Important research questions are typically studied and analyzed more than once, often by different research teams in different locations. However, in many instances, the results of these multiple small studies are diverse and conflicting, which makes decision-making difficult. The need to arrive at decisions fostered the momentum towards synthesizing the results of these multiple studies. Therefore, meta-analysis, also referred to as the standard or traditional meta-analysis, is a statistical technique for combining the results or findings from multiple independent studies to address a specific research question. The applications of meta-analysis have been extended to many fields of research including medicine, psychology, ecology, education, business and many others. Prior to carrying out a meta-analysis or statistically synthesizing data, a researcher must undertake a systematic review. Systematic review attempts to collate empirical evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a specific research question. That is to determine which studies will be included or excluded from the analysis. Standard meta-analysis methods are used to obtain the relative efficacy (or safety) of a particular intervention versus a competing intervention in the presence of a direct or head-to-head comparison. Thus only a pair-wise comparison can be made. The outcome of these interventions could be continuous, binary or count data. A number of methodologies related to meta-analysis, assessments of underlying assumptions and strategies for the presentation of results have been proposed by several researchers. A commonly used model for estimating effect sizes in meta-analysis is the fixed-effect model. However, various factors can determine the performance of the model which needs to be considered before using the results for decision making. This project aimed to investigate the performance of hypothesis properties and estimation properties on selecting data points from an underlying contaminated distribution under different scenarios for modeling a continuous outcome. Different levels of contamination, levels of significance, number of studies, number of individual study sample sizes, standard deviations and effect sizes were investigated in our simulation study for a continuous outcome. The results of our simulation study shows that, the fixed-effect meta-analytic model does not perform well in the presence of contamination. As the level of contamination in the treatment group increases, the properties of estimators and hypothesis are greatly influenced. The method performs well as expected in the absence of contamination but performs poorly as we observe 50% contamination in the treatment group regardless of the individual sample size, the number of studies, the standard deviation and the effect size. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The study examines the development of telecommunications and its impacts on Chinese economic growth since telecommunications has been undergoing dramatic reforms in the 1980s. On November 2001, China was officially the WTO member to open the market for foreign investors. It is obvious that the telecommunications infrastructure development can play a key role in economic growth in China. Furthermore, China has become the world’s single largest telecommunications market since 2002. In this research, I present evidence that it empirically not only investigates the telecommunications development and its impacts on economic growth, but also tests their relationship with initial economic condition, fixed investment, population growth, foreign direct investment as well as telecommunications infrastructure development using the panel data approach with a dynamic fixed effect model for the span of time from 2003 to 2008. I find that that mobile phone user density to be the new proxy for telecommunications infrastructure in China contributes in a major way to the economic growth. It means that mobile communication systems do have positive impact and effect on the regional economy of China. It is a crucial determinant as findings indicate a significant and positive correlation between telecommunications development and regional growth in China, after controlling for a number of other factors. Results also show that investment in telecommunications is subject to diminishing returns.

Dissertation deals with the food industry. First, the economy of the sector in the branch structure and size of businesses is evaluated. The main attention is paid to the drawing subsidies by the food industry in the context of EU funds. The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate the effect of the subsidies on the economy of the food business. For the analysis fixed effect model was used. According to the results, there are significant differences in the impact of subsidies on the individual branches of the food industry. In most fields was demonstrated their ineffective use to increase business performance.

none

Most countries in the world are working hard to attract more foreign direct investment. Identifying the key determinants of foreign direct investment is therefore seen as a crucial task for policy makers. Compared to other parts of the world, the performance of Sub-Sahara African countries in attracting foreign direct investment is poor. This study deals with identifying the determinants of foreign direct investment inflow in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study employed panel data analysis: pooled ordinary least square method, fixed effects and Random Effect methods. Fourteen Sub-Saharan Africa countries were sampled for the study. Trade openness, gross domestic product, gross domestic product growth, gross domestic product per capita, telephone line (per 100 people), gross fixed capital formation, inflation and the lag of FDI are explanatory variables while the stock of FDI inflow is dependent variable. The analyzed data covered for the period 1986-2010.  The study finding shows that trade openness, gross domestic product, inflation, and lag of FDI are the most significant determinants of foreign direct investment inflows to sub-Saharan Africa.

The Swedish housing market is a frequently debated topic where the focus is often concentrated on the rise in prices in recent years and the risks that transpire from it. On the other hand, studies on the price development of tentan-owned real estate are not as well represented nor debated. At the same time, changes have taken place in Sweden since the financial crisis in the 1990s. The credit market is now deregulated, unemployment is apparently higher in the later years than it was around the millennium and incomes have increased over time. A major change on the housing market was implemented in 2010 when the mortgage ceiling was introduced, which limited the loan share to a maximum of 85 percent of the estate’s value. All these factors have, according to this study, undeniably affected the market for tenant-owned real estate.  The purpose of this essay is to investigate an unexplored area based on panel data at county level with a fixed effects econometric model. The results show that several of the observed explanatory variables have a significant impact on square meter prices for tenant-owned real estate. The implementation of the mortgage ceiling has, according to the study, had a major impact on square meter prices, where prices would have been almost ten percent higher if the reform had not been implemented. The variable disposable income per capita also proved to have a large effect on the price, as the percentage change in the price per square meter will be double the size compared to the percentage change in disposable income per capita. / Den svenska bostadsmarknaden är ett flitigt omskrivet ämne där fokus ofta ligger på desenaste årens prisuppgång och dess risker. Däremot är studier kring prisutvecklingenpå bostadsrätter inte lika omskrivet. Samtidigt har förändringar skett i Sverige sedanfinanskrisen på 1990-talet. Kreditmarknaden är numera avreglerad, arbetslösheten ärtill synes högre omkring år 2018 än vad den var omkring millennieskiftet, inkomsternahar ökat sedan mitten av 1990-talet. En stor förändring genomfördes 2010 dåbolånetaket infördes, som begränsade låneandel till maximalt 85 procent av bostadensvärde. Alla dessa faktorer har, enligt denna studie, onekligen påverkat marknaden förbostadsrätter. Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka ett outforskat område baserad på paneldatapå länsnivå med en ekonometrisk fixed effect model. Resultaten påvisar att flera av deobserverade förklaringsvariablerna har en signifikant påverkan på kvadratmeterpriserför bostadsrätter. Införandet av bolånetaket har, enligt studien, en stor skattadpåverkan på kvadratmeterpriserna, där priserna skulle ha varit närmare tio procenthögre om reformen inte hade genomförts. Även variabeln disponibel inkomst per capitavisade sig ha en påverkan på priset, genom att den procentuella förändringen i prisetper kvadratmeter blir dubbla storleken jämfört den procentuella förändringen idisponibel inkomst per capita.

No description available.

Στη παρούσα μελέτη, αρχικά παρουσιάζονται από θεωρητική πλευρά θέματα που αφορούν το ρυθμιστικό πλαίσιο, τον πιστωτικό κίνδυνο, τα μη εξυπηρετούμενα δάνεια και οι έννοιες Ευρωζώνη και Ευρωσύστημα. Ακολούθως, με τη χρήση ενός οικονομετρικού μοντέλου επιχειρήθηκε ο προσδιορισμός των παραγόντων εκείνων που επηρεάζουν τον δείκτη μη εξυπηρετούμενων δανείων στην Ευρωζώνη. Ο δείκτης των μη εξυπηρετούμενων δανείων ουσιαστικά συνιστάται ως προσεγγιστική μεταβλητή του πιστωτικού κινδύνου και την περίοδο αυτή της παρατεταμένης ύφεσης αποτελεί ενδεχομένως τη μεγαλύτερη απειλή που αντιμετωπίζουν τα διάφορα τραπεζικά συστήματα όλου του κόσμου. Χρησιμοποιώντας συγκεντρωτικά δεδομένα (aggregate data) σε ένα πάνελ 13 χωρών της Ευρωζώνης για την περίοδο 2000-2008 και με την βοήθεια της fixed effect προσέγγισης, εντοπίστηκαν ισχυρές συσχετίσεις μεταξύ του NPL και διαφόρων μακροοικονομικών και τραπεζικών (banκ specific) παραγόντων. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, τα ευρήματα της εμπειρικής διερεύνησης, επιβεβαιώνουν τη διεθνή βιβλιογραφία καθώς από πλευράς τραπεζικών μεταβλητών ισχυρή επίδραση στο δείκτη μη εξυπηρετούμενων δάνειων εμφανίζει ο δείκτης κεφαλαιακής επάρκειας, ο δείκτης δάνεια προς καταθέσεις και ο δείκτης των μη εξυπηρετούμενων της προηγούμενης χρονιάς. Τέλος, από μακροοικονομικής πλευράς το δημόσιο χρέος και η ανεργία φαίνεται να είναι δυο επιπλέον παράγοντες που επιδρούν στη διαμόρφωση του δείκτη, αποτυπώνοντας ότι η κατάσταση της οικονομίας των χωρών της ευρωζώνης συνδέεται άρρηκτα με τον δείκτη NPL. / In this study, from the theoretical point of you, issues regarding regulation, credit risk, non-performing loans, Eurozone and Eurosystem are presented. Then, implementing an econometric model it was examined which factors influence the ratio of nonperforming loans in the Eurozone. It is worthwhile to mention that the ratio of NPLs can be used as a proxy of credit risk. Nowadays, credit risk seems to be the greatest risk, which banking systems are facing all over the world. Particularly, Using aggregate data on a panel of 13 countries for the period 2000-2008 and applying the fixed effect approach, strong correlations between the NPL and various macroeconomic and bank specific factors are confirmed. Our findings largely agree with the literature as, in terms of bank-specific variables, the capital ratio, the loans to deposits ratio and the rate of non-performing loans of the previous year appear to exert a powerful influence on the non-performing loans rate. At the same time, from a macroeconomic perspective, the public debt and unemployment seem to be two additional factors that affect the index, revealing that the state of the economy of Eurozone countries is clearly linked to the NPL index.

Sedan 2000-talets början har avkastningen på icke-kognitiva förmågor ökat på arbetsmarknaden till följd av bland annat skill-biased technological change. Grupper som besitter höga icke-kognitiva förmågor bör därför gynnas på arbetsmarknaden. Givet att ett antal studier finner evidens för att kvinnor har högre icke-kognitiva förmågor än män, undersöker uppsatsen i vilken grad detta återspeglas i kvinnors relativlön. Syftet är att se om kvinnor gynnas av att avkastningen på icke-kognitiva förmågor har ökat i termer av att deras relativlön har ökat. För att undersöka detta tillämpas en regressionsanalys med fixa effekter på en komunpanel, där två olika mått på icke-kognitiv förmåga förekommer. Måtten grundar sig i mönstringsdata respektive O’net-data (Occupational information network). Effekten på kvinnors relativlön studeras under tidsperioden 2008–2018 samt 2014–2018 för Sveriges samtliga 290 kommuner. Resultaten uppvisar ett negativt samband mellan ökad efterfrågan på icke-kognitiv förmåga och kvinnors relativlön, vilket innebär att när efterfrågan ökar så minskar kvinnors relativlön. / Since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been a surge in the returns to non-cognitive abilities in the labor market, due to the influence of skill-biased technological change. This has led to a preference for groups with higher non-cognitive skills in the labor market. In light of some studies revealing that women exhibit greater non-cognitive skills than men, this study aims to investigate whether this phenomenon translates into a corresponding increase in women’s salaries, thus examining whether women are beneficiaries of the amplified returns to non-cognitive skills. To achieve this objective, a fixed-effects regression analysis is employed, using two different metrics to assess non-cognitive capacity, across one municipal panel. The research examines the effect on women's relative salaries from 2008–2018 and 2014–2018, encompassing all 290 municipalities in Sweden. The results demonstrate a negative association between increased demand for non-cognitive skills and women's relative salaries, indicating that as demand increases, women's relative salaries decrease.

This thesis focuses on the relationship between crime and education, as well as macroeconomic and demographic factors such as police efficiency, GDP per capita, employment rate, population density, age and sexual composition of the society. We use the data of fourteen regions of the Czech Republic from 2000 to 2012. First, we apply the fixed-effect model in the data analysis, and further we use GMM for the estimation of new dynamic panel dataset. In addition, taking the possible time effects into account, we also add the time dummies in both regression models. Our finding finds the unexpectedly positive effects of secondary education with A-level exam, GDP per capita and the proportion of population aged 30-59 years old on most of criminal offences. On the other hand, the male ratio in population and the clearance rate are found to influence crimes negatively. Higher education and employment rate are also found to be related negatively with economic crimes. JEL Classification A14, E69, I21, I23, I25, I29, J19, R19 Keywords education, crime, employment, GDP, gender ratio, age, the Czech Republic, panel data, fixed-effect, GMM Author's e-mail cindy1114@livemail.tw Supervisor's e-mail brizova.ies@seznam.cz