The aim of the thesis is to classify european countries in terms of their business climate using the method of cluster analysis over the years 2008-2013. Changes in classification during this period are associated with events of global significance (e.g. World financial crisis) or local importance (reforms, EU strategy...). Data base consists of indicators describing administrative, financial and law environment for doing business and are publicated by World Bank. Clusters indicate both geographic conditionality and specific attributes of these clusters, which suggest countries with better/worse conditions in some of the areas. Particular attention is given to development in the Czech republic. There was significant change in classificiation between 2008 and 2009 and subsequently became stable. The results of analysis correspond to the existing rankings and indicators of business demography. Potentials for improvement which might leed to stabel economic development according to the conducted analysis are outlined in the end of the thesis (f.e. implementation of unified administrative points, electronization and further simplification of bureaucratic processes).

The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze and compare the economic development of Finland and Sweden with the emphasis of the current economic crisis. The first chapter presents basic characteristics of both economies and their development till 2008. The second chapter shows the development of both economies from the beginning of the crisis until now. The chapter is divided into sub-chapters that analyze individual economic indicators.

This thesis deals with utilization of strategic concept Balanced Scorecard for enterprise management and IT Balanced Scorecard for enterprise Informatics management. Both these concepts are applied for prosperity and crisis periods. The output of thesis is processed by means of using concept Balanced Scorecard for period of economic prosperity and crisis. Following that application of this concept are in created strategic maps in thesis, which show relationships between objectives in each perspective of Balanced Scorecard. The solution provides sight of enterprise management for two observed periods. There is visible continuity of individual objectives on primary objective of company. Model includes influence of ICT on enterprise management. From model is evident, that with using application Balanced Scorecard concept in crisis period is more effectively management due to the high savings rate. Result of this thesis is comparation of set objectives, at which is used SMART method both in times of economic prosperity and crisis. It is applied at classic Balanced Scorecard and simultaneously also at its derivation IT Balanced Scorecard. For the scientific method can be described secondly comparation of both observation periods and then build a model of both strategic maps.

The thesis focuses on the development of the South Korean financial system, especially on the period since the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis that hit Southeast Asia in 1997, to the present. The aim of this thesis is to describe and evaluate the measures taken to combat this crisis, identify remaining challenges and threats and evaluate the current financial sector stability.

Diploma thesis deals with the recovery of the Icelandic economy after the financial crisis that affected the country in 2008. The thesis is divided into four main chapters. The first chapter focuses on theoretical view on the financial crisis and the typology of each crisis. The second chapter describes pre-crisis economic development, triggers and the subsequent collapse of the banking sector. The third chapter deals with the impacts of the crisis on selected economic indicators, evaluation of the assistance provided by International Monetary Fund and outlines the issue of capital controls that were relatively controversial element of the IMF program. The last chapter discusses the question of joining the European Union in relation to the crisis and also describes the major difficult point of negotiation, namely fishing.

The aim of this PhD thesis is to analyze the history and current situation of hedge funds and assess their potential to destabilize financial markets. The findings of the analysis are used to validate the assumptions underlying the major regulatory changes of hedge funds in the key global economic centres after the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Since their inception early last century hedge funds have gone through a period of great expansion in the sixties, followed by a decline due to large losses sustained in the early seventies. The nineties meant a real breakthrough for hedge funds as a result of which they became prominent players in the alternative investment space. As of today, there is over ten thousand hedge funds that globally manage close to 3 trillion US dollars. Compared to mutual funds and other financial institutions the volume of assets under management is still relatively small, the rate of growth over the past fifteen years has however been very significant. What is emphasized with respect to the impact of hedge funds on financial markets is the contribution to increasing the liquidity and efficiency and their role on the financial derivatives market where hedge funds are actively involved in the transfer of risk. They are at the same time subject of criticism for their purported destabilizing effect on financial markets and contribution to fluctuations in the prices of investment instruments. Although the share of hedge funds in triggering major financial crises has not been conclusively established, these investment entities were one of the targets of the wide-ranging regulatory changes following the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. The dissertation first discusses the history and current situation of hedge funds and defines the term hedge fund. The following section describes the basic characteristics and principles of their functioning and reviews the regulation in the major domiciles. The final chapter is focused on the empirical analysis of the impact of hedge funds on financial markets. The inputs for this analysis include a global hedge fund index and representative market indices and data from the CFTC on positions in the 10 year US government treasury note futures. In the first step the descriptive statistics for the transformed time series are presented. The second part of the analysis focuses on lagged correlations between returns and volatility of the global hedge fund index and representative market indices. Granger causality tests are applied in the following section to determine the relationships between the returns and volatility of hedge fund and representative market indices. In the final step of the analysis Granger causality tests are used to analyze the link between the changes in positions in the 10-year US treasury note futures held by hedge funds and the change in settlement prices of these futures with the aim to assess whether hedge funds have the capacity to move the market. In conclusion, the results of this analysis are discussed in light of the recent regulatory changes and the potential for the future growth of hedge funds is assessed.

Content of this thesis is displaying impact of financial crisis on values of ratios of total assets turnover, fixed assets turnover, current assets turnover, trade deficit, current liquidity, quick liquidity, immediate liquidity, return on assets, return on equity, return on sales, debt ratio and labor productivity ratio. Thesis is related to companies from industry sectors from selected countries of European Union. Data are from years 2006 to 2009. In all ratios start of financial crisis was registered. In case of turnover ratios, return ratios, debt ratio and labor productivity ratios decreased was caused by decrease of sales which was caused by financial crisis. In case of liquidity ratios of examined industry companies there was increase in values of these ratios during crisis mostly caused by increase of receivables. Generally the best values of ration from examined periods regarding industry companies had Germany, Ireland and Great Britain. The worst values were in France, Portugal and Italy. From the point of view of sectors the best values were in sector CA "Mining and quarrying of energy producing materials", E "Electricity, gas and water supply" and CB "Mining and quarrying, except of energy producing materials". The worst sectors were DC "Manufacture of leather and leather products", DD "Manufacture of wood and wood products" and DM "Manufacture of transport equipment".

This diploma thesis focuses on syndicated loans. It analyzes mostly the development of syndicated loans during last years from different points of view. Special attention is given to the syndicated loan market in Europe and USA. At the beginning of this paper, it is proved, that syndicated loans are important source of corporate financing. Most important characteristics of syndicated loans are mentioned after that. The chapter three deals with pricing of syndicated loans in the theoretical way. Next chapter concerns with trading of syndicated loans in secundary market in the USA. After that, syndicated loans are given to the relevance to credit derivates. Next chapter analyzes different asspects of the development of syndicated loans during last years. The chapter seven empirically proves the impact of financial crisis on syndicated loans market. There is also a comparison of spreads on syndicated loans market in Europe and USA. Last chapter focuses on the relationship between syndicated loans and GDP.

This paper will study the Art market as an investment opportunity. We will forget about the artistic characteristics of the market (history of art, aesthetic, technic...) and focus only on the business and economic aspects of the market treating art works as tradable goods. Our goal will be to determine whether or not the art market would be a suitable investment vehicle, offering some interesting outlook to investment diversification. This paper will pay a closer look at the recent financial crisis period, trying to understand the mechanism which bonds the financial industry and the Art industry. This will be the key to introduce an investment portfolio including Art as an asset class for investment. Focusing on the performance of such portfolio we will give some further recommendation on how to reach a better than expected performance.

Foremost, the thesis aims at mapping and analysing several aspects of the Icelandic financial crisis relevant to the practice of risk management, particularly with respect to banking sector. It identifies six possible sources of vulnerability occurring in the pre-crisis period. The domestic banking sector along with the entire Iceland's economy was pressurised by these stressors, which gradually led to the meltdown. The second chapter opens a discussion about the nature and characteristics of uncertainty and risk. It further strives to classify both the degrees of uncertainty and the elements of business and financial risks. The final chapter probes into the trickiness of dependence and expectations (in statistical sense of these terms), especially examining the limitations imposed on linear correlation as well as the violation of the assumptions underlying historical Value-at-risk and Expected shortfall approaches to estimating market risk.