The “special treatments” of automobile industry in China, especially in the forms of local protectionism, have been criticized as evidences of domestic market fragmentation for long. Whether these “special treatments” have stunted the integration of a national auto market in China remains a question. This paper seeks to examine the degree of market integration in the automobile markets in China by using tests of cointegration between prices of spatial markets. Several econometric approaches for spatial price analysis, including the ADF unit root test, Maddala-Wu’s Fisher type panel unit root test and more restrictive Dufour-Torres panel unit root test are applied to monthly average retail prices for the main models sold across 36 cities from 1994-2006. Besides the above conventional linear methods, the author also applies the newly developed nonlinear unit root method proposed by Kapetanios et al. (2003). Test results indicate that the nonlinear test support convergence more often than the conventional linear unit root tests. Moreover, they also reveal that price convergence and hence market integration hold for majority of models and markets. The paper also investigates possible explanatory factors in price disparities of auto markets among cities. As the evidence shows, the geographic distance between markets, difference of per capital income, and the existence of local production play important roles in the absolute price differentials as well as the volatility of price differentials among cities.

The sluggish development of corporate lending has remained the central concern of EU monetary policy makers as it is considered to hinder seriously the resurgence of growth. This paper looks at the development of loans to large corporations vs SMEs in the pre-crisis and post-crisis period and wishes to answer: (i) to which extent do allocated loan volumes actually contribute to Output growth? (ii) which factors determine the development of loans, considering above all loan interest rates? and (iii) what causes differences in loan interest levels across the EA? The results indicate that different loan developments in the EA explain very well differences in output development, loans to SMEs contribute even more to output growth than those for large corporations. Loan development itself is negatively influenced by the interest level which differs significantly across EA members, with small loans in addition always being charged an interest premium over large loans. The capitalization of banks, the size of banks and their internationalization play a role as well. A part of the sluggish growth of loans can be explained by the increasing use of alternative financial instruments by large firms. Interest rates in turn are following the ECB interest rate, - but this link has become looser in the post-crisis period, and long term government bond rates. Different risks faced by banks and different bank structures have become important explanatories of interest rates in the post-crisis period. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Cette thèse est composée de trois chapitres distincts. Chacun de ces chapitres examine un impact spécifique de la concurrence entre les bourses sur les marchés financiers. Le chapitre 2 propose un modèle théorique afin d’analyser l’effet de la concurrence sur le rôle de certification offert par les bourses. Les résultats montrent que surestimer la qualité d’un projet est un équilibre malgré la présence des coûts de réputation. Le chapitre 3 analyse les effets du phénomène de conversion de structure organisationnelle des bourses de mutuelle-à-cotée sur la performance et sur la qualité de marché. Les résultats suggèrent que, bien que cette conversion améliore la performance financière des bourses, elle peut néanmoins nuire à la qualité de marché. Le chapitre 4 est une étude empirique de l’impact de la période de pré-ouverture sur la découverte des prix et la formation de la liquidité sur le marché primaire et sur les plateformes concurrentes. Les résultats montrent que les prix indicatifs de la période de pré-ouverture participent à la découverte des prix et contiennent également des informations particulièrement au début de la pré-ouverture. / This dissertation is made of three distinct chapters. Each of these chapters investigates a specific impact of the increased competition among stock exchanges in capital markets. Chapter 2 proposes a theoretical model to analyze the effect of competition on the quality of the certification process offered by stock exchanges. The findings show that overestimating the quality of a project is an equilibrium despite the presence of the reputation costs. Chapter 3 analyzes the effects of the mutual-to-stock conversion phenomenon on market performance and on market quality of listed exchanges. The results suggest that while stock exchange ownership conversion enhances the stock exchange financial performance, it may be detrimental to market quality. Chapter 4 empirically examines the impact of the pre-opening period of an incumbent market on price discovery and market liquidity on the primary market and on the competing venues. Results provide evidence that tentative prices during the pre-opening period participate to price discovery and also contain information particularly early during the pre-opening.