<p> This dissertation introduces a panel data method to estimate country-specific steady state levels of output in an augmented Solow growth model. The use of panel data permits the estimation of a country-specific effect which can explain the surprising result that many developing economies are above their steady states. These empirical results also confirm that the augmented Solow model can explain the present cross-country income <i> divergence</i> of developed and developing economies. Another application finds evidence that the post-Soviet economies began their transition toward markets with initial conditions of overcapitalization. Finally, when the results are sufficient, there is also the possibility of describing an entire period of growth and gaining insights into future periods. This is shown with the OECD economies. </p><p> In Islam (1995), panel data is first used to estimate the parameters of the Solow growth model. The following year, Cho and Graham (1996) published a small paper which illustrates a simple way to compute steady state levels of per capita income by using the results of cross-sectional convergence tests. This dissertation simply combines these two methods with the result that the interpretations are more satisfying. In sum, we find that countries can begin a period of development above or below their steady states and that countries converging from above should be considered to be overcapitalized. This implies that development through investment can only succeed when there is convergence from below the steady state. Above the steady state, total factor productivity is too low to sustain the relatively high levels of capital. </p><p> The organization of the dissertation is linear with an introduction preceding the second chapter's literature review and the development of a theoretical and empirical model in the third chapter. The applications of the method then follow. Chapter 4 uses a worldwide sample to compare the result to other work and to show that this fundamental model of growth theory can explain the observed increasing levels of international inequality. Chapter 5 takes a look at the transition economies. In addition to finding evidence of overcapitalization, this dissertation finds a positive correlation between growth and the privatization of small business under transition. Additionally, there is a negative impact of price liberalization under the conditions of repressed inflation experienced by many Soviet-era planned economies. Chapter 6 uses a sample of OECD economies to obtain a significant deterministic, technological growth rate. This is possible because the countries are similar enough to make the assumption that they have the same growth rate more realistic. This enables an understanding of steady states after the initial period and leading into the most contemporaneous period of the sample.</p><p> <b>Keywords:</b> macroeconomic analyses of economic development; institutions and growth; measurement of economic growth; cross-country output convergence; models with panel data; government policy; socialist systems and transitional economies: political economy, property rights; socialist institutions and their transitions</p>

The surge of inequality in the past three decades in the United States is associated with the financialization of the US economy. By financialization I refer to two interdependent processes. One is the increasing influence of the financial sector over the US economy. The second process is the increasing participation of the non-finance firms in the financial markets. Evidence presented in this dissertation shows that financialization has profound impacts on income dynamics and employment growth in the United States. As the centrality of the finance sector increases, financial firms and their favored workers capture more resources from the economy. When non-financial firms channel their resources and attention from the productive units to their financial arms, they exclude labor from the revenue generating process and therefore diminish the bargaining power of workers. Furthermore, as resources are engineered toward speculative activities and the shareholders, employment growth and security decline, particularly for middle-class workers. I discuss the policy implications at the end.

Thesis (MSD (EAP))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

<p>Diss. Stockholm :  Stockholm School of Economics, 2013. Introduction together with 4 papers.</p>

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Cover title. Photocopy typescript.

Diese kumulative Dissertation untersucht in drei Kapiteln den Effekt von Risiko auf Firmenentscheidungen und die Fähigkeit von Firmen, Risiken mit ihren Stakeholdern zu teilen. Die betrachteten Firmen sind Skihotels in österreichischen Skigebieten. Das erste Kapitel ist eine umfassende Studie zur Risikoteilung zwischen Skihotels und ihren Stakeholdern. Es gibt zwei hauptsächliche Ergebnisse. Erstens wird gezeigt, dass Unternehmer Wetterrisiko mit ihren Arbeitnehmern teilen, selbst aber kein Wetterrisiko tragen. Dieses Ergebnis ist in Widerspruch zur Vorstellung des Unternehmers als Risikoträger. Das zweite Ergebnis ist, dass Firmen Wetterrisiko mit ihrer Hausbank teilen. Das zweite Kapitel untersucht anhand von Banken in österreichischen Skigebieten die Rolle des Interbankenmarkt. Die Banken in Skigebieten sind Liquiditätsschocks ausgesetzt, die durch touristisch bedingte Nachfrageschocks erzeugt werden. Der Effekt dieser Schocks auf die Kredittätigkeit ist Gegenstand dieser Studie. Das Ergebnis der Studie ist, dass Banken mehr Kapital auf dem Interbankenmarkt beschaffen, wenn sie ihren Kunden in der Realwirtschaft in Folge eines Nachfrageschocks Liquidität gewähren müssen. Das dritte Kapitel untersucht, wie die Beschäftigung von kleinen Firmen auf Risiko in der Arbeitsproduktivität reagiert. Ein Ergebnis ist, dass das abhängig ist von der Kapitalisierung des lokalen Bankenmarktes. Es wird gezeigt, dass eine Zunahme in transitiven Arbeitsproduktivitätsrisiko die Bereitschaft der Firmen verringert Arbeitnehmer einzustellen. Dieser Effekt ist umso stärker, je schlechter lokale Banken kapitalisiert sind. Es scheint, als würde ein Mangel an Kapital in Bankensektor die Fähigkeit von Skihotels mindern, Arbeitsproduktivität einzugehen. / This thesis contains three chapters that empirically study the impact of risk on firm level decisions and firms’ ability to share risks with their stakeholders. The firms that are studied in all three papers are hotels in Austrian ski resorts. The first chapter provides a comprehensive study of the risk sharing between Austrian ski hotels and their stakeholders. We obtain two main results. The first main finding is that the entrepreneurs share snow-induced sales risk with their workers, while the dividend payments to the entrepreneurs are not affected by these exogenous shocks to firms’ sales. This finding opposes the view of the entrepreneur as a risk taker. We find that hotels insure their workers against weather-induced sales shocks only if the shocks are highly temporary during the winter-season. The second main result is that entrepreneurs share exogenous sales risk with their house-banks. The second chapter empirically analyzes interbank lending using a sample of banks in Austrian ski resorts. The banks are subject to liquidity shocks due to weather-induced demand shocks in ski tourism. We analyze the effect of these shocks on interbank lending and borrowing. In our analysis, we use snow in ski resorts as an instrumental variable for the possibly endogenous demand shocks. The analysis reveals that banks reduce their net lending to other banks at times when they need to provide liquidity to their non-bank customers. The third chapter empirically studies how small-firm employment respond to labor productivity risk. We show that this depends on the equity capital of local banks. We find that an increase in the risk of transitory productivity shocks reduces firms’ willingness to commit to employing workers. This effect is stronger if local banks have less equity capital. It appears that a lack of bank equity reduces firms’ capacity to take labor productivity risk.