The Portuguese Manufacturing Sector during 2013-2016 after the Troika Austerity Measures

Abstract

This work studies the effects of the Troika austerity measures on the Portuguese manufacturing firms in terms of efficiency scores. We adopted a non-parametric approach, which combines multidirectional efficiency analysis with other techniques, to examine two empirical hypotheses after the financial crisis and corresponding intervention of the Troika measures: (a) the performance of firms in the manufacturing sector has improved; (b) the manufacturing sector significantly acquired long-term debt but use it in an efficient way. Our results show that validation of the first hypothesis heavily depends on the firm size, and the second hypothesis is correct only with respect to long-term debt acquiring. In fact, some sectors have managed to maintain an acceptable level of efficiency, according to the circumstances, however, most of them have showed some inefficiency in the management of resources and less than 10% have been able to overcome the difficulties emerged after the intervention of the Troika. A common tool to overcome a crisis is the acquisition of long-term debts, which was done by 77% of firms; but with a lower gain, since it was the most efficient input resourced used. On the contrary, our results show that the number of employees and total assets are better leverage to maintain efficiency.