This paper discusses the attempt to achieve balanced economic growth in India. The process is viewed as a transition of society from a traditional stage to one characterized by industrialization and economic growth, and which involves major economic, social and political changes. It specifically deals with the Indian banking system and its structural development since independence as a means to hasten economic growth. These changes in the banking system, through social control, and eventually nationalization of the major commercial banks in India,, illustrate the increasing role of the State in gearing the banking sector towards meeting the goals of national economic planning. The above events are related to the struggle between the moderates and those who advocate a more socialist approach to solving the economic and social problems in India.

This paper provides a comprehensive empirical assessment of the relation between the cyclicality of fiscal expenditure policy, output volatility, and economic growth, using a large cross-section of 88 countries over the period 1960 to 2004. Identification of the effects of (endogenous) cyclical expenditure policy is achieved by exploiting the exogeneity of countries political and institutional characteristics, which we find to be relevant determinants of the cyclicality of expenditures. There are three main results: First, both pro- and countercyclical expenditure policy amplify output volatility, much in a way like pure fiscal shocks that are unrelated to the cycle. Second, output volatility, due to variations in cyclical and discretionary fiscal policy, is negatively associated with economic growth. Third, there is no direct effect of cyclicality on economic growth other than through output volatility. These findings advocate the introduction of fiscal rules that limit the use of (discretionary and) cyclical fiscal (expenditure) policy to improve growth performance by reducing volatility. (author's abstract)

This thesis is based on three empirical essays in financial development and economic growth. The first essay, investigated in the third chapter, the effect of financial development on economic growth in the context of Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich economy. In doing so, the study distinguishes between the effects of financial development on the oil and non-oil sectors of the economy. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test methodology is applied to yearly data over the period 1968 to 2010. The finding of this study is that financial development has a positive impact on the growth of the non-oil sector. In contrast, its impact on the oil-sector growth and total GDP growth is either negative or insignificant. This suggests that the relationship between financial development and growth may be fundamentally different in resource-dominated economies. The second essay revisited, in the fourth chapter, the relationship between financial development and economic growth in a panel of 52 middle-income countries over the 1980-2008 period. Using pooled mean group estimations in a dynamic heterogeneous panel setting, we show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between finance and growth in the long-run. In the short run, the relationship is insignificant. This suggests that too much finance can exert a negative influence on growth in middle-income countries. The finding of a non-monotonic effect of financial development on growth is confirmed by estimating a dynamic panel threshold model. The third essay empirically explores cross-country evidence of the effects of financial development shocks on economic growth. It employs a Global Vector Autoregressive (GVAR) model, which allows us to capture the dynamics of this relationship in a multi-country setting, and connects countries through bilateral international trade. Given the progressive role that Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) play in the world economic arena, this essay focuses on whether financial development in one BRICS member state affects economic growth in the other BRICS. To this end, the study finds empirical evidence that credit to the private sector has a positive spillover effect on growth in some of the BRICS countries. However, the results imply that the current level of financial integration among the BRICS countries is still not mature enough to spur economic growth for all the BRICS members.

The goal of this research is to establish a link between investments in information and communication technology (ICT) and economic growth in the context of countries that are currently classified by the international community as transitional economies (TE). More specifically, in this study we focus on the relationship between ICT and one of the determinants of economic growth, total factor productivity (TFP). Neoclassical growth accounting and the theory of complementarity provide the theoretical framework on which we build this research. By combining the data obtained from two sources, the World Bank Database and the IT Yearbook, we were able to construct a 10-year data set for 18 TEs spanning the period from 1993 to 2002.Our inquiry is structured as a seven-step process that utilizes six data analytic methods. The first step in our investigation involves Cluster analysis (CA) with the purpose of determining whether or not the selected set of TEs is homogenous. Use of CA allowed us to identify two distinct groups of TEs in our sample, which suggests the heterogeneity of the sample.In the second part of our inquiry, we employ Decision Tree (DT) analysis with the goal of investigating the differences between the clusters of TEs that were generated by the CA in the previous step. We were able to determine that one of the groups of TEs, the "leaders," appears to be wealthier than the other group, the "majority."In the next step of our investigation, we perform Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to determine the efficiency of the TEs in our set. We were able to determine that the "leaders" are more efficient than the "majority" not only in terms of the production of the output, but also in terms of the utilization of the inputs.The fourth part of our investigation takes advantage of the DT analysis with the purpose of obtaining the insights into the nature of the differences between the efficient and inefficient TEs. By incorporating the results of the CA into DT analysis we were able to construct the model that suggests, with the high degree of precision, some of the criteria according to which the efficient TEs differ from the inefficient ones.The fifth stage of our investigation involves the use of the Translog regression model for the purpose of determining whether or not there exists a set of investments that are complementary to the investments in ICT. We have determined that there exists a statistically significant interaction effect between the investments in ICT and other variables, representing state of labor, as well as capital investments.The sixth part of our investigation relies on using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) implemented with Partial Least Squares(PLS)to test for the presence of the relationship between the investments in ICT and the unexplained part of the macroeconomic growth, TFP. We were able to establish the presence of the relationship between the two constructs of our conceptual model, "ICT Capitalization" and "TFP" for the "leaders" group of our sample. The construct "ICT Capitalization" was represented by the three ratio measures, all of which contain variable "Annual investment in telecom" in the denominator, while the Malmquist Index and its components, TC and EC., represented the construct "TFP." Thus, it allows us to state that we have established the presence of the relationship between the investments in ICT and TFP.The last step of the data analysis involves using Classification DT and Neural Network (NN) analyses with the aim of investigating the reasons why some of the TEs exhibit statistically significant relationship between the investments in ICT and TFP, while other TEs do not. We were able to determine that one of the reasons why the "leaders" exhibit the statistically significant relationship between the investments in ICT and TFP is that they have higher level of inputs and more efficient processes of converting the inputs into the outputs than the "majority."

The case study explores how leveraging on experience, risk and control can be used to enhance a late-entrant globalisation strategy.

This study applies the cross-country growth accounting regressions derived from the augmented Solow-Swan model to ascertain the growth effects of education in CEE and Balkan countries. We firstly test whether the total stock or accumulation of education matters more for corresponding countries' growth and afterwards we decompose the total stock into educational stocks at primary, secondary and tertiary levels to test whether the disaggregated educational levels have different growth effects. We do so by applying the panel fixed effects technique on 17 CEE countries during the 1990-2010 period. In addition, we address the endogeneity of education by using the lags of different educational proxies as instruments. The results suggest that the average stock of education is significantly contributing to economic growth of CEE countries with the biggest growth effect of tertiary education. Regarding the Balkan countries only, the growth effect of education is almost a null. We conclude that one cannot have economic growth without a good educational system and efficient usage of human capital. Thus, the policy implications should be related to the proper identification of the quality of educational governance, problem of mismatch on labor market and better utilization of human capital. Keywords:...

The subject of this thesis is the relationship that exists between deflation and the macroeconomic stability of the economy. Much literature has been published on this topic, but there is still a dearth of quantitative research based on strong empirical work. In the present work I have used a set of large panel data composed of 18 countries over 34 years in order to analyze the relationship between changes in inflation and output growth in a more complete and rigorous fashion. I use 3 different econometric models, namely fixed effects, random effects and the generalized method of moments. I chose these models in order to more appropriately examine the contemporaneous and lagged correlation between prices and output of countries. I also introduced foreign direct investment as a control variable to avoid the presence of potential bias. The empirical work presented in this paper leads to several findings. First, there is an insignificant relationship between a country's GDP growth and its deflation rate. Second, the relation between inflation and GDP growth is significant, and this relation becomes even positive when the econometric model is conducted on the data excluding outliers. Third, FDI positively contributes to and is partly responsible for the level of economic growth of the countries...

The choice of an appropriate government policy tool to promote the employment should be done with regard to the source of unemployment. This diploma the- sis investigates structural and cyclical components of unemployment. The two components are induced by different causes. Search and matching frictions in the labor market are the source of the structural component. The cyclical component is induced by a low labor productivity which induces a negative gross marginal profit of firms. Consequently, they are obliged to cancel a portion of existing job- worker matches. The main finding is that during a period of economic slowdown the overall unemployment and its cyclical component rise while the structural component declines. The dynamics of the two components is reversed during a robust economic growth. The diploma thesis proceeds with investigating the pub- lic hiring, a policy potentially suitable to diminish the unemployment during an economic slowdown. The results show that the public hiring can be successfully applied despite the private employment crowding out. A New Keynesian DSGE model calibrated for the Czech Republic is used to model the labor market dy- namics. The results are interpreted with regard to the historic development of the unemployment and the economic growth from 2000 to 2014. JEL...

It is gradually becoming common knowledge that, natural resources have not been able to make positive impact on economic growth of countries. In that, countries rich in natural resources grow at a slower pace than the resource-poor countries. This occurrence is one of the reasons behind many defections and militant groups against state authority in many resource-rich countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa. Using panel data from 1980 to 2010 on 34 sub- Saharan African countries, this paper examines whether institutionalised authority, which is a proxy for state authority, can change the negative relationship between natural resources and economic growth. The key finding is that, institutionalised authority can alter the negative relationship that exists between natural resources and economic growth. JEL Classification C33, O43, Q28, Q33, Q43, Keywords Natural Resources, Economic growth, Institutionalised Authority, Dutch Disease, sub-Saharan Africa

Cette thèse procède à une analyse comparative de l’évolution de la pauvreté monétaire et non monétaire dans trois pays de la Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale (Cameroun, Congo et RCA). Après un rappel des approches théoriques de la pauvreté, les différentes stratégies d’éradication de la pauvreté mises en oeuvre en Afrique subsaharienne, elle aborde quelques faits stylisés concernant la croissance économique et la pauvreté dans les trois pays susmentionnés. Enfin, nous traitons empiriquement la relation entre la croissance économique et la pauvreté non monétaire dans les trois pays en s’inspirant des travaux de Moser et Ichida (2001). Les résultats obtenus montrent que la croissance économique agit positivement sur l’espérance de vie, le taux d’éducation primaire et négativement sur le taux de mortalité infantile. Ces résultats ont des implications directes en termes de politique économique. / This thesis presents a comparative analysis of the evolution of monetary and non-monetary poverty of three countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Cameroon, Congo, and Central African Republic). After a review of theoretical approaches of poverty and different strategies for poverty eradication implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa this work explores the stylized facts concerning the economic growth on poverty reduction in the three countries. Finally, we empirically examine the relationship between economic growth and non-income poverty using Moser and Ichida (2001) model. We find that an increase in GDP per capita leads to an increase in life expectancy, an increase in the rate of gross primary school enrolment and a decline in infant mortality rates. These results have direct policy implications.