No, they are not. Being the publisher actually means that a publishing company finances the development of a video game made by development studio. In most cases the publisher also owns the trademarks of the game. In the case of Pillars of Eternity, Paradox is only a contractor. They don't invest any money in the development in the game. Instead they get a share of the sales for their services in distribution and marketing/PR and quality management. So you could say that Paradox do a few thing a traditional publisher would normally do but their connection with Obisidan is completely different. They also don't own the game or the trademark so they don't have any power to influence the development of the game. That's 100% up to Obsidian themselves.
