Biography

Ana is a researcher at the Institute for Economic Analysis, Spanish National Research Council (IAE-CSIC) in Barcelona. Her research focuses on labor economics and inequality. Her work has appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Journal of the European Economic Association, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Human Resources, among others.

Ana holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the European University Institute (Florence, 1997). Before joining IAE-CSIC in 2008, she was a Senior Research Associate at IZA Bonn and an Associate Professor at the University of Minho. On leave from 2021 to 2024, she was a Research Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon (ICS-UL). She was a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (2011). Ana is a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon (since 2022), a Fellow of IZA Bonn, and an External Fellow of CReAM, University College London. She was an elected member of the Executive Committee and Treasurer of the European Association of Labour Economists (EALE) from 2006 to 2012.

Abstract

In the depths of the 2010 financial crisis the Portuguese government enacted a series of reforms to its prescription drug reimbursement system. Over the next 4 years value added per pharmacist in retail pharmacies fell by a third or more, reflecting a combination of price cuts, generic substitution, and reductions in the markups allowed for prescription drugs. This massive shock led to pay cuts for incumbents and the introduction of a two-tier pay system for new hires, with little effect on the (relatively rapid) growth of pharmacists’ employment. We use detailed longitudinal records from the Quadros de Pessoal data base, merged with information on collective bargaining settlements and firm financial records, to study the impacts of the reforms. We estimate that between 2009 and 2018 average wages of pharmacists fell by a third; most of this reduction was due to lower wages for newly entering cohorts. The implied responsiveness of wages to productivity is outside the range of estimates in the existing rent-sharing literature and arguably reflects the strong attachment of workers to the sector and the absence of outside opportunities. Stepping back, we then consider longer-run trends in the relative wages of pharmacists in Portugal and other countries, and the decisions of recent college applicants to enter the profession.

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