Miguel Portela is a PhD in Economics by Tinbergen Institute/University of Amsterdam, 2007. He is currently Associate Professor at Universidade do Minho, Portugal. He is also affiliated with NIPE/U Minho and IZA, Bonn. His research interests' lie in the areas of labour economics, economics of education and applied econometrics. He counts 15 papers, and two book chapters, and has been published in Econometrica, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Regional Studies, The World Economy and Studies in Higher Education. His work has been cited in Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Scandinavian Journal of Economics and Labour Economics, among others. The average AIS of his publications is 1,2, and has an h-index of 4. He has on-going research collaborations across different countries, leads and integrates research teams working in financed projects and has written policy oriented reports on Minimum Wage, Education and Employment on the Portuguese labour market. He has also consultancy experience, both for private as well as public institutions.

He joined IZA as a Research Affiliate in April 2004 and became a Research Fellow in March 2009.