Using data from government sources (FRED, BEA, BLS), the thesis explores the underlying reasons for declining U.S. economic growth. A long standing trend of annual 3% growth no longer seems to hold true for the economy. The paper summarizes current theory as to why the growth has slowed and finds new explanations by analyzing the various major industries which make up GDP. The results show that sectoral shifts in employment from high paying industries to low paying industries help to explain a significant portion of the decline in national growth rates. The decline in growth is primarily driven by about ten poor performing states.

In the last two or three decades, corruption has become a noticeable issue in many countries, especially in developing countries where it has serious effects on the economy. In this paper, the effect of corruption on economic growth will be examined through literature and researches that involve the effect of corruption in economic growth followed by cross-sectional regression analysis to the issue. The focus will be on how much corruption and how much corruption control are present for each country. other different variables that could be expected to affect the economic growth for this period will also, be examined. To answer this question, corruption control as an independent variable while economic growth is the dependent variable will be examined. The second question would be to study corruption control as a dependent variable while using a set of variables as independent variables and see how much they would affect corruption control. Finally, a case study that draws a comparison between the economy in Germany and South Korea where the results from the empirical part will be applied to the two countries and the difference between the true reported numbers and the numbers from the OLS equations will be checked and explained.   From all the directions been taken to study the subject “literatures, empirical and case study “ the results showed that corruption activities have negative effects on economic growth and although it might be in some cases shown to be insignificant, however, it is very important to minimize the corruption activities by boosting variables such as corruption control, rule of law, stability and also education as it is shown that the more years of education will decrease the levels of corruption in some cases.   The conclusion here will be, although corruption may have more effects in some economies more than others, to combat corruption that will take a global effort. The countries that may not suffer greatly from it may be caught in the cost of cleaning it by having to support failed economies. Or worse, corruption may be increased to levels that it could not be ignored.

Nine of the ten recessions since WWII have been preceded by relatively large and sudden increases in the price of oil. In this paper, I use time series analysis to forecast GDP growth using oil prices. I use the methodology from Hamilton (2009), and extend the dataset through 2010. Impulse response functions are used to analyze the historical performance of the model’s one-year-ahead forecasts. In April, 2011, the International Monetary Fund changed its forecast of 2011 GDP growth in the U.S. from 3.0% to 2.8% largely due to persistently high oil prices. My model suggests that the price increase in 2011Q1 will lead to growth of 2% in 2011. Furthermore, my model predicts that a 54% increase in crude oil prices during the second quarter of 2011 will lead the U.S. into a double dip recession.

Most macroeconomic activity series such as Swedish GDP growth are collected quarterly while an important proportion of time series are recorded at a higher frequency. Thus, policy and business decision makers are often confront with the problems of forecasting and assessing current business and economy state via incomplete statistical data due to publication lags. In this paper, we survey a few general methods and examine different models for mixed frequency issues. We mainly compare mixed data sampling regression (MIDAS) and state space dynamic factor model (SS-DFM) by the comparison experiments forecasting Swedish GDP growth with various economic indicators. We find that single-indicator MIDAS is a wise choice when the explanatory variable is coincident with the target series; that an AR term enables MIDAS more promising since it considers autoregressive behaviour of the target series and makes the dynamic construction more flexible; that SS-DFM and M-MIDAS are the most outstanding models and M-MIDAS dominates undoubtedly at short horizons up to 6 months, whereas SS-DFM is more reliable at long predictive horizons. And finally we conclude that there is no perfect winner because each model can dominate in a special situation.

The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the impact of FDI flows from the European countries to Singapore. The analysis focuses on the period between 1995 and 2013. The work begins with the review of the relevant literature. The most important findings about spillover, spinoff effects, and the main FDI determinants are summarized in tables. The empirical part reveals the trends of FDI in Singapore with an emphasis on the influence of FDI from European countries. The work contains two main research questions: Does FDI from European countries have a positive impact on GDP growth in Singapore? Is it possible to identify the main determinants that attract FDI in Singapore? Time series analyses and panel analyses are used in the dissertation. Among the most valuable results belong the confirmation of a positive impact of FDI from Europe on GDP growth and the identification of some of the main positive determinants for attracting FDI in Singapore.

This study analyzes how the financial crisis of 2008 compared to the Covid-19 pandemic affectedinflation, measured by the consumer price index, in Sweden. This study aims to give moreprofound knowledge of how two crises affect the consumer price index and therefore preventpotential future economic crises. Data from Statistics Sweden and Statistics Denmark was analyzed by using a quantitative methodto statistically investigate how different periods of crisis vary and their effect on the consumerprice index compared to non-crisis periods of the data. The study observes data from 2000 to2022. The financial crisis had its starting point on the housing market in the US, and the pandemic wascaused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Both crises have and may continue to affect the consumerprice index. Results from previous research are mostly aligned with the results and conclusion from this studyregarding how the financial crisis in 2008 and the Covid-19 pandemic affected the Swedishconsumer price index. In conclusion, both crises affected the consumer price index. During thefinancial crisis, it dropped, increased, and dropped again. Two peaks in the consumer price index,before and after the financial crisis, suppress the visual effect of the high peak at the beginningof the financial crisis. During Covid-19, the consumer price index increased largely, and the peakwas not reached during the period of the collected data.

Okun´s law describes the empirical observation first made by Arthur Okun relating changes in an economy’s unemployment rate to changes in output. Where many earlier research papers since then focus on comparisons between countries, this paper attempts to assess whether Okun’s law is demonstrated in the five Nordic countries and analyse the relationship between unemployment and output in welfare states. The results show a significant statistical relationship and hopefully present an interesting opportunity for further research.

As emerging market economies gain increasing influence and importance in the global economy, any development with a potentially destabilizing effect on the economic performance on such countries should be carefully monitored. This paper examines one particular development: the rise of consumer debt. Through the case studies of Turkey, China, and Brazil, this paper seeks to analyze the relationship between an increase in consumer debt and a country's GDP growth in emerging markets and how a detrimental relationship could severely impact the international economy at large.

Economic growth in a country can be explained by numerous variables, both positive and negative. Increasing levels of education, investment and openness are examples of factors generally believed to have positive effects on the economic progress, while corruption is one of the factors often regarded as detrimental to economic growth. The purpose of this thesis is to measure and analyze if the levels of perceived corruption in a cross-section of countries have affected their economic growth rates over the years 2004-2008. The study is carried out with four regressions on a sample of 123 countries and eight variables for the time period in question. The models are constructed on the basis of both the neoclassical growth theory and the endogenous growth theory. The found result contradicts the expected outcome; it shows that the perceived levels of corruption are significantly and positively correlated with economic growth. It is however found that countries with widespread corruption, in general developing countries, have experienced high economic growth over these years. A correlation the authors argue can explain the unexpected sign of the corruption variable.

This thesis explores how economic performance, measured as real GDP-growth per capita, affects the vote share of parties which relies on radical ideological platforms. Using a fixed effect model with panel data, based on real electoral outcomes of 18 western European democracies, the result reveals an ambiguous reality. The overall conclusion implies that low growth rates benefit the electoral success of radical-right parties and holds for robustness checks. No solid evidence of the relationship is found on the radical-left side.The result further reveals that the individuals decision to vote radical is relative more affected by the ongoing business cycle trend between the elections rather than sudden changes close to the election day. The relationship also appears to be stronger among nations of southern Europe.