Alterações estruturais na indústria transformadora portuguesa (1996-2004)
The process of European integration seems to be difficult for portuguese firms, which have to meet several problems regarding a single market and a single currency. This paper focus on the evaluation of manufacturing industry capacity, in terms of their main structural change, to cope with the competitive pressures within an enlarged market. We tried to understand the role of investment decisions on the adaptability process of manufacturing firms. Its not our intention to evaluate the impact of structural change on competitiveness and on productivity level, but only to understand if the nature and dimension of change, could be the starting point and a possible path of overwhelm the main competitive problems. By using WIFO taxonomies applied to the manufacturing industry, we found that Portugal (i) displays a small share in technology-driven industries (R&D intensive), while the major shares go to labour-intensive and marketing-driven industries, and (ii) still has a reduced share in high-skill and a high share in low-skill labour manufacturing. This reveals a specialisation in labour intensive and low-skill manufacturing that could affect the competitive process within an enlarged market.