La tesi è organizzata in tre parti. Ognuna delle quali tratta un aspetto cruciale per la trasmissione della politica monetaria. Nella prima parte si impiega un modello Neo Keynesiano per adattarlo all’economia Italiana. A tal fine, Si stimano le risposte dinamiche, sia simulando il modello e sia utilizzando le serie storiche, impiegando la metodologia SMM. Nella seconda parte sono riportate le nuove evidenze sulla persistenza dell’inflazione, attraverso l’utilizzo di una nuova tecnica di identificazione di un modello “Bayesian VAR”; con l’obiettivo di analizzare gli effetti di vari shock di policy sulle variabili macroeconomiche. La terza parte si propone di fornire le evidenze microeconomiche sull’eterogeneità nelle strategie di determinazione dei prezzi tra le imprese italiane sulla base di un nuovo database longitudinale predisposto dalla Banca d’Italia. L’analisi così articolata si propone di identificare le eterogeneità a livello settoriale e/o territoriale tra le imprese, per trarne importanti implicazioni di policy per l’autorità monetaria. / The thesis is structured in three parts. Each part deals with a crucial aspect for monetary policy transmission. In the first one, I set up a New Keynesian model with to Italian economy. To this end, I estimate the dynamic responses both for the theoretical model and for the data using the SMM technique. Chapter 2 presents new evidence about inflation persistence through a novel technique to identify a Bayesian VAR model, and it analyzes the effects of several policy shocks on the macroeconomic variables. Chapter 3 provides the new micro-evidence on price setting and heterogeneity among Italian companies by using a new longitudinal data provided by the Bank of Italy. This allowed an analysis that captures the regional and sectoral disparities among firms’ price setting. This micro-evidence has a very important policy implication for the monetary authority.

Detecting human actions using a camera has many possible applications in the security industry. When a human performs an action, his/her body goes through a signature sequence of poses. To detect these pose changes and hence the activities performed, a pattern recogniser needs to be built into the video system. Due to the temporal nature of the patterns, Hidden Markov Models (HMM), used extensively in speech recognition, were investigated. Initially a gesture recognition system was built using novel features. These features were obtained by approximating the contour of the foreground object with a polygon and extracting the polygon's vertices. A Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) was fit to the vertices obtained from a few frames and the parameters of the GMM itself were used as features for the HMM. A more practical activity detection system using a more sophisticated foreground segmentation algorithm immune to varying lighting conditions and permanent changes to the foreground was then built. The foreground segmentation algorithm models each of the pixel values using clusters and continually uses incoming pixels to update the cluster parameters. Cast shadows were identified and removed by assuming that shadow regions were less likely to produce strong edges in the image than real objects and that this likelihood further decreases after colour segmentation. Colour segmentation itself was performed by clustering together pixel values in the feature space using a gradient ascent algorithm called mean shift. More robust features in the form of mesh features were also obtained by dividing the bounding box of the binarised object into grid elements and calculating the ratio of foreground to background pixels in each of the grid elements. These features were vector quantized to reduce their dimensionality and the resulting symbols presented as features to the HMM to achieve a recognition rate of 62% for an event involving a person writing on a white board. The recognition rate increased to 80% for the &quotseen" person sequences, i.e. the sequences of the person used to train the models. With a fixed lighting position, the lack of a shadow removal subsystem improved the detection rate. This is because of the consistent profile of the shadows in both the training and testing sequences due to the fixed lighting positions. Even with a lower recognition rate, the shadow removal subsystem was considered an indispensable part of a practical, generic surveillance system.

Submitted by FLAVIO MORAES (flafmoraes@yahoo.com.br) on 2010-08-19T14:21:41Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Flavio_Moraes.pdf: 462004 bytes, checksum: 123425d1cbdd74b47091293eaf1f296d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Andrea Virginio Machado(andrea.machado@fgv.br) on 2010-08-19T16:53:50Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Flavio_Moraes.pdf: 462004 bytes, checksum: 123425d1cbdd74b47091293eaf1f296d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2010-08-20T14:46:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Flavio_Moraes.pdf: 462004 bytes, checksum: 123425d1cbdd74b47091293eaf1f296d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-07-18 / The purpose of this paper is to discuss in details the development of estimation methods of demand and supply parameters in di§erentiated products markets. The techniques presented consider explicitly the endogeneity of prices and can be applied to di§erent types of industries. The market demands system is derived from discrete choice models describing the behaviour of the consumer. This system is then combined with hypothesis about the cost functions and the behaviour of price determination by the Örms to generate equilibrium prices and quantities. The parameters to be estimated are those that determine the marginal costs of the Örms and the distribution of the consumersí tastes. This distribution determine elasticities and these, combined with the marginal cost and a hypothesis of Nash equilibrium, determine equilibrium prices. These elasticities and cost parameters play a central role in analysis of descriptive / Este trabalho tem por objetivo discutir detalhadamente o desenvolvimento de métodos de estimação de parâmetros de demanda e oferta em mercados de produtos diferenciados. As técnicas apresentadas consideram explicitamente a endogeneidade dos preços e podem ser aplicadas a diferentes tipos de indústrias. O sistema de demandas de mercado é derivado a partir de modelos de escolha discreta descrevendo o comportamento do consumidor. Esse sistema é então combinado com hipóteses sobre as funções custo e sobre o comportamento de determinação dos preços por parte das firmas para gerar preços e quantidades de equilíbrio. Os parâmetros a ser estimados são os que determinam os custos marginais das firmas e a distribuição dos gostos dos consumidores. Essa distribuição determina elasticidades e estas, combinadas com o custo marginal e com uma hipótese de equilíbrio de Nash na determinação de preços, determinam preços de equilíbrio. Essas elasticidades e parâmetros de custo desempenham um papel central em análises de questões descritivas e de mudanças no ambiente do mercado sob análise.

Submitted by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2012-03-07T12:45:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 20120306084421880.pdf: 1716342 bytes, checksum: e7f9f7df4b67ff4e12f57770620942d8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel (gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2012-03-07T12:50:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 20120306084421880.pdf: 1716342 bytes, checksum: e7f9f7df4b67ff4e12f57770620942d8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-03-07T12:51:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 20120306084421880.pdf: 1716342 bytes, checksum: e7f9f7df4b67ff4e12f57770620942d8 (MD5) / Com origem no setor imobiliário americano, a crise de crédito de 2008 gerou grandes perdas nos mercados ao redor do mundo. O mês de outubro do mesmo ano concentrou a maior parte da turbulência, apresentando também uma explosão na volatilidade. Em meados de 2006 e 2007, o VIX, um índice de volatilidade implícita das opções do S&P500, registrou uma elevação de patamar, sinalizando o possível desequilíbrio existente no mercado americano. Esta dissertação analisa se o consenso de que a volatilidade implícita é a melhor previsora da volatilidade futura permanece durante o período de crise. Os resultados indicam que o VIX perde poder explicativo ao se passar do período sem crise para o de crise, sendo ultrapassado pela volatilidade realizada. / Started in the U.S. housing sector, the credit crisis of 2008 caused great damage in markets around the world. The effects were concentrated in October of the same year, which also showed an explosion in volatility. In mid-2006 and mid-2007, the VIX, an index of implied volatility of options on the S&P500, recorded a rise in level signaling the possible imbalance in the U.S. market. This dissertation examines whether the consensus that implied volatility is the best predictor of future volatility remains during the crisis. The results indicate that the VIX loses explanatory power to move from a period of economic stability for a period of crisis, been surpassed by the realized volatility.

Le premier chapitre présente la finance islamique, ses principes, ses produits, ses institutions. Le deuxième chapitre, présente une comparaison entre les deux systèmes bancaires, islamique et conventionnel à partir d'une étude de ratios bancaires et une analyse en composantes principales. Le troisième chapitre a pour but de clarifier les différents facteurs attirant les clients vers les banques islamiques et montre que ceux-ci ne se limitent pas aux critères religieux pour faire leur choix. Le quatrième chapitre analyse les marges d'intermédiation des banques islamiques et conventionnelles, en utilisant une approche dynamique du panel (Arellano-Bond, 1991). Il conclut que les banques islamiques se caractérisent par des marges plus élevées. Le cinquième chapitre examine, pour les deux systèmes bancaires, l'impact de la pression réglementaire. Il apparait que les banques islamiques et conventionnelles opérant dans la région MENA se caractérisent par des niveaux de capital déjà bien au-dessus du minimum réglementaire, et que la pression réglementaire n’a donc pas d’impact sur les banques islamiques. Cette inefficacité de la réglementation prudentielle peut être expliquée par l’inadaptation de cette réglementation à la nature du risque de ces banques. Enfin, le sixième et dernier chapitre, étudie la relation entre le capital et le risque de défaillance. Il en ressort que, dans la zone MENA, la probabilité de défaillance serait plus élevée pour les banques islamiques. / The first chapter presents Islamic finance, its principles, its products, its institutions. The second chapter presents a comparison between the two banking systems, Islamic and conventional through a study of banking ratios and principal component analysis. The third chapter aims to clarify the factors attracting customers towards Islamic banks and shows that they are not confined to religious criteria for their choice. The fourth chapter analyzes the intermediation margins of Islamic and conventional banks, using a dynamic approach of the panel (Arellano-Bond 1991). It concludes that Islamic banks are characterized by higher margins. The fifth chapter examines, for the two banking systems, the impact of regulatory pressure. It appears that Islamic and conventional banks operating in MENA are characterized by high capital levels which already well above the regulatory minimum, and therefore regulatory pressure has no impact on Islamic banks. This inefficiency of prudential regulation can be explained by the inadequacy of the regulations to the nature of the risk of these banks. The sixth and final chapter examines the relationship between capital and the risk of failure. It shows that, in MENA, the probability of failure is higher for Islamic banks.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:34:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JohnatanRSB_DISSERT.pdf: 3910794 bytes, checksum: 43d57ca72250e58dc10b9d5c0f6f4a53 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-06 / The Brazilian tax structure has specific characteristics and the performance level of government. The autonomy given to municipalities to manage their activities after the 1988 Constitution, made them highly dependent on intergovernmental transfers of resources, revealing the fragility of the administrative capacity of these entities. The vertical gap revealed by the constitutional structure of the Brazilian fiscal federalism model contributes to the formation of this specific feature that you are eroding the tax base and the ability of municipal own revenues. Although there was a better regulation of these transfers after the enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Law, it is observed that the amount of resources transferred to the municipalities of Rio Grande do Norte is very high and is the main source of revenue of municipalities. In light of the theory of federalism and fiscal decentralization, in particular, the theories related to intergovernmental transfers, we seek to diagnose the transfers from the systematization of information on the origin, destination and value. We used the econometric model of System Dynamic Panel GMM in making the diagnosis and verification of the impact of transfers on public finances of the municipalities of the newborn, associated with a review in light of the theory of fiscal federalism and intergovernmental transfers. The paper presents some proposals for the transfer system and the composition of spending in order to contribute to greater tax efficiency / A estrutura fiscal brasileira apresenta caracter?sticas espec?ficas quanto ? atua??o das esferas de governo. A autonomia dada aos munic?pios para a gest?o de suas atividades, ap?s a constitui??o de 1988, os tornou altamente dependentes das transfer?ncias intergovernamentais de recursos, revelando a fragilidade da capacidade administrativa destes entes. A brecha vertical revelada pela estrutura constitucional do modelo de federalismo fiscal brasileiro contribui para a forma??o dessa caracter?stica espec?fica que acaba minando a base tribut?ria municipal e a capacidade de arrecada??o pr?pria. Embora tenha havido uma melhor regulamenta??o dessas transfer?ncias ap?s a promulga??o da Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal, observa-se que a quantidade de recursos transferidos aos munic?pios do Rio Grande do Norte ? bastante elevada e constitui a principal fonte de receita desses munic?pios. ? luz da teoria do federalismo e descentraliza??o fiscal e, em particular, nas teorias relacionadas com as transfer?ncias intergovernamentais, busca-se diagnosticar as transfer?ncias a partir da sistematiza??o das informa??es quanto ? origem, o valor e o destino. Utilizou-se o modelo econom?trico de Painel Din?mico System GMM na elabora??o do diagn?stico e na verifica??o do impacto dessas transfer?ncias nas finan?as p?blicas dos munic?pios do RN, associado a uma an?lise ? luz da teoria de federalismo fiscal e das transfer?ncias intergovernamentais. O trabalho apresenta algumas proposi??es para o sistema de transfer?ncias e na composi??o dos gastos a fim de contribuir com uma maior efici?ncia fiscal

Cette thèse de doctorat porte sur la dynamique de l’emploi dans les entreprises et sur la relation entre la dynamique de l’emploi et l’innovation, avec une attention particulière portée sur les entreprises nouvellement créées. Cette thèse conceptualise théoriquement et analyse empiriquement les différents aspects de l’interaction complexe entre le changement technologique et la dynamique de l’emploi, en se concentrant sur les effets hétérogènes des différents types d’innovation sur la croissance de l’emploi. Compte tenu le rôle primordial joué par les nouvelles et jeunes entreprises dans le processus de destruction créatrice et leur apport à la création globale de l’emploi, cette thèse fournit une caractérisation de la contribution nette d’emplois des nouvelles entreprises dans un nombre important de pays, en utilisant des données micro-agrégées issues d’une nouvelle base de données. En outre, elle analyse comment un certain nombre de caractéristiques institutionnelles affectent la création nette d’emplois dans les start-ups, en se concentrant sur les effets hétérogènes des politiques sur les nouvelles entreprises et les entreprises déjà existantes. Cette thèse étudie enfin une caractéristique particulière des lois de distribution des taux de croissance de l’emploi, c’est-à-dire la volatilité de la croissance de l’emploi, que non seulement se révèle être une médiation cruciale des effets des politiques sur la création nette d’emplois, mais a aussi d’importantes implications à la fois micro- et macroéconomiques. / This doctoral thesis focuses on employment dynamics in firms, and on the relationship between employment dynamics and innovation, with a particular focus on the entry process. It conceptualizes theoretically and analyses empirically different aspects of the complex interaction between technical change and employment dynamics, focusing on the heterogeneous effects of different types of innovation on employment growth. In the light of the prominent role of newly-born firms in shaping the creative destruction process and contributing to overall job creation, this thesis provides a characterization of the net job contribution by surviving entrants across a significant number of countries. Using newly collected representative micro-aggregated data, it further analyses whether and how a number of institutional characteristics affect start-ups’ net job creation, focusing on the heterogeneous effects of policies on entrants and incumbents. This thesis finally characterizes a particular feature of the employment growth distributions – employment growth volatility – that not only proves to be crucially mediating the effects of policies on entrants’ net job creation, but also has important micro and macroeconomic implications.

Evidence from various countries over the past two decades proves that swings in house prices have been concomitant with financial instability. The history of financial crises shows that the six biggest banking crises in advanced economies were accompanied by housing busts. Despite the abundance of literature on the forces behind the financial crisis, and in particular studies investigating the connections between financial stability and disturbances in the real estate market, fundamental questions still wait for convincing answers, such as: (i) To what extent is regional heterogeneity in property price increases reflected in dissimilarity in the evolution of credit default? (ii) What role do borrower-related factors such as housing affordability and household indebtedness, and financial market-related factors such as financial developments, play on the growth of bad loans as a main concern for banking sector? (iii) To which extent do banks’ lending behaviour and property prices undermine the stability of the banking sector, and what are the directions of causality between credit defaults, property prices and banks’ lending behaviour? The goal of this thesis is to investigate these issues and explain the practical implications of the findings. This thesis contains three empirical essays. The first essay explores the nexus between house prices and non-performing loans (NPLs), concentrating on the extent to which geographical variations in house prices are translated into regional variations in credit defaults. The stochastic dominance approach has been used for this purpose, with 372 individual US banks. The stochastic dominance analyses disclose symmetric behaviour between NPLs and the scale of house price increments. The essay is further extended by employing Arellano and Bond’s (1991) GMM model to explore the effect of GDP, unemployment rates, lending interest rates and house prices on the growth of NPLs. The outcomes of the GMM estimations reveal a high explanatory power of economic growth, unemployment and lending interest rates on NPLs. In an additional analysis, a generalised panel threshold model is estimated to check for the presence of a threshold point, above which different impacts of house prices might be found. The threshold model specifications provide a threshold point, in relation to which two different impacts of house prices on the evolution of NPLs are estimated. A general consensus in the literature attributes credit defaults to a wide-ranging spectrum of drivers that take into consideration borrower-related factor, lender-related factors and factors related to financial and real estate markets. The second essay attempts to answer the second question mentioned above, by investigating the impact of borrower-related factors, lender-related factors and financial market-related factors in driving NPLs. The impact of these factors on the evolution of impaired loans is explored by estimating fixed effect models then the analysis is extended to dynamic models using the GMM procedure on an annual balanced panel dataset. Household vulnerability, financial developments and housing affordability are found to be significant contributors to the growth of NPLs. The interaction mechanism between the real estate market and the financial system has often been blamed for being the root of financial crises, through the accumulation of housing market bubbles that leads to the ultimate collapse of the financial markets. The third essay, using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag technique, looks for the presence of cointegrating relationships between mortgage defaults, property prices and bank lending in Hong Kong. Our findings reveal evidence of cointegrating relationships between bank lending, property prices and mortgage defaults in the long term, which governs the correction mechanism between these variables. These outcomes call for more effort to be devoted to maintaining a balanced relationship between these factors. The essay also finds evidence of short-term dynamics between these variables. Importantly, loan-to-value is found to play the most effective role in curbing mortgage default risk in the portfolios of the Hong Kong banking sector.

Submitted by Walter Gomes da Silva Junior (waltergomesjr@gmail.com) on 2018-08-28T19:07:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Spread Bancário América Latina - Walter Gomes.pdf: 1440714 bytes, checksum: 08cd6a32fa157e1bfba38dc04bc018a9 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Joana Martorini (joana.martorini@fgv.br) on 2018-08-28T19:11:14Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Spread Bancário América Latina - Walter Gomes.pdf: 1440714 bytes, checksum: 08cd6a32fa157e1bfba38dc04bc018a9 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Isabele Garcia (isabele.garcia@fgv.br) on 2018-08-28T20:59:33Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Spread Bancário América Latina - Walter Gomes.pdf: 1440714 bytes, checksum: 08cd6a32fa157e1bfba38dc04bc018a9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-28T20:59:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Spread Bancário América Latina - Walter Gomes.pdf: 1440714 bytes, checksum: 08cd6a32fa157e1bfba38dc04bc018a9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-07-27 / Os spreads bancários na América Latina apresentam altos patamares, quando comparados a outras regiões e economias do mundo. Este trabalho tem por objetivo a análise comparativa dos fatores determinantes do spread bancário, nas principais economias da América Latina, para isso, utilizaram-se dados agregados de 73 economias do mundo, sendo 11 delas países da América Latina. Partindo-se de uma base com 51 variáveis independentes, foram gerados modelos de regressão em painel. Os resultados obtidos evidenciam, que o patamar dos spreads praticados na América Latina, são principalmente impactados pela inadimplência, provisões de crédito, custos administrativos e de pessoal, concentração bancária e diversificação das receitas. / The banking spreads in Latin America show high levels when compared to other regions and economies of the world. This work has the objective of comparative analysis of the determinants factors of the banking spreads in the main economies of Latin America, for that, was used aggregated data of 73 economies in the world, 11 of which are Latin American countries. Starting from a base with 51 independent variables, panel regression models were generated. The results show that the level of spreads in Latin America is mainly impacted by nonperforming loans, the level provisions, administrative and personnel costs, banking concentration and revenues diversification.

The main part of this thesis is composed of three separate chapters, each using an innovative approach to analysing externalities from economic activity. The general introduction and overall conclusion sections complete the structure of the thesis. Chapter one examines the value of statistical life, an essential parameter used in ascribing monetary values to the mortality costs of air pollution in health risk analyses. This willingness to pay estimate is virtually non-existent for most developing countries. In the absence of local estimates, two major benefit transfer approaches lend themselves to the estimation of the value of statistical life: the value transfer method and the meta-regression analysis. Using Nigeria as a sample country, we find that the latter method is better tailored than the former for incorporating many characteristics that vary between study sites and policy sites into its benefit transfer application. It is therefore likely to provide more accurate value of statistical life predictions for very low-income countries. Employing the meta-regression method, we find Nigeria’s value of statistical life estimate to be $489,000. Combining this estimate with dose response functions from the epidemiological literature, it follows that if Nigeria had mitigated its 2006 particulate air pollution to the World Health Organisation standards, it could have avoided at least 58,000 premature deaths and recorded an avoided mortality related welfare loss of about $28 billion or 19 percent of the nation’s GDP for that year. The second chapter applies the quantile fixed effects technique in exploring the CO2 environmental Kuznets curve within two groups of economic development (OECD and Non-OECD countries) and six geographical regions – West, East Europe, Latin America, East Asia, West Asia and Africa. A comparison of the findings with those of the conventional fixed effects method reveals that the latter may depict a flawed summary of the prevailing income-emissions nexus depending on the conditional quantile examined. We also extend the Machado and Mata decomposition method to the Kuznets curve framework to explore the most important explanations for the carbon emissions gap between OECD and Non-OECD countries. We find a statistically significant OECD-Non-OECD emissions gap and this contracts as we ascend the emissions distribution. Also, had the Non-OECD group the incomes of the OECD group, the former would pollute 26 to 40 percent more than the latter ceteris paribus. The decomposition further reveals that there are non-income related factors working against the Non-OECD group’s greening. We tentatively conclude that deliberate and systematic mitigation of current CO2 emissions in the Non-OECD group is required. The final chapter employs the Arellano-Bond difference GMM method in investigating the oil curse in OECD and Non-OECD oil exporting countries. Empirical studies investigating the natural resource curse theory mostly employ cross-country and panel regression techniques subject to endogeneity bias. Also, most of these studies employ GDP in its aggregate or per-capita terms as the outcome variable in their analyses. However, the use of GDP measures of income for resource curse investigations does not portray the true incomes of resource intensive economies. Standard national accounts treat natural resource rents as a positive contribution to income without making a corresponding adjustment for the value of depleted natural resource stock. This treatment, inconsistent with green national accounting, leads to a positive bias in the national income computations of resource rich economies. Our paper deviates from most empirical studies in the literature by using the Arellano-Bond difference GMM method. We test the robustness of the curse in the predominantly used measures of national income, GDP, by investigating the theme in genuine income measures of economic output as well. We employ two alternative measures of resource intensity in our explorations: the share of oil rents in GDP and per-capita oil reserves. Our results provide evidence of the curse in Non-OECD countries employing aggregate and per-capita measures of genuine income. On the other hand, we find oil abundance to be a blessing rather than a curse to the OECD countries in our sample.