Research Areas

Microeconomics, Markets and Finance

Researchers in the group
José Pedro Pontes (PI)
Filomena Garcia
Joana Pais
Maria Paula Fontoura
Francisco Nunes
Maria Rosa Borges
Álvaro Novo
Mário Centeno
Luca Opromolla
Sofia Franco
João Gata
Manuela Arcanjo
Amélia Bastos
José Pereirinha
Teresa Garcia
Andrea Vezzulli

Objectives:
This research group had 8 active research lines with the objectives that follow:

‘Financial Modelling’
1. To develop research on the topic of financial aspects of European banking, European insurance, Portuguese pension funds, and Portuguese investment funds.
2. More specifically, to assess efficiency and productivity.
3. To investigate governance aspects on banking, insurance, and pension funds.

‘Game-Theoretic Analysis of Economic Geography’
Using a partial equilibrium analysis, to explore:
1. The location of vertically linked industries in asymmetric countries.
2. The complex integration strategies of multinational firms, beyond the well-known models of horizontal and vertical foreign direct investment.

‘Labor and Demographic Economics’
1. To understand the impact of the minimum wage policy on labor market outcomes.

‘Matching and social networks: theory and applications’
1. To explore dynamic aspects of network formation (study the stability and efficiency of networks when individuals can enter or exit the network).

‘Optimal Unemployment Insurance (UI): Income and substitution effects’
1. To model UI optimality by introducing both an income and a substitution effects.
2. To explore the Portuguese labor supply behavior, uncovering some key elasticities.
3. To characterize the impact of the substitution and income of UI over the distribution of wages.

‘Poverty Dynamics and Social Exclusion’
1. To study data on income poverty and deprivation dynamics.
2. To assess the redistributive effects of social transfers on economic poverty.
3. To propose categorical indicators in the field of child poverty and deprivation dynamics.

‘Risk-Aversion, Information, and Entry: An Experimental Study on Networks’
1. To contribute to the experimental literature on networks.
2. More specifically, to study in the lab the impact of different preference intensities and degrees of risk aversion on the performance of matching mechanisms.

‘Wage Formation: Institutions, Worker Flows and the Business Cycle’’

1. To study job and worker flows and their relationship with employment protection legislation.