Afetação de recursos, produtividade e as reformas estruturais da economia portuguesa

From the point of view of "growth accounting", total factor productivity (TFP) is one of the main drivers of economic growth and plays a fundamental role in the explanation of the differences in economic performance across countries. However, in recent years productivity growth has been declining in advanced economies, and Portugal is not an exception. One of the main determinants of TFP is the efficiency of resource allocation. This paper presents estimates of the deviations – relative to the efficient outcome – of resource allocation between industries within the same sector, in Portugal during the period 2000-2015. The estimates are derived from the model proposed by Hsieh and Kenow (2009). The results indicate that the distortions in the Portuguese economy are significant, especially those associated with the choice of the capital-labor combination. Consequently, the potential gains from reallocating resources are also large, ranging from 30 to 40% of output. However, the size of the potential gains has varied little in recent years. Therefore, the "structural reforms" included in the adjustment program implemented under the supervision of the troika appear not to have made a significant impact, at least until now.