Ricardo Barradas

Abstract Portugal has historically displayed strong external imbalances, which have already resulted in three requests for international financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and/or the European Central Bank.

1 Introduction Labour conditions have been worsening, workers have been losing some labour rights, and the degree of exploitation of labour has been increasing all over the world since the 1970s and 1980s (Korpi and Shalev 1979; Gouzoulis 2023; Prata Feres et al. 2024), which is observable in the decrease of the labour income share and in stagnant (or falling) wages (Gouzoulis 2021, 2022; Barradas 2023; Alcobia and Barradas 2023 and Alcobia and Barradas 2024; Gouzoulis et al.

Abstract In the last four decades, policymakers in the more developed countries have privileged the adoption of wage restraint policies to sustain economic growth.