This study aims to investigate how market size impacts the level of economic success, diversity, entertainment, arts, and experience of shopping centers in Sweden. More specifically the paper uses regression analyses to test the relation between different forms of shopping center performance and market size. The results show that the municipality market size plays an important role in all analyzed cases. The results also showed that local labor market size does not have a significant impact on the dependent variables.

The focus of my PhD research has been on the acquisition of computational modeling and simulation methods used in both theoretical and applied Economics. My first chapter provides an interactive review of finite-difference methods for solving systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) commonly encountered in economic applications using Python. The methods surveyed in this chapter, as well as the accompanying code and IPython lab notebooks should be of interest to any researcher interested in applying finite-difference methods for solving ODEs to economic problems. My second chapter is an empirical analysis of the evolution of the distribution of bank size in the U.S. This paper assesses the statistical support for Zipf's Law (i.e., a power law, or Pareto, distribution with a scaling exponent of α = 2) as an appropriate model for the upper tail of the distribution of U.S. banks. Using detailed balance sheet data for all FDIC regulated banks for the years 1992 through 2011, I find significant departures from Zipf's Law for most measures of bank size inmost years. Although Zipf's Law can be statistically rejected, a power law distribution with α of roughly 1.9 statistically outperforms other plausible heavy-tailed alternative distributions. In my final chapter, which is based on joint work with Dr. David Comerford, I apply computational methods to model the relationship between per capita income and city size. A well-known result from the urban economics literature is that a monopolistically competitive market structure combined with internal increasing returns to scale can be used to generate log-linear relations between income and population. I extend this theoretical framework to allow for a variable elasticity of substitution between factors of production in a manner similar to Zhelobodko et al. (2012). Using data on Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the U.S. I find evidence that supports what Zhelobodko et al. (2012) refer to as "increasing relative love for variety (RLV)." Increasing RLV generates procompetitive effects as market size increases which means that IRS, whilst important for small to medium sized cities, are exhausted as cities become large. This has important policy implications as it suggests that focusing intervention on creating scale for small populations is potentially much more valuable than further investments to increase market size in the largest population centers.

The flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into a country can benefit both the investing entity (the home country) and the host country. The determinants of FDI are a highly discussed topic, with various determinants being analysed and discussed over time.  Multiple research papers focus on the determinants of the host country, which try to identify the most important factors that make countries attractive to investment from abroad. This paper aims to shed light on the home country determinants and their relationship with investments into the Republic of Ireland. Using panel data analysis for 28 different countries around the world from the years 2012 to 2019, this paper aims to find relationships between different home country related variables and FDI flows into the Republic of Ireland. We find evidence that FDI is positively associated with the market size of the home country, the corporate tax rate difference between the home and the host country and sharing an official language. On the other hand, population and distance were found to be negatively associated with FDI. Based on the results of our analysis, a discussion of the home country determinants and their impact on FDI into Ireland is presented.

This thesis consists of three self-contained essays in International Trade, Exchange Rates and Prices. Although independent, these essays share some common themes. The first two papers can be related to the vast literature on exchange rate pass-through to prices. While the first paper uses firm-product level data from Sweden to study firms’ export price response to movements in exchange rate, the second paper employs aggregate level data from Ethiopia and looks at the issue from the importers’ perspective. The third paper, like the first paper, uses Swedish firm-level data and investigates firms’ exporting behavior. The third paper, however, specifically focuses on export margins of multi-product firms and studies their response when exporting to destinations of different size and distance from the home country. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

This paper studies the home-country determinants of outward FDI with a focus on nine empirically recognized host-country determinants of inward FDI, namely market size, labor cost, exchange rate, inflation, interest rate, political risks, corruption, openness, and technology. Based on a panel with 183 observations from BRICS and five developed countries (Australia, Germany, Japan, UK, US), evidence is found that market size, inflation, interest rate, political risks, and openness have significant influence on FDI outflows. Moreover, the results of this study show that there are striking differences between developing and developed countries regarding to the drivers for outward FDI.

This thesis consists of four essays, covering four different topics. The first essay investigates the relationship between inter-firm labor mobility and regional productivity growth. Previous studies have shown that density is positively correlated with growth. I claim that it is not density in itself, but rather the attributes associated with it that drives economic growth. One such attribute is the increased possibility for labor mobility and knowledge diffusion that follows when firms and individuals locate in close proximity to each other. This hypothesis is tested using density as an instrument for labor mobility. The result shows that labor mobility increases regional growth rates. The second essay examines the relationship between agglomeration economies and relative wage costs in influencing location of multinational corporations. An inflow of firms to certain regions and industries is likely to increase demand for labor. If mobility of labor is low increased costs can be expected to deter additional inflows of firms, albeit agglomeration economies may compensate for higher wages. The empirical analysis finds that FDI has become increasingly sensitive to differences in wage costs across industrialized countries, but also that agglomeration economies related to knowledge externalities positively influences higher costs. The third essay looks at the impact of FDI on home country investments. Previous research has been inconclusive as regards the effects on domestic investments. In this article, we show that this inconclusiveness can be explained at a disaggregated level as a function of the way industries are organized. We argue that a complementary relationship can be expected to prevail in vertically integrated industries, whereas a substitutionary relationship can be expected in horizontally organized production. The empirical analysis confirms a significant difference between the two categories of industry as regards the impact of outward FDI on domestic investment. The fourth, and final, essay of this thesis analyses how increased R&amp;D expenditures and market size influence the distribution of comparative advantage. Previous studies report ambiguous results and also refer to periods when markets were much more segmented and production factors less mobile. The empirical analysis comprises 19 OECD-countries and spans the period 1981 to 1999. It is shown how an increase in R&amp;D-expenditures by one percentage point implies a three-percentage point increase in high-technology exports, whereas market size fails to attain significance. In addition, institutional factors influence the dynamics of comparative advantage.

In the thesis foreign direct investment in the Baltic countries using gravity model have been analysed. The first part of the thesis consists of foreign direct investment definition, the positive and negative influencing factors of foreign direct investment evaluation criteria analysis of the scientific literature and the authors different approaches to them. It is also made a critical evaluation of literature, authors usually distinguishing factors mentioned in different sources that affect foreign direct investment. Also in the first part of the paper theoretically gravity model and its application in practice of direct foreign investment assessment has been described. In the practical, analytical part the analysis of the chosen 7 most popular parameters from has been performed using the graphical methods. Also analyzed the market size, average wages, education levels, tax burden, economic openness index , GDP per capita and the average disposable income per household member on foreign direct investment in the Baltic countries, using multiple regression and correlation analysis and using a gravity model. The thesis ends with conclusions and recommendations. Structure: introduction, theoretical part, practical part, conclusions and suggestions, references. Thesis consist of: 77 p. text without appendixes, 19 pictures, 34 tables, 55 bibliographical entries. / Baigiamajame magistro darbe nagrinėjamos tiesioginės užsienio investicijos Baltijos šalyse taikant gravitacinį modelį. Pirmoje darbo dalyje pateikiama tiesioginių užsienio investicijų sąvokos, teigiamą ir neigiamą įtaką darančių veiksnių, tiesioginių užsienio investicijų vertinimo kriterijų analizė mokslinėje literatūroje bei skirtingas autorių požiūris į juos. Taip pat atliktas kritinis literatūros vertinimas, išskiriant dažniausiai autorių minimus veiksnius skirtinguose šaltiniuose, kurie daro įtaką tiesioginėms užsienio investicijoms. Taip pat pirmoje darbo dalyje teoriniu požiūriu išanalizuotas gravitacinis modelis bei jo taikymas praktikoje tiesioginėse užsienio investicijoms įvertinti. Praktinėje, analitinėje darbo dalyje pagal pasirinktus 7 parametrus iš dažniausiai pasitaikančių literatūros apžvalgose išanalizuotas Baltijos šalių tiesioginių užsienio investicijų atvejis naudojant grafinę analizę. Taip pat nagrinėjamas rinkos dydžio, vidutinio darbo užmokesčio, išsilavinimo lygio, mokesčių naštos, ekonominio atvirumo indekso BVP vienam gyventojui bei vidutinių disponuojamų pajamų vienam namų ūkio nariui įtaka tiesioginėms užsienio investicijoms Baltijos šalyse naudojant daugianarę koreliacinę regresinę analizę bei pritaikant gravitacinį modelį. Darbo pabaigoje pateikiamos išvados ir siūlymai. Darbą sudaro 2 dalys: įvadas, teorinė dalis, praktinė dalis išvados ir siūlymai, literatūros sąrašas. Darbo apimtis – 77 p. teksto be priedų, 19 iliustr., 34 lent., 55... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Dans ma thèse doctorale, j'étudie trois facteurs importants qui caractérisent le commerce international : les différences technologiques entre les pays, les barrières à l'entrée sous la forme de coûts fixes et la migration internationale. Le premier chapitre analyse si les différences technologiques entre les pays peuvent expliquer la spécialisation dans le commerce international entre les pays. Pour mesurer le niveau de la spécialisation, je calcule les index de concentration pour la valeur des importations et des exportations et décompose la concentration totale dans la marge de produits extensive (nombre de produits commercialisés) et la marge de produits intensive (volume de produits commercialisés). En utilisant des données commerciales détaillées au niveau du produit dans 160 pays, mes résultats montrent que les exportations sont plus concentrées que les importations, que la spécialisation se produit principalement au niveau de la marge intensive du produit, et que les économies plus grandes disposent d'importations et d'exportations plus diversifiées, car elles commercialisent plus de produits. Compte tenu de ces faits, j'évalue la capacité du modèle Eaton-Kortum, le principal modèle de la théorie ricardienne du commerce, pour représenter les preuves empiriques. Les résultats montrent que la spécialisation à travers l'avantage comparatif induit par les différences de technologie peut expliquer les faits qualitatifs et quantitatifs. De plus, j'évalue le rôle des déterminants clés de la spécialisation : le degré de l'avantage comparatif, l'élasticité de la substitution et la géographie. Une implication de ces résultats est qu'il est important d’évaluer jusqu'à quel point la volatilité de production mesurée par la volatilité du PIB est motivée par la spécialisation des exportations et des importations. Étant donné le compromis entre l'ouverture du commerce et la volatilité de production, les bénéfices tirés du commerce peuvent s'avérer plus faibles que ceux estimés précédemment. Par conséquent, les politiques commerciales alternatives telles que l'ouverture graduelle au commerce combinée à la diversification de la production pour réduire la concentration de l'exportation peuvent se révéler être une meilleure stratégie que l'approche du laissez-faire. En utilisant la relation entre la taille du marché et l’entrée de firmes et produits, le deuxième chapitre évalue si les barrières à l'entrée sous la forme de coûts fixes à exporter sont au niveau de la firme ou au niveau du produit. Si les coûts fixes se trouvent au niveau de la firme, la firme multiproduits a un avantage de coût de production par rapport aux autres firmes parce qu’elles peuvent diviser les coûts fixes sur plusieurs produits. Dans ce cas, le commerce international sera caractérisé par peu de firmes qui exportent beaucoup des produits. Si les coûts fixes sont au niveau du produit, l’entrée d’un produit est associée avec l’entrée de plusieurs firmes. La raison est qu’une fois que la première firme entre et paye les coûts fixes du produit, elle crée un effet d’entrainement qui réduit les coûts fixes pour des firmes rivales. Dans ce cas, le commerce international sera caractérisé par plusieurs firmes qui vendent des variétés différentes du même produit. En utilisant des données détaillées provenant de 40 pays exportateurs à travers 180 marchés de destination, mes résultats montrent que les barrières à l'entrée se trouvent principalement au niveau du produit. Un marché plus large favorise l'expansion d'un plus grand nombre d’entreprises au sein d'une catégorie de produit plutôt que de permettre aux entreprises produisant plusieurs produits de croître dans une gamme de produits. En regardant la différence entre le nombre d'exportateurs au sein d'une catégorie de produit dans des destinations données, je trouve que le taux d'entrée de firmes augmente significativement après qu'un produit entre la première fois dans le marché. J'en déduis donc que le premier entrant réduit les coûts fixes pour les firmes suivantes. Mes recherches démontrent également que malgré une plus grande compétition sur le marché du produit, les entreprises disposent de revenus d'exportation supérieurs et sont plus susceptibles de rester sur les marchés internationaux. Ces résultats sont cohérents avec l’hypothèse que l’effet d’entrainement incite l'entrée de firmes rivales et permettent aux entreprises de produire à plus grande échelle. Cette recherche dévoile un nombre de conclusions importantes. D'abord, les politiques commerciales encouragent l'entrée de nouveaux produits, par exemple, en promouvant des produits dans les marchés de destination entraînant ainsi des retombées qui se traduiront par un taux de participation plus élevé de l'entreprise et une croissance de l'exportation. Deuxièmement, les consommateurs du pays importateur peuvent bénéficier de prix plus bas pour le produit en réduisant les barrières techniques du commerce. Troisièmement, lorsque l'on effectue des expérimentations politiques sous la forme de réduction des coûts commerciaux, il est de coutume de considérer uniquement une baisse des coûts marginaux et d'évaluer les répercussions sur le bien-être du consommateur. Cependant, un élément important des accords commerciaux est la réduction des barrières techniques au commerce grâce à la négociation de normes communes pour un produit. Négliger l'existence des barrières à l'entrée et les conséquences des réaffectations de l'industrie affaiblit l'impact des réformes commerciales. Le troisième chapitre prend en compte le rôle de l'information dans la facilitation du commerce international. Les immigrants réduisent les coûts de transaction dans le commerce international en fournissant des informations sur les possibilités d'échange avec leur pays d'origine. En utilisant des données géographiques détaillées sur l'immigration et les importations aux États-Unis entre 1970 et 2005, je quantifie l'incidence qu'ont les nouveaux immigrants sur la demande pour les importations de biens intermédiaires aux États-Unis. Pour établir le lien cause à effet entre le commerce et la migration, j’exploite l'important afflux d'immigrants d'Amérique centrale après l'ouragan Mitch. Les résultats montrent que l'augmentation de dix pour cent d'immigrants a fait croître la demande pour les importations de biens intermédiaires de 1,5 pour cent. Mes résultats sont robustes aux problèmes de la causalité inverse ou la décision d’émigrer est causée par des opportunités de faire du commerce. / In my PhD thesis I study three factors that shape international trade patterns: technological differences across countries, entry barriers in the form of fixed costs and international migration. The first chapter analyses whether technology differences across countries can explain specialization patterns in international trade. To measure specialization, I compute concentration indexes for the value of exports and imports and decomposes the overall concentration into the extensive product margin (number of products traded) and intensive product margin (volume of products traded). The results show that exports are more concentrated than imports, specialization occurs mainly in the volume of trade and larger economies have more diversified exports and imports because they trade more products. I then evaluate the ability of the Eaton-Kortum model, the workhorse model of Ricardian trade theory, to account for the observed facts. The results show that technology-induced specialization through comparative advantage can explain the qualitative and quantitative facts. The key determinants of specialization are the degree of comparative advantage, the elasticity of substitution and geography. Based on the relationship between entry and market size, the second chapter evaluates whether fixed costs are at the firm or at the product level. Within an empirical framework, I argue that fixed costs at the firm level induce a cost advantage for multi-product firms and international trade will be characterized by few firms selling many products. On the other hand, if fixed costs are at the product level, product entry is accompanied with lots of firms entry and international trade will be characterized by many firms selling different varieties of the same product. Using detailed product level data from 40 exporting countries to 180 destination markets, the results indicate that entry barriers operate at the product level. The key implication of the product fixed cost is that the firm that pays the fixed cost creates a positive externality that lowers entry costs for rival exporters and increases firm entry. Looking at firm entry within products across time and destinations, I find evidence consistent with these spillover effects. Combined these results have important implications for the effects of trade policy on market structure and on the resulting gains from trade in the exporting as well as in the importing country. The third chapter considers the role of migration in facilitating international trade. Immigrants can increase international trade by shifting preferences towards the goods of their country of origin and by reducing bilateral transaction costs. Using geographical variations across US states for the period 1970 to 2005, we quantify the impact of immigrants on intermediate goods imports. We address endogeneity and reverse causality - which arises if migration from a country of origin to a US state is driven by trade opportunities between the two locations - by exploiting the exogenous allocation of refugees within the US refugee resettlement program. Our results are robust to an alternative identification strategy, based on the large influx of Central American immigrants to the United States after hurricane Mitch. We find that a 10 percent increase in recent immigrants to a given US state raises intermediate imports from those immigrants' country of origin by 1.5 percent.

The problem of low domestic savings is inherent in most Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. This has motivated most of the SADC countries to institute policies that seek to attract foreign capital to cover the investment deficit that arises from low domestic savings rates. This study gives robust conclusions on the effectiveness of individual tax incentives commonly used by SADC countries in attracting foreign mobile capital. This study has broadened the dimensions research can take in analysing the contribution of tax incentives to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into developing countries. In separating individual tax incentives mainly used in the SADC region the study gives a robust analysis on the impact of each tax incentive on FDI inflows into SADC countries. The tax incentives used in this study are: tax holidays, corporate income tax (CIT), reduced CIT in specific sectors and losses carried forward. The study also derives data indices for governance, infrastructure and economic policy variables which gives the study clean and reliable data for efficient regression results. These macroeconomic data derivations assist in giving the FDI attraction analysis more variables and well behaved data in drawing conclusions. Through an analysis and comparison of trends in FDI inflows and stock data in different African regions the study draws important conclusions on the impact of the socio-economic environment in FDI attraction. The study, in consultation with data from the period 2004 to 2013 separates the SADC countries into four panels based on resource richness. Panel 1 includes the resources-rich countries, Panel 2 the resources-poor countries, Panel 3 all SADC countries, except South Africa and Panel 4 all the SADC countries. Each of the estimate models in this study, use individual tax incentives variables to avoid the effects of collinearity between different tax incentives variables and to improve the predictive power of the panel data models. This study derived tax incentives data for individual SADC countries, from Ernst and Young’s worldwide tax data. Regular tax incentives in the SADC are derived from tax holidays, corporate income tax (CIT); losses carried forward and reduced CIT in specific sectors. This study seeks to achieve two major objectives: firstly, to establish the effectiveness of tax incentives in attracting FDI inflows into SADC countries, and, secondly, to establish other variables that influence FDI inflows into SADC countries. The study estimated four panels for SADC countries, separated according to resource richness. This was done because different types of FDI are dependent on the available resources in developing countries and thus factors that influence the FDI inflows differ according to resource richness. Resource-seeking FDI moves to resources-rich economies, market-seeking FDI goes to economies that have access to larger markets and efficiency-seeking and strategic-asset-seeking FDI move to economies that ensure efficient use of their capital resources. Thus, as expected, factors that attract FDI to countries in the separate panels differ in direction of causality and magnitude of impact. The study adopts a system Generalised Method of Moments (SYS GMM) methodology to address the problem of endogeneity associated with dynamic panel data models. The estimated results established that tax holidays positively explain FDI inflows in Panel 2. CIT was found to negatively affect FDI inflows into all SADC countries despite their particular category of resource-richness. Losses carried forward are insignificant in all panels and reduced CIT in specific sectors negatively influences FDI inflows in Panel 1 and surprisingly positively influences FDI inflows in Panel 2. The lagged FDI variable shows a positive relationship with current year FDI inflows. The governance index is significant and positively affects FDI inflows in panels 1, 3 and 4. Panel 2 shows a negative relationship between governance and FDI inflows. Market potential measured by GDP growth rate is insignificantly different from zero in all the four panels in the study and negatively signed, except in models A and C of Panel 2. The stock of infrastructure is significant and negatively signed in all the panels. The log natural resources variable though insignificant in some models, mainly, exhibit a significant and negative effect in most models of the study’s panel estimations. The trade openness variable is positively related to FDI inflows in Panel 1. Panel 2 show negative effects of trade openness to FDI inflows. Financial globalisation significantly impacts positive FDI inflows in all the four panels. The economic policy variable is insignificant in all the four panels of the study, except, in model B of Panel 1 where it is weakly significant at 10% level and negatively signed. The study concludes that tax incentives are important in FDI attraction in the SADC countries; therefore, an effective tax mix that ensures efficient use of tax incentives is important to ensure sustainable FDI inflows into the region. Good governance is important in the region for FDI inflows to increase. Increasing government rents from natural resources reduces FDI inflows in the SADC. Previous year flows of FDI are positively related to current year inflows, thus consistent FDI attraction policies in the SADC are important. Infrastructure in the SADC should be consistently improved to ensure suitability with the dynamic nature of foreign investment. Financial markets should be developed to ensure effective flow of capital and growth in economies through more investment. / Economics / D. Com.. (Economics)

nÃo hà / Em 2008, o mundo se deparou com uma crise econÃmica que abalou as pilastras e confiabilidade no setor bancÃrio mundial. Os bancos se estruturam em um processo defensivo de proteÃÃo de seus ativos. No Brasil, O Governo Federal estimulou os bancos pÃblicos a prover crÃdito no mercado, buscado suavizar os efeitos de fuga de investimento e repatriaÃÃo de cash na recomposiÃÃo dos ativos. A pergunta chave desse artigo Ã: houve alteraÃÃo na Competitividade de Bancos PÃblicos e Privados em Mercados Locais Brasileiros apÃs o ano 2000? Mais de uma dÃcada se passou e refizemos essa verificaÃÃo para dados de 2010, seguindo Bresnahan e Reiss (1991a), e comparamos com o trabalho de Coelho, Pinho e Rezende (2011). Dada a alta concentraÃÃo no setor bancÃrio, como se comportaria uma simulaÃÃo de fusÃo entre os dois maiores bancos pÃblicos brasileiros? Esse trabalho se divide em 03 (trÃs) artigos. No artigo n 1, verificamos se houve mudanÃa na competitividade em bancos pÃblicos e privados para a dÃcada de 2010. Constatamos mudanÃas significativas, com alteraÃÃo da qualificaÃÃo do custo e do processo de estruturaÃÃo da margem preÃo-custo que nos faz inferir numa mudanÃa na composiÃÃo e de estratÃgias dos bancos pÃblicos e privados em uma nova visÃo competitiva do setor. Os bancos pÃblicos nÃo afetam o comportamento dos bancos privados em mercados locais, mas a exigÃncia de tamanho de mercado para a inserÃÃo de um novo concorrente foi reduzida pela alteraÃÃo da estrutura dos custos e influÃncias de efeitos regionais. E se considerÃssemos o mercado com apenas um banco pÃblico? No artigo n 2, refizemos a anÃlise, considerando a CAIXA como o Ãnico banco pÃblico, e encontramos resultados semelhantes a nossa anÃlise revisional de 2010, a notar mais Ãnfase nos efeitos regionais, tanto na reduÃÃo dos custos pra a regiÃo Norte como na alteraÃÃo negativa nos deslocadores de demanda para as regiÃes Sudeste, Sul e Centro-Oeste, bem como influÃncia praticamente nula do Ãnico banco pÃblico â CAIXA na reduÃÃo dos lucros dos bancos privados. No artigo n 3, apresentamos uma anÃlise de simulaÃÃo de fusÃo no setor bancÃrio brasileiro. O objetivo central foi capturar os efeitos da fusÃo entre o Banco do Brasil e a CAIXA em 12 (doze) segmentos/portifÃlios mais significativos do mercado. Os resultados do equilÃbrio pÃs-fusÃo foram obtidos pelo modelo PCAIDS (Proportionality-Calibrated Almost Ideal Demand System), proposto por Epstein e Rubinfeld (2002), que simula a fusÃo de 02 (duas) empresas em um mercado oligopolizado. Os Resultados do exercÃcio de simulaÃÃo confirmaram os aumentos esperados nos âpreÃosâ dos segmentos. Este resultado à condizente com a expectativa de que as fusÃes implicam em aumentos de preÃos de mercado e, sem ganhos de eficiÃncia econÃmica, podem impor perdas para os consumidores. / In 2008, the world faced an economic crisis that shook the pillars and reliability in the global banking sector. Banks are structured in a defensive process of its asset protection. In Brazil, the federal government encouraged public banks to provide credit in the market, sought to soften the investment leakage effects and cash repatriation in the restructuring of assets. The key question that is: was no change in Competitiveness Public and Private Banks in Local Brazilian markets after 2000? More than a decade has passed and redid this check to 2010 data, following Bresnahan and Reiss (1991a), and compared with Coelho's work, Pinho and Rezende (2011). Given the high concentration in the banking sector, would behave as a simulation of a merger between the two largest Brazilian public banks? This work is divided into 03 (three) articles. In Article 1, we check to see if there was a change in competitiveness in public and private banks for the decade to 2010. We found significant changes, by changing the qualification of the cost and price-cost margin of the structuring process that makes us infer a change in the composition and strategies of public and private banks in a new competitive view of the sector. Public banks will affect the behavior of private banks in local markets, but the market size requirement for the inclusion of a new competitor was reduced by changing the cost structure and influences of regional effects. And if we consider the market with only a public bank? In Article 2, redid the analysis, considering CAIXA as the only state-owned bank, and found similar results to our revisional analysis 2010, noted more emphasis on regional effects, both in reducing costs to the North as in the negative change in demand shifters for the Southeast, South and Midwest, and virtually no influence of the only public bank - CAIXA in reducing the profits of private banks. In Article 3, we present a fusion of simulation analysis in the Brazilian banking sector. The main objective was to capture the effects of the merger between Banco do Brazil and CAIXA in 12 (twelve) segments most significant portfolio in the market. The results of the post-merger balance were obtained by PCAIDS model (Proportionality-Calibrated Almost Ideal Demand System), proposed by Epstein and Rubinfeld (2002), which simulates the merger of 02 (two) companies in an oligopoly market. The results of the simulation exercise confirmed the expected increases in "price" of the segments. This result is consistent with the expectation that mergers entail market price increases and without economic efficiency gains, impose losses to consumers.