In 10 years, Portuguese municipalities have made 311,000 public contracts and spent 16.9 million euros. But how do municipalities like Benavente or Torres Vedras, for example, compare with Lisbon or Porto?

Researchers at NOVA IMS have developed a tool with scale-adjusted indicators that allows them to identify hiring patterns and compare different municipalities with each other.

The indicators used for the comparative analysis between municipalities were import and export volumes, energy consumption, the number of civil servants, housing prices, births, and cash withdrawals at ATMs, and others.

According to Bruno Damásio, coordinator of the research and professor at NOVA IMS, "this research concluded that the larger municipalities spend proportionally less per capita than the smaller municipalities and that this differential is greater in public works than in services.

Read the full story here. (in Portuguese)