Questo lavoro prende in esame le connessioni fra economia e politica in Italia nel periodo compreso tra il 1987 e il 2006. Tale filone di studi si situa all’interno del sempre più variegato e crescente interesse per il legame fra corporate governance, potere di mercato, struttura finanziaria e performance dell’impresa. Dopo una prima parte volta a mettere in luce alcuni principali lineamenti teorici ed istituzionali del tema in oggetto, segue una seconda parte, di natura prettamente empirica. In primo luogo si vogliono mettere in luce quali siano state le società quotate connesse nel periodo considerato e le modalità con cui ha avuto luogo la connessione, nonché illustrare alcuni aspetti descrittivi dei soggetti e delle società connesse che costituiscono il campione. In secondo luogo, seguendo la letteratura internazionale in materia, viene svolta un’analisi empirica al fine di testare se esistano particolari differenze tra società politicamente connesse e società non connesse in termini di leverage, redditività, efficienza produttiva e potere di mercato. In particolare, il terzo capitolo contiene una puntuale esposizione delle fonti e delle metodologie che hanno portato alla definizione dei database utilizzati ed implementati, fornendo alcune prime evidenze di tali connessioni. Nel capitolo IV si forniscono le statistiche descrittive del campione preso in esame relativo alle società italiane industriali ed holding di partecipazione quotate sul MTA e MTAX nel periodo 1987-2006, in termini sia di capitalizzazione di mercato, sia di redditività, struttura proprietaria e finanziaria. Infine, nel capitolo V viene proposta una verifica empirica sul campione così determinato, provando ad enfatizzare le relazioni esistenti tra alcune grandezze determinate quali il grado di indebitamento, il potere di mercato e alcuni indicatori di redditività ed efficienza e principalmente una variabile volta a individuare la presenza o meno di connessioni politiche nelle società stesse. / This study analyses politically connected firms in Italy, since 1987 to 2006. We take into consideration this nation because in Italy political connections are supposed to have been more valuable and relevant than in other countries. We focus our attention on listed industrial corporations, leaving out of consideration banks and insurance companies. We try to develop two main questions: which listed industrial corporations have been politically connected in this period? Have these firms been politically connected through top officers or large shareholders, President of the Republic, members of Parliament or ministers? Which is the value of political connections and which are the differences between politically connected and non connected firms? This study tries to highlight the features and the sizes of the political connection in the Italian context, giving evidence of the economic, political and institutional framework. According to the existing literature we argue that firms with political connections gain financial benefits in terms of greater market power, but show poorer performances and efficiency than non connected firms because of the relevant private benefits that characterize the politically connected ones. Moreover we argue that politically connected firms show lower leverage than their non-connected peers defining a more complex framework in comparison to other relevant studies.

This thesis investigates the deregulation of the audit industry in Sweden, the changing competitive environment and innovativeness, a research gap that has not yet been bridged. This paper raises the question of how the innovativeness of firms within the audit industry have changed after deregulation. The ambition of this research is to have both theoretical and practical knowledge contribution. The theoretical framework constructed for this research is rooted in the literature review of three areas: strategy and competition, deregulation, and organizational innovativeness. These three streams of research are used in order to examine the expectations that the industry has on the changing strategic landscape. Four perspectives and schools of thought in strategy and competition literature are reviewed: the competitive forces, strategic conflict school, resource-based school, and dynamic school. These schools are then put into two categories that are substantial opposites of one another; market power and efficiency. The need to consider these perspectives are addressed as follows: the perspective of competitive forces allows for understanding the industry structure, the strategic conflict school – to analyze the moves and interactions between competitors, the resource-based school – to understand firms resources, and finally, the dynamic school – to understand firms processes and capabilities. Summarizing and integrating these perspectives formed a hypothesized understanding that reflected the effects of deregulation and organizational innovativeness. In order to avoid modest pattern of deregulatory effects that could emerge by observations made in the early stage of deregulation, a methodological point of departure that is socially constructed and the production of knowledge that is based on interpretations and narratives were argued for. The research is furthermore based on a mix of deductive and inductive approach. The discussion with an industry member led to an interesting research context chosen as unit of analysis, which included the emerging tension between auditors and accounting-consultants. While the auditors’ believed in negative effects from the deregulation, the accounting-consultants had the opposite perception. Case-study approach with semi-structured and open-ended interviews were conducted on representatives from six firms, half of which represented the auditors and the rest the accounting-consultants.  The presentation of results followed the structure of market power, efficiency, and organizational innovativeness. The analysis of the results shows how firms within the audit industry had changed during the transition towards post-deregulation era. It shows how the previous construction of the audit-industry, characterized by homogeneity, has been decomposed and transformed to become more heterogeneous, by the new attractions and alternatives that now exist on the market. These attractions and alternatives creates incitement for decreased interaction between competitors that causes firms to engage in conflicts, and to redistribute their resources in order to imitate each others processes, which in turn creates new organizational innovativeness. The findings of this research also shows how the resources that were possessed by the firm before the deregulation tend to determine how the firm utilize the innovativeness in relation to the market after the deregulation.

This paper explores the interrelationship between the net interest margin (NIM) and noninterest income and their determinants for banks in 9 Asian countries over the period 1998-2010. A simultaneous equations system is used to deal with endogenous regressors and its structural parameters are identified under a heteroskedastic covariance restriction, proposed by Lewbel (2012). The renovated Lerner Index proposed by Huang et al. (2013) is factored as a more robust proxy for market power over HHI. Our results demonstrate significantly positive relationship between the NIM and noninterest income, suggesting overall benefits for banks from income diversification. In addition, the loss-leader behavior is not supported in the sample countries.

Submitted by Tiago Carvalho Machado de Souza (tiagocmsouza@gmail.com) on 2017-09-11T00:06:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tiago Souza - Dissertation.pdf: 996229 bytes, checksum: d66c6f04bc786ddb3ffcd12843e49226 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by ÁUREA CORRÊA DA FONSECA CORRÊA DA FONSECA (aurea.fonseca@fgv.br) on 2017-09-12T13:25:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tiago Souza - Dissertation.pdf: 996229 bytes, checksum: d66c6f04bc786ddb3ffcd12843e49226 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-26T12:10:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tiago Souza - Dissertation.pdf: 996229 bytes, checksum: d66c6f04bc786ddb3ffcd12843e49226 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-16 / This dissertation is composed of two articles in applied economics. The first intends to develop a better understanding of how economies’ income distribution relates to pricing decisions of firms with market power. The goal is to identify variables that induce companies’ price changes looking to the demand side — instead of the more usual supply side explanations. It is an intuitive framework that allows bringing together otherwise con-flicting results of the empirical literature. The economy’s per-capita income, income share of buyers and companies’ market size (share of population that purchases their goods) are factors that determine their pricing behavior and help explaining patterns observed in reality. The second article is about countries’ decision to not repay their public debt. The focus, however, is on the relative scarcity of productive inputs that results from defaulting, and how easy it is to substitute among them. It is a different way of looking at the economic costs generated when governments miss to pay their debts. The environment built provides interesting results, as for example interest rate spreads that emerge by just changing inputs’ elasticity of substitution, without relying on differences in agents’ risk aversion. / Esta tese é composta por dois artigos em economia aplicada. O primeiro busca entender a maneira como a distribuição de renda de uma economia impacta a decisão de preços de firmas com poder de mercado. O objetivo é identificar, no lado da demanda, elementos que induzam mudanças na escolha de preços de empresas --- ao invés de explicações advindas do lado da oferta, mais usuais na literatura. É um arcabouço intuitivo e que permite conciliar resultados inicialmente conflitantes na literatura empírica que trata do mesmo assunto. A renda per-capita da economia, concetranção de renda dos compradores de um bem e o tamanho do mercado das empresas (fração da população que compra um bem) são fatores determinantes do preço e ajudam a explicar padrões observados no mundo real. O segundo artigo trata da decisão de default de países na gestão da sua dívida píblica. O foco, contudo, é na escassez de recursos produtivos em consequência do default e a facilidade com que se pode substituir esses insumos por outros. É uma proposta diferente de olhar para os custos economicos induzidos pelo não pagamento da dívida pública. O ambiente desenvolvido gera resultados interessantes, como spreads de juros apenas alterando a elasticidade de substituição dos insumos, sem recorrer a mudanças na aversão a risco dos agentes.

Submitted by Cristiane Shirayama (cristiane.shirayama@fgv.br) on 2011-08-20T18:31:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE_MARCELO JOSE RANIERI CARDOSO.pdf: 1849424 bytes, checksum: 45715ba0069ac749c323de7081febcba (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel (gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2011-08-22T12:13:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE_MARCELO JOSE RANIERI CARDOSO.pdf: 1849424 bytes, checksum: 45715ba0069ac749c323de7081febcba (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel (gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2011-08-22T12:25:41Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE_MARCELO JOSE RANIERI CARDOSO.pdf: 1849424 bytes, checksum: 45715ba0069ac749c323de7081febcba (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-08-22T13:57:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE_MARCELO JOSE RANIERI CARDOSO.pdf: 1849424 bytes, checksum: 45715ba0069ac749c323de7081febcba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-05-23 / Maintaining a healthy banking system and with levels of competition to stimulate the supply of financial products that meets society's needs is a desirable goal, but very difficult to be achieved. A major existing difficulty is the fact competes in the same area of regulatory issues topics related to stability and competition issues - A trade-off that is not a consensus. Clearly, the banking systems are essential in the capital flows processing and in the administration of the intermediation between credit savers and borrowers (Freixas and Roche, 2007). This activity has a strong characteristic of solvency risk (Diammond and Dybvig, 1983) but yet there is no reasonable agreement about the causes and way to regulate it (Dewatripont and Tirole, 1994). On these issues, we developed a historical and institutional analysis in order to contextualize the current condition in Brazil. It is worth noting that in the banking sector, there is no consensus on how to measure some important variables for the Literature of Industrial Organization, such as Market Power and Competition Level. In due to contribute to the methodological discussion about the databases and models of competition, tests were carried out with the models Bresnahan and Lau (1982), Panzar and Rosse (1987) and Boone (2008), besides the usual measures of concentration Cn and HHI, evaluating the banking sector by Units Banks (CNPJ) and the Financial Conglomerates. The tests show there is statistical differences in the use of these bases from 2004. Another existent gap is the lack of models for the simulation of variations in supply of credit promoted by changes in the structure or in competition mode. This work also includes contributions to understanding of relationships of Market Power and the Level of Competition of the Banking Loan Market Brazil's. For this purpose, we performed tests on a structure of production function, where the results confirmed the classical hypotheses regarding the use of market power unilaterally and scale efficiency, in the level of the conglomerate banking. / A manutenção de um sistema bancário hígido e com níveis de concorrência que estimulem a oferta de produtos financeiros que atendam à sociedade é um objetivo desejável, porém difícil de ser atingido. A dificuldade resine no trade-off, ainda não consensual, entre questões ligadas à estabilidade sistêmica e questões concorrenciais. Claramente, os sistemas bancários são indispensáveis no processamento de fluxo de capitais e na administração da intermediação entre poupadores e tomadores de crédito (Freixas e Roche, 2007). Essa atividade tem a característica marcante de risco de solvência (Diammond e Dybvig, 1983), mas, ainda assim, não há conformidade de motivo e forma de regulá-la (Dewatripont e Tirole, 1994). Sobre estas questões desenvolvemos uma análise histórico-institucional com o objetivo de contextualizar o estado atual no Brasil. Vale notar que, no setor bancário, também não há consenso sobre as formas de mensurar variáveis importantes para a literatura de Organização Industrial, como Poder de Mercado e Nível de Concorrência. Para contribuir com a discussão metodológica quanto às bases de dados e aos modelos de competição, foram realizados testes com os modelos Bresnahan e Lau (1982), Panzar e Rosse (1987) e Boone (2008), além das medidas usuais de concentração Cn e HHI, avaliando o setor bancário pelas unidades bancárias (CNPJ) e pelos Conglomerados Financeiros. Os testes apontam diferença estatística no uso destas bases a partir de 2004. Outra lacuna existente na literatura é a ausência de modelos para a simulação das variações da oferta de crédito provenientes de variações na estrutura ou modo de competição. Este trabalho também traz contribuições no entendimento das relações de Poder de Mercado e Nível de Competição no Mercado de Empréstimos Bancário brasileiro. Para tanto, são realizados testes, sobre uma estrutura de função de produção, onde os resultados confirmam as hipóteses clássicas quanto ao uso de poder de mercado de forma unilateral e à eficiência de escala, no nível do conglomerado bancário.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-06-07T14:54:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 gabrielgouvearabello.pdf: 1303580 bytes, checksum: 6230bd67ce93079d87cb72f16e375515 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-07-13T13:24:06Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 gabrielgouvearabello.pdf: 1303580 bytes, checksum: 6230bd67ce93079d87cb72f16e375515 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-13T13:24:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 gabrielgouvearabello.pdf: 1303580 bytes, checksum: 6230bd67ce93079d87cb72f16e375515 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-30 / O objetivo desta dissertação é estimar os potenciais efeitos competitivos sobre o mercado relevante das principais fusões ocorridas no Brasil após o Plano Real, avaliando a eficácia da metodologia de estimação ex ante de efeitos efetivamente observados na rentabilidade das firmas fusionadas e rivais ex post. Segundo a análise de modelo teórico proposto por Motta (2004),é possível utilizar o resultado das firmas rivais no mercado em que ocorreu a fusão como indicador da presença de ganhos em eficiência ou de poder de mercado no mercado relevante das firmas fusionadas, em que retornos positivos para as firmas rivais indicam a presença de poder de mercado e, consequentemente, uma diminuição do excedente do consumidor e do bem-estar na economia. Analogamente, retornos negativos para as firmas rivais indicariam a presença de ganhos em eficiência e aumento do bem-estar. Para estimar os efeitos das fusões sobre as firmas rivais e fusionadas, utiliza-se neste trabalho a metodologia de estudo de eventos em que são calculados os retornos anormais das ações das firmas rivais, bem como das firmas fusionadas, decorrentes do anúncio da fusão. Além disso, para verificar se a metodologia de estudo de eventos é capaz de capturar os efeitos competitivos das fusões de maneira adequada, comparam-se os resultados obtidos via metodologia de estudo de eventos com uma medida de desempenho das firmas ex post.Tal comparação foi feita por meio de uma análise de correlação e regressão. Nesse estudo, foi utilizada uma amostra de 42 grandes fusões horizontais entre firmas de capital aberto com ações cotadas na BM&FBOVESPA e suas respectivas rivais no setor, além de um detalhamento para um setor específico, o de Telecomunicações. Os resultados empíricos obtidos na metodologia de estudo de eventos apontam para uma maior presença de efeitos anticompetitivos nas fusões em geral (ganho de poder de mercado) e de ganhos de eficiência para o setor de Telecomunicações. Além disso, foi encontrada, tanto para as firmas rivais como para as firmas fusionadas,correlação positiva e significativa entre os retornos anormais e o efeito na lucratividade ex post, evidenciando a capacidade do mercado em antecipar os efeitos negativos das fusões sobre o bem-estar. Esses resultados também são corroborados pela análise de regressão, cabendo ressaltar a presença do efeito de reversão à média, evidenciando, assim, a utilidade da metodologia de estudo de eventos em capturar os efeitos potenciais das fusões ex ante. / The objective of this dissertation is to estimate the potential competitive effects on the relevant market of major mergers occurred in Brazil after the Real Plan, evaluating the effectiveness of methods used to estimate ex ante effects actually observed in the profitability of merged firms and rivals ex post. According to the analysis of the theoretical model proposed by Motta(2004), it is possible to use the result of rival firms in the market in which the merger occurred as an indicator of the presence of gains in efficiency or market power in the relevant market of the merged firms, where positive returns for rival firms indicate the presence of market power and, consequently, a decrease in consumer surplus and welfare in the economy. Similarly, negative returns for rival firms indicate the presence of efficiency gains and increased well-being. To estimate the effects of mergers on rivals and firms merged, is used in this work to study methodology in which events are calculated abnormal stock returns of rival firms as well as firms merged, resulting from the merger announcement. This comparison was made by means of a correlation analysis and regression. In this study, a sample of 42large horizontal mergers between firms with publicly traded shares listed on the BM&FBOVESPA and their respective rivals in the sector was used, and a breakdown for a specific sector, the Telecommunications. The empirical results obtained in the methodology of event studies show a higher presence of anticompetitive mergers in general (gain market power) and efficiency gains in the sector of Telecommunications effects. Furthermore, it was found for both the rival firms as for firms merged, positive and significant correlation between abnormal returns and the effect on ex post profitability, demonstrating the market's ability to anticipate the negative effects of mergers on the welfare. These results are also corroborated by regression analysis, fitting to emphasize the presence of the effect of mean reversion, thus demonstrating the usefulness of the event study methodology to capture the potential effects of ex ante mergers.

There are many ways in which to define the relationship between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Using Holsti‟s definitions of role theory, this study distinguishes between the ego (the EU) and the alter (the ACP countries), referring to the differing perceptions that each has regarding the same issue: the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). It is argued that the EU carries out its external policies vis-à-vis the ACP countries, and in particular with the EPAs, in a manner that is perceived very differently by the two parties. The EU perceives its behaviour as that of Normative Power Europe (NPE) whereby actions are identified as altruistic and determined by a number of norms that form the core of the EU. Alternatively, it is suggested that in contrast to NPE, the ACP countries, with specific reference to southern Africa, experience and perceive quite a different version of the EU which is determined by Market Power Europe (MPE). MPE highlights a tangible and self-interested Europe not concerned entirely with altruistic intentions but rather the interests of its Single Market. The co-existence of these perceptions accounts for the difficulties faced in concluding the EPA negotiations. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Political Sciences / unrestricted

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo examinar el impacto de los procesos de fusión horizontal en el desempeño de la firma medido por el poder de mercado en el sector financiero peruano. Para ello, se deriva el Índice de Lerner estimando una función de costos translogaritmica y se examina el efecto de las fusiones de las entidades bancarias en dos tipos de periodicidad: efecto de corto plazo y largo plazo. El análisis se realiza mediante datos de panel, a nivel bancario, a través de modelos de efectos fijos, durante el periodo de julio de 2010 a diciembre 2019. Los resultados revelan que las entidades bancarias peruanas que han realizado un proceso de fusión horizontal en el corto plazo han aumentado su desempeño bancario en la industria financiera medido por el Índice de Lerner lo que explica la capacidad de las entidades fusionadas en modificar su comportamiento estratégico por defecto de la reorganización empresarial, el cual genera que incrementen su participación y tamaño en el mercado y puedan ejercer su poder de mercado por defecto de la estrategia. No obstante, el resultado de la contribución del efecto de la fusión en un periodo de largo plazo en el poder de mercado es negativa, lo cual enfatiza la coexistencia de factores asociados a nivel de empresa o por factores externos que dependen de la demanda. / The purpose of this document is to examine the impact of horizontal merger processes on the performance of the firm as measured by market power in the Peruvian financial sector. The Lerner Index is derived by estimating a translogarithmic cost function and the effect of the mergers of banking entities is examined in two types of periodicity: short-term and long-term effect. The analysis is carried out using panel data, at the bank level, through fixed effects models, during the period from July 2010 to December 2019. The results reveal that the Peruvian banking entities that have carried out a horizontal merger process have improved their banking performance in the financial industry measured by the Lerner Index, which explains the ability of the merged entities to modify their strategic behavior in a short term by defect of business reorganization, which causes the bank to increase its participation and size in the market and can exercise its market power by default of the strategy. However, the result of the contribution of the effect of the merger in a long-term period in market power is negative, which emphasizes the coexistence of associated factors at the company level or by external factors that depend on demand. / Trabajo de investigación

In this thesis current questions regarding the functionality of liberalized electricity markets are studied addressing different topics of interest in two main directions: market power and competition policy on electricity wholesale markets, and network investments and incentive regulation. The former is studied based on the case of the German electricity market with respect to ex-post market power analysis and ex-ante remedy development. First an optimization model is designed to obtain the competitive benchmark which can be compared to the observed market outcomes between 2004 and 2006. In a second step the horizontal breaking up of dominant firms (divestiture) is simulated applying equilibrium techniques (the classical Cournot approach and the Supply Function Equilibrium approach). The later issue of transmission capacity investment is addressed by highlighting the complexity of network investments in electricity markets and by analyzing a regulatory mechanism with a two part tariff approach. The technical characteristics of power flows are combined with economic criteria and tested for different network settings.

Utilizando la especificación de Generalized Leas Square (GLS) de los modelos de efectos fijos, este trabajo analiza el efecto de la concentración de mercado sobre las rentabilidades en relación con los depósitos para las entidades integrantes de la banca múltiple durante el periodo 2010-2011. La literatura ha evaluado ampliamente esta relación; no obstante, el análisis desde un enfoque de los depósitos financieros ha sido nulo. La relevancia de las hipótesis del paradigma Estructura-Conducta-Resultado, ha sido refutada en esta investigación. Los resultados sugieren que, dado el comportamiento propio de los depósitos bancarios, la concentración de la industria no tiene un impacto positivo sobre los retornos, es decir, no incrementan las ganancias. / Using the Generalized Leas Square (GLS) specification of fixed effects models, this paper analyzes the effect of market concentration on returns on deposits for commercial banks during the period 2010-2011. The literature has extensively evaluated this relationship; however, the analysis from a financial deposits approach has been null. The relevance of the hypotheses of the Structure-Conduct-Performance paradigm has been refuted in this research. The results suggest that, given the behavior of bank deposits, industry concentration does not have a positive impact on returns, i.e., it does not increase profits. / Trabajo de investigación