Pedro Telhado Pereira

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.

Returns to education and wage equations

The paper shows why considering a number of education-dependent covariates in a wage equation decreases the coefficient of education in that equation. This result is illustrated empirically with a meta-analysis for Portugal. The education coefficient decreases when covariates are used that can be considered post-education decisions; on the other hand, it is independent of sample size, tenure and whether hourly or monthly wages are used. These results support the use of a simple specification of the Mincer equation for the study of the total returns to education.

Is there a Return-Risk Link in Education?

Risk averse investors have to be compensated in higher expected returns when facing investments with higher risk. Education is an important investment therefore we use the results for 16 countries to test the positive relationship between return to education and the risk involved in this investment. It seems that most of the countries fit the pattern well: higher risk - higher return.

Who Values What in a Tourism Destination? The Case of Madeira Island

This research studies the importance placed on different aspects of a tourism destination – Madeira Island – at the time tourists make their decision to visit. The authors use an ordered probit model to see how the socio-demographic characteristics of the tourists and different aspects of the trip affect the valuation given to 30 different aspects of the destination. They conclude that males tend to value 12 of the aspects less, while valuing golf more. Older tourists place a higher value on the scenery of the destination and a lower value on the more active/sport aspects. The more educated tourists value levadas (man-made water channels with pathways used for pedestrian walks) more and organized tours less. British tourists value the climate and Portuguese tourists value extreme sports. These results are very useful when preparing any marketing strategy and extremely important when preparing development plans for the tourism sector.

The wage effects of training in Portugal: differences across skill groups, genders, sectors and training types

This article investigates the determinants and wage effects of training in Portugal. In a first stage, we show that there are considerable differences in training participation across groups of workers, with elder and low educated individuals participating substantially less. In a second stage, we show that training has a positive and significant impact on wages. The estimated wage return is about 30% for men and 38% for women. Discriminating between levels of education and working experience and the public and private sector reveals important differences across categories of workers. We find that women, low educated workers and workers with long working experience earn larger returns from training. The average effect of training is similar in the private sector and the public sector. However, differences across experience groups are larger in the private sector, while differences across education groups are larger in the public sector. We use three alternative classifications of training activities and find that training in the firm, training aimed to improve skills needed at the current job and training with duration less than a year are associated to larger wage gains.

Portuguese Migrants in the German Labour Market: Performance and Self-Selection

Using a large new data set, we analyse the labour market performance of Portuguese workers in Germany. While previous work compares wages and characteristics of migrants only to those of natives, we match the data also with an equivalent survey from the sending country. We find that Portuguese migrants as a whole are negatively selected with the exception of blue-collar workers that are the greatest group among them. The observation that Portuguese migrants earn more than comparable Germans indicates that they have higher unobservable skills. Our results confirm the effectiveness of the German guest worker system.

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.

Portuguese Migrants in the German Labor Market: Selection and Performance1

The labor market performance of Portuguese workers in Germany is analyzed in this article. While previous work has compared wages and characteristics of migrants to natives only, this study also matches the data set with an equivalent survey from the sending country. The findings show that Portuguese migrants as a whole are negatively selected, with the exception of blue-collar workers, the largest group among the movers. The finding that Portuguese migrants earn more than comparable Germans indicates that they have higher unobservable skills.

Who Pays the Bill? Study Costs and Students' Income in Portuguese Higher Education

group. Enrolments have greatly increased in the last few years, although they are still low in comparison to other EU Member States. The highest growth rates were in tertiary or higher education where the number of students rose by 72% between 1985-1986 and 1990-1991. The increase in the number of private institutions after 1986 also contributed to this growth. In 1994, 19.3% of students aged between 18 and 21 were enrolled in higher education. In 1985, they were 5.8%. Students can enrol in public higher education after successfully completing 12 years of schooling and sitting for national exams. After the introduction of the numerus clausus in 1978-due to an excess demand for higher education after the mid-1970s-only 48.5% and 48.6% of students entered a public higher education institution in 1991-1992 and 1992-1993, respectively. Higher education is divided into universities and polytechnics. Courses at the universities last for four to five years (a minimum of six in medicine) and lead to the licenciatura. Courses in polytechnics last for three to four years. Students can obtain a bacharelato in the third year or continue to obtain a licenciatura. To enrol for a masters or doctorate degree, they must hold a licenciatura. In 1992, private institutions had to establish admission quotas to have their courses recognised by the Ministry of Education. That year, the number of new entrants was greater than in the public sector, only six years after the publication of the Statute of Private and Cooperative Higher Education. The number of women is very high, even when compared to other EU Member States. Since 1975-1976, it has been higher than that of men. But there are significant differences according to discipline. More women graduate from university undergraduate courses. Expenditure on education is estimated to be about 5.6% of the GDP and about 21% of the Government budget; 17.3% is devoted to higher education (0.8% of the GDP). Almost all expenditure is in public education where, in 1993, the Government spent US

Portuguese emigration 1958-1985: some empirical evidence.

566 per student. This represented 48% of the Portuguese GDP per capita.