The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the ERM II mechanism and to explain it's positives and negatives for the internal and external economic balance. In the first part of this thesis the author engages in the ERM II system and other applied exchange mechanisms. Further he focuses in detail on the theory of internal and external economic balance. In the analytic part of the work the author uses chosen indicators to monitor the influence of ERM II mechanism on the internal and external balance of three selected countries - Malta, Cyprus and Latvia. In the closing part the author summarizes the outcome of the analysis.

The subject of this experimental investigation is to measure the dynamic stability derivatives in roll plane for an oscillating combat aircraft model by using forced oscillation technique. In forced oscillation technique the model is forced to oscillate around the center of gravity according to a harmonic motion of small amplitude and low frequency. The aerodynamic reactions are measured by an internal balance placed inside the model. The thesis presents a brief description of the test rig and the measurement system. The theory of dynamic stability derivatives and forced oscillation technique are also explained. The data is collected and analyzed by using a data acquisition system written with under the Labview programming language. Systematic analysis of the static and dynamic tests results and effect of various parameters (angle of attack, sideslip angle, oscillation frequency and amplitude, wind velocity) on these results are presented. Comparison of the present results with previous results obtained in other test facilities is also given. Design and manufacture process of a new angle of attack mechanism is also given in this thesis.

All the operational and measurement systems of Ankara Wind Tunnel was modified to operate automatically under the control of a central computer system programmed using the Lab View programming language. A cruciform air-to-air missile with triangular canard control and a trapezoidal wing model was tested by a 35mm diameter internal balance at Mach 0.2 and data was compared with the test data of the same model&rsquo / s test that was performed at NASA Langley Research Center.

The European Central Bank implements its monetary policy within the Euro Area -- the biggest project of monetary union in the history. This fact itself draws our attention and gives rise to the questions about the efficiency of the adopted steps in the scope of fulfilling the main objective -- price stability. However when evaluating the overall economic balance we are not only interested in price stability. This paper is focused on ECB monetary policy from a theoretical point of view as well as through comprehensive analysis of its practical effects on economic performance. External and internal balance indicators help us to evaluate the ECB's achievement from 1999 till now. Therefore we can see the origins of the current miserable state of the common currency not in the bad decisions undertaken by the ECB, but in the general conditions, which enabled the formation of the EMU on a very unstable foundation.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Issues pertaining to the misalignment of exchange rate have become central in the analysis of open economy macroeconomics for developing countries. This is at least due to two reasons: first persistent overvaluation of currency is seen as a powerful early warning of potential currency crisis and second protracted periods of exchange rate misalignment are highly associated with poor economic performance in a number of developing countries. Owing to this fact, economists are in concession that aligning real exchange rates towards their equilibrium values is an important component of macroeconomic policy adjustments in order to achieve and maintain a sustainable development. For this purpose the estimation of the degree of the real exchange rate misalignment has become pivotal. However, despite the concession among economists regarding the need to minimize the frequency and magnitude of exchange rate misalignment, the estimation of the equilibrium exchange rate (hence the misalignment) has been among the most controversial and challenging issues in modem macroeconomics. For several decades, the Purchasing power parity (PPP) approach-which is based on the law of one price-has been the most widely used methodology for the estimation of the equilibrium exchange rate in both developed and developing countries. In South Africa some attempts have been made to estimate the misalignment of the rand against major currencies on the basis of the PPP approach. However, large numbers of empirical studies show that PPP does not hold except in the 'ultra' long run. In addition, PPP's assumption of a constant equilibrium exchange rate makes it ill-fitted to serve as a bench-mark for the analysis of the exchange rate in countries such as South Africa that experience substantial structural changes. As a result a number of macro-econometric models underlying on the macroeconomic determinants of exchange rate have been developed, albeit with little applicability in developing countries. In this study, we have used Edwards' (1989) intertemporal general equilibrium model of a small open economy in order to estimate the degree of the real exchange rate misalignment and its impact on the international trade competitiveness of the South African economy for the period 1985:1-2000:4. For this purpose a dynamic single equation error correction model of a first order autoregressive distributed lag model, ADL (1,1), and five years moving average technique have been employed to estimate the exchange rate misalignment. Whereas impulse response analysis and variance decomposition techniques of a cointegrated VAR (vector auto regression) have been established to assess the impact of the misalignment on trade competitiveness. The fmdings of the study reveal that the real exchange rate had been consistently overvalued during the period' 1988:3-1998:2 but undervalued during periods 1998:3- 2000:4. For most of the periods during 1985:1-1988:2 the rand had been undervalued. More over the study discloses that exchange rate misalignment debilitates South Africa's international trade competitiveness accounting for 20 percent of the variation in competitiveness.