Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Riverside, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-162).

The Great Recession is the manifestation of some fundamental problems in the real sector of the global economy, related basically to the loss of competitiveness of the U.S. and other central economies, reflected in continuous external disequilibria in the form of parallel current account deficits and financial account surpluses. Domestic monetary and fiscal (or domestic adjustment) policies have not reached a solution to the problem because we are now dealing with a global problem that requires multilateral solutions seeking to adjust some fundamental relative prices and the closing of some key structural imbalances in order to make a sustainable recovery possible. Besides, the difficulties in finding and engineering a solution show the need to reassess the theoretical paradigms underlying the economic policies that preceded the current crisis (e.g., supply-side economics). / La Gran Recesión es la manifestación de ciertos problemas fundamentales en el sector real dela economía global, relacionados básicamente con la pérdida de competitividad de los Estados Unidos y otras economías centrales, y que se han reflejado en sucesivos desequilibrios externos en la forma de paralelos déficits en cuenta corriente y superávits en cuenta financiera. Las actuales políticas de ajuste doméstico no están funcionando porque se trata de un problema global que requiere de soluciones globales que permitan el ajuste de ciertos precios relativos fundamentales y la reversión de algunos desequilibrios estructurales básicos, a fin de hacer posible una recupe- ración sostenible. Además, las dificultades para encontrar una solución muestran la necesidad de reevaluar los paradigmas teóricos que sirvieron de base a las políticas económicas previas a la crisis actual (por ejemplo, supply-side economics).

The thesis has two overarching objectives. One is to understand monetary policy in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia during 1990s and early 2000s; the other to use these findings to shed light on monetary policy in less developed, but highly open and financially integrated market economies. In order to achieve its aims, it analyses specific factors with significant influence on the conduct or outcomes of monetary policy in these countries; it analyses the transmission mechanism of monetary policy in Central Europe, based on a technique called vector autoregression; and examines use of principal types of constraints on policy discretion, such as central bank independence, exchange rate commitments and domestic targets for monetary policy, in countries of the sample. The thesis finds that strong internal and external pressures, together with frequent bouts of fiscal irresponsibility and sizeable additive and parametric uncertainty regarding the working of the economy, led, in all four countries, to pronounced macroeconomic vulnerability and a need for periodic adjustment to dangerous fiscal and external imbalances. Reaction of policy-makers in countries of the sample to this environment can be characterized as discretion constrained by a strong nominal anchor and real exchange rate considerations. Experience of Central European countries shows that various elements of a commitment by monetary authorities are not duplicatory or contradictory, but interdependent in contributing to the goal of constraining discretion. During the period studied, the two key overall developments in policy were the gradual shift of emphasis from exchange rate targets to domestic targets and (within domestic targets) a shift from monetary targets to inflation targets. This approach has been largely successful.

Pas de résumé / No summary

This dissertation examines the role of the fundamental economic variables (price levels, interest rates, and income levels) in the determination of foreign exchange rates during the period 1973-1978. Purchasing power parity, the International Fisher Effect, and the relationship of exchange rates with income levels through the marginal propensity to import were integrated, as suggested by the literature, and a fairly reasonable specification of a model for exchange rate determination was measured. The results of speculation tests indicate destabilizing results for some currencies and stabilizing results for the others; the coefficient of expectation tests, however, lend support to the destabilizing hypothesis. The conclusion of the research, therefore, is that the exchange rates of the major industrial countries which are of prime importance to the international financier and investor, and to the student of international finance and trade, are primarily determined, not by the fundamental economic variables, but by speculative forces which are believed to be of a destabilizing nature.

International bond market linkages are examined using monthly bond yield data and total return indices on government bonds with ten years to maturity. The bond yield data covers a nineteen-year period from January 1990 to July 2008, while the bond total return index data covers a nine-year period from August 2000 to July 2008. The international bond markets included in the study are Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The examination of international bond market linkages across these markets has important implications for the formulation of effective portfolio diversification strategies. The empirical analysis is carried out in three phases: the preliminary analysis, the principal component analysis (PCA), and the cointegration analysis. For each analysis and for each set of data the full sample period is first analysed and subsequently a five-year rolling window approach is implemented. Accordingly, this makes it possible to capture the time-varying nature of international bond market linkages. The preliminary analysis examines the bond market trends over the sample period, provides descriptive statistics, and reports the correlation coefficients between the selected bond markets. The PCA investigates the interrelationships among the bond markets according to their common sources of movement and identifies which markets tend to move together. The cointegration analysis is carried out using the Johansen cointegration procedure and investigates whether there is long-run comovement between South Africa and the selected bond markets. Where cointegration is found, Vector Error-Correction Models (VECMs) are estimated in order to examine the long-run equilibrium relationships in addition to their short-run adjustments over time. The empirical analysis results were robust, and overall integration between SA and the selected major bond markets remained weak and sporadic. In addition, the results showed that even after accounting for exchange rate differentials, international bond market diversification remained beneficial for a South African investor; and since international bond market linkages remained weak with no observable trend, international bond market diversification will remain beneficial for some time to come for a South African investor.

O clássico Equilíbrio Econômico nunca foi realidade, especialmente após as primeiras crises dos mercados financeiros. Hoje se sabe que as economias estão longe da situação de equilíbrio, sendo vistas mais como um processo em construção do que um estado estático propriamente dito. Se assemelham a um sistema estocástico, e não determinístico como um dia se pensou. O Brasil é um país jovem, e seus sistemas econômico e político ainda estão em formação. Tendo em vista todas as mudanças e crises que o país tem sofrido em sua história recente, este estudo busca uma forma alternativa para que tais eventos possam ser detectados e, principalmente, de certa forma antecipados, para que as providências cabíveis possam ser tomadas a tempo de se evitar grandes perdas financeiras. Para tal, as medidas de Complexidade de SDL e LMC são aplicadas às séries do câmbio dolar-real, Ibovespa e CDS Brasil e avaliadas durante eventos de crises. Detectados os principais eventos de cada série, \"volta-se no tempo\", ao início da crise, e avalia-se, dada a informação disponível naquele momento, a possibilidade de se detectar a crise em seus primeiros estágios. Ao fim, conclui-se que as Medidas de Complexidade LMC e SDL são robustas na detecção de aumentos de volatilidade nos dados de séries financeiras. Assim sendo, apresentam grande potencial como indicadores precoces de crises financeiras. Para tal, não são necessários cálculos extensivos, nem grandes históricos de dados; e também não são necessárias hipóteses sobre a distribuição de probabilidades destes dados. Acredita-se que este seja o primeiro passo em direção à construção de um monitor de crises em tempo real. / The classical Economic Equilibrium has never been a reality, especially after the first financial markets crisis events. It is known nowadays that economies are far from their Equilibrium, they are seen more as a process under construction, not a static state; a stochastic instead of deterministic process, as it was thought before. Brazil is a young country, hence its economic and political systems are still maturing. In light of all the changes and crises it has been suffering in the recent history, this research seeks for an alternative mechanism to detect and anticipate these crisis events, in order to avoid massive financial losses. To this end, the LMC and SDL Complexity Measures are applied to the Dollar-Real exchange rates, Ibovespa and Brazilian CDS time series during crisis events. After detecting the main events, the idea is to \"turn back in time\", to the events\' inception, and analyse if, given the limited amount of information on that time, the crises could be detected on their early stages. Finally, this research concludes that both LMC and SDL Complexity Measures are robust in detecting volatility increases on the financial series, revealing good potential as crises early warning. However, no extensive calculus, large samples, or strong assumptions about the data probability distributions are needed to this aim. Therefore, these results represent the very first step towards a crises real time monitor.

The study examines the effect of oil price changes on selected economic indicators in South Africa. A VAR-5 model was applied to quarterly data of 1990:Q1-2012:Q4 estimating the impulse response functions, variance decomposition and Granger-causality tests. The findings allow for a conclusion that oil significantly affects the exchange rate and an inverse link between oil and GDP exists. A unidirectional relation is found where oil Granger-causes the exchange rate and GDP Granger-causes oil in South Africa.

This study examines the American Dollar (USD) denominated currency returns of five developing market currencies for the presence of the day-of-the-week effect. Daily data from January 1995 to February 2008 is examined, and is split into two subperiods, SP1 (1995 - 2002) and SP2 (2003 - February 2008). Currency returns are non-normally distributed across the full data set and SP1 , but tend towards normality in SP2. As such non-parametric tests are used to test the equality of the first four moments across days of the week. Tests on the first moment show that two of the currencies do not show any evidence of the day-of-the-week effect. However, evidence of the day-of-the-week effect is found in the other three currencies in SP1, although the effect disappears or weakens significantly in SP2. Little evidence of the day-of-the-week effect is found in tests on the second moment. The hypothesis of equal higher moments across currency returns is rejected for almost all of the weekday pairs for all five currencies in SP1 , but in SP2 the hypothesis of equal higher moments can only be rejected for a single pair of weekdays for one currency. This indicates the disappearance of the day-of-the-week effect across higher moments in SP2. Thus, the study finds that the day-of-the-week effect is present across the first moment and higher moments in the returns to most currencies in SP1 , but has disappeared for all five currencies in SP2. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

This dissertation evaluates development of exchange rates and its specific effects on STAP company a.s. The aim of this paper is to present the events that have had influence on the development of the exchange rate between Euro and Czech Crown and precautionary measures taken by STAP a.s. to prevent related risks. The first part comprises a summary of events that had a significant impact on the exchange rate development; the risks created by these events and methods devised to prevent these risks. The second part evaluates the specific financial derivatives used by STAP a.s. and their impact. Finally the recommendation is made for the future more effective usage of the financial instruments.