This diploma thesis represents an effort to contribute to the solving of the problem of optimal relations between the institutional environment, entrepreneurial activity and innovative activity in terms of securing a higher degree of competitiveness of the current economy in the Czech Republic. The institutional environment is perceived as the rules of the game, under which social interactions take place. When defining the business activity the Schumpeter's theory of creative destruction is not ignored and the issue of innovation activity is viewed from the perspective of institutional change. Various forms of institutional environment are analyzed in the selected European countries (Germany, Finland, Switzerland), whose competitiveness is based on successful innovation activities. The research is extended by the comparison of innovation policies and the analysis of the level of ICT infrastructure of the above mentioned countries. The significance of the institutional framework for innovation activities is evaluated in the final part of the thesis. The content of the corrective measures in the current economic policy of Czech Republic is drawn from the evaluation.

This diploma thesis presents a meta-analysis of the accumulated empirical evidence on the relationship between financial development and economic growth. So far, hundreds of studies have been written on the role of financial systems in economic growth; however, their results are ambiguous. This is supported both by theory and empirical research. In order to shed some light on the underlying relationship, narrative literature surveys have been conducted. Nevertheless, the authors of these surveys select representative studies for inclusion subjectively and thus build their results on only a limited set of information. Moreover, due to the nature of their analyses, they cannot systematically assess which factors influence the heterogeneity in reported findings or whether the results are driven by the desire to produce only positive and statistically significant results. Thus, the main focus of our work lies in investigating what the role of financial development in economic growth is, adjusted for possible publication selection, and to systematically explain the heterogeneity behind reported results. For this analysis a pool of available studies investigating the underlying relationship was collected. More specifically, our analysis takes into account data from 67 empirical studies with 1334...

nÃo hà / Este trabalho tem o propÃsito de investigar a dinÃmica na desigualdade de renda no Brasil no perÃodo de 1976 a 2012, onde se analisa a representatividade na alteraÃÃo do comportamento da desigualdade de renda per capita motivada por aspectos nacionais, regionais e locais. Para isso, foi utilizado um modelo de regressÃo com dados em painel, com aplicaÃÃo de tÃcnicas Bayesianas, na qual à realizada uma nova estimativa apÃs a inserÃÃo de novos fatores ao conjunto de fatores existentes. AlÃm das polÃticas de distribuiÃÃo de renda, dos nÃveis educacionais, dos ganhos reais do salÃrio mÃnimo e crescimento econÃmico, tambÃm foram analisados outros fatores que causam impactos na desigualdade de renda per capita no paÃs. Chegou-se a conclusÃo de que os estados das regiÃes Sul, Sudeste e Centro Oeste possuem variÃveis mais representativas ligadas ao fator comum nacional, em detrimento das variÃveis ligadas ao fator comum regional que à mais relevante para os estados das regiÃes Norte e Nordeste. Da mesma forma, na decomposiÃÃo da variÃncia nacional o maior impacto na desigualdade de renda local à determinado por fator nacional para os estados do Sul do paÃs, enquanto na decomposiÃÃo da variÃncia regional o maior impacto na desigualdade de renda per capita local à atribuÃdo aos estados do Norte do paÃs. / This work has the purpose of investigating the dynamic regarding income inequality in Brazil in the period ranging from 1976 to 2012, where the representativeness of the change on per capita income inequality behavior driven by national, regional and local aspects was analyzed. For this, a regression model with panel data was utilized, along with Bayesian techniques application, on which a new estimation was performed after inserting new factors in the group of existent factors. Apart from the policies concerning income distribution, educational levels, real gains for minimum wage and economic growth, factors that have some degree of impact on per capita income inequality were analyzed as well. It could be concluded that states in the South, Southeast and Center West have more representative variables linked to the common national factor, to the detriment of the variables linked to the common regional factor, which is more relevant to the northern and northeastern states. Just the same, in the national variance decomposition, the strongest impact on inequality of local income is determined by the national factor for the South states, while in the regional variance decomposition the strongest impact on the local per capita income inequality is due to the northern states.

A histórica desconsideração da variável ambiental dentro da concepção teórica e dos modelos de crescimento econômico revela um posicionamento ideológico muito claro: a resistência na aceitação do ambiente como fator limitante ou mesmo como elemento estratégico do ponto de vista da riqueza de uma nação ou região. Para além das questões mais frequentemente debatidas, que associam os elementos do ambiente a meros insumos necessários aos processos produtivos, a consideração de conceitos não usuais no arcabouço teórico da economia tradicional, como serviços ecossistêmicos, resiliência, entropia e histerese, teria condições de ampliar e relativizar a interpretação de uma série de premissas e dogmas da ciência econômica tradicional. O conceito de capital natural, neste sentido, apresenta-se como fundamental e estratégico, uma vez que permite acomodar toda a complexidade inerente à dimensão ambiental e relacioná-la com o sistema socioeconômico, adequando e balizando o enquadramento da questão da sustentabilidade. Ainda, o presente trabalho parte da definição fundamentada de que ambos os sistemas - econômico e ambiental - são essencialmente complexos e, que os efeitos das relações entre os mesmos não são triviais e possuem altos níveis de incerteza associados à sua dinâmica. Dentro dessa orientação, o trabalho se propôs a realizar uma reflexão sobre a sustentabilidade sob a ótica dos sistemas complexos, por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica crítica e de um exercício de modelagem baseada em agentes para a simulação do crescimento econômico considerando a variável ambiental. As análises realizadas indicam que a incorporação de novos conceitos oriundos dos sistemas complexos poderiam estabelecer um novo suporte para a análise de políticas macroeconômicas de crescimento, da sustentabilidade e, em última instância, contribuir com o fortalecimento de premissas básicas da economia ecológica. / The historical disregard of the environmental issue in the theoretical conception and the economic growth models reveals a clear ideological positioning: the resistance to accept the environment as a limiting factor or as a strategic element from the point of view of nations or regions wealth. Beyond the frequently debated questions, that associate the environmental elements to simple inputs that are necessary to productive processes, the consideration of the non-usual concepts of the traditional economic theory, like ecosystem services, resilience, entropy and hysteresis, would give better conditions to expand and relativize the interpretation of a series of premises and traditional economy dogmas. The natural capital concept, in this sense, represents itself as an essential and strategic concept, since it permits to accommodate all the complexity inherent to the environmental dimension and associate it to the economic system, fitting and marking out the sustainability framework. Still, the present work starts from the definition that both of the systems environmental and economic are essentially complex and that the effects of the relations between them are not trivial and have high levels of uncertainty associated to its dynamic. Whitin this orientation, this work proposed to realize a reflection about sustainability under the complex systems perspective, through a critical literature review and a multi-agent based modeling exercise, to simulate economic growth considering the environmental dimension. This analyses indicated that the incorporation of new concepts, from the complex systems theory, could establish a new support for the macroeconomic policies analysis, as well for the sustainability policies and, ultimately, to contribute to the strengthening of the basic ecological economy premises.

Este trabalho se compõe de duas principais frentes de investigação, abordadas por meio de duas vias metodológicas. São investigados os impactos das instituições, especialmente das instituições financeiras, sobre a distribuição de renda no Brasil e os impactos subsequentes da distribuição de renda sobre o crescimento econômico brasileiro, ambos desde a abertura econômica e financeira dos anos 90, até os dias atuais. E são utilizadas como metodologias de abordagem, uma via histórico-institucional num primeiro momento e uma via analítico-teórica, num segundo momento. As principais categorias estudadas incluem os condicionantes históricos de uma estrutura distributiva desigual, a consolidação do setor financeiro no Brasil, as relações entre este último, o Estado e a sociedade, a hipótese de uma nova classe média e a proposta de um modelo que contempla parte desses aspectos, procurando contribuir para melhor lidar com eles. Conclui-se pela existência de uma desigualdade estrutural na distribuição de renda (apesar de recentemente atenuada), pela permanência cultural de um elemento de orientação pelo status e emulação de padrões de consumo, pelos riscos significativos de uma trajetória de endividamento dos trabalhadores e pelos privilégios assegurados ao setor financeiro através de sua adequação ao conceito sociológico de \"campo\". Finalmente, constatou-se que o movimento de melhoria do salário mínimo e formalização da mão-de-obra, nos últimos anos, constitui condição necessária, mas ainda não suficiente para assegurar a sustentação do crescimento econômico com progressivo avanço na estrutura funcional de distribuição de renda no país. / This work is composed by two main fronts of investigation, which are approached by means of two methodological perspectives. It investigates the impact of the institutions, especially the financial institutions, on income distribution in Brazil, as well as the subsequent impact of income distribution on Brazilian economic growth, from the economic and financial opening in 1990\'s up to the present time. The methodological perspectives used to address these questions are, first, historical-institutional, and then, analytic-theoretical. The main issues studied are: the historical restrictions of an unequal income distribution, the consolidation of a financial sector in Brazil, the relationship between the latter and the Estate and society and the hypothesis that a new middle class emerged in Brazil recently. Finally, I construct a theoretical model to help us analyse aspects of these issues. This model also allows us to derive policy prescriptions aimed at improving the negative aspects of income inequality and low economic growth. The conclusion we reached points to the existence of a structural income inequality (although recently mitigated), to the cultural persistence of a status orientation element and the emulation of consumption patterns, to the considerable risk of adebt path of the working-class and to the privileges secured to the financial sector (through its adequation to the sociological concept of \"field\" ). Finally we note that the recent improvement in minimum wage and in the formalization of employment constitute a necessary yet not sufficient condition to ensure long lasting economic growth combined with gradual advance in the functional structure of income distribution in the country.

Submitted by Rosivalda Pereira (mrs.pereira@ufma.br) on 2017-05-24T19:29:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 RoseaneMouraSousa.pdf: 2285989 bytes, checksum: 1f2ad3d2d1b2a575ce6c1e04019228ff (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-24T19:29:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RoseaneMouraSousa.pdf: 2285989 bytes, checksum: 1f2ad3d2d1b2a575ce6c1e04019228ff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-14 / Evidence about the economic growth in the Northeast in the period between 2004 and 2013. Search the thinkers of the regional issue in the Northeast the theorical framework for solution of inequalities. Analyzes the degree of regional inequality in various aspects and draws a comparison of the Region states among themselves and with other regions of the country, with the foundation theories of growth and economic development. Using the methodology used in the empirical literature is intended to analyze the indicators that attest to the region's growth. Investigates possible changes in the economic structure and the mains determinants of the variations of the product states that make up that region. In this direction, the results were presented at the end of the study indicate that the improvement in the levels of employment and income in the region goes through initiatives that focus on the increase in total productivity of production factors. It is expected that over the next few years the trend here checked prevail, so that the North undergoes a transformation that generates higher levels of employment, income and comprehensively, increase their standard of development. / Evidências a respeito do crescimento econômico na região Nordeste no período compreendido entre os anos de 2004 e 2013. Busca nos pensadores da questão regional no Nordeste o referencial teórico para solução das desigualdades. Analisa-se o grau da desigualdade regional em diversos aspectos e traça um comparativo dos estados da Região entre si e com as outras regiões do país, tendo por fundamento as teorias do crescimento e do desenvolvimento econômico. Utilizando a metodologia empregada na literatura empírica pretende-se analisar os indicadores que atestam o crescimento da região. Investiga possíveis modificações na estrutura econômica e os principais fatores determinantes das variações do produto dos estados que compõem a mencionada região. Nesta direção, os resultados que foram apresentados na parte final do trabalho indicam que a melhoria nos níveis de emprego e renda na região passa por iniciativas que tenham como foco o aumento na produtividade total dos fatores de produção. Espera-se que ao longo dos próximos anos a tendência aqui verificada prevaleça, de modo que o Nordeste passe por uma transformação que gere maiores níveis de emprego, renda e, de forma abrangente, aumente o seu padrão de desenvolvimento.

O recente processo de convergência econômica de Irlanda e Portugal para os níveis dos países industrializados da Europa Ocidental, é um interessante caso de estudo sobre os principais fatores causadores do crescimento econômico, os motivadores do sucesso de certos países em relação a outros, principalmente quando se observa que, a partir do novo milênio, Portugal não vem sendo bem sucedido em tentar manter o processo de convergência, ao contrário da Irlanda, que inclusive, superou os níveis de renda per capita de países como Alemanha, França e Reino Unido. O estudo se mostra interessante também, por compreender duas nações que apresentaram taxas de crescimento do PIB e do PIB per capita após se integrarem à União Européia, apesar de terem ocorrido grandes diferenças entre os dois países no aproveitamento de seus ingressos à comunidade econômica. / The early process of economic convergence of Ireland and Portugal to the industrialized contries´ levels is an interest case about the economic growth factors and the reasons for the success of some contries instead anothers, mainly when can be observed that Portugal, after new millenium, couldn´t maintain the convergence process. Ireland, on the other hand, exceed the levels of income per capita of coutries like Germany, France and United Kingdom. The another reason for the interest of this study is because the period of convergence occurred after the junction of the both countries to the European Union, although the differences between the two countries in the exploitation of the economic community.

This thesis investigates the relationship between conflict, economic growth, state capacity and natural resources in Sub-Saharan Africa. It contributes to the limited research in this area and empirically examines these relationships using different econometric models. The first empirical chapter uses a panel dataset that covers the period 1997 - 2013 to analyse the effects of economic growth on conflict in Nigeria using the negative binomial model. The findings support the direct relationship between economic growth and conflict in Nigeria. Controlling for other factors, the results indicate that increase in growth rate - measured by annual growth rate of GDP per capita - decreases the expected number of conflicts. The study finds no evidence of a relationship between levels of wealth in a state and the incidence of conflicts. The analysis controls for factors such as spill-over effects from other states and year and state effects. Finally, to address potential concerns that economic growth could be a cause of conflict or that other unobserved factors could confound the relationship between economic growth and conflict, the chapter employs instrumental variable (IV) estimation using percentage change in rainfall as an instrument. The results with the IV estimation are similar to the results without IV in terms of both sign and significance, indicating that the negative effect of economic growth on conflicts is not due to reverse causality or omitted variables. For robustness checks, a Panel Autoregressive model (PVAR) is also employed. The second empirical chapter analyses the effect of conflict on state capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa. State capacity is measured in terms of fiscal and legal capacity. It also looks at the effects of internal and external conflicts on state capacity. The chapter adopts the Ordinary least squared (OLS) and the system generalised methods of moments (GMM) estimation methods to analyse the panel data consisting of 49 Sub-Saharan countries over the period 2000 - 2015. The results suggest that conflicts have a negative and significant effect on state capacity. However, when military expenditure is used as a proxy for state capacity it is found that conflict strengthens state capacity. The results are consistent with theoretical argument that internal conflicts polarise societies and make it more difficult for governments to reach a consensus in investing in state capacity, while external conflicts mobilise domestic population against a common enemy thereby helping in state capacity building. Finally, the third empirical chapter examines the effect of natural resources on conflict onset and duration using discrete choice models with a dataset covering the period 1980 -2016. The results on the duration analysis show that natural resources prolong duration of conflicts. However, it is found that not all natural resources prolong duration of conflicts. Oil production does not seem to affect duration, whereas oil reserves and gas production lengthens the duration. The findings from the onset analysis show that both production and reserves of natural resources increase the risk of conflict onset.

The objectives of the study are to assess the fiscal sustainability and development impacts of Ghana’s fiscal rule for allocating petroleum revenues to the annual budget against alternative fiscal rules - the permanent income and the bird-in-hand rules. Fiscal sustainability is measured by government long-term fiscal space in proportion to non-oil GDP, whilst development impacts are measured through a dynamic CGE model of Ghana. Generally, the study makes four important findings on how fiscal policy triggered by the inflow of new petroleum revenues could affect the long-term fiscal sustainability and growth of the economy. One, Ghana’s fiscal rule is neither fiscally sustainable nor provide higher impacts of petroleum revenues on economic development relative to the permanent income and the bird-in-hand rules. Two, fiscal sustainability does not necessarily lead to greater development outcomes. The bird-in-hand rule is the most fiscally sustainable, but the permanent income rule provides higher development outcomes and can move Ghana’s transformation towards a full middle income status. Three, institutional quality in a country could lead to efficiency gains in government spending. Four, efficiency in government spending could improve on development outcomes. Ghana could therefore benefit from its petroleum revenues by adopting the permanent income rule; and with temporary petroleum revenues, the focus of the country should be on current investment of petroleum revenues in building the country’s asset base to support short-term and long-term growth of the economy. However, this should be complemented with strengthening the quality of institutional arrangements to enhance efficiency in government spending.

Uganda faces considerable challenges in revamping economic growth performance, reducing the proportional of people living below the poverty line to below 20 percent, and attaining other Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015. These developments have prompted the government to prioritise poverty alleviation and the attainment of sustainable real GDP growth (i.e. at 7 percent per annum), among other policies. This dissertation argues that a proper identification of the critical sectors of growth with significant linkages to the rest of the economy can guide policy makers to affect the outcomes of external shocks (e.g. by redirecting resources to sectors with potential for higher output growth and welfare effects) .Using the 2002 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Uganda, we investigate the properties of the multipliers that can be calculated from the SAM, in particular contrasting them with the simpler input-output multipliers. Using the SAM multipliers, the computed linkages suggest that Agriculture, Food Processing, and Other Services (Trade, and Health and Education) are the key sectors of Uganda’s economy. Similarly, Manufacturing, Construction, and Transport were found to be sectors with weak linkages to the rest of the economy. Moreover, the multiplier impact on output, employment, and household income distribution is higher with in agriculture relative to other sectors. Our multiplier results confirm the need for policy makers in Uganda to target agriculture-led growth if Uganda is to substantially raise economy wide growth, and to improve household incomes for significant poverty alleviation. Policies to boost the agriculture sector include: building and maintaining feeder roads, provision of farm inputs, training farmers on better methods of production and productivity, reviving cooperatives (i.e. to enable coordinated farming activities, storage, processing, and marketing of farmers produce, and easy access to credit from lending institutions). It should be noted that Agriculture in Uganda is characterised by low productivity resulting from the use of poor inputs, undeveloped value chains, and low public and private investment in the sector. Government should significantly invest in agro-processing industries to increase value addition and exports for higher incomes. Since such investments are costly, requiring significant capital investments which majority of poor farmers cannot afford, the government should promote public-private sector partnership. It should be noted that Uganda’s exports are dominated by unprocessed primary low products which fetch low earnings from world markets. Using a country specific CGE model and selected exogenous changes and policies, our findings suggest that an increase in the world price of exports and workers remittances, and a decrease in import tariffs are growth and welfare enhancing with the positive shock to world export prices producing the largest impact on real GDP, employment (largely, low skilled labour and in agriculture), factor and household incomes. The significant role of migrant remittances in growth and poverty alleviation (i.e. by increasing household incomes, and investment in agriculture, education, and real estate among others) is worth noting. These findings suggest that Ugandan authorities could encourage Ugandans living and working abroad to invest at home by introducing a diaspora bond and sharing information on investment opportunities to encourage increased inflow of workers remittances which would boost domestic investment. Where possible, surplus labour could be exported to other regions or countries and arrangements made to have workers remittances invested in Uganda. In all the policy experiments performed, we find that the welfare of households in the northern and eastern regions of the country is lower compared to that of households based in other regions. This suggests that the government needs to design and implement specific poverty alleviation programs in these regions. The relatively high poverty in northern and eastern regions is attributed to the 19 year civil conflict and the communal land ownership which limits agriculture production for food security and improved household incomes. The government could increase the provision of social and physical infrastructure and promote sustainable agriculture by opening up irrigation schemes, supplying farmers with drought resistant crops, restocking farms, and building and maintain valley dams, and implementing land reforms which promote agriculture. Given the importance of agriculture to Uganda’s growth and poverty alleviation prospects, we argue that the government should implement the recommendations of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) and the Maputo Declaration which calls for the allocation of 10 percent of the national budget to agriculture. This allocation is necessary to achieve the target of agriculture sector growth by 6 percent which is required to reduce significantly the number of Ugandans living in extreme poverty and hunger. The budgetary allocation of 4 percent coupled with inadequate supervision, and corruption and misallocation of funds meant for agriculture development programs have contributed to persistent decline in in output and increase in rural and urban poverty. Our results suggest agriculture is associated with higher employment of low skilled labour which is the largest labour force in Uganda. According to the World Bank, employment is the surest way to poverty alleviation. Thus, Uganda should pursue an agriculture led growth strategy for poverty alleviation and sustained economic growth. However, to substantially increase household incomes and contribute to poverty alleviation, policy interventions in agriculture should focus on increasing value addition through food processing and exports. Further, interventions that empower women to own assets should be enforced by government. Women are the principal users of land, and they must have stronger rights over the resources they depend upon. Our simulations have demonstrated that employment and incomes of women increase from interventions that target the agriculture sector in Uganda. Women constitute over 90 percent of the total labour force employed in agriculture and earn less or none of farm incomes, and most of them operate under chronic poverty. To gain greater knowledge of and control over their environment and build more productive sustainable systems, the government could empower women with basic education and training, increase their access to new technologies and mobilise them to participate in rural saving banks and cooperatives to boost their earnings from agriculture. Our results suggest that Services (mainly education and health) are potential candidates for growth and poverty alleviation in Uganda because they generate significant employment. However, Uganda, Services employ high skilled labour and are urban based, implying they cannot absorb the dominant low skilled labour and the youth. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Uganda currently has about 34.5 million people of which about 65 percent are youth. About 83 percent of these youth (aged 18-30 years) have no formal employment. This calls for authorities in Uganda to reorient the current curriculum towards her development needs where the youth and graduates are trained to be job creators and not job seekers. Massive investment in vocation training where the youth are trained and equipped with skills to manage their own lives by engaging in small scale projects should be prioritised by the government. To overcome the high rate of youth and graduate unemployment in developing countries Uganda inclusive, the donor community in collaboration with African governments identified vocational training as a critical component in each country’s poverty reduction strategy.