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Industrial policy in the form of direct and indirect government subsidy provision to firms in specific sectors of the economy is a common sight in many countries. Some of the most often quoted examples are East Asian economies such as japan and Taiwan. While industrial policy is touted as a possible engine to generate economic growth, empirical validations on the benefits from subsidy provisions have been mixed. It is often argued that a policy of non-intervention by the government may appear to be the optimal policy to pursue. However, this contrasts with the historical observations of regular government subsidy provisions to firms in many countries. This thesis constructs a two-sector non-monetary macroeconomic model with monopolistic competition to examine welfare and other related effects of a subsidy provision in the form of lump sum transfers or as some proportion of a variable cost component while firms in the perfectly competitive sector do not. This analysis is first carried out in an economy where labour supply is assumed to be exogenous and perfectly inelastic. This serves to provide a simple and clear exposition on the effects of a subsidy provision and to serve as a benchmark analysis to build upon. This is subsequently extended by allowing for labour supply to be endogenously determined to examine labour market effects of subsidy policies. The implications of subsidy provisions in the presence of international trade are studied by constructing a small open economy model where the effects of any policy implementation do not affect world prices or income. The principle findings we obtain are that when monopolistically competitive firms receive a cost-reducing subsidy, welfare improvements are always possible regardless of which cost variable the government subsidises. Furthermore, there is always a positive optimal subsidy which raises social welfare. When the supply of labour is endogenous, the corresponding tax imposed on income will always induce an increase in labour supply. Trade is shown not to affect the principle findings: there remains an optimal level of subsidy which is Pareto-improving. A further implication in the open economy context is that the subsidy acts as a form of import-substitution and export-promotion instrument which potentially alters the domestic economy's trade patterns.

This study investigates general equilibrium effects of an alternative social security policy in Indonesia. The study aims to analyse some financial issues of the proposed policy using a dynamic CGE model. The focus is investigating possible tax scenarios to finance the proposed policy and their impacts on the economy. The simulation results suggest that the consumption tax base should be used as the main financing method. This is because based on various simulations the selected consumption taxes have less negative impacts on the economy than the selected income taxes. Those selected consumption taxes more equitably distribute tax burden and improve income inequality in the long run. However, the increasing price because of this policy selection should also be considered seriously. The simulations also include the study of the demographic transition in Indonesia. A view that is common in the literature is that the rapid increase of labor force in the next three decades could raise the proportion of skilled workers in the labor force and enhance the economic growth. Instead the simulations suggest contrary results. When we repeat the tax/transfer simulations with the demographic transition, real GDP per capita and consumption per capita fall further below the baseline projections. Further simulations are conducted to investigate possible policy actions to mitigate the effects of this demographic transition. This study also covers possible allocation decision trade-offs surrounding the proposed social security policy. That is, the trade-offs between universal social pension insurance and universal social health insurance, and between universal tax-financed social security programs and other important development programs. Given the limitation of our study, that all stakeholders have agreed to develop a universal tax-financed social security program, we conclude that universal tax-financed social health insurance should be given more priority than universal tax-financed social pension insurance. The study concludes with some remarks regarding important areas for future research.

This study investigates general equilibrium effects of an alternative social security policy in Indonesia. The study aims to analyse some financial issues of the proposed policy using a dynamic CGE model. The focus is investigating possible tax scenarios to finance the proposed policy and their impacts on the economy. The simulation results suggest that the consumption tax base should be used as the main financing method. This is because based on various simulations the selected consumption taxes have less negative impacts on the economy than the selected income taxes. Those selected consumption taxes more equitably distribute tax burden and improve income inequality in the long run. However, the increasing price because of this policy selection should also be considered seriously. The simulations also include the study of the demographic transition in Indonesia. A view that is common in the literature is that the rapid increase of labor force in the next three decades could raise the proportion of skilled workers in the labor force and enhance the economic growth. Instead the simulations suggest contrary results. When we repeat the tax/transfer simulations with the demographic transition, real GDP per capita and consumption per capita fall further below the baseline projections. Further simulations are conducted to investigate possible policy actions to mitigate the effects of this demographic transition. This study also covers possible allocation decision trade-offs surrounding the proposed social security policy. That is, the trade-offs between universal social pension insurance and universal social health insurance, and between universal tax-financed social security programs and other important development programs. Given the limitation of our study, that all stakeholders have agreed to develop a universal tax-financed social security program, we conclude that universal tax-financed social health insurance should be given more priority than universal tax-financed social pension insurance. The study concludes with some remarks regarding important areas for future research.

We use a three-country, 14-sector computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to examine the effect of immigration on the labor market, production sectors and the macroeconomy of Austria and Hungary. We analyze the phenomenon of immigration in an empirical model in order to get an idea of the quantitative dimension of the economic problems involved, rather than introduce new integration theory. Our study aims more at the impact of migration than at forecasting future migration flows. (excerpt) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

This thesis is a collection of essays where I explore and extend the study of the role of financial frictions for the determination of asset prices, financial stability, and economic resilience. The frictions included in the analysis are individual and aggregate uncertainty, agent heterogeneity, money, liquidity and default. The first essay is an empirical study that motivates my research objectives. This work starts with the exploration of the role of liquidity on asset prices, specifically on sovereign bonds of emerging countries. I present a comprehensive model where I developed a novel methodology for finding the role of liquidity in the determination of asset prices during the financial crisis. In the second essay, illuminated by the empirical findings, I apply and expand the general equilibrium theory of money, default and financial stability. The contributions at the theoretical level are the extension of two-period model with discrete state space to the infinite horizon dynamic stochastic setting, and the inclusion of liquidity restrictions. In the third essay, I further extend this framework, allowing for production technology and endogenous market liquidity. Given the theoretical setting, I have analyzed the responses of financial stability and economic performance variables to real and financial shocks. Finally, in the fourth essay I produce an empirical application of this work. I apply a novel semi-parametric financial stability metric, and evaluate its relevance for the determination of asset prices, in the presence of liquidity restrictions. As a result, this thesis suggest plausible explanations for financial and economic issues that conventional models have not dealt with adequately.

This thesis focuses on finding Bayesian equilibria for sellers in virtual auctions using real currencies. Existing literature for real-world auctions is examined from the perspective of economic theory, game theory, and pricing strategies. Next, computer science theory is reviewed to identify applications of real-world auction models in video games. Finally, the video game Diablo 3, the first to have a real currency auction house for virtual goods, will be examined as a case study. This thesis contributes to the known literature by analyzing the Diablo 3 real currency auction house and identifying seller strategies to be applied in future virtual auction houses and economies using real currencies. JEL Classification C73, D44, D58 Keywords repeated games, auctions, general equilibrium Author's e-mail waheedbrown@hotmail.com Supervisor's e-mail gregor@fsv.cuni.cz Abstrakt Tato práce se zameruje na hledání Bayesovské rovnováhy pro prodejce ve virtuálních aukcích, které používají skutecné peníze. Na úvod se prozkoumá existující literatura o aukcích z hlediska ekonomické teorie, teorie her tvorby a cenové strategie. Dále budou analyzovány príspevky z informatiky, které povedou k zjištení zpusobu aplikace aukcních modelu ve videohrách. Hlavním príspevkem bude analýza video...

This paper studies the effect of information disclosure on banks' portfolio risk. We cast a simple banking system into a general equilibrium model with trading frictions. We find that the information disclosure lowers the expected risk-adjusted profits for a non-negligible fraction of banks. The magnitude of this effect depends on the structure of the banking system and, alarmingly, it is more pronounced for systemically important institutions. We connect these theoretical findings to the stress test procedure, where bank information is disclosed by the regulator. The 2011 and 2014 stress tests are used in an empirical study to further support our theoretical results.

O objetivo principal deste trabalho é analisar as interações econômicas das unidades da Federação. Cabe ressaltar que as interações serão tratadas neste trabalho como o comércio entre as diversas unidades espaciais e suas relações mercantis com o resto do mundo. Para atingir tal objetivo foi especificado um modelo de equilíbrio geral computável de tradição australiana (B-MARIA27-IT). O modelo é composto por seis tipos de agentes, quais sejam: setores produtivos, investidores, famílias, governo federal, governo regional e setor externo. Em cada uma das 27 regiões contempladas há oito setores produzindo oito bens. O setor externo é dividido em cinco blocos de comércio: NAFTA, resto da ALCA, União Européia, Mercosul e resto do mundo. Para analisar a estrutura de interações econômicas entre as unidades da Federação foi implementado um exercício de simulação, que consistiu em um deslocamento na curva de demanda por exportações para os diversos blocos de comércio, ou seja, uma proxy do fortalecimento das interações destas unidades com determinado bloco de comércio. Através deste exercício pode-se verificar, por exemplo, qual o impacto de um aumento das transações internacionais de um setor localizado em determinada unidade da Federação, sobre os fluxos de comércio interno das demais unidades da Federação. Ao fazer esta análise através de um modelo de equilíbrio geral computável (EGC) pode-se levar em conta a possibilidade de substituição entre bens domésticos e importados, a variação nos preços relativos, a possibilidade de substituição diferenciada para os bens de exportação, dentre outros. Cabe ainda ressaltar que, para analisar a interdependência entre setores, regiões e famílias de forma mais acurada, é importante levar em conta, por exemplo, diferenciais de preço e mobilidade dos fatores de produção, dentre outros fatores. Logo, a estrutura de EGC parece-nos mais adequada para tratar, de forma completa, as interações espaciais entre as unidades da Federação. / The principal aim of this thesis is to analize the economic interactions among the Brazilian states. The economic interactions in this work will be treated as trade among the Brazilian states and trade between the Brazilian states and the rest of the world. In order to reach this objective a computable general equilibrium model was specified (B-MARIA27-IT). The model is formed by productive sectors, investors, households, federal government, regional government and external sector. There are 8 sectors responsible for the production of 8 goods in each one of the 27 regions. The external sector is divided in five regions: NAFTA, rest of FTAA, European Union, Mercosur and rest of the world. In order to analise the structure of economic interactions among the Brazilian states was implemented a simulation that changed the exports demand for each one of the external regions. This simulatin can be understand as a proxy of an increase in the relationship between the Brazilian states and external sector. This exercise will enable us to verify which will be the impact upon the inter-state trade flows of an increase in the international trade flows of each Brazilian state. The general equilibrium approach considers the possibility of substitution between domestic goods and imported goods, changes in the relative prices, imperfect substitution among goods, factor production mobility, etc. So we can affirm that the general equilibrium approach is adequate to capture the whole picture of spatial interacions of the Brazilian states.