The four essays included in this dissertation are in the field of open economy Macroeconomics. Essays I, II and IV deal with a work-horse model in this field – a two-sector small open economy growth model with traded and nontraded goods. Writing down such a model requires an assumption about the role of traded and nontraded goods in domestic consumption and investments. While several empirical studies have looked at the consumption side, a systematic examination of the role of traded and nontraded goods in investments is missing. Essay I aims to fill this gap. Drawing on extensive empirical evidence, we show that aggregate investment expenditure shares on traded and nontraded goods are very similar in rich and poor countries. Furthermore, the two expenditure shares have remained close to constant over time, with the average nontraded expenditure share varying between 0.54-0.60 over the 1960-2002 period. Combined with the fact that the relative price of nontraded goods correlates positively with income and exhibits large differences across space and time, our findings suggest that investment can be modeled using the Cobb-Douglas aggregator. The results of this essay offer a new restriction for the two-sector growth model, which can alter the conclusions drawn from the model. To demonstrate this, we apply the new restriction to a study by Hsieh and Klenow (2003), which argues that differences in relative productivity between traded and nontraded sectors, i.e., the Balassa-Samuelson effect, is the main cause of higher PPP-adjusted investment rates in rich countries. With the restriction imposed on the model, no more than 25 percent of the differences in PPP-adjusted investment rates between rich and poor counties can be attributed to the Balassa-Samuelson effect. In Essays II and IV the same two-sector growth model is put to the test using the recent economic developments in countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Essay II investigates whether the two-sector growth model can explain the magnitudes and the timing of the trade flows in the Baltic countries. The model is calibrated for each of the three countries, which we simulate as small closed economies that suddenly open up to international trade and capital flows. The results show that the model can account for the observed magnitudes of the trade deficits in the 1995-2001 period. Introducing a real interest rate risk premium in the model increases its explanatory power. According to the model, trade balances will turn positive in the Baltic states around 2010. Essay IV starts by summarizing empirical regularities for the key aggregate real sector variables in the eight countries that joined the EU in May 2004. It is shown that, following the reforms in the early 1990s, real sector developments in all eight countries exhibit remarkable similarities. Interestingly, this is the case despite the fact that different reform policies were pursued in several dimensions (e.g., privatization, nominal exchange rate). Next, we show that a calibrated two-sector small open economy growth model can account for most of the real sector adjustments in early post-reform years. Empirical studies have found rapid traded sector productivity growth in Central and Eastern European countries over the last decade. When traded sector productivity growth is added to the model, it captures the development in all key real sector variables during the post-reform period. Finally, Essay III contributes to the study of financial crises in emerging markets. In contrast to the other essays, this paper develops a highly stylized theoretical model that allows us to study analytically government response to financial crises. In particular, Essay III develops a framework for analyzing optimal government bailout policy in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model where financial crises are exogenous. Important elements of the model are that private borrowers internalize only part of the social cost of foreign borrowing in the emerging market and that the private sector is illiquid in the event of a crisis. The distinguishing feature of our paper is that it addresses the optimal bailout policy in an environment where there are both costs and benefits of bailouts, and where bailout guarantees potentially distort investment decisions in the private sector. We show that it is always optimal to commit to a bailout policy that only partially protects investment against inefficient liquidation, both in a centralized economy and a market economy. Due to overinvestment in the market economy, the government's optimal level of bailout guarantees is lower than in the social optimum. Further, we show that, in contrast to a social planner, the government in the market economy should optimally bail out a smaller fraction of private investments when the probability of a crisis is higher. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2005 S. i-x: sammanfattning, s. 1-187: 4 uppsatser

This study investigated whether EU Progress Reports measured the Copenhagen political criteria in a biased manner compared to independent indices. At stake is the credibility of the EU accession process and whether countries in the Western Balkans will seek partnerships with the EU or state-actors beyond the European peninsula. This is a case study of how well Albania and North Macedonia fared regarding the political criteria during 2014 and 2017. Each country was ranked against one another in order to find potential discrepancies between measurements from Progress Reports and independent indices. This paper did find evidence that suggests the European Commission disfavored North Macedonia and favored Albania. However, other results were inconclusive. The finding supported accession literature that has called into question the objectivity of the EU accession process.

Aufgrund des wachsenden Bedarfs an kohärenter Interaktion zwischen dem Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte, dem Gerichtshof der Europäischen Union und den Gerichten der EMRK-Mitgliedstaaten, untersucht diese Arbeit die Problematik von Kompetenzkonflikten, die die Glaubwürdigkeit der europäischen und nationalen Gerichtshöfe untergraben und die Effektivität des gerichtlichen Rechtsschutzes in Europa schwächen, und schlägt die Lösungen vor, um Rechtsprechungskonflikte zwischen den Gerichtshöfen zu verringern. Es erfolgt eine Betrachtung der Fragen, wie Inkonsistenzen der gerichtlichen Rechtsprechung der europäischen und nationalen Gerichte vermieden werden können, wie der Beitritt der EU zur EMRK angegangen werden kann und wie das Piloturteilsverfahren des EGMR und nationalen gerichtlichen Überprüfungsverfahren wirksam funktionieren kann. Die Arbeit kommt zu dem Schluss, dass es für die Koordination der Zusammenarbeit zwischen den Gerichten wichtig ist, ihre Interaktionen zu verstärken, indem bewährte Verfahren auf allen Ebenen ausgetauscht werden. Um eine tiefere Integration der Staaten in die europäische und internationale Gemeinschaft zu erreichen und das Risiko von sich widersprechenden gerichtlichen Entscheidungen zu reduzieren, wird von den Mitgliedstaaten erwartet, dass sie ihre Verpflichtungen aus dem EU-Recht und der EMRK verlässlich erfüllen, und die europäischen Gerichtshöfe werden ihrerseits die Möglichkeit eines Eingriffs in die Souveränität der Staaten ausschlieβen lassen. Nur wenn einvernehmlich beschlossene Lösungen angenommen werden, wird eine größere Kohärenz in Rechtsprechung der europäischen und nationalen Gerichtshöfe erreicht und ein einheitliches System zum Schutz der Menschenrechte gewährleistet. / In light of the growing need to establish a coherent relationship between the European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the courts of the ECHR member states, this study explores the challenges of jurisdictional competition that undermine the credibility of the courts and weaken the effectiveness of judicial protection of fundamental rights in Europe, and suggests ways to reduce emerging judicial tensions between these courts. It examines how to avoid inconsistencies in judicial practices of the European and national courts, how to approach accession of the EU to the ECHR, and how to ensure effective functioning of the pilot judgment mechanism and national judicial review procedures. It concludes that in order to coordinate cooperation between the courts it is important to strengthen their interactions through adhering to best practices at all levels. To pursue deeper integration of states into the European and international community and minimise the chance of rendering contradicting judgments by the courts, member states are expected to comply faithfully with their obligations under EU law and the ECHR, and the European courts shall exclude the possibility of encroachment on state sovereignty. Only if mutually agreed solutions are adopted will a greater consistency in their case law be achieved and a uniform system of protection of human rights ensured.