The economic theory and the Portuguese manufactured industry

This work aims to test the Verdoorn Law, with the alternative specifications of (1)Kaldor (1966), for the five Portuguese regions (NUTS II), from 1986 to 1994. It is intended to test, yet in this work, the alternative interpretation of (2)Rowthorn (1975) about the Verdoorn's Law for the same regions and period. The results of this study are about each one of the manufactured industries operating in the Portuguese regions. The aim of this paper is, also, to present a further contribution to the analysis of absolute convergence, associated with the neoclassical theory, of the manufactured industry productivity at regional level and for the period from 1986 to 1994. This paper pretends, yet, to analyze the importance which the natural advantages and local resources are in the manufacturing industry location, in relation with the "spillovers" effects and industrial policies. To this, we estimate the Rybczynski equation matrix for the various manufacturing industries in Portugal, at regional level (NUTS II) and for the period 1986 to 1994