Friday, 2/2/2024
The School
of Economics and Management at the University of Minho is proud to announce
that its doctoral student, Hélder Costa, has successfully defended his doctoral
thesis entitled "Labour Market Institutions and Productivity".
This
pioneering study, which covers various dimensions of the Portuguese and French
economies, offers valuable insights into the impact of wage policies and the
dynamics of productivity growth.
According
to the summary presented by the student below, Hélder Costa's thesis is made up
of five articles that explore, among other topics, the effects of minimum wage
increases in Portugal between 2007 and 2011 and between 2014 and 2021.
"The
thesis entitled Labour market institutions and Productivity studies various
dimensions of the Portuguese economy, with the analysis of one of the articles
also being extended to the French economy. The first two articles of this
thesis are motivated by the strong increases in the minimum wage that have
taken place in the Portuguese economy, in particular between 2007 - 2011 and
2014 - 2021. These articles assess the impact of these minimum wage policies on
employment, company profitability and exit, and wage inequality. The third
article is motivated by the sharp slowdown in productivity growth after the
last decade of the 20th century, assessing the role of economic context and
dynamism in productivity growth. The fourth article is motivated by the slowdown
in economic dynamism seen in several developed countries. This article assesses
the quality and inclusiveness of the jobs created by new companies. The fifth
and final article is a case study of the role of the University of Minho's
interfaces in promoting university-industry collaborations.
The results
of the first article show that minimum wage policies have reduced employment
growth, lowered profitability and led to greater exits from active companies.
In the second article, we show that these policies have led to a strong
reduction in wage inequality. The third
article shows that the prevalence of companies in bad financial shape is one of
the measures of economic context that most reduces productivity growth. These
results suggest that better legislation related to insolvency should be a priority
policy. The fourth article shows that new companies create as good or better
jobs than more established companies and contribute to reducing the gender wage
gap, requiring policies to counteract the observed decline in the economy's
dynamism. Finally, the last article shows that the University of Minho's
interfaces play a relevant role in terms of the type of company that
participates in university-industry collaborations, which is an important
channel for valuing knowledge."
The
doctoral thesis was supervised by Fernando Alexandre and Miguel Portela, both
professors in EEG's Economics Department.
EEG -
School of Economics and Management congratulates Hélder Costa on his defense
and wishes him every professional and personal success.
Gabinete de Comunicação
Escola de Economia e Gestão
Universidade do Minho
Telefone: 253 604541
Email: gci@eeg.uminho.pt
