La thèse porte sur la problématique de l’efficience du financement intermédié des processus de croissance et de développement économiques. Elle s'intéresse d’une part à la résolution des problèmes d’inefficience liés à la présence d’asymétries informationnelles et de l’incertitude sur les marchés du crédit grâce aux mécanismes réputationnels mis en œuvre dans le cadre des relations de long terme banques-emprunteurs et d’autre part, aux conditions dans lesquelles ces mécanismes peuvent émerger et se développer, en particulier dans un pays en développement comme le Cameroun.La thèse a donc une portée à la fois conceptuelle, empirique et normative.En premier lieu, nous avons cherché à alimenter le débat théorique sur la pertinence et l'intérêt du mécanisme réputationnel dans le processus d’intermédiation bancaire. Nous montrons que, contrairement aux modèles habituels d’intermédiation de la théorie d’agence, où les mécanismes de sanctions ou de coercitions judiciaires restent souvent inefficaces et coûteuses, le caractère auto-exécutoire du mécanisme de la réputation suffit seul à garantir l’efficacité de son fonctionnement. De plus, le mécanisme réputationnel nous semble mieux concilier deux conceptions opposées du comportement des acteurs que sont l’homo economicus et l’homo sociologicus. De ce fait, ce mécanisme est susceptible de constituer un cadre d'analyse intéressant pour la modélisation des comportements bancaires notamment dans le contexte des PED africains où les incertitudes restent exacerbées et où prédominent des rationalités économiques beaucoup plus fondées sur les valeurs. En second lieu, les résultats de notre enquête statistique de terrain permettent de montrer qu'au Cameroun, par rapport aux Institutions Financières Décentralisées (IFD) comme la MicroFinance, les Institutions Financières Formelles (IFF) semblent accorder une moindre importance aux pratiques réputationnelles dans leur comportement d'allocation des capitaux, en particulier aux PME. Ceci est susceptible d'apporter une des meilleures explications au différentiel de performance micro-économique, se situant ici à l'avantage des IFD.Enfin, la même enquête nous permet de mettre fortement en évidence l'existence de nombreux facteurs à la fois internes et externes empêchant aux deux catégories de banques une meilleure prise en compte du mécanisme réputationnel. Ce constat nous conduit à proposer des axes ou pistes de réflexion, à formuler et à justifier un ensemble de recommandations à la fois organisationnelles, institutionnelles et réglementaires associées. Ceci dans l’objectif de construire un système bancaire camerounais plus fiable et plus solide en incitant les banques à mieux intégrer les pratiques réputationnelles dans leur jugement d'octroi de crédit aux emprunteurs. / This thesis focusses on the problematic of the efficiency of intermediate finance on the economic growth and development processes. It concerned, on one hand, the resolution of inefficiency problems resulting from the presence of asymmetric information and uncertainty involved credit markets when reputational mechanisms implemented through banks-borrowers long-term relationships are used and, on the other hand, the conditions in which these mechanisms could emerged and expanded, in particular in a developing country such as Cameroon.The thesis thus has, at the same time, conceptual, empirical and normative purpose First of all, we tried to enrich the theoretical debate about relevance and interest of the reputational mechanism relating banking intermediation process. We show that, while in the models of agency where judicial penalties and pressures mechanisms are often ineffective and expensive, only the auto-enforceable character of the reputational mechanism is enough to guarantee its efficacious functioning. Furthermore, for us, the reputational mechanism seems better to reconcile the two usual opposite conceptions of agents behaviors that are homoeconomicus and homosociologicus. Therefore, this mechanism might constitute an interesting analysis framework for modeling banking behavior, in particular in the context of African economies where uncertainties remain aggravated and where much more economic rationalities based on the values prevail.Secondly, our statistical survey issues clearly shows that in Cameroon, with regard to decentralized financial institutions (DFIs) like Microfinance unities, formal financial institutions (FFI) seem to attach less importance to reputational practices in their capital allowance behaviour, especially to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This is likely to provide a better explanation of the differential micro-economic performance, situated here to the advantage of DFI.Finally, the same above mentioned survey strongly reveal the existence of many both internal and external factors preventing both categories of banks in a better consideration of reputational mechanisms. We then proposed axes or lines of reflection, formulated and justified a set of corporate, institutional and regulatory associated recommendations. This with the aim to build a more reliable and more solid Cameroonian banking system by inciting banks to better integrate reputational practices in their judgment of granting credits to borrowers.

<p>The primary aim of this thesis has been to analyse the transformation of the Swedish capital market from a household perspective. The investigation shows that the transition from a mostly private credit market to a more institutionalised credit market took place at the end of the nineteenth century. At this time there were several actors in the credit market that were able to fulfil the diverse needs of credit that different households might have. This need was very much correlated to the household’s particular stage in its life-cycle. In accordance with the life-cycle theory and the permanent income hypothesis, households displayed a savings and consumption pattern that was dependent on income and the burden of expenditure. Households also seemed to have particular difficulty meeting expenditures, so-called life-cycle squeezes, when the household was first started, when the household size was at its peak and when the head of family reached old age, which coincided with a declining capacity to work. The investigation also shows that household savings were meant for old age. Contrary to the assumption made in life-cycle theory, households seemed to intend to provide heirs with an inheritance. This finding is more in keeping with the permanent income hypothesis, which states that households were expected to maintain their assets intact over the course of a life-time.</p>

The primary aim of this thesis has been to analyse the transformation of the Swedish capital market from a household perspective. The investigation shows that the transition from a mostly private credit market to a more institutionalised credit market took place at the end of the nineteenth century. At this time there were several actors in the credit market that were able to fulfil the diverse needs of credit that different households might have. This need was very much correlated to the household’s particular stage in its life-cycle. In accordance with the life-cycle theory and the permanent income hypothesis, households displayed a savings and consumption pattern that was dependent on income and the burden of expenditure. Households also seemed to have particular difficulty meeting expenditures, so-called life-cycle squeezes, when the household was first started, when the household size was at its peak and when the head of family reached old age, which coincided with a declining capacity to work. The investigation also shows that household savings were meant for old age. Contrary to the assumption made in life-cycle theory, households seemed to intend to provide heirs with an inheritance. This finding is more in keeping with the permanent income hypothesis, which states that households were expected to maintain their assets intact over the course of a life-time.

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The purpose of this study is to have an in-depth understanding of the importance of the institutional environment for financial development in 43 Sub-Saharan African countries during the years 2004-2018. Using new institutional economic theory (NIE) we study how the four institutional factors Control of Corruption, Rule of Law, Political Stability and Absence of Violence, and Voice and Accountability affect financial development. We also survey how the effect of institutional factors varies when there are either high, medium or low levels of corruption. Empirical results show a positive linear relationship between all institutional factors and financial development. However, when corruption levels are high the correlation between institutional factors and financial development varies and has a weak linear relationship. Inferential statistics results from a fixed effect regression model with robust standard errors shows; when we control for the financial environment, Political Stability and Absence of Violence is the only indicator for the institutional environment that has a positive significant effect on financial development. We thereby conclude that the institutional environment, mostly political institutions, are important for financial development. / Syftet med denna studie är att få en djupgående förståelse av institutionell miljö för finansiell utveckling i 43 Subsahariska afrikanska länder för åren 2004–2018. Med hjälp av den nya institutionella ekonomiska teorin undersöker vi hur de fyra institutionella faktorer Kontroll av Korruption, Rättsstat, Politisk Stabilitet och Frånvaro av Våld och Röst och Ansvarsskyldighet påverkar finansiell utveckling. Vi undersöker också hur effekten av institutionella faktorer varierar när det finns hög, medium eller låg nivå av korruption. Empiriskt resultat visar ett positivt linjärt samband mellan alla institutionella faktorer och finansiell utveckling. Däremot, när korruptions nivåerna är höga är korrelationen mellan institutionella faktorer och finansiell utveckling varierar och har ett svagt linjärt samband. Resultatet från inferentiell statistik med fixed-effektregressionsmodell med robust standardfel visar att; när vi kontrollerar för den finansiella miljön, kvarstår endast Politisk Stabilitet och Frånvaro av Våld som en indikator för institutionell miljö som har en positiv signifikant effekt på finansiell utveckling. Vi konstaterar därmed att institutionell miljö, särskilt politiska institutioner är viktiga för finansiell utveckling.

This dissertation is a collection of essays on challenges in international trade and international finance, which apply econometric methods to diverse data sets and relate them to economic policy questions. In times of crises, the question, whether individual countries have the ability to pursue idiosyncratic monetary policy, is important. The degree of integration and comovement between financial markets, for instance, is critical to better assess the real threat facing a country in a crisis. Also, from a macroeconomic modeling perspective, there has recently been a renewed interest in the cyclical and long-run comovement of interest rates. Hence, in a first essay, we reinvestigate the long- and short-run comovements in the G7-countries by conducting tests for cointegration, common serial correlation and codependence with nominal and real interest rates. Overall, we only find little evidence of comovements: common trends are occasionally observed, but the majority of interest rates are not cointegrated. Although some evidence for codependence of higher order can be found in the pre-Euro area sample, common cycles appear to exist only in rare cases. We argue that some earlier, more positive findings in the literature are difficult to reconcile due to differing assumptions about the underlying stochastic properties of interest rates. Hence, we conclude that they cannot be generalized for all interest rates, time periods, and reasonable alternative estimation procedures. This finding indicates that scope for individual countries to pursue stabilization policy does still exist in a globalized world. Emerging economies, in general, are much more exposed and vulnerable to crises than industrialized countries. Accordingly, stabilization policy is especially important in these countries and the selection of the best monetary regime is essential. This is why, in a second essay, we contrast two different views in the debate on official dollarization: the Mundell (1961) framework of optimum currency areas and a model on boom-bust cycles by Schneider and Tornell (2004), who take account of credit market imperfections prevalent in middle income countries. We highlight the strikingly different role of the exchange rate in the two models. While in the Mundell framework the exchange rate is expected to smooth the business cycle, the second model predicts the exchange rate to play an amplifying role. We empirically evaluate both models for eight highly dollarized Central American economies. We document the existence of credit market imperfections and find that shocks from the exchange rate indeed amplify business cycles in these countries. Using a new method proposed by Cubadda (1999 and 2007), we furthermore test for cyclical comovement and reject the hypothesis that the selected countries form an optimum currency area with the United States according to the Mundell definition. In the context of the recent global crisis, globalization and vertical integration in particular were often blamed for being the cause for the severe trade crisis. For that reason, in the essay that contributes to the trade literature, we analyze the role of international supply chains in explaining the long-run trade elasticity and its short-term volatility in the context of the recent trade collapse. We adopt an empirical strategy based on two steps: first, stylized facts on long- and short-term trade elasticity are derived from exploratory analysis and formal modeling on a large and diversified sample of countries. Then, we derive observations of interrelated input-output matrices for a demonstrative sub-set of countries. We find evidence for two supply chain related factors to explain the overshooting of trade elasticity during the 2008-2009 trade collapse: the composition and the bullwhip effect. However, evidence for a magnification effect could not be found. Overall, we do not accept the hypothesis that international supply chains explain all by themselves the changes in trade-income elasticity.

Questa tesi esamina l’interazione tra aspettative eterogenee e il rapporto creditore-debitore. In letteratura, non è ancora chiara la natura dell’interazione tra cicli del credito e aspettative individuali. Per questo motivo ho capito che sarebbe stato importante iniziare dai lavori seminali in entrambi i campi, ovvero Kiyotaki & Moore (1997) e Brock & Hommes (1997). Il mio principale obbiettivo è stato quello di studiare più nel dettaglio il funzionamento del vincolo di garanzia. Il fil rouge dell’intera tesi, infatti, è l’analisi del ruolo delle frizioni finanziarie nell’andamento del prezzo di un asset collateralizzato. In particolare, presento un modello dove l’ipotesi di aspettative razionali viene abbandonata. I risultati del primo capitolo rivelano che le aspettative individuali sono una fonte importante di instabilità, anche se la configurazione iniziale risulta stabile. L’elemento che provoca questa instabilità è la bancarotta causata dalla divergenza tra le aspettative di creditori e debitori sul prezzo dell’asset collateralizzato. Poi, nel secondo capitolo, effettuo un esperimento di learning-to-forecast. Fondato sul modello del primo capitolo, ha come obbiettivo quello di testare se e come la volatilità è legata alle percezioni di rischio dei creditori. Ciò che emerge è che ridurre il credito in risposta ad un aumento delle insolvenze in realtà conduce a scenari addirittura peggiori dove il benessere totale si deteriora e il numero delle bancarotte aumenta. / This thesis examines the interaction between heterogeneous expectations and the borrower-lender relationship. In the literature, the nature of the interaction between credit cycle and individual expectations is still unclear. Therefore I realized it was important to start from the seminal works in both fields, that is Kiyotaki & Moore (1997) and Brock & Hommes (1997). My main concern has been to gain insights into the collateral constraint. The common thread of the whole thesis, indeed, is to analyse the role of financial frictions in the price development of a collateralized asset. In particular, I introduce a model where rational expectations are dropped. The results of the first chapter reveal that even in a simple and stable setting, individual beliefs are an important source of instability. The driver of this instability is the bankruptcy caused by the divergence between borrowers' and lenders' price expectations on a collateralized asset. Then, I conduct an online learning-to-forecast experiment. Founded on the model of the first chapter, it tests whether and how volatility is related to lender-level risk perceptions. What emerges is that to shrink credit in response to an increase in defaults actually leads to worse scenarios where total welfare deteriorates and the number of bankruptcies increases.