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I find that when the ratio of asset wealth to human wealth falls, investors become more exposed to labour income shocks and demand a higher risk premium for stocks. I show that the residuals of the trend relationship among wealth and labour income, wy, predict future stock returns in the Euro Area. The results are robust to additional control variables and show the superiority of wy vis-a-vis other benchmark models., COMPETE, QREN, FEDER, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Prova tipográfica, We assess the response of scal policy to developments in asset markets in the US and the UK. We estimate scal policy rules augmented with aggregate wealth, wealth composition (i.e fi nancial and housing wealth) and asset prices (i.e. stock and housing prices) using: (i) a linear framework based on a fully simultaneous system approach; and (ii) two nonlinear speci cations that rely on a smooth transition regression (STR) and a Markov-switching (MS) model. The linear framework suggests that, while primary spending does not seem to react to wealth composition or asset prices, taxes and primary surplus are signi cantly: (i) cut when fi nancial wealth or stock prices rise; and (ii) raised when housing wealth or housing prices increase. The smooth transition regression model shows that primary spending and scal balance are adjusted in a nonlinear fashion to both wealth and price effects, while the Markov-switching framework highlights the importance of tax cuts (in the US) and spending hikes (in the UK) to offset the decline in wealth during major recessions and nancial crises. Overall, our results provide evidence of a non-stabilizing e¤ect of government debt, a countercyclical policy and a vigilant track of wealth developments by scal authorities., COMPETE;QREN; FEDER;Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

This article empirically models investment in emerging economies. Using dynamic panel estimation methods and quarterly data for 31 emerging economies for the period 1990:1–2008:3, we show that (i) the GDP and the cost of capital are the key fundamental determinants of investment; (ii) financial factors (such as equity prices, credit and lending rate) play a relevant role on the dynamics of investment, in particular, for Asian and Latin American countries; (iii) investment growth exhibits substantial persistence and (iv) crises episodes magnify the negative response of investment., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

We build a panel of 14 emergingeconomies to estimate the magnitude of wealtheffects on consumption. Using modern econometric techniques and quarterly data, we show that: (i) wealtheffects are statistically significant and relatively large in magnitude; (ii) stock market and housing wealtheffects are, generally, smaller for Latin American emergingmarkets; and (iii) housing wealtheffects have substantially increased for Asian emergingeconomiesin recent years. Additionally, while housing wealtheffects are more important in countries with low level of financial development or low income level, financial wealtheffects are stronger for countries with high stock market capitalization., COMPETE;QREN; FEDER;Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Using a statistical approach to identify fiscal adjustments, we find that fiscal consolidation appears to shorten the income gap. Fiscal austerity plans that succeed in bringing public debt to a sustainable path seem to be more likely to reduce inequality. Expansionary fiscal adjustments are particularly important to promote changes in the income distribution.

This paper assesses the importance of nonlinearity in estimating the wealth effects on consumption for the US, the UK and the Euro area. We look at the impact of both (i) aggregate wealth and (ii) disaggregate wealth, namely, by comparing financial wealth effects with housing wealth effects. We also assess the magnitude of the response of consumption using both a linear model and two nonlinear approaches (a quantile regression and a smooth transition regression). We find that the elasticity of consumption with respect to aggregate wealth is largest for the UK and housing wealth effects do not seem to be relevant in the Euro area. As for the quantile regression, it shows that the sensitivity of consumption with respect to wealth and income variation is larger when consumption growth is abnormally high, i.e. during periods of economic booms. The smooth transition regression model is able to track reasonably well the consumption patterns during periods of economic downturn, financial instability and housing market corrections. Our approaches uncover a more complex dynamics of the relationship between consumption and wealth than previous results in the literature, whilst being in accordance with the theoretical background underlying the wealth effects on consumption.

This paper analyses the neutrality of technology using data from the NBER-CES Manufacturing industry database. We show that technology has a positive effect on the skilled-to-unskilled labour and wage ratios, offering a skill-premium for these skilled workers. We also find that technology has become more favourable towards skilled labour since the eighties, thereby, explaining the rise in the relative abundance of skilled workers. Finally, differences in productivity among the two labour inputs are important when they are relatively poor substitutes, despite the increase in the elasticity of substitution between unskilled and skilled labour that occurred over the past decades., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Available online 8 June 2012, Using a panel of 62 countries for 1973-2005, we assess the impact of financial reforms on income inequality. We find that removal of policies towards directed credit and excessively high reserve requirements, and improvements in the securities market reduce inequality., COMPETE;QREN; FEDER;Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

The paper uses a Panel Vector Auto-Regression (PVAR) approach to analyze the dynamics of the transition of investment to shocks to fundamental and financial factors in emerging market economies. By relying on a panel of 31 emerging economies and quarterly frequency data for the period 1990:1-2008:3, we show that: (i) investment sluggishly adjusts to its own shocks; (ii) GDP and equity price shocks have a positive and sizeable impact on investment; (iii) unexpected variation in the cost of capital and the lending rate has a negative effect on investment; and (iv) the response of investment to credit market developments seems to be driven by the demand side. In addition, the effects of equity price shocks appear to be similar for emerging Asia and Latin America, but credit shocks are more important in Latin America. Moreover, shocks to the lending rate have a very pronounced and negative impact in emerging European markets. Finally, we show that the stock market bubbles may have encouraged real investment during the nineties., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

We investigate the link between fiscal policy shocks and asset markets. Our results show that spending shocks have: a positive and persistent effect on GDP in the U.S. and in the U.K., while for Germany and Italy, such impact is temporary; a positive and persistent effect on housing prices; a negative effect on stock prices; and mixed effects on the price level. A VAR counter-factual exercise suggests that fiscal shocks play a minor role in the asset markets of the U.S. and Germany, and substantially increase the variability of housing and stock prices in the U.K., while government revenue shocks have increased volatility in Italy., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

In this paper, we assess the impact of fiscal consolidation on income inequality. Using a panel of 18 industrialized countries from 1970 to 2010, we find that income inequality significantly rises both during periods of fiscal consolidation and in the aftermath of such adjustments. In addition, fiscal authority that is driven by spending cuts seems to be more detrimental for income distribution than in the case of tax hikes. Considering the linkages between banking crises and fiscal consolidation, we show that the impact on the income gap is amplified when fiscal adjustments take place after the resolution of such financial turmoils. Our results also provide support for the Kuznets relationship and corroborate the idea that trade can lead to a more unequal distribution of income., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

NIPE_WP_31_2011, In this paper, we assess the impact of fiscal policy discretion on economic activity in the short and medium-term. Using a panel of 132 countries from 1960 to 2008, we find that fiscal policy discretion provides a net stimulus to the economy in the short-run and crowding-in effects are amplified once crisis episodes are controlled for– in particular, banking crises - giving a great scope for fiscal policy stimulus packages. However, crowding-out effects take over in the long-run – especially, in the case of debt crises -, in line with the concerns about long-term debt sustainability., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

In this paper we use a representative consumer model to analyse the equilibrium relation between the transitory deviations from the common trend among consumption, aggregate wealth, and labour income, cay, and focus on the implications for both stock returns and housing returns. The evidence based on data for 15 OECD countries shows that when agents expect future stock returns to be higher, they will temporarily allow consumption to rise. Regarding housing returns, if housing assets are seen as complements to stocks, then investors react in the same way, but if they are instead treated as substitutes consumption will be temporarily reduced., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

The goal of thes paper is to analyze predictability of future asset returns in the context of model uncertainty. Using data for the euro area, the US and the U.K., we show that one can improve the forecasts of stock returns using a Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) approach, and there is a large amount of model uncertainty. The empirical evidence for the euro area suggests that several macroeconomic, financial and macro-financial variables are consistently among the most prominent determinants of risk premium. As for the U.S, only a few number of predictors play an important role. In the case of the UK, future stock returns are better forecasted by financial variables. These results are corroborated for both the M-open and the M-closed perspectives and in the context of "in-sample" and "out-of-sample" forescating. Finally, we highlight that the predictive ability of the BMA framework is stronger at longer periods, and clearly outperforms the constant expected returns and the autoregressive benchmark models.

Published online: 2013-06-04, This paper assesses the macroeconomic impact of fiscal policy shocks for four key emerging market economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRICs) – using a fully simultaneous system of equations. We also estimate fiscal policy rules and analyze the importance of nonlinearity using a smooth transition (STR) model. Drawing on quarterly data, we find that government spending shocks have strong Keynesian effects for this group of countries while, in the case of government revenue shocks, a tax hike is harmful for output. This suggests that there is no evidence in favor of “expansionary fiscal contraction” in the context of emerging economies where spending policies are largely pro-cyclical. Our findings also show that considerations about growth (in the case of China), exchange rate and inflation (for Brazil and Russia) and commodity prices (in India) drive the nonlinear response of fiscal policy to the dynamics of the economy., COMPETE, QREN, FEDER, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Using two identification strategies based on a Bayesian Structural VAR and a Sign-Restriction VAR, we examine the real effects of financial stress in the Eurozone. In particular, we assess the macroeconomic impact of: (i) a monetary policy shock; and (ii ) a financial stress shock. We find that a monetary policy contraction strongly deteriorates financial stress conditions. In addition, unexpected variation in the Financial Stress Index (FSI) plays an important role in explaining output fluctuations, and also demands an aggressive response by the monetary authority to stabilise output indicating a preference shift from targeting inflation as it is currently happening in major economies. Therefore, our paper reveals the importance of adopting a vigilant posture towards financial stress conditions, as well as the urgency of macro-prudential risk management., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

I use the consumer's budget constraint to derive a relationship between stock market returns, the residuals of the trend relationship among consumption, aggregate wealth, and labour income, and three major sources of risk: future changes in the housing consumption share, future labour income growth, and future consumption growth. I model the joint dynamics of changes in the housing consumption share, consumption growth, wealth growth, income growth, asset returns, consumptionwealth ratio and dividend-price ratio, and show that asset returns largely reflect expectations about long-run risk. On the other hand, unexpected shocks play a negligible role in the context of forecasting future asset returns. Combining the intertemporal budget constraint and the forecasting properties of an informative Vector-Autogression (VAR), one can, therefore, generate the predictability of many economically motivated variables developed in the literature on asset pricing, and accommodate the implications of a wide class of optimal models of consumer behaviour without imposing a functional form on preferences., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) SFRH/BD/12985/2003

In this paper, we assess the impact of fiscal policy discretion on economic activity in the short and medium-term. Using a panel of 132 countries from 1960 to 2008, we find that fiscal policy discretion provides a net stimulus to the economy in the short-run and crowding-in effects are amplified once crisis episodes are controlled for– in particular, banking crises - giving a great scope for fiscal policy stimulus packages. However, crowding-out effects take over in the long-run – especially, in the case of debt crises -, in line with the concerns about long-term debt sustainability.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to assess the role of collateralizable wealth and systemic risk in explaining future asset returns. Methodology/approach – To test this hypothesis, the chapter uses the residuals of the trend relationship among housing wealth and labor income to predict both stock returns and government bond yields. Specifically, it shows that nonlinear deviations of housing wealth from its cointegrating relationship with labor income, hwy, forecast expected future returns. Findings – Using data for a set of industrialized countries, the chapter finds that when the housing wealth-to-income ratio falls, investors demand a higher risk premium for stocks. As for government bond returns: (i) when they are seen as a component of asset wealth, investors react in the same manner and (ii) if, however, investors perceive the increase in government bond returns as signaling a future rise in taxes or a deterioration of public finances, then they interpret the fall in the housing wealth-to-income ratio as a fall in future bond premia. Finally, this work shows that the occurrence of crisis episodes amplifies the transmission of housing market shocks to financial markets. Originality/value of chapter – These findings are novel. They also open new and challenging avenues for understanding the dynamics of the relationship between the housing sector, stock market and government bond developments, and the banking system.

We assess the response of monetary policy to developments in asset markets in the Euro Area, the US and the UK. We estimate the reaction of monetary policy to wealth composition and asset prices using: (i) a linear framework based on a fully simultaneous system approach in a Bayesian environment; and (ii) a nonlinear specification that relies on a smooth transition regression model. The linear framework suggests that wealth composition is indeed important in the formulation of monetary policy. However, the attempts of central banks to mitigate undesirable fluctuations in say, financial wealth, may disrupt housing wealth. A similar result can be found when we assess the reaction of monetary authority to asset prices, although concerns about "price" effects are smaller. The nonlinear model confirms these findings. However, the concerns over the wealth and its components are stronger once inflation is under control, i.e. below a certain target. Some disruptions between financial and housing wealth effects are still present. They can also be found in reaction to asset prices, despite being less intense., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Programa Operacional Ciência e Inovação 2010 (POCI 2010), Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER)

In this paper, I assess the forecasting power of the residuals of the trend relationship among consumption, aggregate wealth, and labour income for stock returns and government bond yields in the euro area, the UK and the US . I find that when stock returns are expected to be higher in the future, forward-looking investors will temporarily allow consumption to rise. As for bond returns, when government bonds are seen as a component of asset wealth, then investors react in the same manner. If, however, investors perceive the increase in bond returns as signalling a future rise in taxes or a deterioration of public finances, then they will let consumption fall temporarily below its equilibrium level., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Programa Operacional Ciência e Inovação 2010 (POCI 2010), Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER)

I assess the relative performance of several empirical proxies developed in the literature of asset pricing to capture time-variation in expected future returns using data for the U.S. and the U.K.. I show that the wealth composition risk by Sousa (2010) exhibits strong forecasting power., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Programa Operacional Ciência e Inovação 2010 (POCI 2010), Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER)

In this work, I analyze the response of consumption and asset returns to unexpected wealth variation. Using data at quarterly frequency for the U.S. and the U.K., I show that: (i) while housing wealth shocks have a very persistent effect on consumption, financial wealth shocks only have transitory effects; and (ii) similarly, unexpected variation in housing wealth delivers a reasonably persistent response of real returns while financial wealth shocks have just a temporary effect., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Programa Operacional Ciência e Inovação 2010 (POCI 2010), Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER)

We estimate changes in fiscal policy regimes in Portugal with a Markov Switching regression of fiscal policy rules for the period 1978–2007, using a new dataset of fiscal quarterly series. We find evidence of a deficit bias, while repeated reversals of taxes making the budget procyclical. Economic booms have typically been used to relax tax pressure, especially during elections. One-off measures have been preferred over structural ones to contain the deficit during economic crises. The EU fiscal framework prompted temporary consolidation, but did not permanently change the budgeting process., COMPETE; QREN; UE-Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

We use a new approach to assess long-term fiscal developments. By analyzing the time-varying behaviour of the two components of government spending and revenue – responsiveness and persistence–, a feature not captured by automatic stabilisers, we are able to infer about the sources of fiscal deterioration (improvement). Drawing on quarterly data, we estimate recursively these components within a system of government revenue and spending equations using a Three-Stage Least Square method for eight European Union countries plus the US. The results suggest that significant changes in the fiscal stance (including those related to the current crisis) are reflected in the estimates of persistence and responsiveness., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

We build a panel of 31 emerging economies to uncover the determinants of private investment growth in emerging markets. Using several econometric techniques and quarterly data for the period 1990:1-2008:3, we show that: (i) the GDP and the cost of capital are among the fundamental determinants of private investment; (ii) the equity price impacts positively and significantly on investment; (iii) financial factors (such as, credit and lending rate) play an important role on the dynamics of investment, in particular, for Asian and Latin American countries; (iv) investment growth exhibits substantial persistence and responds sluggishly to shocks; and (v) crises episodes magnify the negative response of investment.

This paper estimates the wealth effects on consumption in the euro area as a whole. I show that: (i) financial wealth effects are relatively large and statistically significant; (ii) housing wealth effects are virtually nil and not significant; (iii) consumption growth exhibits strong persistence and responds sluggishly to shocks; and (iv) the immediate response of consumption to wealth is substantially different from the long-run wealth effects. By disaggregating financial wealth into its major components, the estimates suggest that wealth effects are particularly large for currency and deposits, and shares and mutual funds. In addition, consumption seems to be very responsive to financial liabilities and mortage loans.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of government spending on the private sector, assessing the existence of crowding-out versus crowding-in effects. Using a panel of 145 countries from 1960 to 2007, the results suggest that government spending produces important crowding-out effects, by negatively affecting both private consumption and investment. Moreover, while the effects do not seem to depend on the different phases of economic cycle, they vary considerably among regions. The results are economically and statistically significant, and robust to several econometric techniques.

In the last twenty years Portugal struggled to keep public finances under control, notably in containing primary spending. We use a new quarterly dataset covering 1979:1-2007:4, and estimate a Bayesian Structural Autoregression model to analyze the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy. The results show that positive government spending shocks, in general, have a negative effect on real GDP; lead to important "crowding-out" effects, by impacting negatively on private consumption and investment; and have a persistent and positive effect on the price level and the average cost of financing government debt. Positive government revenue shocks tend to have a negative impact on GDP; and lead to a fall in the price level. The evidence also shows the importance of explicitly considering the government debt dynamics in the model. Finally, a VAR counter-factual exercise confirms that unexpected positive government spending shocks lead to important "crowding-out" effects.

With a new quarterly dataset we estimate a Bayesian Structural Autoregression model and a Fully Simultaneous System approach to analyze the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy. Results show that positive government spending shocks, in general, have a negative effect on real GDP; lead to “crowding-out” effects of private consumption and investment; have a persistent and positive effect on the price level and a mixed impact on the average financing cost of government debt. Explicitly considering the government debt dynamics in the model is also important. A VAR counter-factual exercise confirms that unexpected positive spending shocks create relevant “crowding-out” effects., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

This paper provides time-series and panel evidence on the monetary policy transmission for five key emerging market economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS). The analysis is based on a Bayesian vector auto-regression (VAR) model that includes seven key variables. Instead of the conventional Choleski decomposition as used in the literature, Bayesian methodology has been used to identify the monetary policy (positive interest rate) shock along with using the more recent sign restrictions approach. Finally, to summarise the response for this group of key emerging market economies, we carry out a panel VAR exercise, which provides further robustness of our finding that contractionary monetary policy has a negative effect on output. These results are robust to changes in the specification, the methodology and sub-sample time horizon.

This paper investigates empirically the relation between monetary policy and wealth using quarterly data for the U.S. and the Euro Area. I find that a monetary policy contraction leads to a substantial fall in wealth. Nevertheless, while financial wealth effects are of short duration, housing wealth e¤ects are very persistent. After a positive interest rate shock there is a flight towards assets that are less liquid and earn higher rates of return, and a strong change in the composition of portfolios. Finally, the findings suggest that the money demand function is characterized by small output elasticity and large interest elasticity. By its turn, the estimated policy rule reveals that the monetary authority pays a special attention to developments in monetary aggregates, while keeping a vigilant posture regarding financial wealth.

We use a new approach to assess long-term fiscal developments. By analyzing the time-varying behaviour of the two components of government spending and revenue - responsiveness and persistence - we are able to infer about the sources of fiscal behaviour. Drawing on quarterly data we estimate recursively these components within a system of government revenue and spending equations using a Three-Stage Least Square method. In this way we track fiscal developments, i.e. possible fiscal deteriorations and/or improvements for eight European Union countries plus the US. Results suggest that positions have not significantly changed for Finland, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and the US, whilst they have improved for Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Modern literature departs from time-separable constant relative risk aversion preferences to explain asset pricing facts. This deviation typically implies that wealth shocks generate transitory variations in agents’ relative risk aversion and, possibly, portfolio re-allocations over time. I empirically analyze this relationship using U.S. macroeconomic data and and evidence for time-variation in portfolio shares that is consistent with counter-cyclical risk aversion. These results suggest, therefore, that wealth-dependent, habit-formation or loss and disappointment aversion utility functions are a good description of preferences. Controlling for observed versus expected asset returns, I also show that: (i) wealth effects are significant (although temporary) and there is no evidence of inertia contrary to Brunnermeier and Nagel (2006); and (ii) the consumption-wealth ratio (Lettau and Ludvigson, 2001), the labor income risk (Julliard, 2004) and the labor income-consumption ratio (Santos and Veronesi, 2006) partially explain changes in the risky asset share., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - SFRH/BD/12985/2003.

I use the consumer’s budget constraint to derive a relationship between stock market returns, the residuals of the trend relationship among consumption, aggregate wealth, and labour income, cay, and three major sources of risk: future changes in the housing consumption share, cr, future labour income growth, lr, and future consumption growth, lrc. Using a VAR, I compute measures of expected and unexpected long-run changes of the major determinants of asset returns and find that: (i) cay, cday, expected lr, cr, lrc and expected long-run changes in ex-ante real returns, lrret, strongly forecast future asset returns; (ii) unexpected lrc and unexpected lrret contain some predictive power for asset returns; (iii) unexpected lr and unexpected cr do not predict future asset returns. One can, therefore, use the intertemporal budget constraint and the forecasting properties of an informative VAR to generate the predictability of many economically motivated variables developed in the literature on asset pricing. The framework presented is sufficiently flexible to accommodate the implications of a wide class of optimal models of consumer behaviour without imposing a functional form on preferences., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - SFRH/BD/12985/2003.

In this work, we analyze the importance of the disaggregation of wealth into its main components (financial and housing wealth). We show, from the consumer´s intertemporal budget constraint, that the residuals of the trend relationship among consumption, financial wealth, housing wealth and labor income (summarized by the variable cday) should help to predict U.K. quarterly asset returns, and to provide better forecasts than a variable like cay from Lettau and Ludvigson (2001), which considers aggregate wealth instead. Using a sample for the U.K. for the period 1975:Q1 - 2003:Q4, we also find that: (i) financial wealth effects are significantly different from housing wealth effects; (ii) changes in financial wealth are mainly transitory, while changes in housing wealth are better understood as permanent; (iii) the relationship among consumption, (dis)aggregate wealth and labor income was relatively stable over time; (iv) consumption doesn´t react asymmetrically to positive and negative financial (or housing) wealth shocks., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia - (FCT)

In this work, I show, from the consumer's budget constraint, that the residuals of the trend relationship among consumption, financial wealth, housing wealth and labor income (summarized by the variable cday) should predict better U.K. quarterly stock market returns than a variable like cay from Lettau and Ludvigson (2001), which considers aggregate wealth instead.I show that the superior forecasting power of cday is due to: (i) its ability to track the changes in the composition of asset wealth; and (ii) the faster rate of convergence of the coefficients to the long-run equilibrium parameters.Unlike Lettau and Ludvigson (2001, 2004), the results suggest that, while financial wealth shocks are mainly transitory, fluctuations in housing wealth are very persistent. Governments and central banks should, therefore, pay special attention to the behavior of housing markets when defining macroeconomic policies.

Recent fluctuations of financial markets, especially, stock markets fluctuations, have revived the interest concerning the dynamics of real economic activity, namely, of private consumption. In this work, the role of stock market as a determinant of private consumption is analyzed, namely, by the consideration of wealth effects. It is also analyzed the potential differences of these effects originated by different categories of property of stocks (direct versus indirect property). Using a sample for the U. S. economy, in the period 1952:Q1 - 2001:Q4, several long-run relationships were estimated, suggesting that wealth effects associated to direct property are about 3.5 times superior to those associated to indirect property. Short-run dynamics is analyzed with the estimation of a single equation, suggesting that consumption contemporaneously answers to changes in income and in wealth and that the adjustment to long-run component is very slow, which constitutes an indicator that consumers gradually change their behaviors, possibly, due to habit formation. There is also evidence supporting the presence of the indirect channel of wealth effect.

No presente artigo, é feita uma aplicação de alguns instrumentos de análise da economia regional às NUT III da Região do Norte com o objectivo de fazer uma reflexão sobre a dinâmica da estrutura produtiva daqueles territórios no período compreendido entre 1986 e 1998, recorrendo-se, fundamentalmente, à análise de indicadores de localização, especialização e diversificação, bem como ao método shift-share. A análise dos indicadores permitiu evidenciar uma relativa estabilidade do tecido produtivo dos territórios em estudo naquele período. Usando a variável emprego por conta de outrém para analisar a dinâmica de crescimento regional numa perspectiva comparada e tomando como padrão de referência o Continente, a aplicação do modelo shift-share permitiu concluír que apenas a NUT do Grande Porto apresenta valores negativos para os efeitos estrutural e regional, enquanto as NUT do Douro, Alto Trás-os-Montes e Minho-Lima revelam valores positivos para aquelas duas componentes. As restantes NUT da Região Norte apresentam efeitos regionais positivos e efeitos estruturais negativos.

In this paper, we apply some of the instruments of the regional economic analysis to the NUT III of the North Region in order to make a reflection about the dynamics of the productive structure of those territories in the period 1986-1998, using, fundamentally, the analysis of localization, specialization and diversification indicators, as well as the shift-share analysis. The analysis of the indicators shows a relative stability of the productive structure of those territories in that period. Using employment to analyze the dynamics of regional growth in a comparative perspective and taking the Continent as reference, the application of the shift-share model lead us to conclude that only the NUT of Grande Porto has negative values for the structural and regional effects, while the NUT of Douro, Alto Trais-os-Montes and Minho-Lima reveal positive values for those two components. The others NUT of the North Region have positive regional effects and negative structural effects.

COMPETE; QREN; UE Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional; Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT)

We assess the role played by fiscal policy in explaining the dynamics of asset markets. Using a panel of ten industrialized countries, we show that a positive fiscal shock has a negative impact in both stock and housing prices. However, while stock prices immediately adjust to the shock and the effect of fiscal policy is temporary, housing prices gradually and persistently fall. Consequently, the attempts of fiscal policy to mitigate stock price developments (e.g. via taxes on capital gains) may severely de-stabilize housing markets. The empirical findings also point to significant fiscal multiplier effects in the context of severe housing busts, which gives rise to the importance of the implementation of fiscal stimulus packages. In addition, our results suggest that when governments run a budget deficit, they place an upward pressure on real interest rates, which ?crowds-out? private consumption and investment. In contrast, during bust periods, unexpected variation in the fiscal stance ? crowds-in? private spending, which reflects the ?direct? and ?indirect? effects of policy actions? impact arising from a downward movement in real interest rates and an upward revision in price level expectations., Nous étudions le rôle de la politique budgétaire pour expliquer la dynamique des marchés d’actifs. À l’aide d’un modèle de données de panel couvrant une dizaine de pays industrialisés, nous montrons qu’un choc budgétaire positif a un effet négatif sur les prix des actifs boursiers et immobiliers. Les premiers réagissent instantanément au choc et l’effet du choc est temporaire. Les prix des actifs immobiliers réagissent progressivement et l’effet du choc est persistant. Par conséquent, toute tentative de stabilisation des marchés immobiliers à l’aide de la politique budgétaire (par exemple à travers les taxes sur les revenus du capital) peut avoir l’effet opposé à celui recherché en déstabilisant ces marchés. Nous trouvons également des effets multiplicateurs significatifs dans les cas d’éclatement des bulles immobilières, ce qui peut justifier le recours à des plans de stabilisation à partir de l’outil de la fiscalité. Nous mettons également évidence des effets d’éviction des déficits budgétaires sur la consommation et l’investissement (à cause de la pression à la hausse exercée sur les taux d’intérêt)., COMETE, QREN, FEDER, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

We use a quantile regression framework to investigate the impact of changes in crude oil prices, natural gas prices, coal prices, and electricity prices on the distribution of the CO2 emission allowance prices in the United States. We find that: (i) an increase in the crude oil price generates a substantial drop in the carbon prices when the latter is very high; (ii) changes in the natural gas prices have a negative effect on the carbon prices when they are very low but have a positive effect when they are quite high; (iii) the impact of the changes in the electricity prices on the carbon prices can be positive in the right tail of the distribution; and (iv) the coal prices exert a negative effect on the carbon prices., COMPETE, QREN, FEDER, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

We present a detailed investigation of a novel platform for integration of spintronic memory elements and a photonic network, for future ultrafast and energy-efficient memory. We designed and fabricated magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structures based on (Tb/Co)x5 multilayer stack with optically switchable magnetization. Optical single-pulse measurements allowed us to estimate the value of the stray field present in the parallel configuration, which prevents the structure from all-optical switching. We performed numerical calculations based on the Finite Difference Time Domain method and ellipsometry measurements of (Tb/Co)x5 to compute the absorption by the MTJ structure. Simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental measurements, where we implemented a thermal model to estimate effective absorption in the pillar. These estimations showed up to 14% absorption of the incident optical power in 300-nm-wide MTJ. Moreover, we designed and realized an integrated optical network with focusing structures to efficiently guide and couple the light into the MTJs. We show a chain of necessary steps to obtain the threshold value of the switching energy, and our results presenting a path forward for full system integration of optically switchable MRAM technology