The main objective of my thesis is to analyze and compare reactions of Iceland and Ireland to financial and economic crisis as well as the aftermath of the crisis and the process of recovery as direct consequence of these reactions. Both states had financial sector couple of times bigger than their GDP before the crisis and after the fall of Lehman Brothers they ran into some serious difficulties. However, states chose very different approaches to deal with a situation. Ireland decided to bailout its banks despite the huge increase in public debt and cost of taxpayers' money. Iceland allowed its banks to default and backed only domestic deposits. In my thesis I also analyze the fact that Ireland is a member of euro area and therefore does not possess independent monetary policy and Iceland has independent floating currency and implications that these facts had during and after the crisis on development of countries. In the last chapter I am analyzing possibilities of future development of economies and potential risks and challenges that lie ahead of them.

This study seeks to analyse and quantify cross-border effects of discretionary fiscal policies from two major points of view. The aggregate approach rests on the use of the structural vector autoregression model (SVAR) and its extension, the global vector autoregression model (GVAR). The discretionary fiscal impulse itself is then defined as a change in cyclically adjusted balance of the government sector, calculated at quarterly frequencies. This section is then complemented by a case study of a single measure: the German car scrapping scheme during 2009 and its effects on the Czech economy. It was found that cross-border effects of discretionary fiscal policies may be indeed present, in case certain conditions are met. Importantly, a fiscal impulse has to originate from a sufficiently large economy and there needs to be a tight trade linkage between examined countries. In most cases, cross-border effects have also been found of lesser magnitude than direct impacts of fiscal policies on the domestic country. Finally, as demonstrated on the German-Czech case, even a single fiscal measure can trigger substantial cross-border spillovers. It was estimated that this measure positively contributed to real GDP growth in 2009 in the Czech Republic by 0.44 pp.

The aim of thesis is to analyze the development of the national economy of Iceland in the period 1994-2013. In addition to the reasons for the collapse of the banking sector thesis examines the way the state handled the situation. The theoretical part deals with the theory of the national economy, the characteristics of the main macroeconomic aggregates, the current banking system and selected theories of the business cycle. The practical part presents economic and political characteristics of Iceland. It is followed by main analysis divided into two periods, each of which contains an analysis of the legal framework, institutional provision, development of key macroeconomic aggregates and a separate chapter devoted to the development of the banking sector. Research suggests that the overheating of the economy occurred due to the extreme expansion of the banking sector, expansionary fiscal policy and inappropriate monetary policy of the central bank. The State had to seek the help of the International Monetary Fund during the crisis. There has been introduction of capital controls to stabilize the exchange rate. The state let the banking sector go bankrupt and created new domestic banks. Subsequently fiscal indicators were stabilized, but not at the expense of the needy and households. The business cycle in Iceland is best described by the Financial instability hypothesis.

This thesis concerns the interaction of monetary and fiscal policy. Using New Keynesian model, we show the impact of fiscal expansion under different specifications of monetary policy rules. The analysis of the transmission of fiscal expansion focuses on the situation in which central bank's nominal interest rate reaches zero lower bound. We verify the economic model using vector autoregression based on data of the United States. The results of the theoretical and empirical research suggest that the influence of government spending on the product is greater at the zero lower bound.

The design of a country’s tax system is important because of the critical role played by taxation in financing public spending towards economic and social development. In this regard, there is need to enhance the understanding of whether current tax systems in the SADC provide sufficient tax revenue to meet public spending needs. This study provides empirical evidence on the outcomes of existing tax systems in the SADC with the aim of offering a basis for normative evaluation of the regions’ tax policies. Literature posits that there are numerous economic and institutional factors that limit the amount of taxes that a country can actually raise. Against this background, the substantive aim of this study was to assess the determinants of tax capacity and tax effort in the SADC in view of providing a pragmatic approach to tax policy design. The methodology of this study involved the use of both quantitative and qualitative analysis (mixed methods approach) where the latter was used to augment the findings of the former. The first phase involved the use of a multi-step procedure to estimate determinants of tax capacity and tax effort using stochastic tax function and unbalanced panel data for 13 SADC countries. The study disentangled the error term to estimates the random-effects separately from tax effort in order to capture the time- invariant country-specific effects. Further, tax effort was classified persistent (long-run) and transient (short-run). The study was able to estimate the determinants of tax effort and to rank each member state according to its tax effort. The second phase involves a narrative analysis of tax legislation in the SADC over the period 2002-2016. The study used budget statements and Acts of parliament as the major sources of information to identify significant changes in tax legislation over this period. The findings of the quantitative analysis indicate that financial deepening, economic development and trade openness influence tax capacity, while corruption and inflation influence tax effort. In addition, the findings show that the region has low persistent tax effort than transient tax effort, implying that improving tax administration has superseded tax policy reforms. This result is augmented by the narrative record which seemingly shows that tax legislation efforts were largely successful in tax administration but rather limited in view of tax policy. In this regard, the study recommends that tax policy design should be informed by the conditions of a country and policy considerations relating to peculiar circumstances to obtain robust tax policies. / Economics / D. Com. (Economics)

Pourquoi devrions-nous vous embaucher? On s’attend presque toujours à cette question lorsqu’ on doit passer un entretien d’emploi. Cependant, il n’est pas évident d’établir une réponse standard à cette question. Une formule qui est souvent conseillée est de partager des expériences qui mettent en avant les compétences pertinentes au poste proposé. Pas besoin de préciser que chaque demandeur d’emploi est libre de raconter ce qu’il veut. Les compétences, voici ce qui intéressent principalement les employeurs. Même si un grade éducatif minimal peut être requis pour certaines positions, ce qui importe, c’est d’être à même d’exécuter les tâches associées au poste proposé. Les systèmes éducatifs sont justement constitués de sorte à développer les compétences que les employeurs recherchent. Déterminer si ces compétences ont effectivement été acquises au sortir de ces cycles éducatifs est une autre question. Ma recherche utilise des méthodes d’analyse théorique et empirique, macroéconomique et microéconomique, pour examiner diverses problématiques relatives aux compétences. J’aborde la notion des compétences sous différents angles et dans différents contextes: les compétences productives non observables sur le marché du travail, ainsi que les compétences différenciées entre immigrants et natifs. Cette thèse compile deux essais en économie du travail : l’objectif est de contribuer à comprendre comment les compétences peuvent affecter le bien être des agents économiques, mais aussi leurs choix, que ces compétences soient observables ou non. Le premier chapitre aborde la question de la transparence des compétences productives. Lorsque les compétences productives des demandeurs d’emploi ne sont pas observées par les employeurs, un apprentissage de celles-ci s’opère au fil de l’expérience que l’employé acquiert; ce processus d’apprentissage affecte la mobilité des travailleurs et plus particulièrement les risques de mise à pied auxquels ils font face. Dans le second chapitre, les compétences s’assimilent à des avantages comparatifs. Cette section s’intéresse plus spécifiquement à l’impact de l’entrée d’immigrants sur les finances publiques du pays d’accueil. La conclusion est que les compétences relatives des immigrants constituent le facteur ayant l’impact marginal le plus important. / Why should we hire you? This question is almost always expected when going for a job interview. However, it is not obvious to agree on a standard answer to it. One formula that is often recommended is to share experiences that highlight the skills relevant to the position offered. No need to say that each job seeker is free to say what he wants. Skills are what employers are after. Although a minimum educational degree may be required for some positions, what matters is to be able to perform the duties associated with the proposed position. Education systems are built precisely to develop the skills employers are looking for. Determining whether these skills were indeed acquired at the end of these educational studies is another question. My research uses theoretical and empirical, microeconomics and macroeconomics methods of analysis to examine various economic issues related to skills. I approach the notion of skills from different angles and in different contexts: productive skills not observable on the labor market and differentiated skills between immigrants and natives. This thesis compiles two essays in labor economics: the objective is to help understand how skills can affect the well-being of economic agents, but also their choices, whether these skills are observable or not. The first chapter addresses the issue of the transparency of productive skills. Productive skills that are not ex ante observed by employers, are learnt throughout workers’ experience: this learning process affects the mobility of workers and especially the risk of layoff they face. In the second chapter, skills are equated with comparative advantages. This section looks more specifically at the impact of the entry of immigrants on the public finances of the host country. The conclusion is that the relative labor efficiency of immigrants is the factor with the largest marginal impact.

Náklady vlastního kapitálu, jež jsou ovlivňovány řadou interních a externích činitelů, významným faktorem ovlivňujícím rozhodovací procesy v podnikové sféře. Cílem této disertační práce je na základě primárních a sekundárních dat formulovat původní metodiku řízení nákladů vlastního kapitálu. Zdrojem sekundárních dat je rozsáhlá literární rešerše zahrnující zahraniční a tuzemské vědecké studie a databáze. Primární data, na základě nichž byl zkoumán vztah mezi teoretickými přístupy řízení nákladů vlastního kapitálu a podnikovou praxí, byla získána formou dotazníkového šetření od finančních manažerů působících v podnicích se sídlem na území ČR. Data byla zpracována s využitím statistických metod. Výsledky disertační práce přispívají k hlubšímu porozumění vztahu mezi náklady vlastního kapitálu a jejich determinantů a odhalují rozdíly mezi teorií a manažerskou praxí. Navrhovaná metodika řízení nákladů vlastního kapitálu je určená k použití v podnikové praxi a lze předpokládat její další rozvíjení v rámci navazujících výzkumných aktivit.

Diese Dissertation umfasst drei Aufsätze zu Mindestlöhnen, zum Arbeitsangebot sowie zu öffentlichen Finanzen. Der Fokus liegt auf den Entwicklungen in Deutschland innerhalb der letzten zwei Jahrzehnte. Der erste Aufsatz untersucht Beschäftigungseffekte des Mindestlohns in einem Modell der Sucharbeitslosigkeit. Das Modell bildet Heterogenität auf Arbeitnehmer- und Arbeitgeberseite ab und schränkt die Richtung der Beschäftigungseffekte ein. Es erlaubt eine unterschiedliche Frequenz der Stellensuche von Beschäftigten und Arbeitslosen und modelliert die Rekrutierungsintensität der Unternehmen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Arbeitslosigkeit eine nicht-monotone Funktion des Mindestlohns ist. Die Auswirkungen von verschiedenen Mindestlöhnen unterscheiden sich stark nach Arbeitsmarktsegmenten. Der zweite Aufsatz befasst sich mit Trends im Arbeitsangebotsverhalten in Deutschland. Dazu werden diskrete Wahlmodelle des Arbeitsangebots für die Jahre von 1998 bis 2018 geschätzt. Die implizierten Arbeitsangebotselastizitäten haben in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten zugenommen, insbesondere für Paare und für alleinstehende Männer. Eine Zerlegungsanalyse zeigt, dass Veränderungen in der Demografie nur eine geringe Rolle bei der Verschiebung der Eigen- und Kreuzlohnelastizitäten von Männern spielen, da der größte Teil der Veränderungen durch Präferenzen oder Arbeitsmarktrestriktionen bedingt ist. Bei Frauen hingegen spielen demografische Veränderungen eine größere Rolle für den Anstieg der Elastizitäten. Der dritte Aufsatz befasst sich mit den deutschen Staatsfinanzen sowie mit Reformen aufgrund der Finanzkrise 2008/2009. Der Aufsatz stellt die makroökonomische Situation und die Entwicklung der Krise in Deutschland dar und beleuchtet die Bedeutung für die öffentlichen Finanzen. In dem Aufsatz werden zudem die Verteilungswirkungen der Reformen im Steuer- und Transfersystem mithilfe von Mikrosimulationen untersucht. / This dissertation consists of three essays on the minimum wage, labour supply, and public finances. The selected essays focus on the German experience and developments over the last two decades. The first essay is an analysis of unemployment effects of the German minimum wage in an empirical equilibrium job search model. The estimated model with worker and firm heterogeneity does not restrict the sign of employment effects a priori; it allows for different job offer arrival rates for the employed and the unemployed and lets firms optimally choose their recruiting intensity. Results show that unemployment is a non-monotonic function of the minimum wage level, and effects differ strongly by labour market segment. The second essay is on the topic of labour supply elasticities in Germany. In order to analyse recent trends in labour supply in Germany, a static discrete choice model of unitary household labour supply is estimated for each year 1998 to 2018. Findings are that own-wage labour supply elasticities implied by the models have increased over the last two decades, especially for couples, and for single males. A decomposition analysis shows that compositional changes in demographics play only a minor role in the shift in males' own- and cross-wage elasticities, since most of the changes in elasticities are driven by preferences or labour market restrictions. For females, changes in composition play a bigger role in the rise of elasticities. The third essay reviews German public finances through the financial crisis 2008/2009. The essay starts with a presentation of the macroeconomic situation and how the crisis unfolded in Germany, before focusing on the situation of the public finances. Finally, the distributional effects of policy responses to the financial crisis are analysed on the individual level using microsimulation.

本文的研究目的為，在一個含有房屋及房屋相關貸款的動態隨機一般均衡模型的架構中，比較貨幣政策、財政政策以及總體審慎政策對於房屋價格及房屋相關貸款的穩定效果。本文建構一個經濟封閉體系，其中包含三種不同家計單位、商品生產部門、房屋建商、資本生產部門，並且由政府部門制定相關政策；此模型的特色為，不同家計單位中的借貸行為、名目價格僵固性以及透過房屋價格抵押貸款的限制來刻劃金融摩擦。我們考慮了一般緊縮貨幣政策、提高財產稅率以及緊縮貸款價值比；本文發現，在三種政策中，對於抑制房屋價格以及降低住房貸款對國內生產毛額的比例，財政政策及總體審慎政策比起緊縮貨幣政策擁有較好的效果。 / The main purpose in this paper is to compare the effect of monetary policy, fiscal policy and macroprudential policy on housing price and housing related loans using a micro-based dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with housing and housing related loans. We equip a closed economy model with three types of infinitely-lived households (patient households, impatient households and renters), a goods firm, housing and capital producer and a government sector. The model features borrowing and lending between patient and impatient households, nominal rigidity in goods price and financial friction in the form of collateral constraints tied to price of house. We consider the contractionary monetary policy by raising the interest rate, fiscal policy by increasing property tax rate and the macroprudential policy through tightening the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio. We find that among these three policies, in terms of dampening the price of housing and lowering the loan-to-GDP ratio, raising the property tax and lowering the LTV ratio outperforms the contractionary monetary policy.

1. Può un Modello DSGE spiegare una disinflazione costosa? Questo lavoro mostra che un modello DSGE non è in grado di spiegare una disinflazione costosa con indicizzazione parziale e bassa dei prezzi e dei salari. Il modello invece è in grado di replicare una disinflazione recessiva sostituendo il meccanismo di modellizazione delle rigidità nominali di Calvo (1983) con quello di Rotemberg (1982). 2. Disinflazione e Diseguaglianza in un Modello Monetario DSGE: Un’Analisi di Welfare Questo lavoro analizza gli effetti redistributivi di una politica disinflazionistica in un modello DSGE con Partecipazione Limitata ai Mercati degli Assets. Due sono i meccanismi che guidano a distribuzione del consumo e del reddito: il markup delle imprese e il cosiddetto vincolo cash in advance. I risultati suggeriscono che la disinflazione aumenta inequivocabilmente la diseguaglianza con il meccanismo di Rotemberg. Invece con il meccanismo di Calvo questo effetto viene ottenuto soltanto se le imprese non sono costrette ad indebitarsi per finanziare il fattore lavoro. 3. Consolidamento Fiscale e Consumatori Rule of Thumb Questo lavoro simula un esperimento di consolidamento fiscale in un modello DSGE con partecipazione limitata ai mercati degli assets. I risultati mostrano che durante un processo di consolidamento fiscale riduzioni temporanee delle tasse o aumenti temporanei di transfers consentono sia di ridurre il debito che stimolare il consumo. / 1. Can a DSGE Model Explain a Costly Disinflation? This paper shows that a medium scale DSGE model fails to explain a costly disinflation with low and partial indexation of prices and wages. Alternatively to Calvo (1982) price setting, with the Rotemberg (1982) framework the model can replicate a recessionary disinflation for any indexation degree. 2. Disinflation and Inequality in a DSGE Monetary Model: A Welfare Analysis This paper investigates the redistributive effects of a disinflation experiment in a standard DSGE model with Limited Asset Market Participation. There are two key mechanisms driving consumption and income distribution: firms’ markup and the cash in advance channel. Results show that disinflation unambiguously increases inequality under Rotemberg. Under Calvo this effect only obtains if the cash in advance doesn’t bind firms ability to finance their working capital. 3. Fiscal Consolidation and Rule of Thumb Consumers: Gain With or Without Pain? This paper simulates a fiscal consolidation in a medium scale DSGE model augmented with Limited Asset Market Participation. Results show that during the consolidation process temporary tax reductions or temporary transfer increases allow to both reduce public debt and boost consumption. A countercyclical monetary policy is an effective complement to fiscal policy as stabilization tool.