José Cabral Vieira

Changing returns to education in Portugal during the 1980s and early 1990s: OLS and quantile regression estimators

This paper examines the evolution of the returns to education in Portugal over the 1980s and early 1990s. The main findings indicate that the returns to education have increased, particularly after joining the European Union in 1986. Since this occurred along with an increase in the level of education within the labour force, the process is most likely demand driven. The results also indicate that modelling on average (i.e. OLS) misses important features of the wage structure. Quantile regression (QR) analysis reveals that the effect of education is not constant across the conditional wage distribution. They are higher for those at higher quantiles in the conditional wage distribution. Wage inequality expanded in Portugal over the 1980s and the returns to education had an important role in this process.

The determinants of length of stay of tourists in the Azores

This paper examines the determinants of the length of stay of tourists in the Azores. It is found that socio-demographic profiles, such as nationality and Azorean ascendancy, and trip attributes, such as repeat visitation rates and type of flight, are important determinants. In addition, destination image and attitudes regarding environmental initiatives, constructed from a factor analysis exercise, also influence the length of stay. In particular, the results suggest that marketing strategies which promote the Azores for its nature, landscape, remoteness and weather may increase length of stay, whereas cultural heritage has the opposite effect.

Returns to education in Portugal

Abstract This paper compares OLS and IV estimates of the returns to education for male workers in Portugal. The results suggest that OLS estimates of the return to education are broadly in line with results for other western economies, although they are marginally at the upper end of the scale. IV estimates of the return to education are as high or lower than those obtained with OLS. Apparently, OLS estimates provide an upper-bound of the return to education. However, due to the nature of the identifying strategy, a generalisation of the results to the entire population may be premature.

National Culture and Research and Development Activities

This paper examines the effect of national culture on the process of innovation and research and development activities in the subsidiaries of multinational companies. For this purpose, we use a sample of 222 subsidiaries for five European countries. The paper has drawn up two important findings. Firstly, cultural dimensions such as individualism, masculinity, power distance and uncertainty avoidance influence research and development activities of the subsidiaries. Secondly, the type of management model, defined according to the location of the parent company, influence the organization of the research and development activities.

Inter-industry Wage Dispersion in Portugal

The emerging notion that corporatism/centralisation reduces inter-industry wage dispersion is the main leading force behind this paper. We use data from a long series of comparable datasets to analyse the evolution of the size of inter-industry wage dispersion in Portugal. We compare the results with the ones obtained in other countries to find that the country has a high inter-industry wage inequality when compared with the European standard. Nevertheless, the dispersion decreased during the second half of the 1980s along with the establishment of a neo-corporatist setting, supporting the expected reduction.

What a Quantile Approach Can Tell Us about Returns to Education in Europe.

This paper seeks to analyse the relationship between wages and education at a European level, using a quantile regression in order to be able to extend the study along the whole wage distribution. This analysis is carried out for a sample of 14 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom), using the European Community Household Panel data‐set. The paper aims to investigate whether the relationship between wages and education at European level is homogeneous and stable through time by running regressions for average and current (log)wages. Policy implications are derived.

An analysis of visitors' expenditures in a tourist destination: OLS, quantile regression and instrumental variable estimators.

The impact of tourism on the local economy and employment has been widely reported in the literature through the use of regional or county expenditure multipliers. Indeed, the money that visitors spend in a community is likely to be the benefit that residents probably recognize most readily. Despite this, only a few studies have focused on the determinants of tourist expenditure at the individual or household level. This paper sheds further light on this issue. For this purpose, the authors use information gathered by interviewing visitors about their levels of expenditure. The analysis focuses on total expenditure and expenditures on lodging, restaurants, shopping and car rental, and uses OLS, quantile regression and instrumental variable techniques. The results suggest that the impact of socio-demographic and trip-related characteristics on tourist expenditures goes far beyond the mean effect. Furthermore, correcting for the endogeneity of some explanatory variables might be a worthwhile exercise.

Low pay, higher pay and job quality: empirical evidence for Portugal

This paper examines to what extent low pay jobs can be considered of low quality. For this purpose, we use three waves (1997–1999) of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) for Portugal. The results indicate that low pay workers report a lower level of job satisfaction when compared with their higher paid counterparts. Moreover, some of the determinants of job satisfaction differ between these two types of workers. This supports the idea that low wage employment mainly comprises low quality jobs and is consistent with the segmented labour market theory, which claims the existence of good and bad jobs. This is, however, at odds with some empirical evidence recently reported for the British labour market where low pay individuals report a higher level of satisfaction, which is more in line with the notion that these workers obtain compensating differences in the form of non-pecuniary benefits.

Low-wage mobility in the Portuguese labour market

Abstract.Low-wage employment has become a matter of concern in many countries, Portugal being among them. In particular, the extent to which low-wage employment is a permanent or transitory situation is an important issue. This paper examines low-wage mobility in the Portuguese labour market using the bivariate probit model proposed by van de Ven and van Praag (1981), in order to account for the potential endogeneity of the initial state. For this purpose, we use a matched employer-employee panel data for 1996 and 2000. Raw figures show that a significant number of workers are trapped into low-wage employment. We also find that males and the better-educated are more likely to escape from such a situation. Furthermore, initial firm characteristics, such as firm size, age and industry influence mobility. In particular, low-wage workers in larger or in newer firms have better mobility prospects.

Quality of the Azores destination in the perspective of tourists

Tourism is a growing industry in the Autonomous Region of the Azores. However, little is known about how tourists evaluate this destination, something which certainly constitutes a shortcoming if one takes into consideration that this is a very competitive industry, with new destinations appearing every year and others increasing their market share. This paper focuses on the quality of the Azores destination in the perspective of tourists and, to an extent, has the goal of contributing to reduce this shortcoming. According to our findings, 74 per cent of the tourists interviewed consider the global quality of the Azores destination to be very good or excellent, with the landscape, the climate/weather, the hospitality, the cleanliness and the security being the most highly rated partial indicators. Additionally, a regression analysis indicates that the evaluation of the global quality of this destination varies according to the individual characteristics of tourists.