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 paper investigates the potential for a carbon tax to induce R&D, and for the consequent induced technical change (ITC) to lower the macroeconomic cost of abating carbon emissions. ITC is modelled within a general equilibrium simulation of the U.S. economy by the effects of emissions restrictions on the level and composition of aggregate R&D, the accumulation of the stock of knowledge, and the industry-level reallocation and substitution of intangible services derived therefrom. Contrary to other authors, I find that ITC's impact is large, positive and dominated by the latter "substitution effect," which mitigates most of the deadweight loss of the tax. / Abstract in HTML and technical report in PDF available on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://mit.edu/globalchange/www/). / This research was supported by the Offce of Science (BER), U.S. Department of Energy, Grant No. DE-FG02-02ER63484, and by funding from the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, which is supported by a consortium of government, industry and foundation sponsors.

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Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-08T14:44:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 7649365 bytes, checksum: ee27bd58facf83365ed85471f6231dbf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-11-06 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Although infrastructure investment has a central role in economic development, it declined considerably in Brazil during the 1980 and 1990 decades. At the beginning of the 2000s it amounted to 2.2 \% of GDP, while in China and Chile it amounted to 7.3 \% and 6.5 \% of GDP, respectively. The private investment in infrastructure was not enough to offset the decline in public investment, which occurred because of the government's effort to achieve primary surpluses. Thus, the government faces a dilemma between balancing the budget and increasing the investment. In order to achieve the two goals, the investment must be financed. The aim of this work is to evaluate the impact of an increase in the infrastructure investment and its financing in the Brazilian economy. To do it, a dynamic computable general equilibrium model is used. It is simulated an increase in the investment for two years, equal to 1 \% of the GDP. The results show that, in the first three years, the increase in the GDP growth rate is higher when the investment is financed by reducing the government consumption (0.73 \%), it is moderate when the financing is done through the tax on production (0.33 \%) or foreign savings (0.34 \%), and it is lower when the financing is done by increasing the income tax (0.28 \%). Construction was the fastest growing sector (2.39 \% on average in the first 3 years). The contribution of this work was to obtain clear and useful results for policy making, enhance the understanding of the effects of infrastructure investment financing in the Brazilian economy, and analyze the sectorial impacts of this investment. / Embora o investimento em infraestrutura tenha um papel central no desenvolvimento econômico, ele reduziu-se muito no Brasil nas décadas 1980 e 1990. No início da década de 2000 equivalia a 2,2%do PIB, enquanto que na China e no Chile correspondia a 7,3% e 6,5%do PIB, respectivamente. O investimento privado em infraestrutura, não foi suficiente para compensar a redução do investimento público, que ocorreu por causa do esforço do governo para obter superávits primários. Assim, o governo enfrenta um dilema entre obter o equilíbrio orçamentário ou aumentar o investimento público. Para que os dois objetivos sejam alcançados é preciso que o investimento seja financiado. O objetivo desse trabalho é avaliar o impacto do aumento do investimento em infraestrutura e de seu financiamento na economia brasileira. Para isso, utiliza-se um modelo de equilíbrio geral computável dinâmico. E simulado o aumento do investimento durante 2 anos, equivalente a 1 % do PIB. Os resultados mostram que, nos três primeiros anos, o aumento da taxa de crescimento do PIB é maior quando o investimento é financiado pela redução do consumo do governo (0,73 %), é moderada quando o financiamento é feito através do imposto sobre a produção (0,33 %) ou da poupança externa (0,34 %) e é menor quando o financiamento é feito através do aumento do imposto de renda (0,28 %). O setor que mais cresceu foi o de construção (2,39% em média nos 3 primeiros anos). A contribuição desse trabalho foi obter resultados claros e úteis para a tomada de decisões políticas, ampliar a compreensão dos efeitos do financiamento do investimento em infraestrutura na economia brasileira e analisar os impactos setoriais de tal investimento.

Trade liberalization in Kenya started in the early 1980s with the structural adjustment programmes, and continued under the multilateral framework of the WTO. During the same period, the incidence of poverty and level of inequality also worsened. The government’s focus on trade negotiations has been to ensure that there is policy space for the daily running of the economy even though welfare impacts are also important. Non-state actors have argued that trade liberalization has negatively affected the poor; particularly the farmers, since they cannot compete with the developed countries whose farmers enjoy significant government support through subsidies, making their products much cheaper in the world market. Government officials, on the other hand, contend that trade liberalization is good as it brings in competition and transfer of technology which is good for an economy. It is important to examine how trade liberalization has affected household’s welfare in Kenya, given that this kind of analysis has not been conducted in Kenya. This study is unique because it does not assume the existence of a trade liberalization– poverty relationship, unlike most studies. It uses a multi-method approach to first test the hypothesis that there is no statistically significant relationship between trade liberalization and poverty, it further tests for multiplier effects of trade liberalization on poverty determinants. Trade Liberalization and poverty is found to have a stochastic relationship, furthermore investments and capital stock were found to significantly affect poverty determinants in the stochastic model. Due to unavailability of household welfare measure data in time series, a CGE model was used to establish the dynamics of trade liberalization on poverty at a point in time using the 2003 Social Accounting Matrix Data for Kenya. Overall, trade liberalization accompanied by FDI had the greatest impact on household welfare. Trade liberalization had a positive impact on household welfare since household incomes and consumption increased. Micro simulations results, based on changes in consumption, also showed that poverty incidence reduced for all households, even though the urban households experienced higher decreases. The study found that there was little difference in protecting sensitive products and not protecting them; secondly, trade liberalization accompanied by foreign direct investment had greater impact on improving the household welfare. Consumption and incomes increased, resulting in overall poverty reduction. The welfare of urban households was much higher than rural households in terms of income and consumption increases. However, income inequality was much higher in urban than rural areas. / Economics / D. Litt. et Phil. (Economics)

La scelta del modeller riguardo alla chiusura del modello CGE influenza i suoi risultati finali e le sue prescrizioni di policy. In questa tesi, lo scopo è l’analisi e l’identificazione del problema, sia attraverso una discussione teorica che un’ applicazione pratica. Dall’articolo del 1963 di Amartya Sen in poi, la letteratura ha presentato vari articoli sull’argomento. Attualmente, il problema delle chiusure del modello non appare più centrale nel dibattito. Dopo una breve introduzione su cosa siano i CGE, il loro sviluppo e la loro struttura, è presentata una serie di esemplificative maquette con lo scopo di introdurre al concetto di chiusura, come essa influenzi i risultati e come questa scelta del modeller sia intimamente connessa ai fondamenti macroeconomici del sistema. Dopo la teoria, ci si sposta nel mondo reale analizzando con differenti modelli (Neoclassico, “Bastardo Keynesiano”, Strutturalista/Post- Keynesiano) e diverse chiusure per gli aggregati macroeconomici (risparmi privati, pubblici, e stranieri) l’impatto dell’accordo regionale SADC sull’economia mozambicana. I modelli CGE per il Mozambico sono calibrati su una SAM del 2003 e sono svolti con l’ausilio di GAMS/MPSGE. I risultati dimostrano che la chiusura influenza i risultati stessi del modello per cui ognuno presenta una serie di raccomandazioni politiche per l’applicazione dell’accordo SADC. / Modellers’ choice on closure rules affects a CGE model results and consequently its policy prescriptions. In this thesis, the aim is to detect and assess this issue, both through a theoretical discussion and an empirical application. Starting from Amartya Sen’s 1963 paper, literature presents many contributions on this topic. Currently, the closure rule problem is not central in the CGE debate. After a brief introduction on CGEs, their development and their structure, a series of simple maquette is presented. They have the exemplary role of introducing the concept of closures, explain how they affect final outcomes and how this modeller’s choice is strictly connected to the macroeconomic foundation of the economic system. After theory, we move into the real World analyzing through different models (Neoclassical, “Bastard Keynesian”, and Structuralist/ Post- Keynesian), and through different closure rules for macro- aggregates (private, public and foreign savings) the impact of the Regional Trade Agreement of SADC with respect to the Mozambican economy. The Mozambican CGE models are calibrated on a 2003 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) and they are performed using GAMS/ MPSGE. Outcomes show that closure rules affect them and each model presents a set of policy prescription to implement the SADC agreement.

Trade liberalization in Kenya started in the early 1980s with the structural adjustment programmes, and continued under the multilateral framework of the WTO. During the same period, the incidence of poverty and level of inequality also worsened. The government’s focus on trade negotiations has been to ensure that there is policy space for the daily running of the economy even though welfare impacts are also important. Non-state actors have argued that trade liberalization has negatively affected the poor; particularly the farmers, since they cannot compete with the developed countries whose farmers enjoy significant government support through subsidies, making their products much cheaper in the world market. Government officials, on the other hand, contend that trade liberalization is good as it brings in competition and transfer of technology which is good for an economy. It is important to examine how trade liberalization has affected household’s welfare in Kenya, given that this kind of analysis has not been conducted in Kenya. This study is unique because it does not assume the existence of a trade liberalization– poverty relationship, unlike most studies. It uses a multi-method approach to first test the hypothesis that there is no statistically significant relationship between trade liberalization and poverty, it further tests for multiplier effects of trade liberalization on poverty determinants. Trade Liberalization and poverty is found to have a stochastic relationship, furthermore investments and capital stock were found to significantly affect poverty determinants in the stochastic model. Due to unavailability of household welfare measure data in time series, a CGE model was used to establish the dynamics of trade liberalization on poverty at a point in time using the 2003 Social Accounting Matrix Data for Kenya. Overall, trade liberalization accompanied by FDI had the greatest impact on household welfare. Trade liberalization had a positive impact on household welfare since household incomes and consumption increased. Micro simulations results, based on changes in consumption, also showed that poverty incidence reduced for all households, even though the urban households experienced higher decreases. The study found that there was little difference in protecting sensitive products and not protecting them; secondly, trade liberalization accompanied by foreign direct investment had greater impact on improving the household welfare. Consumption and incomes increased, resulting in overall poverty reduction. The welfare of urban households was much higher than rural households in terms of income and consumption increases. However, income inequality was much higher in urban than rural areas. / Economics / D. Litt. et Phil. (Economics)