This report explores the implications of ageing and low fertility for the sustainability of public finances in Portugal, and for monetary costs and benefits of government policy across generations. Measuring this sustainability is a challenging task. First, the temporal horizon of a nation is in principle unlimited, so the adjustment can be delayed for a long time. Second, sustainability depends on the future evolution of the macroeconomic environment, the design of public finances, and demographics. In this work, we focus on the latter, for which long-term forecasts are generally reliable.

WITH

Luís Teles Morais, Nova SBE
Tiago Bernardino, Stockholm University

Link To Study Web Site

About the Author(s)

Francesco Franco

Executive Director & Nova Faculty Affiliate

Francesco Franco has been teaching at Nova School of Business and Economics since 2004. He earned his PhD in Economics from the Massachussets Institute of Technology. His research interests include fluctuations and applied macroeconomics, topics on which he has published in Portuguese and international journals.

Tiago Bernardino

Affiliate

Tiago Bernardino is currently a Research Assistant in Economics for Policy knowledge center and Teaching Assistant of Macroeconomics at Nova SBE. He holds a MSc and a undergraduate degree in Economics from NOVA School of Business and Economics.

Luís Teles Morais

Affiliate

Luís is a PhD student at Nova SBE. His research interests are in macroeconomics, household finance and public finance. Currently, he is also at the European Central Bank, working on statistics about the distribution of household wealth in the euro area. At Economics for Policy, he worked on a project about the impact of aging on public finances in Portugal. (...)