Funding: Grant from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) and FEDER: 40 000 euros (Ref. POCI/EGE/55423/2004)

Project's duration: July 2006 to June 2009.

Objectives:

This project aims to provide answers to the following questions:

- Does political instability have an impact on income and growth that is statistically distinguishable from that of deeper forces usually measured by the quality institutions?

- What type of institutions are we controlling for? Are newly created institutions and informal institutions at the European level useful to define political institutions?

- To what extent did the institutional development of the former European colonies depend on the colonizing nation? Is the Portuguese legacy good or bad? How well did the former Portuguese colonies perform in the last decades, given their attributes?

- Has Portugal shared the benefits of the world technological progress? Does the convergence path exhibit structural breaks? Has growth been imbalanced in terms of physical human capital accumulation?

- Did the EU cohesion policy succeed in promoting regional convergence?

Results:

Articles in scientific journals:

- Aisen, Ari and Francisco José Veiga (2008), "Political instability and inflation volatility", Public Choice 135, 207-223.

- Aisen, Ari and Francisco José Veiga (2008), "The Political Economy of seigniorage", Journal of Development Economics 87, 29-50.

- Lebre de Freitas, Miguel (2006), "Portugal–EU Convergence Revisited: Evidence for the Period 1960–2003," International Advances in Economic Research, 12(3), 408-414.

- Lebre de Freitas, Miguel (2007), “Sobre a perda de ímpeto no processo de convergência da economia portuguesa: uma interpretação dogmática” Notas Económicas 25, June, 27-41.

- Torres, Francisco and Annette Bongardt (2007), "Institutions, Governance and Economic Growth in the EU: Is There a Role for the Lisbon Strategy?" Intereconomics, 42(1), 32-42.

- Veiga, Francisco José (2008), "Why do stabilizations fail." Journal of Economic Policy Reform 11(2), 135-149.

 

Books:

- Torres, Francisco; A. Verdun; and H. Zimmermann, eds. (2006), EMU Rules: The Political and Economic Consequences of European Monetary Integration, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft .

Book chapters:

- Bongardt, Annette and Francisco Torres (2008), "Is the EU Model viable in a globalized world?" in P. Della Posta, A. Verdun and M. Uvalic (eds.), Interpreting globalisation: a European Perspective, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

- Torres, Francisco (2008), “Introduction: A European Perspective on Globalization”, in P. Della Posta, A. Verdun and M. Uvalic (eds), Interpreting globalisation: a European Perspective, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

- Torres, Francisco (2008), “The long road to EMU: The Economic and Political reasoning behind Maastricht”, in S. Baroncelli, C. Spagnolo and S. Talani (eds), After Maastricht: The Legacy Of The Maastricht Treaty For European Integration, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishers.

- Torres, Francisco (2007), "A Convergência para a União Económica e Monetária: objectivo nacional ou constrangimento externo?", em revisão para publicação in P. Lains e M. C. Lobo (eds), Em Nome da Europa. Portugal em Mudança, 1986-2006, Cascais: Principia (ICS), pp. 97-120.

- Torres, Francisco (2006), "On the Efficiency-Legitimacy trade-off in EMU." In Torres, Francisco; A. Verdun; and H. Zimmermann, (eds.), EMU Rules: The Political and Economic Consequences of European Monetary Integration, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, pp. 31-49.

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Project funded in the scope of the programme: 

União Europeia - Fundos Estruturais                    Governo da República Portuguesa