economics only a few models have dealt with labour issues. Although some evolutionary models consider distinct types of human capital they do not introduce labour market dynamics. Building a computer simulation model which deals with the nature and evolution of the knowledge that guides firms’ efforts to improve their “instituti...

In the last two decades, there has been a noticeable increase in published research on evolutionary economics. The general perception is that formalization lags behind appreciative work. Notwithstanding, this general reading has yet to be supported by real data analysis. This work presents a survey on evolutionary economics, aimed at exploring the...

This paper proposes a discussion on evolutionary technological change and economic growth theory, using the Lakatosian Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes as an appraisal criterion. Since the persistence of some inflexibility in this approach made it difficult to capture fundamental features of the scientific undertaking at hand, an alter...

This paper proposes an evolutionary model that captures the main dynamics of a world where heterogeneous firms and workers interact and co-evolve. Within a micro-meso perspective, the model focuses on the influence of firms' "institutional settings" on industry dynamics, formalizing these settings as firms' labor choices. Benefiting from insights o...

In the last two decades there has been a noticeable increase in published research in evolutionary economics. The idea that formal modelling is a sine qua non condition for establishing a rigours and coherence scientific frame, has led to an over concern with formalization issues among evolutionary researchers. The general perception is that formal...

The understanding of the economy's aggregate growth patterns is a fundamental objective of economic growth theorizing. However, the micro constructions are strongly linked to economic growth and so cannot be neglected in such process. This paper is concerned with this problem, proposing a formal mechanism to establish the bridge between macro regul...

This work presents a comprehensive survey on evolutionary economics intending at exploring the main research path and contributions of this theorizing framework using bibliometric methods. This documentation effort is based on a review of the abstracts from articles published in all economic journals gathered from the Econlit database over the past...

The characterization of individual firms is an essential step toward the study of the behaviour of industries and other more aggregated units of economics, and so to the analysis of economic growth processes. Hence, the main goal of this study is to achieve a critical discussion around the conceptualisation of the firm and its role in the dynamical...

Procura-se avaliar e contribuir para a explicação da evolução das disparidades regionais na União Europeia ao longo do período de 1980-95. Após constatarmos, por um lado, a elevada amplitude das assimetrias dos níveis regionais de desenvolvimento e, por outro, a inexistência de um processo significativo de convergência absoluta, testamos empiricame...