Structural and technological change in the European periphery: The case of Portugal

In the past Portugal managed to grow at a significant rate, but the pace has getting slower and slower from decade to decade, until becoming practically stagnant in the first decade of the 21st century. This stumpy growth together with the current debt crisis has fed the rhetoric of structural reforms in a so obsessive way as if they are a panacea. Our paper shows how structural change was occurred in the Portuguese economy and how it began to be transformed in technological change in the beginning of the 21st. century and argues that structural change and structural reform are two very different concepts and using the latter as a magic potion is more detrimental than beneficial of economic growth and structural change.