Equality is part of the European policy and legislation. However there are still evident signs of women being treated unequally in the labour market. The aim of the thesis is to answer the question if women are more vulnerable to economic shocks in terms of wage distribution. The focus will be on women in Spain in the context of the financial crisis of 2008. The thesis examines the evolution of the salary structure in the period 2002-2014 using the microdata of the Structural Earning Survey. The taste-based and the statistical discrimination theory are going to be described in order to explain the causes of gender wage discrimination. The methods applied in this paper are the Mincer method, which explains the human capital theory and the Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions, which separates the gender wage gap into explained and unexplained parts. The results from the study suggest that there is a decrease in the gender wage gap in Spain following the situation before and after the crisis. / <p>Correction: Spring semester 2019</p>

As organizações, para financiar suas atividades, fazem uso de fontes internas e externas de recursos financeiros. Entretanto, na presença de imperfeições no mercado de capitais, como assimetria de informações, problemas de agência e custos de transação, elas podem optar por uma fonte em detrimento a outra. As imperfeições do mercado aliadas as restrições de financeiras podem afetar o gerenciamento de caixa das organizações. Em contextos de crise, por exemplo, os efeitos da indisponibilidade de financiamento podem ser ainda maiores. Sendo assim, este trabalho teve como objetivo analisar os efeitos das Restrições Financeiras e crise financeira sobre as políticas de caixa, assim como, estudar os impactos de uma boa Governança Corporativa e seus efeitos sobre os níveis de caixa. Para tanto, fez-se uso de uma amostra composta por 141 empresas de capital aberto, não financeiras, obtidas por meio da base de dados Economática®. O período analisado compreende 15 anos, iniciando em 2000 e se estendendo até 2014. Optou-se pela utilização do modelo de regressão com dados em painel, por meio de um painel desbalanceado, no intuito de não reduzir o número de observações utilizadas (1906). Os resultados indicaram que o nível de caixa das organizações é impactado pelo nível de sua restrição financeira, assim como por contextos de crise, onde as companhias elevaram as suas reservas de caixa sob tal cenário. De forma geral, observou-se uma associação positiva entre as variáveis de Governança Corporativa utilizadas, apesar de apenas uma ter obtido significância estatística. Logo, o resultado obtido sugere que os acionistas de uma empresa permitem ao agente gerenciar maiores reservas de caixa apenas quando há mecanismos de governança corporativa para protegê-las. Além do mais, os resultados ainda indicam que as boas práticas de governança corporativa fornecem um meio de controlar as ações dos gestores, de modo que eles utilizem as reservas de caixa apenas em situações que maximizem a utilidade dos acionistas, evitando, assim, o gasto excessivo de caixa. Em relação a adoção das normas internacionais de contabilidade (IFRS), verificou-se uma redução significativa dos níveis de caixa posteriormente a segunda fase de adoção às normas, assim como uma associação negativa e significativa entre a variável dummy representando a adoção obrigatória. Sendo assim, este trabalho contribui com a literatura científica de maneira a fornecer evidências acerca dos efeitos das restrições financeiras, uma boa governança corporativa, crise financeira e adoção do padrão IFRS sobre as políticas de caixa das companhias brasileiras / Organizations, to finance their activities, can use internal and external sources of financial resources. However, in the presence of imperfections in the capital market, as asymmetric information, agency problems and transaction costs, they can choose one over the other. The imperfections of the market coupled with financial restrictions may affect the cash management of organizations. In times of crisis, for example, the effects of the unavailability of funding may also be higher. Thus, this study aimed to analyze the effects of Financial Restrictions and financial crisis on cash holdings, as well as study the impacts of a good Corporate Governance and its effects on cash levels. To do so, we used a sample of 141 listed companies, non-financial, obtained through Economática® database. The analyzed period consists of 15 years, starting in 2000 and extending to 2014. We opted for the use of the Panel Data regression model using an unbalanced panel, in order not to reduce the number of observations used (1906). The results indicated that the cash level of organizations is impacted by the level of its financial constraints, as well as for crisis contexts, where companies increased their cash reserves under such a scenario. In General, there was a positive association between the variables of Corporate Governance used, although only one has obtained statistical significance. Therefore, the obtained results suggest that the shareholders of a company allow the agent manage larger cash reserves only when there is corporate governance mechanisms to protect them. Moreover, the results also indicate that good corporate governance practices provide a way to control the actions of managers, so that they use cash holdings only in situations that maximize the value of shareholders, thus avoiding spending excessive cash holding. Regarding the adoption of international accounting standards (IFRS), there was a significant reduction in cash levels after the second phase adoption of the standards, as well as a negative and significant association between the dummy variable representing the mandatory adoption. Thus, this study contributes to the literature in order to provide evidence about the effects of financial constraints, good corporate governance, financial crisis and the adoption of IFRS on the cash policies of Brazilian companies

Thesis advisor: Robert Murphy / Thesis advisor: Hiroshi Nakazato / The majority of scholarship surrounding the late 2000s financial crisis explores the enabling factors that contributed to the subprime bubble and caused it to burst. This study’s purpose is to evaluate systemic risk and the near collapse of the financial sector in 2008. Several factors, including derivatives innovation, the rise of a parallel banking industry, and the securitization boom, heightened systemic fragility. I add to financial contagion literature by constructing a stochastic game theory model of institutional decision-making under the auspices of a severe liquidity shortage. Moreover, I will employ this model to evaluate the government’s regulatory program during the crisis. I find that the government’s ad hoc interventions and non-interventions significantly contributed to the atmosphere of uncertainty and exacerbated the crisis’ ill effects. I go on to evaluate the Dodd-Frank Act in light of those conclusions and suggest an alternate method of financial reform. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies Honors Program. / Discipline: International Studies.

As organizações, para financiar suas atividades, fazem uso de fontes internas e externas de recursos financeiros. Entretanto, na presença de imperfeições no mercado de capitais, como assimetria de informações, problemas de agência e custos de transação, elas podem optar por uma fonte em detrimento a outra. As imperfeições do mercado aliadas as restrições de financeiras podem afetar o gerenciamento de caixa das organizações. Em contextos de crise, por exemplo, os efeitos da indisponibilidade de financiamento podem ser ainda maiores. Sendo assim, este trabalho teve como objetivo analisar os efeitos das Restrições Financeiras e crise financeira sobre as políticas de caixa, assim como, estudar os impactos de uma boa Governança Corporativa e seus efeitos sobre os níveis de caixa. Para tanto, fez-se uso de uma amostra composta por 141 empresas de capital aberto, não financeiras, obtidas por meio da base de dados Economática®. O período analisado compreende 15 anos, iniciando em 2000 e se estendendo até 2014. Optou-se pela utilização do modelo de regressão com dados em painel, por meio de um painel desbalanceado, no intuito de não reduzir o número de observações utilizadas (1906). Os resultados indicaram que o nível de caixa das organizações é impactado pelo nível de sua restrição financeira, assim como por contextos de crise, onde as companhias elevaram as suas reservas de caixa sob tal cenário. De forma geral, observou-se uma associação positiva entre as variáveis de Governança Corporativa utilizadas, apesar de apenas uma ter obtido significância estatística. Logo, o resultado obtido sugere que os acionistas de uma empresa permitem ao agente gerenciar maiores reservas de caixa apenas quando há mecanismos de governança corporativa para protegê-las. Além do mais, os resultados ainda indicam que as boas práticas de governança corporativa fornecem um meio de controlar as ações dos gestores, de modo que eles utilizem as reservas de caixa apenas em situações que maximizem a utilidade dos acionistas, evitando, assim, o gasto excessivo de caixa. Em relação a adoção das normas internacionais de contabilidade (IFRS), verificou-se uma redução significativa dos níveis de caixa posteriormente a segunda fase de adoção às normas, assim como uma associação negativa e significativa entre a variável dummy representando a adoção obrigatória. Sendo assim, este trabalho contribui com a literatura científica de maneira a fornecer evidências acerca dos efeitos das restrições financeiras, uma boa governança corporativa, crise financeira e adoção do padrão IFRS sobre as políticas de caixa das companhias brasileiras / Organizations, to finance their activities, can use internal and external sources of financial resources. However, in the presence of imperfections in the capital market, as asymmetric information, agency problems and transaction costs, they can choose one over the other. The imperfections of the market coupled with financial restrictions may affect the cash management of organizations. In times of crisis, for example, the effects of the unavailability of funding may also be higher. Thus, this study aimed to analyze the effects of Financial Restrictions and financial crisis on cash holdings, as well as study the impacts of a good Corporate Governance and its effects on cash levels. To do so, we used a sample of 141 listed companies, non-financial, obtained through Economática® database. The analyzed period consists of 15 years, starting in 2000 and extending to 2014. We opted for the use of the Panel Data regression model using an unbalanced panel, in order not to reduce the number of observations used (1906). The results indicated that the cash level of organizations is impacted by the level of its financial constraints, as well as for crisis contexts, where companies increased their cash reserves under such a scenario. In General, there was a positive association between the variables of Corporate Governance used, although only one has obtained statistical significance. Therefore, the obtained results suggest that the shareholders of a company allow the agent manage larger cash reserves only when there is corporate governance mechanisms to protect them. Moreover, the results also indicate that good corporate governance practices provide a way to control the actions of managers, so that they use cash holdings only in situations that maximize the value of shareholders, thus avoiding spending excessive cash holding. Regarding the adoption of international accounting standards (IFRS), there was a significant reduction in cash levels after the second phase adoption of the standards, as well as a negative and significant association between the dummy variable representing the mandatory adoption. Thus, this study contributes to the literature in order to provide evidence about the effects of financial constraints, good corporate governance, financial crisis and the adoption of IFRS on the cash policies of Brazilian companies

Equality is part of the European policy and legislation. However there are still evident signs of women being treated unequally in the labour market. The aim of the thesis is to answer the question if women are more vulnerable to economic shocks in terms of wage distribution. The focus will be on women in Spain in the context of the financial crisis of 2008. The thesis examines the evolution of the salary structure in the period 2002-2014 using the microdata of the Structural Earning Survey. The taste-based and the statistical discrimination theory are going to be described in order to explain the causes of gender wage discrimination. The methods applied in this paper are the Mincer method, which explains the human capital theory and the Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions, which separates the gender wage gap into explained and unexplained parts. The results from the study suggest that there is a decrease in the gender wage gap in Spain following the situation before and after the crisis.

The purpose of the thesis is to analyze the causes of economic crisis in Europe, identify the fundamental reasons and propose possible solutions to it. The first chapter provides a theoretical basis for various aspects of economic cycles based on current loans. The second chapter focuses on the causes of the global financial crisis and the reasons of the crisis in Europe. The third chapter analyzes the development of the EU foreign trade since 2002 and the territorial structure of the latter, as well as the situation in the real economy. Finally, the last section discusses potential solution approaches to the economic crisis in Europe.

This thesis aims to advance our understanding of banking in the post-crisis era. It makes three distinct contributions to the literature on banking. The first chapter examines whether "too-big-to-fail" (TBTF) factors affect estimates of scale economies for large banks. Based on a standard model of bank production that does not control for any TBTF factors, we find evidence of scale economies for our sample of large banks. However, once we control for TBTF factors, we instead find evidence of constant returns to scale. These results suggest that estimates of scale economies for large banks are affected by TBTF factors. The second chapter examines the impact of forbearance lending on firm dynamics and performance in Europe since the sovereign debt crisis. We develop a quantitative model, which features endogenous forbearance lending and endogenous firm defaults, as well as information asymmetry faced by the lender. We fit the model to key Euro Area firm statistics over the period 2011 to 2014. We show that in the absence of forbearance lending, the average firm sales growth, investment and productivity are higher than in the benchmark scenario with forbearance lending. These results suggest that forbearance lending practices have contributed to the recent economic stagnation across the Euro Area. The third chapter introduces a novel way to identify the causal effect of bank capital on risk-taking. We use provisions for misconduct issues as an instrument for bank capital. We show that misconduct provisions are an appropriate instrument due to their strong and negative impact on bank capital, and are otherwise unrelated to asset risk-taking. Our main finding is subsequently that a negative shock to bank capital leads to an increase in risk-taking, as measured by detailed information on mortgage underwriting standards.

This thesis examines the engagement of civil society in Yogyakarta to prevent ethnic violence during the economic crisis of 1998. The thesis explains why and how the people of Yogyakarta avoided ethnic violence, particularly anti-ethnic Chinese riots, during the heightened socio-economic crisis of 1998. The thesis investigates interactions between civil society actors, local traditional leaders and grassroots people in Yogyakarta in preventing ethnic violence. I argue that various actions of civil society organisations in Yogyakarta were instrumental in preventing ethnic violence during the economic crisis of 1998. This argument runs counter to the popular Yogyanese myth that Sultan Hamengku Buwono X (HB X) played a dominant role in preventing ethnic violence during the economic crisis of 1998. The thesis will highlight some local mechanisms that have greatly contributed to the prevention of ethnic and religious violence in Yogyakarta. The findings are as follows: (1) Civil society in Yogyakarta including Non-government organisations, interfaith dialogue organisations, intellectuals, student organisations, religious leaders, and business associations played a key role in managing the socio-economic crisis through the provision of staple food packages, arranging coordination meetings, and organising vigilante teams. In contrast, unlike the popular myth, Sultan HB X's role was limited. (2) Local inter-ethnic civil society organisations such as Paguyuban Mitra Masyarakat Yogyakarta (Association of the Fellowship of Yogyakarta Society), Komite Kemanusiaan Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta Humanitarian Committee) and Tim Relawan Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta Volunteer Team) functioned as platforms of communication and coordination between Chinese and indigenous Indonesians, and Muslims and Christians. With the help of these inter-ethnic civil society organisations, the Chinese community and their business associations in Yogyakarta actively engaged in dispensing staple food packages. (3) Local Islam-affiliated organisations in Yogyakarta such as the LKiS, MUI, NU, Muhammadiyah, and the PPP also played a significant role in managing heightened tensions. They cooperated with other non-Islamic civil society organisations in encouraging ethnic and religious pluralism and restraining primordial sentiment during the economic crisis of 1998.

<p>Global financial crisis, triggered by the U.S. sub-prime mortgage crisis, is now the hot issue all over the world. The crisis has already slowed down the world economy and brought great shocks to almost every industry. For B2C companies all over the world, the crisis is more of an opportunity than a threat and therefore these companies should use marketing techniques to further boost their revenue and profit.</p><p>In view of this situation, this thesis is dedicated to discuss the price and promotion strategies used by B2C companies during the crisis. Through case studies of four B2C companies, that is, TaoBao.com, DangDang.com, EBay.com and Amazon.com, we conclude that discount, pricing leadership and penetration pricing are the universal price strategies used, while they also use nearly similar promotion strategies: advertising, public relation and sales promotion. Considering the current crisis, we also think that current price and promotion strategies are insufficient in face of global financial crisis in that they are not flexible enough to adapt themselves to the changing consumer behaviors and economic surroundings. Consequently, to seek to address these problems, we here bring forward three suggestions: strengthened segment-based pricing Strategy, innovative promotion strategy and flexible marketing mix.</p>

<p>The financial crisis started in 2007 caused a global recession. Firms have been facing an extremely difficult time since then. A lot of them experienced a severe drop and fluctuation of profitability. Even so some firms still performed well during the hard time. In this study we are searching for the determinants of comparatively good performance (including both profitability and profit stability) for firms. With an empirical study on Swedish firms, we explored the relationship between several firm variables and firms' performance during the crisis. The result showed that some variables indeed has an impact on performance, among which industry effect was the most influential variable, while diversification strategy also has a positive impact on performance. We stress the benefits of diversification strategy as it is a strategic choice directly made by managers of firms. We suggest that diversification strategy plays an important role in the long-term success of firms, as it has a positive effect on profitability not only when economy is in stable stage, which has been proved by some further literature, but also when the economy is experiencing a recession, which is the result of our study.</p>