This paper examines the impact of financial sector foreign direct investment (FSFDI) on economic growth by estimating a panel data model for 11 Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) between 1996 and 2003 in a cross-country growth accounting framework. The analysis concentrates on the efficiency channel linking FSFDI to economic growth. The results clearly indicate that there can be a relationship between FSFDI and economic growth. Approaching a medium degree of financial M&A is rewarded by higher economic growth after two periods. Beyond it, FSFDI seems to spur economic growth depending on a higher human capital stock. FSFDI-induced knowledge-spillovers to domestic banks can be an explanation for this phenomenon. Above a certain threshold, the crowding-out of local physical capital caused by the entry of a foreign bank seems to hamper economic growth. The value of the paper lies in (1) providing novel data on FSFDI in CEECs, (2) analyzing the impact of FDI on a sectoral level and (3) in modeling the hitherto only qualitatively discussed relationship between foreign banks and economic development into a structural, econometric model that combines two streams of economic research: the FDI-growth-literature and the finance-growth-literature. (author's abstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

This paper uses the panel data of 11 OECD countries over a period from 1971 to 2006. Unlike the traditional cointegration model which omitted the impact of structural breaks in the analysis, this paper applies panel cointegration with structural break test proposed by Westerlund (2006), panel unit root test, and panel dynamic OLS test. The empirical results indicate that health care expenditure and economic growth (GDP per capita) are non-stationary in the series; and between the two variables, a long-term cointegration relationship exists. Moreover, a positive correlation between HCE and economic growth is found in the panel dynamic OLS model. The researcher concludes that investing in health capital improves human capital and that boosts economic growth in the sample countries, and vice versa. More importantly, allowing structural breaks in the cointegration analysis obtains reliability in the estimation and proves more detailed and specific information on the consequence of the momentous events on the two variables; and thus enables policy makers and health economists to propose more effective strategies.

This dissertation comprises two topics. In Chapter 1, I explore the short- and long-run relation between insurance development and economic growth for 40 countries between 1981 and 2010. Applying a pooled mean group estimation, I find that life and nonlife insurance have different short- and long-run effects on the growth. On a full sample analysis, life insurance exerts a significantly positive long-run effect on the growth, while its short-run effect is not significant. Nonlife insurance, in contrast, has a significantly positive short-run growth effect but no long-run effect. On a reduced sample analysis, the observation on life insurance is qualitatively similar, but the growth effect of nonlife insurance is no longer significant both in short and long run, suggesting that specific countries drive the overall effect in the full sample. The results pass a battery of robustness tests. The analysis on individual countries reveals that the short-run effect and adjustment speed toward the long-run equilibrium varies across countries. I also analyze if the level of income and insurance development makes any difference on the growth effect of insurance. The results show that the growth effect of life insurance is significant in non-high income countries and countries with low level of life insurance development, while the effect is not significant both for life and nonlife insurance in high income countries. In Chapter 2, I employ the dynamic panel threshold model to investigate how institutional environments shape the impact of insurance development on economic growth. I conduct four hypotheses for possible intermediate effects of institutional environments on insurance-growth nexus: quasi-institution positivity, quasi-institution negativity, quasi-institution duality, and quasi-institution neutrality. I use multiple measures related to political, economic, and legal environments to evaluate the soundness of institutional environments. Empirical results show that the quasi-institution negativity hypothesis is supported for life insurance because the observation is consistent across all institution-related measures. The results in nonlife insurance are not as uniform as those in life insurance. The quasi-institution positivity, negativity, and neutrality are respectively supported in different institutional measures, and the coefficients in most cases are significant only at a marginal significance level. The overall findings suggest that a sound institutional environment does not necessarily benefit the growth effect of life insurance, but an unhealthy one does deter it and that the effect depends on specific measure in the case of nonlife insurance. In Chapter 3 I briefly introduce some directions for further research.

This study aims to investigate the direction of the relationship between financial deepening and economic growth after the completion of financial liberalization in Turkey. In order to do this, an unbalanced panel data set of 49 OECD and emerging countries for 1953-2005 period is examined with Granger causality and panel data estimation techniques. In the light of panel data analysis results, quarterly Turkish time series data for 1987-2006 period is examined by using Granger causality, cointegration and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) procedures. Although the unbalanced panel data analysis reveals a relationship that is from financial deepening to economic growth, country specific Granger causality analysis employed with the panel data gives the opposite relationship for Turkey. Moreover, it is observed that quarterly time series data analysis mainly gives a relationship that is from economic growth to financial deepening.

Transportation planners are often faced with the problem of estimating passenger and freight flows between regions. In the literature there are many models for passenger flows. However, models about freight flows are more limited. Modeling freight flow is also more complex than modeling passenger flow and there are many agents related with freight flows. In addition, data availability is a critical factor. In this research, freight flows between provinces in T&uuml / rkiye are forecasted by demand analysis. Transportation is one of the important activities of human beings and plays an important role for spatial interactions in economic growth. In other words, there is a very strong linkage between economic growth and the freight flow, thus transportation demand. Regional trade as spatial flow appears on transportation systems as freight flows. In this study, using the existing limited data and surveys in T&uuml / rkiye, nationwide origin-destination (O-D) matrix of freight flows between provinces is obtained. Using this empirical matrix, the generation of freight flows of provinces is formulated depending on the socioeconomic and demographic variables by means of multiple linear regression analysis. In addition, interactions of freight flows between provinces and economic growth of regions are investigated. The generations and attractions of provinces as freight flow are distributed between provinces with traditional gravity model. By comparing observed O-D matrix and simulated O-D matrix, gravity model is calibrated. Calibration is also performed by freight trip length distribution. In this research, two steps of traditional &ldquo / four-step analysis&rdquo / , &ldquo / trip generation&rdquo / and &ldquo / trip distribution&rdquo / , are applied to develop nationwide freight demand model between the provinces in T&uuml / rkiye. The developed model is single-mode, single commodity and nationwide.

The main purpose of the study is to examine the cointegration relationships among economic growth, foreign direct investment and financial sector development in 4 East Asian countries, namely Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand between the years 1971-2008 by autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. In the existing literature, there is no study examining the causal relationships among economic growth, foreign direct investment and financial sector development by applying ARDL methodology for these East Asian countries. The contribution of this study to the literature, the cointegration relationships are constructed to observe the direct linkage among these variables by ARDL approach. If cointegration relationships exist among these variables, then the effect of each regressor on the dependent variable is also investigated. The results of the study indicate that foreign direct investment and financial sector development could be long run forcing variables of economic growth. Additionally, economic growth and financial sector development could be long run forcing variables of foreign direct investment. However, there is not sufficient evidence that economic growth and foreign direct investment together are long run key determinants of financial sector development in a country as obtained in this study.

<p>Efter upplösningen av Sovjetunionens starka maktkontroll över sina satellitstater den 9:e november 1989, kunde de Centrala och Östeuropeiska länderna (förkortning CEEC på engelska) påbörja sin övergång till marknadsekonomi. Sättet att närma sig en fri marknad är indelat i två olika tillvägagångssätt – chockterapi och gradualism. Den förstnämda metoden genomförs med fokus på snabbhet och en samverkande engångsförvandling av de ekonomiska sektorerna medan den sistnämnda beaktar en grad- och stegvis omvandling. Omvandlingsprocessen i sig består av flera variabler, exempelvis privatisering av statligt ägd egendom, makroekonomisk stabilitet samt liberalisering av priser och handel. Beroende på vilken metod som valdes genomfördes de ovan nämnda variablerna vid olika tidpunkter och med varierande hastighetsgrad. Åsikterna bland ekonomer rörande vilken metod som uppnått bäst resultat är omdebatterad. Följaktligen är syftet med denna uppsats att undersöka vilken av omvandlingsmetoderna som har uppnått högst BNP per capita tillväxt i de valda CEEC under perioden 1992-2003. Tio CEEC valdes ut för att få en rättvis delning mellan de två tillvägagångssätten, med tillhörande fem länder i varje grupp. Därtill valdes fem referensländer ut, för att i en grafisk analys kunna relatera utvecklingen i omvandlingsländer till redan etablerade marknadsekonomier. De erhållna resultaten visar att val av tillvägagångssätt inom omvandlingsprocessen inte har någon signifikant inverkan på BNP per capita utvecklingen. Ländernas grundförutsättningar samt i vilken ordning variablerna implementerades visar sig troligen ha större inverkan på BNP per capita tillväxten. Dessutom visar de empiriska resultaten klara indikationer på att det finns en skillnad mellan CEEC och referensländerna.</p> / <p>After the resolution of the Soviet Unions strict control over its satellite with beginning on the 9th of November 1989, the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) began their transition towards a market economy. How to approach the economic system of a free market has been divided into two major policies – shock therapy and gradualism. The first policy is implemented with speed and one-shock change within the economic sectors as a focus while the second constitutes of slow and gradual implementations. The transformation process in itself consists of several variables, for e.g. privatization of state-owned properties, macroeconomic stabilization and liberalization of prices and trade. Depending on what policy chosen, the variables were implemented at different times and with different speed. The views among economists regarding which of the two models that achieve the best result when transforming differs widely. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate which of the two models that have had the best effect upon the GDP per capita growth in the chosen CEEC. Ten CEEC were picked to have a fair representation for each policy, with five countries representing each policy group and the years measured were 1992-2003. In addition, for a graphical analysis to be performed and to distinct CEEC from already established market economies, five reference countries were included. The results obtained indicate that the policy choice has no impact on average GDP per capita growth. Instead we concure with earlier research that claim that preconditions and sequential order of the market reforms have a larger impact on GDP per capita growth. Additionally, empirical results indicated that there is a significant difference in the GDP growth over the last decade between our CEEC and the reference countries.</p>

<p> </p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the impact of the EU’s Structural Fund (SF) policy between 2000-2007 on regional economic growth in Sweden. A regional convergence analysis is performed in order to examine if the SF policy’s overall aim of convergence is reached. Furthermore the study examines the growth of important Structural Fund goal indicators as employment, education and new firm formation in the Objective 1, 2 and 3 areas. The main growth- and convergence theories and their connection to regional policies such as the SF policy is used as the theoretical framework and form the study’s hypothesis.</p><p>The results show that absolute β-convergence exists between the Swedish urban areas. The growth of the goal indicators show that the Objective 1 and 2 areas, which received most part of the SF support have achieved their aims in increasing employment and new firm creation. In addition the Objective 2 areas have increased their share of population with higher education compared to the areas that did not receive either Objective 1 or 2 support. The Objective 3 areas, which received the least part of the SF support had a lower mean growth in employment than the areas that received no direct Objective 3 support. In addition the urban areas that only received Objective 3 support had a lower growth in share of population with higher education. From the results we can reach the overall conclusion that the positive impact of the SF policy on the goal indicators seem to be the largest in the areas that received most part of the funding. The final conclusion is that the SF are effective in enhancing economic growth in the areas of intervention.</p><p> </p> / <p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera EU:s Strukturfondspolitiks inverkan på regional ekonomisk tillväxt i Sverige mellan 2000-2007. En regional konvergensanalys utförs för att undersöka om Strukturfondspolitikens övergripande konvergens mål uppnås. Vidare undersöker studien viktiga Strukturfondmålindikatorers tillväxt, såsom sysselsättning, utbildning och nyföretagande, i Mål 1, 2 och 3 områdena. De viktigaste tillväxt- och konvergensteorierna och deras koppling till regional politik, såsom Strukturfondspolitiken används som den teoretiska bakgrunden och formar studiens hypotes.</p><p>Resultaten visar att absolut β-konvergens existerar mellan de svenska kommunerna. Resultaten för målindikatorernas tillväxt visar att Mål 1 och 2-områdena som har mottagit största delen av Strukturfondsstödet har uppnått sina mål att öka sysselsättningen och starta nya företag. Dessutom har Mål 2-områdena haft en högre ökning av andelen av befolkningen med högre utbildning jämfört med områdena som inte mottog något Mål 1 eller 2-stöd. Mål 3- områdena som har mottagit den minsta delen av Strukturfondsstödet hade en lägre tillväxt av sysselsättning jämfört med de områden som inte mottog något direkt Mål 3-stöd. De områden som enbart mottog Mål 3-stöd hade dessutom en lägre tillväxt av befolkning med högre utbildning. Utifrån resultaten kan vi dra den övergripande slutsatsen att den positiva påverkan av Strukturfondspolitiken på målindikatorerna verkar vara störst i de områden som har mottagit största delen av Strukturfondsstödet. Den slutgiltiga slutsatsen är att Strukturfondspolitiken sannolikt främjar den ekonomiska tillväxten i insatsområdena.</p>

<p>This thesis examines the correlation between economic growth and the prevalence of a number of institutions that according to a theory elaborated by economists Christer Gunnarsson and Mauricio Rojas are growth promoting. The economic development and the institutional quality of four African countries, namely Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, is examined by comparing index scores for relevant institutional factors. The results show that some correlation between economic growth and the prevalence of the institutions examined can be confirmed, why the theory only gains moderate support. A minor attempt is also made to trace potential correlations between the level of economic equality and the institutions in question, but no correlation is found in this respect.</p>

中國自1970年代末期改革以來，經濟的高速成長引起了舉世矚目，而在中國同時進行的多種改革之中，中央政府財政權力的下放地方，被認為是貢獻於其驚人經濟成長的重要因素之一。然而，中央的財政權力下放真的能夠刺激經濟正向的成長嗎？若回顧過去研究單一國家、或是進行跨國分析的相關實證文獻，都無法在財政地方分權化與經濟成長間關係，產生一致的結論；有些實證文獻甚至指出，財政地方分權化對經濟成長產生了負面的影響。若單以中國為研究對象，過去的文獻也沒有一致的結論。 本篇文章之研究目的，即為探討中國的財政地方分權化效果究竟如何。我們將利用中國的省級追蹤資料（panel data）來進行分析，財政地方分權化對於其地區性經濟成長，究竟存在著什麼樣的貢獻。於本研究中，將回顧現有文獻中，關於財政地方分權化對經濟成長影響之相關理論與實證文獻，且特別著重在以中國為研究主體之相關文獻。此外，本文也將清楚地介紹與說明，近幾年來中國財政地方分權化與其地區性經濟成長間關係之現況，且特別著重在地區別之比較。最後，為了確保本研究實證結果之可信度，本文將建立兩種實證模型，並將財政地方分權化變數之平方項加入實證模型中，試圖探析中國的財政地方分權化，對於其地區性經濟成長之完整影響效果如何。這樣的作法可能可以解釋，為何過去文獻對於此一問題之結論的不一致，也可以進一步獲得，使中國地區性經濟成長達最適之財政地方分權程度。 / The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of fiscal decentralization in China’s regional economic growth ever since fiscal reform was embarked upon in 1994. This study uses provincial-level data to analyze whether or not fiscal decentralization provides a positive effect for economic growth. Both theoretical papers and empirical papers related to the relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth are reviewed, particularly those focusing on China. However, in order to examine the role of fiscal decentralization in China’s regional economic growth, this study establishes two empirical models with the square term of fiscal decentralization as an independent variable. So doing might explain why past papers have inconstant conclusions to this problem and provides some important policy implications.