Rui Branco
Biographic Data
| ID | 334954 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rui Branco |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rui |
| FAMILY NAME | Branco |
| SIGNATURE | BRANCO R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Universidade Nova de Lisboa |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3800-6526 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 46 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The political economy of ultra-activity in collective bargaining
This article examines ultra-activity in collective bargaining – the rule that keeps expired agreements in force – and how its curtailment can shift bargaining power in fragmented wage-setting systems. Drawing on elite interviews, parliamentary debates and legal texts, we compare Portugal and Spain. Spain's 2012 reform limited ultra-activity (introducing a one-year time limit), seeking to decentralise bargaining and weaken unions; the rule was res…
Minimum wage and collective bargaining dynamics in Portugal
The article examines how the steady increases in the statutory minimum wage (SMW) following the end of the Troika adjustment programme in 2014 have impacted the wage distribution and collective bargaining dynamics in low-pay economic sectors in Portugal. It aims at contributing to the literature on the SMW pay equity effects by specifying the mechanisms through which SMW rises shape collective bargaining, wage compression and wage spillovers. Usi…
Running Fast, Just to Stay in the Same Place? Social Movements, Political Parties, and the Politics of the Portuguese Informal Caregiver Statute (2015–2019)
This article examines the political dynamics behind Portugal’s 2019 Informal Caregiver Statute (ICS), focusing on how social movements influenced the policy process through political mediation. The statute was prompted by caregiver mobilisation and advanced in parliament by partisan allies, despite initial government resistance. The movement’s influence relied on a favourable political opportunity structure, supportive media and public opinion, a…
A tall order. South European welfare states’ readiness for climate-adjusted social policy
Whether South European welfare states can accommodate the socio-economic challenges generated by the climate crisis has so far not been systematically addressed. Seeking to fill the gap, and focusing on the extreme cases Greece and Portugal, we assess their exposure, sensitivity and capacity to respond to eco-social risks, and how eco-social considerations are incorporated in political discourse and strategic planning. The analysis reveals a comm…
The politics of pro-outsider labour market reforms
Over the past decades, the level of regulation of fixed-term contracts has been in flux. Many reforms deregulating these contracts were followed by a regulatory countertrend, a puzzling finding considering influential theoretical expectations like the ones developed by the dualization and liberalization literatures. This paper draws on the comparative employment relations and comparative political economy literatures to identify the drivers of pr…
Back from the Cold? Progressive Politics and Social Policy Paradigms in Southern Europe after the Great Recession
This article examines the programmatic evolution of social democratic parties in Italy, Portugal, and Spain, three countries in which the center-left has governed in the last decade. To do so, the article develops an analytical framework for mapping social and labor market policy reforms and assessing their liberalizing, regularizing, or recalibrating character. In explanatory terms, the article studies the coalitional politics behind social demo…
The EPSR and the Next Generation EU
This article investigates the transformative potential of the Next Generation EU (NG‐EU) initiative in social protection taking South European (SE) countries as a test case. It starts with a brief examination of the main social parameters of the EPSR and how these intertwine with the NG‐EU strategy that links recovery from the pandemic with the EU's long‐term green and digital transition objectives. This is followed by a comparative overview of t…
Southern European Welfare Systems in Transition
This chapter examines the idea that a distinct Southern European welfare model exists within European social protection systems. It focuses on the core social protection pillars: pensions, labor market policies, social assistance, health care, social care, and family policies. The chapter looks at the reforms in welfare systems in Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Greece. In the early 1980s, Portugal and Greece still presented an underdeveloped social …
The Politics of Change. Coalitional politics and labour market reforms during the sovereign debt crisis in Portugal
This article describes and explains labour market reforms in Portugal during the sovereign debt crisis from 2011 to 2014. Policy outputs were not homogenous, but differentiated between a first phase where recalibration co-existed alongside hard liberalising measures and a second phase, from late 2012, where recalibration was dropped and liberalisation further deregulated employment protection and security and eroded collective bargaining. This va…
Here to Stay? Reversals of Structural Reforms in Southern Europe as the Crisis Wanes
This article answers the fundamental question of whether structural reforms on labour market regulation and social protection in Italy, Portugal and Spain passed during the sovereign debt crisis endured or were reversed once external conditionality waned. The study defines categorises and illustrates structural policy reversals. It finds there have been significant structural policy reversals across the three cases, but the bulk of these reforms …
Liberalised dualisation. Labour market reforms and the crisis in Portugal
Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this article examines how the main dimensions of labour market legislation (employment protection, security in unemployment, collective bargaining and activation policies) changed in Portugal during the sovereign debt crisis from 2011 to 2014. We show that the reforms passed during the Troika years were qualitatively different to earlier reforms. Despite building upon previous trends, there were path-…
The Golden Age of Tax Expenditures
This paper studies social tax expenditures as an instrument of social policy, considering its broader social and political ramifications, particularly regressive distributive impacts, the targeting of social protection and making markets for non-state providers. Using OECD data and government budgets, we look at ‘tax breaks for social purposes’ in Portugal since the 1980s, with a focus on healthcare, educational and mortgage loan expenses. Portug…
Civil Society and Democracy in an Era of Inequality
Long-Term Effects
El Estado en el Portugal decimonónico
In Portugal, since the first constitutional experience (1820-1823), the Liberal State was the promoter and builder of a new political project, based on representation, territorial reform and economic reorganization and standardisation. Its power apparatuses established the principles of citizenship and suffrage, integrated the peripheries and shaped a new national economic space. Stressing the tension between utopian political imagination and pra…
Contar (com) as pessoas
Here to Stay? Reversals of Structural Reforms in Southern Europe as the Crisis Wanes
This article answers the fundamental question of whether structural reforms on labour market regulation and social protection in Italy, Portugal and Spain passed during the sovereign debt crisis endured or were reversed once external conditionality waned. The study defines categorises and illustrates structural policy reversals. It finds there have been significant structural policy reversals across the three cases, but the bulk of these reforms …
Back from the Cold? Progressive Politics and Social Policy Paradigms in Southern Europe after the Great Recession
This article examines the programmatic evolution of social democratic parties in Italy, Portugal, and Spain, three countries in which the center-left has governed in the last decade. To do so, the article develops an analytical framework for mapping social and labor market policy reforms and assessing their liberalizing, regularizing, or recalibrating character. In explanatory terms, the article studies the coalitional politics behind social demo…
Long-Term Effects
Civil Society and Democracy in an Era of Inequality
Liberalised dualisation. Labour market reforms and the crisis in Portugal
Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this article examines how the main dimensions of labour market legislation (employment protection, security in unemployment, collective bargaining and activation policies) changed in Portugal during the sovereign debt crisis from 2011 to 2014. We show that the reforms passed during the Troika years were qualitatively different to earlier reforms. Despite building upon previous trends, there were path-…
The EPSR and the Next Generation EU
This article investigates the transformative potential of the Next Generation EU (NG‐EU) initiative in social protection taking South European (SE) countries as a test case. It starts with a brief examination of the main social parameters of the EPSR and how these intertwine with the NG‐EU strategy that links recovery from the pandemic with the EU's long‐term green and digital transition objectives. This is followed by a comparative overview of t…
El Estado en el Portugal decimonónico
In Portugal, since the first constitutional experience (1820-1823), the Liberal State was the promoter and builder of a new political project, based on representation, territorial reform and economic reorganization and standardisation. Its power apparatuses established the principles of citizenship and suffrage, integrated the peripheries and shaped a new national economic space. Stressing the tension between utopian political imagination and pra…
The Politics of Change. Coalitional politics and labour market reforms during the sovereign debt crisis in Portugal
This article describes and explains labour market reforms in Portugal during the sovereign debt crisis from 2011 to 2014. Policy outputs were not homogenous, but differentiated between a first phase where recalibration co-existed alongside hard liberalising measures and a second phase, from late 2012, where recalibration was dropped and liberalisation further deregulated employment protection and security and eroded collective bargaining. This va…
The Golden Age of Tax Expenditures
This paper studies social tax expenditures as an instrument of social policy, considering its broader social and political ramifications, particularly regressive distributive impacts, the targeting of social protection and making markets for non-state providers. Using OECD data and government budgets, we look at ‘tax breaks for social purposes’ in Portugal since the 1980s, with a focus on healthcare, educational and mortgage loan expenses. Portug…
Contar (com) as pessoas
El Estado en el Portugal decimonónico
In Portugal, since the first constitutional experience (1820-1823), the Liberal State was the promoter and builder of a new political project, based on representation, territorial reform and economic reorganization and standardisation. Its power apparatuses established the principles of citizenship and suffrage, integrated the peripheries and shaped a new national economic space. Stressing the tension between utopian political imagination and pra…
Civil Society and Democracy in an Era of Inequality
Long-Term Effects
Liberalised dualisation. Labour market reforms and the crisis in Portugal
Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this article examines how the main dimensions of labour market legislation (employment protection, security in unemployment, collective bargaining and activation policies) changed in Portugal during the sovereign debt crisis from 2011 to 2014. We show that the reforms passed during the Troika years were qualitatively different to earlier reforms. Despite building upon previous trends, there were path-…
The Golden Age of Tax Expenditures
This paper studies social tax expenditures as an instrument of social policy, considering its broader social and political ramifications, particularly regressive distributive impacts, the targeting of social protection and making markets for non-state providers. Using OECD data and government budgets, we look at ‘tax breaks for social purposes’ in Portugal since the 1980s, with a focus on healthcare, educational and mortgage loan expenses. Portug…
Here to Stay? Reversals of Structural Reforms in Southern Europe as the Crisis Wanes
This article answers the fundamental question of whether structural reforms on labour market regulation and social protection in Italy, Portugal and Spain passed during the sovereign debt crisis endured or were reversed once external conditionality waned. The study defines categorises and illustrates structural policy reversals. It finds there have been significant structural policy reversals across the three cases, but the bulk of these reforms …
Southern European Welfare Systems in Transition
This chapter examines the idea that a distinct Southern European welfare model exists within European social protection systems. It focuses on the core social protection pillars: pensions, labor market policies, social assistance, health care, social care, and family policies. The chapter looks at the reforms in welfare systems in Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Greece. In the early 1980s, Portugal and Greece still presented an underdeveloped social …
The Politics of Change. Coalitional politics and labour market reforms during the sovereign debt crisis in Portugal
This article describes and explains labour market reforms in Portugal during the sovereign debt crisis from 2011 to 2014. Policy outputs were not homogenous, but differentiated between a first phase where recalibration co-existed alongside hard liberalising measures and a second phase, from late 2012, where recalibration was dropped and liberalisation further deregulated employment protection and security and eroded collective bargaining. This va…
The EPSR and the Next Generation EU
This article investigates the transformative potential of the Next Generation EU (NG‐EU) initiative in social protection taking South European (SE) countries as a test case. It starts with a brief examination of the main social parameters of the EPSR and how these intertwine with the NG‐EU strategy that links recovery from the pandemic with the EU's long‐term green and digital transition objectives. This is followed by a comparative overview of t…
The politics of pro-outsider labour market reforms
Over the past decades, the level of regulation of fixed-term contracts has been in flux. Many reforms deregulating these contracts were followed by a regulatory countertrend, a puzzling finding considering influential theoretical expectations like the ones developed by the dualization and liberalization literatures. This paper draws on the comparative employment relations and comparative political economy literatures to identify the drivers of pr…
Back from the Cold? Progressive Politics and Social Policy Paradigms in Southern Europe after the Great Recession
This article examines the programmatic evolution of social democratic parties in Italy, Portugal, and Spain, three countries in which the center-left has governed in the last decade. To do so, the article develops an analytical framework for mapping social and labor market policy reforms and assessing their liberalizing, regularizing, or recalibrating character. In explanatory terms, the article studies the coalitional politics behind social demo…
Running Fast, Just to Stay in the Same Place? Social Movements, Political Parties, and the Politics of the Portuguese Informal Caregiver Statute (2015–2019)
This article examines the political dynamics behind Portugal’s 2019 Informal Caregiver Statute (ICS), focusing on how social movements influenced the policy process through political mediation. The statute was prompted by caregiver mobilisation and advanced in parliament by partisan allies, despite initial government resistance. The movement’s influence relied on a favourable political opportunity structure, supportive media and public opinion, a…
A tall order. South European welfare states’ readiness for climate-adjusted social policy
Whether South European welfare states can accommodate the socio-economic challenges generated by the climate crisis has so far not been systematically addressed. Seeking to fill the gap, and focusing on the extreme cases Greece and Portugal, we assess their exposure, sensitivity and capacity to respond to eco-social risks, and how eco-social considerations are incorporated in political discourse and strategic planning. The analysis reveals a comm…
The political economy of ultra-activity in collective bargaining
This article examines ultra-activity in collective bargaining – the rule that keeps expired agreements in force – and how its curtailment can shift bargaining power in fragmented wage-setting systems. Drawing on elite interviews, parliamentary debates and legal texts, we compare Portugal and Spain. Spain's 2012 reform limited ultra-activity (introducing a one-year time limit), seeking to decentralise bargaining and weaken unions; the rule was res…
Minimum wage and collective bargaining dynamics in Portugal
The article examines how the steady increases in the statutory minimum wage (SMW) following the end of the Troika adjustment programme in 2014 have impacted the wage distribution and collective bargaining dynamics in low-pay economic sectors in Portugal. It aims at contributing to the literature on the SMW pay equity effects by specifying the mechanisms through which SMW rises shape collective bargaining, wage compression and wage spillovers. Usi…
Political science (13 works) · Politics (13 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (12 works) · Economics (8 works) · Political economy (8 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Market economy (6 works) · Sociology (6 works)