This dissertation consists of five essays. Three of these study countries’ specialisation patterns combining the two classical paradigms of trade theory, namely the Ricardian (technology) and the Heckscher–Ohlin (factor endowments) framework. Of the remaining two essays, one studies convergence in per capita income among the Swedish counties and the other is methodological in that we investigate the issue of how seasonal unit roots and joint modelling may affect forecasts. In each of these essays, an empirical investigation is applied. Essay 1. Technical Progress, Capital Accumulation and Changing International Competitiveness.In this essay we studies how technology, measured by total factor productivity (TFP) and endowments, jointly determines countries’ specialisation patterns.The main findings are that endowments and technology jointly determine trade patterns. In analysing countries level of specialisation we find indications of scale effects at the firm level and that TFP turns out to be a poor determinant in explaining specialisation whereas endowments, and in particular natural resources are significant. When analysing changes in specialisation and trade patterns, TFP growth is found to be a significant explanatory variable. These contradictory results, i.e., that TFP is not significant when studying levels but is when studying changes, may to some extent be explained by potential time invariant measurement errors that are differenced out when analysing changes. There is also evidence for an increased specialisation of human capital intensive production in countries with a high growth rate in the national supply of skilled labour. Essay 2. Technology, Resource Endowments and International Competitiveness.In the second essay we takes the analysis one step further by going behind the black box of technology and relating this to its sources, where R&D is taken to be the new main object of the study. The analysis reveals that competitiveness is determined not only by R&D performance of the firm, but also that industry- and economy-wide stocks of knowledge are important, indicating the presence of local externalities in R&D. Further results point to scale effects in R&D at the firm level and that the impact of R&D is higher in high- and medium- than in low-tech industries. Essay 3. The Dynamics of European Industrial Structure.The third essay focus on changes in countries’ specialisation patterns. In the model building stage, we make the R&D process endogenous. Through domestic input-output linkages, we build in trade-transmitted technology transfers. Econometrically, we find indications of R&D at the firm level to be the main engine shaping technology and competitiveness. There is also evidence of scale effects in R&D at the firm level. Analysing capital accumulation, we find that countries with relatively high capital accumulation increase their specialisation in capital-intensive industries. We also find that capital abundant countries have the highest rate of capital accumulation. Together, this indicates an increased concentration of capital-intensive industries in capital abundant countries. Analysing human capital accumulation in an analogous manner, we find that countries with relatively high human capital accumulation increase their specialisation in human capital intensive industries. However, we find that countries with a relatively high human capital accumulation are those with initially small human capital stocks, indicating convergence in human capital abundance among the countries in the sample. How industries interact, and industrial interdependence, are analysed, and we find significant econometric evidence of interdependence between domestic industries with strong input-output linkages. Essay 4. Convergence, Prices and Geography: An empirical Study of the Swedish Counties 1911-1993.With Joakim Persson.In the fourth essay, we analyse convergence in per capita income among the Swedish counties during the period 1911-93. Some innovative features in this essay are that we explicitly introduce distance in the econometric analysis and construct regional price indices. In the econometric analysis, we find both absolute and conditional convergence in all ten year periods from 1911 to 1993 except in the 20s and 80s. We find no convergence whatsoever in the 20s and only conditional convergence in the 80s. Analysing counties’ interdependence, we find that counties are tied together such that growth in one county will have a significant impact on its neighbours. Further, we find that the regional cost of housing affects counties’ demographic composition and, through this mechanism, growth in per capita income. Essay 5. The Impact of Seasonal Unit Roots and Vector ARMA Modelling on Forecasting Monthly Tourism Flows.With Jonas Nordström.In the fifth and final essay we analyse how neglecting seasonal unit roots and vector ARMA modelling affect forecasts. We study the flow of monthly tourism flows into Sweden. The main conclusion is that the Box and Jenkins approach, taking a 12th difference to make the series stationary, is at least as good as the much more demanding route of analysing seasonal unit roots. In a second step, we investigate potential gains in using joint modelling techniques when making forecasts. We utilise other tourism series in order to improve the forecasts. The results are mixed. The results depend on what evaluation criteria we choose. In summary, find the Box and Jenkins approach to stand up well against more advanced techniques. Essay no 1 has been published as:Gustavsson, P., Hansson, P. and Lundberg, L., "Technical Progress, Capital Accumulation and Changing International Competitiveness" in Fagerberg, J. et al (eds.), Technology and International Trade, pp 20-37. Edward Elgar, 1997.  Essay no 2 has been published as:Gustavsson, P., Hansson, P. and Lundberg, L.., "Technology, resource endowments and international competitiveness." in European Economic Review, Vol. 43, No. 8, 1999, pp 1501-1530. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2001

According to the different studies regarding customs unions and monetary unions, both these types of economic integration will lead to increased trade which in turn affects the price level. In this study, the changes in the price levels across Europe are investigated in order to see if the changes can be attributed to the EMU and the Euro. By using the PPPs calculated by OECD based on the theory of Purchasing Power Parity price levels in different countries become comparable between the countries and over time. The result is that there seems to be a clear convergence towards an average European price level in the observed period 1980-2005. In order to investigate if this convergence is an effect of the EMU a panel regression on relevant data is run and the result shows that there has been a convergence in the EMU-price level, but it can most likely not be attributed to the Euro, but other factors like for example increased degrees of openness.

This thesis consists of an introduction and a summary, followed by two papers, both of them on the topic of function spaces on fractals. Paper I: Andreas Brodin, Pointwise Convergence of Haar type Wavelets on Self-Similar Sets, Manuscript. Paper II: Andreas Brodin, Regularization of Wavelet Expansion characterizes Besov Spaces on Fractals, Manuscript. Properties of wavelets, originally constructed by A. Jonsson, are studied in both papers. The wavelets are piecewise polynomial functions on self-similar fractal sets. In Paper I, pointwise convergence of partial sums of the wavelet expansion is investigated. On a specific fractal set, the Sierpinski gasket, pointwise convergence of the partial sums is shown by calculating the kernel explicitly, when the wavelets are piecewise constant functions. For more general self-similar fractals, pointwise convergence of the partial sums and their derivatives, in case the expanded function has higher regularity, is shown using a different technique based on Markov's inequality. A. Jonsson has shown that on a class of totally disconnected self-similar sets it is possible to characterize Besov spaces by means of the magnitude of the coefficients in the wavelet expansion of a function. M. Bodin has extended his results to a class of graph directed self-similar sets introduced by Mauldin and Williams. Unfortunately, these results only holds for fractals such that the sets in the first generation of the fractal are disjoint. In Paper II we are able to characterize Besov spaces on a class of fractals not necessarily sharing this condition by making the wavelet expansion smooth. We create continuous regularizations of the partial sums of the wavelet expansion and show that properties of these regularizations can be used to characterize Besov spaces.

The EU25 Member States’ GDP per capita levels converged in 1994-2005. Convergence occurred at an average speed of approximately 1.5 percent per year. In the first part of this paper unconditional convergence is analyzed by looking at both β- and σ-convergence and the performances of the catch-up economies are compared, discussed and related to the convergence definition. In a second stage, the catch-up performances are analyzed in relation to theory of economic integration. Substantial increases in labor productivity explain a great deal of the catch-up for poorer economies such as the Baltic states, while increases in employment have been relatively more important for the less poorer economies such as Spain, Portugal and Slovenia. Labor productivity is further elaborated and it is found that both FDIs and internal savings have been consistently higher for the catch-up economies than the non-catching-up economies. FDIs are also assumed to have indirect effects such as promoting incorporation of technology.

Islamic banking is currently one of the fastest growing segments of the financial market industry, operating in over 75 countries through 300 institutions. While past literature has established the development of financial institutions as a determinant of economic growth, research on the correlation of the diffusion of Islamic banking with economic growth is limited. This study seeks to add to the literature by empirically analyzing the economic growth determinative power of Islamic banks. Confirming past research, Muslim prevalence in a population is found to be the most significant determinant of the diffusion of Islamic banks. Using this exogenous instrument in 2SLS regressions, results show that Islamic banks are not significantly correlated with economic growth. Most notably, including the Islamic banking instrument affects the strength of beta-convergence. Basic Solovian specifications show that convergence occurs; countries with higher initial GDP per capita grow more slowly. After accounting for the intensity of Islamic banking, this effect becomes much less statistically significant, suggesting that some of the effect of convergence may operate through the propensity to adopt Islamic banking. Empirical analysis disaffirms the hypothesis that Islamic banks minimize the explanatory power of legal origin on economic growth due to their independent implementation of Shariah law; the results show that accounting for Islamic banks has no effect on the determinative power of legal origin. Finally, the correlation of Islamic banking and financial deepening is largely dependent on legal origin, resulting in negative effects for countries with British legal origin and positive for those with French legal origin.

The introduction of deregulation and subsequent open access policy in electricity sector has brought competition in energy market. Allocation of transmission loss has become a contentious issue among the electricity producers and consumers. A closed form solution for transmission loss allocation does not exist due to the fact that transmission loss is a highly non-linear function of system states and it is a non-separable quantity. In absence of a closed form solution different utilities use different methods for transmission loss allocation. Most of these techniques involve complex mathematical operations and time consuming computations. A new transmission loss allocation tool based on artificial neural network has been developed and presented in this thesis. The proposed artificial neural network computes loss allocation much faster than other methods. A relatively short execution time of the proposed method makes it a suitable candidate for being a part of a real time decision making process. Most independent system variables can be used as inputs to this neural network which in turn makes the loss allocation procedure responsive to practical situations. Moreover, transmission line status (available or failed) was included in neural network inputs to make the proposed network capable of allocating loss even during the failure of a transmission line. The proposed neural networks were utilized to allocate losses in two types of energy transactions: bilateral contracts and power pool operation. Two loss allocation methods were utilized to develop training and testing patterns; the Incremental Load Flow Approach was utilized for loss allocation in the context of bilateral transaction and the Z-bus allocation was utilized in the context of pool operation. The IEEE 24-bus reliability network was utilized to conduct studies and illustrate numerical examples for bilateral transactions and the IEEE 14-bus network was utilized for pool operation. Techniques were developed to expedite the training of the neural networks and to improve the accuracy of results.

In this study, I used two independent perciform lineages (Neotropical Cichlidae and Nearctic Centrarchidae) to examine patterns of species richness and species coexistence a two spatial scales (e.g., macrohabitat and mesohabitat) and to examine inter-faunal patterns of ecomorphological convergence. The study was conducted during the low-water periods in four lowland rivers: the Cinaruco in Venezuela, the Tambopata in Peru, and the Neches and the Brazos rivers in Texas (USA). These rivers were chosen because of their similar characteristics, in terms of geomorphology, sediments, and water quality. The Cinaruco River and the Neches River have clear slightly-stained waters, whereas the Tambopata and the Brazos River have turbid waters with high loads of suspended sediments. I used morphological approaches as a surrogate to investigate patterns of species distribution in niche space, and predict patterns of species richness at different spatial scales. Despite high variation in the number of species in these two perciform assemblages, morphological analysis based on the means and standard deviations of nearest neighbor distance (NND) and mean distance to centroid (CD) revealed similar trends of morphological similarity in relation to species richness. Comparison of observed versus randomized data mesohabitat scale for all four rivers generally supported the niche expansion model of response to increase in species richness. At the scale of mesohabitats within rivers, most species assemblages appear to be organized by competitive interactions in accordance with the niche expansion model. The tropical species-rich Cinaruco River revealed particularly strong support for the niche expansion model. Intercontinental comparison of functional morphology and diets based on analysis of stomach contents and stable isotope ratios indicated broad morphological and dietary overlap between cichlid and centrarchid assemblages. For the most part, morphological ordinations showed that the two groups have diversified in a parallel manner within the confines of ram-suction modes of prey ingestion. This study concludes that even though differences are observed in historical and stochastic factors structuring fish assemblages in different geographic regions, consistent patterns of convergence at the species and assemblage levels results from natural selection under similar environmental conditions.

Economic growth and development is intimately related to the decline of agriculture’s share of output and employment. This process of structural change has important implications for income and productivity differences between regions within a country or between countries themselves. Agriculture typically has low productivity relative to other sectors and this is particularly true in poor areas. So, as labour switches to nonagricultural activities or as agricultural productivity increases, poor agriculturallyintensive areas will benefit the most. In this thesis, I contribute to a recent and growing line of research and incorporate a separate role for agriculture, both into modeling frameworks and data analysis, to examine income and productivity differences. I first demonstrate that restrictions on trade in agricultural goods, which support inefficient domestic producers, inhibit structural change and lower productivity in poor countries. To do this, I incorporate multiple sectors, non-homothetic preferences, and labour mobility costs into an Eaton-Kortum trade model. With the model, I estimate productivity from trade data (avoiding problematic data for poor countries that typical estimates require) and perform a variety of counterfactual exercises. I find import barriers and labour mobility costs account for one-third of the aggregate labour productivity gap between rich and poor countries and for nearly half the gap in agriculture. Second, moving away from international income differences, I use a general equilibrium model of structural transformation to show a large labour migration cost between regions of the US magnifies the impact improved labour markets have on regional convergence. Finally, I estimate the influence of structural change on convergence between Canadian regions. I construct a unique dataset of census-division level wage and employment levels in both agriculture and nonagriculture between 1901 and 1981. I find convergence is primarily due to region-specific factors with structural change playing little role.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine in depth the process of U.S. GAAP convergence to IFRS. The thesis begins by providing the history of convergence, which include all the measures that have led to the FASB’s and IASB efforts today. Some specific accounting issues that the FASB and IASB are working on in their joint projects to eliminate the differences are explored. The issues that the FASB and IASB need to cover in order to complete their efforts laid out in the Memorandum of Understanding, and even possibly adopting IFRS, are covered next. The risk implications if the United States were to adopt IFRS as it stands today are examined. There are numerous short-term risks if the U.S. adopts IFRS immediately, many of which include increased expenses for companies and more room for managerial manipulation of earnings. After disclosing the short-term risks, the long-term benefits of adopting IFRS, which include decreased costs from consolidation and increased comparability for users of financial statements, are highlighted. The thesis then covers the opinions submitted to the SEC about convergence or endorsement of IFRS. The conclusion includes interviews of three Deloitte professionals on their opinions of convergence, and my views based on my research.

Economic growth and development is intimately related to the decline of agriculture’s share of output and employment. This process of structural change has important implications for income and productivity differences between regions within a country or between countries themselves. Agriculture typically has low productivity relative to other sectors and this is particularly true in poor areas. So, as labour switches to nonagricultural activities or as agricultural productivity increases, poor agriculturallyintensive areas will benefit the most. In this thesis, I contribute to a recent and growing line of research and incorporate a separate role for agriculture, both into modeling frameworks and data analysis, to examine income and productivity differences. I first demonstrate that restrictions on trade in agricultural goods, which support inefficient domestic producers, inhibit structural change and lower productivity in poor countries. To do this, I incorporate multiple sectors, non-homothetic preferences, and labour mobility costs into an Eaton-Kortum trade model. With the model, I estimate productivity from trade data (avoiding problematic data for poor countries that typical estimates require) and perform a variety of counterfactual exercises. I find import barriers and labour mobility costs account for one-third of the aggregate labour productivity gap between rich and poor countries and for nearly half the gap in agriculture. Second, moving away from international income differences, I use a general equilibrium model of structural transformation to show a large labour migration cost between regions of the US magnifies the impact improved labour markets have on regional convergence. Finally, I estimate the influence of structural change on convergence between Canadian regions. I construct a unique dataset of census-division level wage and employment levels in both agriculture and nonagriculture between 1901 and 1981. I find convergence is primarily due to region-specific factors with structural change playing little role.