This paper establishes theoretical relations between the level of unemployment and the economic growth rate. In a model with a monopolistically competitive manufacturing sector and a competitive innovation sector, which both pay efficiency wages, we find that the unemployment rate exhibits an unambiguously negative impact on the long-run growth performance, as it reduces the innovative capacity of the economy. Only if efficiency levels are different across sectors, we can also establish a causal relation from the growth rate to the rate of unemployment, since less innovation shifts the burden to induce efficiency towards the manufacturing sector, thus fostering unemployment. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

We develop a model of endogenous growth based on the division of labour in order to discuss policy issues. The engine of growth is the worker's incentive to achieve higher income, thereby inducing an increase in the degree of specialisation. The genuine contribution of this paper is that both supply side and demand side policies may stimulate long-run economic growth, and do not only induce level shifts. On the supply side, an increase in productivity of innovative workers, alongside with investment in infrastructure, human capital, and improvements in the market setting may stimulate growth. On the demand side, we find that transfers to innovative workers, a reduction in consumption taxes, an increase of labour income taxation of the specialised workforce, and a redistribution towards specialised workers will foster economic growth. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Using a stylized two period model we obtain portfolio solutions from two solution approaches that belong to the class of local approximation methods - the approach of Judd and Guu (2001, hereafter 'JG') and the approach of Devereux and Sutherland (2010, 2011,hereafter 'DS') - and compare them with the true portfolio solution. We parameterize the model to match mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis of return data on aggregate MSCI stock market indices. The optimal equity holdings in the true solution depend on the size of uncertainty, and the precise form of this relationship is determined by the distributional properties of equity returns. While the DS method and the JG approach provide the same portfolio solution as the size of uncertainty goes to zero, else the two solutions can differ substantially. Because under the DS method portfolio holdings are never approximated in the direction of the size of uncertainty, even higher-order approximations lead to the (zero-order) constant solution in our example model. In contrast, the JG solution generally varies as the size of uncertainty changes, and already a second-order JG solution can account for effects of skewness and kurtosis of equity returns. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

This paper studies the triggers and the agglomeration of M&A activity within clusters constituted by time, market and industry. Based on almost 500,000 individual transactions, we find that industry factors play a significant role in triggering activity and that M&A agglomerates strongly across related industries. While clustering in time turns out to be insignificant, stock-market effects can be either an attracting or a repelling force, depending on the type of deal examined. This supports the view that merger waves are largely driven by industry shocks.

Estimates suggest that international reserves of the Eurosystem could be reduced by one third to half ($130-$170 bill.) of its existing level after the introduction of the Euro. While the ultimate decision, whether and how to use these excessive reserves (public debt repayment, financing of a fund, financing of a tax cut) is a political one, some general results can be stated: First, since reserves earn interest revenue, a large part of which is transferred to the government anyway, moderate (but still positive) economic gains can be expected from a reserve reduction. Second, reserve reductions exceeding a certain threshold require the ECB's approval, which could, however, only be rejected if the envisaged measures were inconsistent with the ECB's monetary and exchange rate policy. Given that unintended macroeconomic effects can easily be avoided by a carefully planned and coordinated reserve reduction, such a rejection by the ECB - which is subject to the review by the European Court of Justice - is only hard to justify. Equally important from a legal point of view is that reserve reductions, effected as transfer of an extraordinary gain to the government, do not constitute monetary financing as prohibited under Art. 101 EC Treaty. Finally, reducing reserves to an adequate level would also eliminate incompatibilities and conflicts of interest between monetary and investment policy by the central banks and reduce their field of operation to their core task: the conduct of monetary policy. Thus, a carefully planned and coordinated reserve reduction can be supported from both an economic as well as legal point of view. / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

In March 2011, the European Commission submitted a proposal for a Council Directive on an optional common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB). If this proposed CCCTB system comes into force, taxes calculated under the currently existing system of separate accounting might be replaced by a system of group consolidation and formulary apportionment. Then, multinational groups (MNGs) would face the decision as to whether to opt for the CCCTB system. Prior research focuses mainly on the differences in economic behaviour under both systems in general. By contrast, we study the conditions under which one or the other tax system is preferable from the perspective of an MNG, with a particular focus on loss-offsets. We identify four effects that determine the decision of an MNG: the tax-utilization of losses, the allocation of the tax base, the dividend and intragroup interest taxation. We find mixed results, e.g., that the CCCTB system proves advantageous for increasing loss/profit streams (e.g. from start-ups or R&D projects) of the individual group entities, whereas the system of separate accounting is beneficial for decreasing profit/loss streams (e.g. caused by a decrease in return from a mature product). The results of our analysis are helpful for MNGs facing the decision as to whether to opt for the CCCTB system and can also support legislators and politicians in the EU but also in other regions in their tax reform discussions. (authors' abstract)

Cette thèse s’inscrit au croisement de plusieurs domaines de la recherche économique de l’innovation. Notre démarche fait appel à des résultats empiriques issus de l’économétrie de l’innovation. Pour étudier la relation entre innovation et demande, l’outil le plus adapté nous semble être le modèle de la croissance endogène fondé sur l’innovation par opposition au modèle de la croissance exogène. La nature et la direction de cette relation ont été explorées par différents courants économiques qui peuvent être classés selon deux grandes écoles. Les premiers sont les tenants de la thèse dite de la poussée technologique de l’innovation (« Technology-Push Innovation ») que l’on peut considérer très globalement comme « tirés » par les travaux de Joseph Schumpeter. Les seconds sont les tenants de l’approche dite de l’impulsion par la demande de l’innovation (« Demand-Pull Innovation ») dont les travaux pionniers ont été baptisés par Jacob Schmookler. Les travaux de Kleinknecht et Verspagen (1990) nous ont fortement inspiré pour démarrer cette thèse. Notre démarche constitue un prolongement et une complexification de leur analyse. En effet, l’objectif de cette thèse est double : monter que la relation entre innovation et demande n’est pas unidirectionnelle et, ce constat vérifié, examiner la possibilité d’étudier l’hétérogénéité des industries au sens de ces deux approches en fonction de leurs niveaux technologiques.Il nous semble que notre travail contribue à la compréhension des déterminants de l’innovation tels qu’ils ressortent de la controverse « Demand-Pull » versus « Technology-push », de trois façons :1) En proposant un survey problématisé de la littérature sur l’innovation,2) En présentant de façon originale des données sur la R&D et la productivité des industries des pays de l’OCDE,3) En suggérant que les modèles à correction d’erreur, maintenant très bien maîtrisés, peuvent apporter d’utiles éclairages à la question des modèles d’innovation (« Demand-Pull » versus « Technology-push »). / This thesis is at the intersection of several fields of economic research of innovation. Our approach uses empirical results from the econometrics of innovation. To study the relationship between innovation and demand, the most suitable seems to be the endogenous growth model based on innovation as opposed to the exogenous growth model. The nature and the direction of this relationship have been explored by various economic flows that can be classified into two major schools. The first are the proponents of so-called “Technology-Push Innovation” which may be regarded very broadly as “learned” by the work of Joseph Schumpeter. The latter are the proponents of the approach “Demand-Pull Innovation”, whose pioneering works have been baptized by Jacob Schmookler.The works of Kleinknecht and Verspagen (1990) have greatly inspired us to start this thesis. Our approach is an extension of this analysis. The purpose of this thesis is twofold: 1) showing that the relationship between innovation and demand is not unidirectional, 2) and this finding verified, examining the heterogeneity of industries within the meaning of these two approaches based on their technology levels.It seems to us that our work contributes to understanding the determinants of innovation as they emerge from the controversy “Demand-Pull” versus “Technology-push”, in three ways: 1) By offering a problematized survey of the literature on innovation, 2) By presenting, in an original way, data on R&D and productivity of industries in OECD countries, 3) By suggesting that the error correction models, now very well controlled, can provide useful insights to the issue of innovation models (“Demand-Pull” versus “Technology-push”).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:48:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Lucio Godeiro.pdf: 2764843 bytes, checksum: c27a349337947bc5671ae909ca2237f6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The work aim to test the CAPM for the Brazilian Shares Market using the static was beta and the dynamic beta. The sample used is composed for 28 shares of the Ibovespa index in March 21, 2012 and that was traded long the period researched, between 01/01/1995 and 20/03/2012. Was estimated the static and dynamic betas, and that the dynamics betas has a larger explication power on the cross section returns excess. It was found that the parameters that measure relative risk aversion were significant, indicating that an increase in volatility negatively affects the expected return of the agents / A pesquisa objetiva testar o CAPM para o mercado de ações brasileiro utilizando o beta estático e o beta dinâmico. A amostra utilizada é composta por 28 ações do índice Ibovespa em vinte de março de 2012 e que foram negociados durante todo o período pesquisado, que vai de 01/01/1995 a 20/03/2012. Foram estimados os betas estáticos e dinâmicos, sendo que os betas dinâmicos tem um maior poder de explicação sobre os excessos de retornos cross section. Também foi constatado que os parâmetros que medem aversão a risco relativa foram significantes, indicando que um aumento de volatilidade afeta de forma negativa o retorno esperado dos agentes

Attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) is of utmost importance for African countries in order to create employment opportunities, reduce poverty and to ensure sustainable economic growth. Despite Africa’s exceptional FDI performance during the past decade, the majority of FDI inflows have been directed to a few selected countries. As investors face many risks when investing in developing countries it is argued that risk perception plays a vital role in the FDI inflows into Africa. This thesis focuses on the relationship between risk and FDI. A structural equation model is used to analyse this relationship with a dataset of ten risk categories and FDI data from 42 African countries. The importance of SEM for this study lies in the capability of modelling data from multiple groups. Hence, the four sectors used comprise metals, automotive, communications and the real estate sector. Overall results indicate that government effectiveness and legal and regulatory risks produce the biggest concern for investors. The conclusion is that there are different risk patterns regarding FDI in Africa. The empirical results further imply that if African countries wish to attract the levels of FDI required to stimulate economic growth, policies are needed to reduce risks in order to create a favourable investment climate for investors. / Thesis (MCom (International Trade))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) is of utmost importance for African countries in order to create employment opportunities, reduce poverty and to ensure sustainable economic growth. Despite Africa’s exceptional FDI performance during the past decade, the majority of FDI inflows have been directed to a few selected countries. As investors face many risks when investing in developing countries it is argued that risk perception plays a vital role in the FDI inflows into Africa. This thesis focuses on the relationship between risk and FDI. A structural equation model is used to analyse this relationship with a dataset of ten risk categories and FDI data from 42 African countries. The importance of SEM for this study lies in the capability of modelling data from multiple groups. Hence, the four sectors used comprise metals, automotive, communications and the real estate sector. Overall results indicate that government effectiveness and legal and regulatory risks produce the biggest concern for investors. The conclusion is that there are different risk patterns regarding FDI in Africa. The empirical results further imply that if African countries wish to attract the levels of FDI required to stimulate economic growth, policies are needed to reduce risks in order to create a favourable investment climate for investors. / Thesis (MCom (International Trade))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.