This thesis is a collection of three essays with contributions to the empirical literature on banking and the lending channel of monetary policy. The first essay on monetary policy identification addresses the endogeneity of the monetary policy measure employed in most bank level studies of the lending channel. It shows how an identified, exogenous measure of policy evokes different lending dynamics in U.S. commercial banks compared to the standard endogenous measure of monetary policy. The second essay empirically assesses the impact of financial deregulation on the lending channel in the U.S. In particular, it analyses how the gradual phasing out of deposit rate ceilings commonly known as Regulation Q significantly altered bank level frictions as well as the transmission of monetary policy to individual bank lending. While the first two essays consider U.S. bank level data, the third essay analyses individual bank level lending responses in the euro area. Its contribution lies in the construction of a range of exogenous and unanticipated monetary policy shocks as well as in the introduction of a financial conditions index into standard lending regressions. It finds that the lending responses of individual banks to monetary policy do not support the existence of a separate lending channel in the euro area. Further, equilibrium lending responses to policy as measured by a range of policy shocks is non-linear in financial conditions. Specifically, financial conditions as measured by the relative performance of a broad index of euro area banking stocks to the overall euro area stock market reverse the impact of monetary policy on lending.

<p>Special interest money enters politics in a number of ways: Politicians solicit contributions that help in their election campaigns; they enrich themselves while in office by accepting bribes; or, increasingly in many countries, they go through the "revolving door" and take up lucrative post-government jobs in companies that were affected by their decisions in office. The central argument I make in this dissertation is that these different types of special interest money can act as functional substitutes and that their prevalence is a strategic choice. I examine this strategic choice theoretically and empirically, and provide insights into the consequences it has for policy and voters. I focus on two main factors: First, what consequences does the legal environment have? Second, what is the effect of the political environment? </p><p>Chapter 1 lays the theoretical groundwork. I study a formal model of political competition that determines whether and how special interest money enters politics. I show that laws criminalizing bribery or restricting campaign contributions lead to substitution effects and make other types of special interest money more common, in particular the revolving door. I also study the effect of legal restrictions on equilibrium policy and demonstrate that it only moves policy towards the median voter under certain circumstances. Higher political competitiveness leads incumbents to solicit campaign contributions, whereas the absence of competitiveness provides leeway for personal enrichment.</p><p>I test the effect of the legal and the political environment on the types of special interest money empirically, using newly assembled data from the world's two largest democracies. Chapter 2 examines the effect of the degree of political competition on the choice between personal enrichment while in office and campaign spending in India. Making use of detailed mandatory asset disclosure data of state assembly members that run in consecutive elections, I show that candidates with ties to business groups increase their wealth to a higher degree when they are electorally secure. Conversely, they hold larger cash reserves, which are crucial in campaigns, the less electorally secure they are. Using a survey experiment, I show that the way special interest money is used matters to voters.</p><p>Chapter 3 asks where tougher regulations of money in politics comes from. I argue that political entrepreneurs running on an anti-corruption platform play an important role and provide a simple formal exposition of the conditions under which voters are willing to vote for them. The implications of the model are tested for one of the most successful electoral performances of an anti-corruption party of our time: the 2013 debut of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in state elections in Delhi in India. Analyzing three rounds of pre-election surveys with a total of more than 40,000 respondents and election outcomes at the polling-booth level, I provide empirical support for the central insights of the formal model.</p><p>Finally, in Chapter 4 I study the effect of stricter regulations of bribery and campaign contributions on the revolving door, exploiting regulatory variation among the 50 state legislatures of the United States. Using a series of multilevel regression models, I show that former legislators are more likely to go through the revolving door and become lobbyists in states that make politicians less dependent on campaign contributions from special interests and that make it harder to earn money while in office. This suggests that politicians' movement into the private sector upon exiting office can act as a substitute for other types of special interest money.</p> / Dissertation

Money laundering is marginalized phenomenon with high social impact which comes from necessary connection of this activity with illegal activities, especially organized crime. Since the goal of almost every illegal activity is to create profit (and since the biggest profit comes from the activities which are highly dangerous for the society, such as drug trafficking) it is vital for the society to fight money laundering effectively. It is in the best interest of the whole society to fight this phenomenon and cut the organized crime out of their resources through effective control of the money laundering. The goal of this thesis is to explain the issue of money laundering in detail, to map the whole process while using mostly comparative and analytic methods and summarize the international and Czech anti- money laundering legislation. I would be glad if the reader had truly concrete idea about the phenomenon of money laundering after reading my thesis. In the first part, I am dealing with the whole concept of money laundering, meaning history and definition of the term itself. I also compare terms money laundering and legalization of proceeds from crime. Then I analyze the true nature of money laundering and financing of terror and the process of money laundering. I also deal with concrete subjects...

Title: Finances in Tennis: Analysis and Prognosis of Prize Money Objectives: Analysis of prize money trend in tennis and its prognosis until the year 2030, comparison of prize money in tennis with earnings in selected sports. Methods used: Prognostic methods in Microsoft Excel - linear, exponential and power trendlines, R-squared value. Results: Prize money comparison of tennis tournaments at different categories, summary of prize money prognosis in tennis until the year 2030. Key words: Finances, prize money, sport, tennis, prognosis.

Conscious of the limitations of the petroleum-based economy in Bahrain, the Bahraini government aims to improve other industries, such as finance. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to study the current status of banking confidentiality in Bahrain, and to discover the possibilities for improvement in the banking sector in Bahrain, so that the country can succeed in being the financial centre of the Middle East. The main aspects of this study are to explore the meaning of the doctrine of confidentiality; the duration of and the exceptions to the duty of confidentiality, and the delicate balance between protecting banking confidentiality and combating money-laundering. This thesis is based on library research, involving an analysis of a range of documents, publications, cases, articles, online sources and legal materials from the United Kingdom (UK) and Bahraini jurisdictions and legislations, both in Arabic and English. The findings are as follows: surprisingly, compared to English law, the exceptions to the duty of confidentiality under Bahraini law are much more limited. They are clearly stated under the CBBFIA. Although the CBBFIA designates four articles that deal with the duty of confidentiality, it lacks specific and important details related to the application of these articles, such as the scope and duration of the duty of confidentiality. Bahraini courts have failed to apply any article for the protection of banking confidentiality, and the court records lack any cases relating to the protection of banking confidentiality. Also a significant number of money- laundering transactions could be performed through banks. Finally, bank customers in Bahrain have little awareness of their rights in the framework of banker-customer confidentiality.

M.Com. (Investment Management) / When the mechanics of the capital market are researched it is important to emphasize the structure and operations of this market in relation to the financial system in its totality. A clear understanding of the division of the capital market in a fixed-interest rate securities market and a market for variable interest rate securities is of the utmost importance for the insight to the operations of the capital market. Both these divisions of this market are also divided in a primary market as well as a secondary market ...

M.Comm. (Economics) / The recent global financial and economic crisis has brought about renewed interest in the nexus between credit markets and monetary policy. This research aims to contribute to the understanding of the factors that drive the demand for credit on an aggregate level, and the household and corporate sectors for the South African economy. The study assessed the equilibrium determinants of the aggregate and sectoral demand for credit in South Africa by making use of a cointegrated vector autoregression (CVAR) methodology. In addition, the periods of debt overhang and short-falls, at aggregate and sectoral levels in the credit market, are derived from these equilibrium levels. The estimated models indicate the existence of long-run relationships for the aggregate credit demand equation, a classic demand-type relationship linking aggregate credit with gross domestic product (GDP) and the lending rate is established. For credit extended to the corporate sector, the results indicate that in the long-run it is determined by investment expenditure, operating surpluses and the lending rate. Whereas for credit extension to the household sector, it was found that the lending rate, disposable income and household debt were its important long-run determinants. All the results of the estimated equations are in line with a demand-type relationship and the traditional hypothesis that credit is demanded to finance real economic transactions, namely for liquidity purposes and to finance working capital. The results of the short-term dynamics indicate that credit extension variables are the equilibrium variables, although the speed of adjustment parameter is found to be sluggish, which shows that the slow adjustment to equilibrium from shocks to the credit markets is attributable to the existence of stronger frictions and transaction costs in credit markets. These findings justify the persistent periods of credit overhang and short-falls in South Africa that this study derives from the equilibrium coefficient terms. The study shows that periods of credit overhang and short-falls are linked to the business cycle phases in South Africa.

Thesis aims to assess recent trends in banking, focusing mainly on the marketing mix. While processing the thesis, the recent developments, which have a significant impact on modern trends in financial markets, are taken into account. The author analyze marketing approaches, financial statements, customer composition and other factors present in the GE Money Bank, a. s. Findings are formulated as recommendations for the marketing of GE Money Bank, a. s.

A tese resulta de trabalho etnográfico e reporta a duas práticas ocorridas em Portugal: a) o jogo compulsivo como doença e sua definição continuada através da participação em um grupo de autoajuda denominado Famílias Anónimas e b) a festa trance, lugar onde a dança da música eletrônica aí tocada é considerada como o ápice da participação. Apesar do contraste entre estas duas práticas, em ambos são para ser encontradas formas de construção dos lugares de ocorrência - o das reuniões dos Anónimos e o da festa - e formas de participação que se definem pela intensidade; em ambos, o dinheiro vem a representar um importante papel. A participação nos Anônimos é livre, a que corresponde à festa trance releva de um pagamento. Ainda que ambas devam a sua eficiência à repetição de uma fórmula, é feita uma discussão sobre o uso do dinheiro e a importância do mercado, especialmente na definição ambivalente do que é uma mercadoria, como são os casos de drogas como a ganza - aqui, o uso português deste último termo que designa a canábis apenas realça o facto de o texto resultar de trabalho etnográfico - e o LSD, vulgo ácido. / The thesis results from ethnographic work and reports two practices that occurred in Portugal: a) compulsive gambling as a disease and its continued definition through participation in a self-help group called Anonymous Families and b) the trance party, a place where electronic music dance is considered as the apex of participation. In spite of the contrast between these two practices, in both are to be found forms of construction of the places of occurrence - that of the meetings of the Anonymous and of the party - and forms of participation that are defined by intensity; in both, money comes to play an important role. Participation in the Anonymous is free, in the trance party there is a payment. Although both of them owe their efficiency to the repetition of a formula, a discussion is made about the use of money and the importance of the market, especially in the ambivalent definition of what a commodity is - as are the cases of drugs such as ganza - here the Portuguese use of the latter term for cannabis only highlights the fact that the text is the result of ethnographic work - and LSD -, the acid.

Este proyecto intenta explicar el diseño y la implementación de una aplicación para dispositivos móviles que funcione como recordatorio de compromisos de pago. Para este propósito, el usuario tendrá que alimentar por única vez de información la plataforma de la aplicación. La finalidad de nuestra aplicación es evitar que los usuarios paguen moras y comisiones o eviten cortes en sus diferentes tipos de servicios. / Executive Summary This project tries to explain the design and implementation of an application for mobile devices that works as a reminder of payment commitments. For this purpose, the user will have to feed the application platform only once. The purpose of our application is to prevent users from paying arrears and commissions or to avoid cuts in their different types of services. / Trabajo de investigación