Presenter: Dr Ana Fontoura Gouveia, Research Department, Central Bank of Portugal
Discussant: Aurelio Parisotto, CEPOL; Ekkehard Ernst, RESEARCH
Chair: Sangheon Lee, Director, EMPLOYMENT

Structural reforms, usually in the form of sudden and far-reaching deregulation of product and labour markets, are a core component of the conventional adjustment package available to countries affected by an economic shock. A structural reform agenda has also been pursued extensively in Europe throughout the past decade and earlier in Latin America and other developing regions as a way to sustain long-run economic growth and job creation. The economic rewards of those reforms on the labour market, however, are often uncertain, while there are genuine concerns for the disruptions of industrial relations and the proliferation of precarious forms of work. In her presentation, Dr Gouveia reviewed different studies and methodologies that have been used to provide a rigorous evaluation of the impact on structural reforms on employment and productivity of firms in Portugal. The case of Portugal is of special interest as the country’s successful recovery from the global and European financial crises can be attributed to a shift away from austerity measures.

Dr Ana Fontoura Gouveia
Dr Ana Fontoura Gouveia joined the Economics and Research Department of Central Bank of Portugal in 2018. She is also Assistant Professor (Adjunct) at Nova School of Business and Economics in Lisbon. Earlier, she was at the Portuguese Ministry of Finance, responsible for the setting up of a new unit tasked with the ex-ante and ex-post assessment of structural reforms. Ms Gouveia also worked at the Portuguese Ministry for the Economy and the European Central Bank. Her current research projects focus on productivity developments and public finance and firms’ incentives.