Infrastructure investment in Portugal

After two and a half decades of intense investment between 1986 and 2011, Portugal now has excellent physical and social infrastructure. Both in quantitative terms of access («how much infrastructure per head») and in qualitative terms of use (various quality and satisfaction indicators), Portugal is now among the best-equipped countries – from the drinking water supply to the motorway network, from broadband to electricity, from health to education. From 2011 onwards, as a result of the serious crisis in public finances, public investment in general and infrastructure investment in particular, came to an abrupt halt.

This study, by Alfredo Marvão Pereira and Rui Marvão Pereira, seeks to assess the investment already made and its results, as well as the need for new and continued investment in areas where it may still be necessary and have positive effects on the Portuguese economy.

There are three parts to this project:

• the establishment of an extensive and up-to-date database on infrastructure investments in Portugal, to be made available to the scientific community and economic policy analysts in general;
• the presentation of stylised facts on the nature of the different types of infrastructure investment;
• the use of the new databases to develop a detailed economic analysis, by type of investment, by sector of economic activity and by region, making it possible to anticipate the effects of infrastructure investment in Portugal on the country's economic performance.

Under this project, FFMS is making the following documents available:

• The first of two volumes entitled Infrastructure Investment in Portugal – VOLUME I: Stylised Facts and Figures;
• A comprehensive Digital Documentary Support document that includes not only all the final statistical information available in that volume but also all the sources used and many others that were not used;
• A second volume entitled Infrastructure Investments in Portugal – VOLUME II: The Economic Impact, written in English;
• Six technical working papers, also in English, which document the entire approach to economic analysis in a manner more characteristic of academic work;
• A book aimed at the general public, which summarises the most important aspects of the stylised facts and the economic effects of infrastructure investments in Portugal;
• The public presentation of the study (on 10 March 2016)