Productivity profile of Portugal

The Council for Productivity was founded on March 20, 2018, through a collaborative initiative led by the Office for Planning, Strategy, Evaluation and International Relations (GPEARI) within the Ministry of Finance and the Office for Strategy and Studies (GEE) within the Ministry of the Economy and Maritime Affairs leveraging the expertise of two institutions actively engaged in productivity research.

Bank of Portugal

Ministry for the Economy and Maritime Affairs (GEE): Portugal’s export performance in the aftermath of the pandemic crisis (2023), R&D subsidies and Portuguese firms' performance: A longitudinal firm-level study (2023), Does scientific research output matter for Portugal’s economic growth? (2023),  Revisitar as Empresas Zombie em Portugal (2008-2021) (2023) in Portuguese, Automation trends in Portugal: Implications in productivity and employment (2022), Digital adoption and productivity: understanding micro drivers of the aggregate effect (2022), The Impact of R&D tax incentives in Portugal (2021), International Sourcing in Portuguese Companies - Evidence from Portuguese Micro Data (2020), Minimum wage and financially distressed firms: another one bites the dust (2020), Dream Jobs (2020), Employee Training and Firm Performance: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the European Social Fund (2020), How Internationalization and Competitiveness Contribute to Get Public Support to Innovation: The Portuguese Case (2019);

Ministry of Finance (GPEARI): Scale-ups in Portugal: Improving policy design by understanding high growth in SMEs (2023), The link between productivity and wages: The role of the minimum wage in Portugal (2023), How does the increase of employee's qualifications report to productivity? – An empirical assessment using firm-level data (2023), Comparação do Impacto do Sistema de Incentivos Fiscais à Investigação e Desenvolvimento Empresarial e do Sistema de Incentivos à Investigação e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico (2022) in Portuguese, The determinants of COVID Policy Support in Portugal (2022), Efeito das políticas da educação na produtividade (2021) in Portuguese,  The impact of public credit guarantees on the economic outcomes of SMEs: Evidence from Portugal (2021), Investment dynamics in Portugal (2020), Alterações estruturais da economia portuguesa, produto potencial e produtividade (2019) in Portuguese,  Productivity and resource allocation of Portuguese firms (2019);

Banco de Portugal: Does green transition promote green innovation and technological acquisitions? (2023), The impact of ICT adoption on productivity: Evidence from Portuguese firm-level data (2023), A view on ICT and digitalization in Portuguese firms (2023), European structural funds and the performance of Portuguese firms (2023),  Workforce Skills and Firm Productivity (2022), On the Cleansing Effect of Recessions and Government Policy: Evidence from COVID-19 (2021), Revisiting Portuguese banks’ efficiency and productivity (2021), Serial Entrepreneurs, the Macroeconomy and Top Income Inequality (2021), Portuguese Economic Growth: A view on structural features, blockages, reforms (2019), What is the Impact of Increased Business Competition? (2019), Regulatory costs and performance of Portuguese (2019), Bank credit allocation and productivity: stylised facts for Portugal (2018);

Council for Productivity: Effect of education policies on productivity (2021), in Portuguese, Second Activity Report (2021) in Portuguese, Productivity and Organization in Portuguese Firms (2021), Entrepreneurial Human Capital and Firm Dynamics (2021), First Productivity Report (2019);

OECD: OECD Economic Surveys: Portugal (multiple), Economic Policy Reforms 2023: Going for Growth - Portugal, Gender diversity in senior management and firm productivity (2023), Productivity-wage nexus at the firm-level in Portugal: Decoupling and divergences (2021). Fear the walking dead: zombie firms, spillovers, and exit barriers (2018).

Foster a competitive business environment by facilitating the exit and entry of firms:

• Lower entry barriers by streamlining regulations, prioritising professional services and the retail sector.
• Encourage the use of out-of-court procedures to prevent court congestion and accelerate insolvency procedures.
• Further expand the use of Regulatory Impact Assessments for new regulations and undertake sectoral reviews of existing policies and their competition impact.

Enhance the allocation of resources by promoting skills and labour mobility:

• Better aligning the supply and demand of skills to current and future labour market needs, while improving counselling to guide students’ study choices and adults’ reskilling and upskilling decisions.
• Enhance the balance of protection across contract types by continuing efforts to promote the use of permanent contracts and reducing the cost of dismissals.
• Ensure the completion of the planned expansion of digital resources and ICT training to schools and teachers in the Recovery and Resilience Programme.
• Revise land use regulations and limit discretionary powers of municipalities in licensing procedures to spur business investment in dwellings, boost housing supply and support labour mobility.

Improve the productivity divide between firms by strengthening smaller firms:

• Expand programmes for small firms to acquire digital training, advisory services and information on security and privacy.
• Strengthen active labour market policies targeting smaller firms, such as pre-screening programmes for job vacancies by public employment agencies.