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In October 2000 the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA) was launched. The purpose of the IIRSA is to improve integration of the South American countries and intraregional trade between them. One of the ultimate goals is to promote sustainable growth. The purpose of this paper is to find out if a better quantity and quality of transport infrastructure increases intraregional trade in South America. It is found that the quantity of transport infrastructure increases intraregional trade. On the other hand, there is no evidence for the quality of transport infrastructure increasing intraregional trade in South America. Furthermore, this paper investigates whether economic growth can be obtained through more trade. In other words, this paper examines if trade causes growth. The results do not confirm the trade-growth causality for all countries. The difference between the existence of a trade-growth causal relationship or not could be explained by the core commodities that the different South American countries export.

Since the end of World War II, foreign direct investment (FDI) has been leading the international financial capital flows and has tripled in 2000s over the decade earlier. With its positive effect on economic growth of host countries via spill-overs, it became a race among countries to attract multinational enterprises (MNEs) to invest in their countries. The introduction of European common currency theoretically helps reduce the transaction costs across borders with the reduction of exchange-rate uncertainties and associated costs of hedging, facilitation of international cost comparison. Moreover, mergers and acquisitions activities (M&As) account for 60-80% of FDI flows, and most MNEs engage in both export and setting up affiliates abroad, suggesting complementarity between trade and FDI. Thus reducing cross-border distance costs would encourage MNEs to increase its M&A activities abroad, resulting in more inward FDI flows in the eurozone, especially among member states. The gravity equation is used in this paper to estimate the euro effect from the dataset of inward FDI flows of 24 countries during 1993-2007 and the result confirms that common currency stimulates more intra-eurozone inward FDI flows by approximately 58%.

<p>Since the end of World War II, foreign direct investment (FDI) has been leading the international financial capital flows and has tripled in 2000s over the decade earlier. With its positive effect on economic growth of host countries via spill-overs, it became a race among countries to attract multinational enterprises (MNEs) to invest in their countries. The introduction of European common currency theoretically helps reduce the transaction costs across borders with the reduction of exchange-rate uncertainties and associated costs of hedging, facilitation of international cost comparison. Moreover, mergers and acquisitions activities (M&As) account for 60-80% of FDI flows, and most MNEs engage in both export and setting up affiliates abroad, suggesting complementarity between trade and FDI. Thus reducing cross-border distance costs would encourage MNEs to increase its M&A activities abroad, resulting in more inward FDI flows in the eurozone, especially among member states. The gravity equation is used in this paper to estimate the euro effect from the dataset of inward FDI flows of 24 countries during 1993-2007 and the result confirms that common currency stimulates more intra-eurozone inward FDI flows by approximately 58%.</p>

<p>In October 2000 the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA) was launched. The purpose of the IIRSA is to improve integration of the South American countries and intraregional trade between them. One of the ultimate goals is to promote sustainable growth. The purpose of this paper is to find out if a better quantity and quality of transport infrastructure increases intraregional trade in South America. It is found that the quantity of transport infrastructure increases intraregional trade. On the other hand, there is no evidence for the quality of transport infrastructure increasing intraregional trade in South America. Furthermore, this paper investigates whether economic growth can be obtained through more trade. In other words, this paper examines if trade causes growth. The results do not confirm the trade-growth causality for all countries. The difference between the existence of a trade-growth causal relationship or not could be explained by the core commodities that the different South American countries export.</p>

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O objetivo nesta dissertação consiste em verificar se o crescimento das exportações de produtos manufaturados chineses afetou negativamente o desempenho das exportações desses produtos dos países da América Latina, no período de 1995-2005. As exportações chinesas são consideradas em conjunto com as de Hong Kong, tendo em vista que esse país é considerado um centro de re-exportação da China. Para tal, foi estimada uma equação gravitacional ampliada para as exportações dos países latino americanos destinadas a outros mercados, incluindo como variável explicativa as exportações da China para esses destinos. O resultado obtido com a aplicação de variáveis instrumentais em dois estágios mostrou que um aumento de 1% nas exportações chinesas para esses mercados reduz as vendas externas dos países latino americanos em 0,3%. No entanto, como os instrumentos disponíveis não variam com o tempo, não foi possível utilizar o método de efeito fixo que evita o viés decorrente da omissão de varáveis que captam as características específicas dos países, as quais podem influenciar o volume de comércio. Portanto, o resultado não foi conclusivo. / The objective in this investigation consists in verify if the growth of the Chinese manufactured goods negatively affected the performance from the exports of this products from the Latin America countries, in the period 1995-2005. The Chinese exports are considerate in set with the ones of Hong Kong, since this country is considered a center of re-exportation from China. For such, was esteem a gravity equation augmented to the exportations from the Latin America countries destined to other markets, including as explicative variable the exportations from China to these destinies. The result obtained with the application of instrumental variables in two stage showed that an increase of 1% on the Chinese exports to these markets reduces the external sales from the Latin America countries in 0,3%. However, since the instruments available no change over time, it was not possible to use the method of fixed effect that avoid the bias occurred from the omission of variables, that can influence the trade volume. Thus, the result was not conclusive.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O objetivo nesta dissertação consiste em verificar se o crescimento das exportações de produtos manufaturados chineses afetou negativamente o desempenho das exportações desses produtos dos países da América Latina, no período de 1995-2005. As exportações chinesas são consideradas em conjunto com as de Hong Kong, tendo em vista que esse país é considerado um centro de re-exportação da China. Para tal, foi estimada uma equação gravitacional ampliada para as exportações dos países latino americanos destinadas a outros mercados, incluindo como variável explicativa as exportações da China para esses destinos. O resultado obtido com a aplicação de variáveis instrumentais em dois estágios mostrou que um aumento de 1% nas exportações chinesas para esses mercados reduz as vendas externas dos países latino americanos em 0,3%. No entanto, como os instrumentos disponíveis não variam com o tempo, não foi possível utilizar o método de efeito fixo que evita o viés decorrente da omissão de varáveis que captam as características específicas dos países, as quais podem influenciar o volume de comércio. Portanto, o resultado não foi conclusivo. / The objective in this investigation consists in verify if the growth of the Chinese manufactured goods negatively affected the performance from the exports of this products from the Latin America countries, in the period 1995-2005. The Chinese exports are considerate in set with the ones of Hong Kong, since this country is considered a center of re-exportation from China. For such, was esteem a gravity equation augmented to the exportations from the Latin America countries destined to other markets, including as explicative variable the exportations from China to these destinies. The result obtained with the application of instrumental variables in two stage showed that an increase of 1% on the Chinese exports to these markets reduces the external sales from the Latin America countries in 0,3%. However, since the instruments available no change over time, it was not possible to use the method of fixed effect that avoid the bias occurred from the omission of variables, that can influence the trade volume. Thus, the result was not conclusive.

<p>The pharmaceutical industry is one of Sweden’s most important export industries with 6% of total exports. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse which factors affect Sweden’s ex-port of pharmaceutical products. Further, the different pharmaceutical products group Sweden exports will be identified. The modern trade theory, the monopolistic competition model, the product life cycle theory and the gravity equation are used to explain and to un-derstand the problem at hand.</p><p>To analyse the problem, data of Swedish export of pharmaceutical products from 1997 to 2003 was used to the 176 destination countries Sweden exported to during the time period. The following factors were used as independent variables; distance, Gross Domestic Prod-uct (GDP) /capita, Area, Population, dummy variable for EU-membership, dummy vari-able for English or Scandinavian speaking countries, dummy variable for bordering to Sweden, dummy variable for same religion as Sweden and a dummy variable for countries that are not land-locked.</p><p>The findings coincide with previous studies in the manner that distance and GDP/capita have a major impact on the sales abroad of pharmaceutical products. Also, countries with a larger population are importing more than countries with a smaller population. However, the strong affinities between the exporter and the importing countries found in previous studies were not found in the export of pharmaceutical products. Further, Sweden exports most of the product group that includes medicaments consisting of mixed or unmixed products for therapeutic or prophylactic uses.</p> / <p>Läkemedelsindustrin är en av Sveriges viktigaste exportindustrier med 6 % av den totala exporten. Syftet med denna uppsats är därför att analysera vilka faktorer som påverkar dess export. Vidare, de olika exportgrupperna av läkemedel som Sverige exporterar kommer att identifieras. Den moderna handelsteorin, monopolistisk konkurrens, produktcykelteorin och gravitationsmodellen används för att förklara och förstå det uppstådda problemet.</p><p>För att analysera problemet så används Sveriges export av läkemedel från 1997 till 2003 för alla 176 destinationer. Följande faktorer används som oberoende variabler; distansen, BNP/capita, arean, folkmängd, dummy variabel för EU-medlemskap, dummy variabel för engelsk- eller skandinaviskspråkiga länder, dummy variabel för gränsande länder till Sverige, dummy variabel för länder som har samma religion som Sverige, samt en dummy variabel för länder som angränsar till vatten.</p><p>Resultatet överensstämmer med tidigare forskning att avståndet och BNP/capita har ett stort inflytande av exporten av läkemedel. Likaså länder med ett stort invånarantal importe-rar mer än länder med ett mindre invånarantal. Däremot, det starka släktskapet mellan ex-portören och de importerande länderna som funnits i tidigare studier observerades inte i exporten av läkemedel. Vidare, Sverige exporterar mest av produktgruppen som innehåller medikamenter bestående av blandade eller oblandade produkter för terapeutiskt eller profy-laktiskt bruk.</p>

In the post Bretton Woods era, the volatile nature of exchange rates has been the focus of many researchers. Although some previous studies suggest that variations in an exchange rate has the potential to affect a country’s economic performance, LDC’s (Less Developed Countries’) have received less attention compared to industrialized or developed economies. In this thesis we analyse the nature of exchange rate behaviour in three LDCs: Ghana, Mozambique and Tanzania. These countries have gone through comparable policy engagements with the IMF, have followed similar floating exchange rate regimes since early 1990s and currently all adhere to the IMF convention of free current account convertibility and transfer (Ghana and Tanzania accepted Article VIII of IMF “Articles of Agreement” in 1994. Mozambique began floating in 1992 under the SAP reforms of IMF; Article IV consultation was completed in 2009 and acceptance of Article VIII seems imminent).The main content of the thesis can be summarised as follows.I. We examine whether exchange rate behaviour in these three countries are influenced by similar factors. In order to justify the applicability of a number of volatility modelling techniques, we also examine the data to find if they exhibit the empirical regularities found in other exchange rate/financial markets such as volatility clustering, non-linearity, non-normality and asymmetry. Our results suggest that exchange rate behaviour in these countries is generally influenced by similar factors. In particular, we find that the series exhibit the empirical regularities found in other exchange rate/financial markets, justifying the application of the ARCH methodology which we use to estimate the volatility of exchange rate in these countries. We however observed that the ARCH family of models does not always produce the best fit. For instance, volatility forecasts generated by an Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) model based on the RiskMetricsTM estimation technique produces the best fit for the daily Ghanaian exchange rate series under consideration compared to volatility forecasts from our estimated ARCH family of models.II. We explore the causal relationship between exchange rate depreciation and uncertainty/volatility using the VAR toolkit. Our main motivation for this study is to analyse whether the changes in the levels of exchange rate as a result of appreciation or depreciation in an underlying currency changes the level of exchange rate uncertainty (volatility). Further, we also analyse the reverse causal relationship; whether increasing uncertainty feeds back into the exchange rate market. We find a bi-directional Granger causal relationship between the level of exchange rate and uncertainty in the foreign exchange markets. Despite adopting similar macro-policies since the mid 1980s and early 1990s, uncertainty in the Tanzanian exchange rate as a response to changes in the level of exchange rate takes a shorter length of time to dissipate. We attribute this to the macroeconomic policies undertaken by Tanzanian policymakers which have ensured price and currency stability.The reverse causality reflects the effectiveness of the Tanzanian macro-policies and the confidence in them; we observed that intervention reduces uncertainty in the Tanzanian exchange rate, whereas for Ghana and Mozambique, macro-policies intending to mitigate undesired exchange rate changes rather create further uncertainty in their exchange rate markets. For all three LDCs under consideration, we observed that effects of shocks to exchange rate from innovations in uncertainty for each country is fleeting III. We investigate the relationship between exchange rate volatility and economic performance (via trade) for each of these countries and some of their biggest trade partners. Exchange rate volatility resulting from a depreciating underlying currency of trade can potentially affect the economic performance of a country. Using a gravity model augmented with variables that are deemed to influence earnings from trade, we observe that earnings from trade are not significantly affected by exchange rate volatility. We conjecture that in periods of uncertainty, traders increase the volume of trade to compensate for the ill effects of currency volatility.

The pharmaceutical industry is one of Sweden’s most important export industries with 6% of total exports. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse which factors affect Sweden’s ex-port of pharmaceutical products. Further, the different pharmaceutical products group Sweden exports will be identified. The modern trade theory, the monopolistic competition model, the product life cycle theory and the gravity equation are used to explain and to un-derstand the problem at hand. To analyse the problem, data of Swedish export of pharmaceutical products from 1997 to 2003 was used to the 176 destination countries Sweden exported to during the time period. The following factors were used as independent variables; distance, Gross Domestic Prod-uct (GDP) /capita, Area, Population, dummy variable for EU-membership, dummy vari-able for English or Scandinavian speaking countries, dummy variable for bordering to Sweden, dummy variable for same religion as Sweden and a dummy variable for countries that are not land-locked. The findings coincide with previous studies in the manner that distance and GDP/capita have a major impact on the sales abroad of pharmaceutical products. Also, countries with a larger population are importing more than countries with a smaller population. However, the strong affinities between the exporter and the importing countries found in previous studies were not found in the export of pharmaceutical products. Further, Sweden exports most of the product group that includes medicaments consisting of mixed or unmixed products for therapeutic or prophylactic uses. / Läkemedelsindustrin är en av Sveriges viktigaste exportindustrier med 6 % av den totala exporten. Syftet med denna uppsats är därför att analysera vilka faktorer som påverkar dess export. Vidare, de olika exportgrupperna av läkemedel som Sverige exporterar kommer att identifieras. Den moderna handelsteorin, monopolistisk konkurrens, produktcykelteorin och gravitationsmodellen används för att förklara och förstå det uppstådda problemet. För att analysera problemet så används Sveriges export av läkemedel från 1997 till 2003 för alla 176 destinationer. Följande faktorer används som oberoende variabler; distansen, BNP/capita, arean, folkmängd, dummy variabel för EU-medlemskap, dummy variabel för engelsk- eller skandinaviskspråkiga länder, dummy variabel för gränsande länder till Sverige, dummy variabel för länder som har samma religion som Sverige, samt en dummy variabel för länder som angränsar till vatten. Resultatet överensstämmer med tidigare forskning att avståndet och BNP/capita har ett stort inflytande av exporten av läkemedel. Likaså länder med ett stort invånarantal importe-rar mer än länder med ett mindre invånarantal. Däremot, det starka släktskapet mellan ex-portören och de importerande länderna som funnits i tidigare studier observerades inte i exporten av läkemedel. Vidare, Sverige exporterar mest av produktgruppen som innehåller medikamenter bestående av blandade eller oblandade produkter för terapeutiskt eller profy-laktiskt bruk.