

The non-financial private firms’ sector of Portugal in 2001–2017: The financial fragility hypothesis-based analysis
https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2020-3-115-128
Abstract
The article attempts to analyze the debt crisis in Portugal — as an essential component of the Great Recession in this country — using the financial fragility hypothesis developed by H. P. Minsky. Using a sample of 42 leading Portuguese non-financial private companies, the paper analyzes how the financing regimes used by these companies changed from 2001 to 2017. Before and at the height of the Great Recession, the share of firms with hedge financing mode was decreasing, while the share of firms with fragile financing regimes was increasing. Special attention is paid to how the Portuguese authorities applied austerity policies to deal with the debt crisis, and how they subsequently departed from the principles of this policy. The paper demonstrates that it was precisely after departing from the austerity doctrine that Portuguese non-financial private firms largely managed to get rid of financial fragility.
Keywords
JEL: D25, E12, E32, E44, E52, G32
About the Authors
Alexandra Yu. NovikovaRussian Federation
St. Petersburg
Ivan V. Rozmainsky
Russian Federation
St. Petersburg
References
1. Beshenov S., Rozmainsky I. (2015). Hyman Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis and Greece debt crisis. Voprosy Ekonomiki, No. 11, pp. 120—143 (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2015-11-120-143
2. Nevelsky A. (2019). How did Portugal manage to get out of the crisis. Vedomosti, April 10. (In Russian).
3. Caldentey E. P., Favreau-Negront N., Lobos L. M. (2019). Corporate debt in Latin America and its macroeconomic implications. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 335—362. https://doi.org/10.1080/01603477.2019.1616563
4. Carvalho F. J. C. (1992). Mr. Keynes and Post Keynesians. Principles of macroeconomics for a monetary production economy. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
5. Damodaran A. (2011). Applied corporate finance. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
6. Davis L. E., Souza J. P. A. de, Hernandez G. (2019). An empirical analysis of Minsky regimes in the US economy. Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 541—584. https://doi.org/10.1093/cameco/bey061
7. Hein E. (2012). The crisis of finance-dominated capitalism in the Euro area, deficiencies in the economic policy architecture, and deflationary stagnation policies. Levy Economics Institute Working Papers, No. 734.
8. Kapeller J., Schütz B. (2015). Conspicuous consumption, inequality and debt. The nature of consumption-driven profit-led regimes. Metroeconomica, Vol. 66, No. 1, pp. 51—70. https://doi.org/10.1111/meca.12061
9. Lagoa S., Leão E., Mamede R. P, Barradas R. (2014). Financialisation and the financial and economic crises: The case of Portugal. FESSUD Studies in Financial Systems, No. 24.
10. Minsky H. P. (1983). The financial instability hypothesis: An interpretation of Keynes and an alternative to “standard” theory. In: J. C. Wood (ed.). John Maynard Keynes. Critical assessments. London: Macmillan, pp. 282—292.
11. Minsky H. P. (1985). The financial instability hypothesis: A restatement. In: P. Arestis, T. Skouras (eds.). Post-Keynesian economic theory: A challenge to neoclassical economics. Brighton: Wheatsheaf, pp. 24—55.
12. Minsky H. P. (1986). Stabilizing an unstable economy. New Haven: Yale University Press.
13. Minsky H. P. (1992). The Financial instability hypothesis. Levy Economics Institute Working Papers, No. 74.
14. Mulligan R. F. (2013). A sectoral analysis of financial instability hypothesis. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 450—459. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qref.2013.05.010
15. Mulligan R. F., Lirely R., Coffee D. (2014). An empirical examination of Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis. Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 1—17. https://doi.org/10.1515/jeeh-2013-0005
16. Nikolaidi M. (2017). Three decades of modelling Minsky: What we have learned and the way forward. European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 222—237. https://doi.org/10.4337/ejeep.2017.02.05
17. Nishi H (2019). An empirical contribution to Minsky’s financial fragility: Evidence from non-financial sectors in Japan. Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 585—622. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/bey031
18. Parker O., Tsarouhas D. (eds.) (2018). Crisis in the Eurozone periphery: The political economies of Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
19. Torres Filho E., Martins N., Miaguti C. Y. (2019). Minsky’s financial fragility: An empirical analysis of electricity distribution firms in Brazil (2007—15). Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 144—168. https://doi.org/10.1080/01603477.2018.1503057
20. Tymoigne É. (2010). Detecting Ponzi finance: An evolutionary approach to the measure of financial fragility. Levy Economics Institute Working Papers, No. 605.
21. Vercelli A. (2009). A perspective on Minsky moments: The core of the financial instability hypothesis in light of the subprime crisis. Levy Economics Institute Working Papers, No. 579.
22. Wray L. R. (2011). Financial Keynesianism and market instability. Levy Economics Institute Working Papers, No. 653.
23. Wray L. R. (2012). Global financial crisis: A Minskyan interpretation of the causes, the Fed’s bailout, and the future. Levy Economics Institute Working Papers, No. 711.
Review
For citations:
Novikova A.Yu., Rozmainsky I.V. The non-financial private firms’ sector of Portugal in 2001–2017: The financial fragility hypothesis-based analysis. Voprosy Ekonomiki. 2020;(3):115-128. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2020-3-115-128