Orientador: Renata Maria Facuri Coelho Marchezan / Banca: Maria do Rosário Valencise Gregolin / Banca: Rinaldo Guariglia / Resumo: Nesta dissertação, buscamos compreender a produtividade das ideias do Círculo de Bakhtin no exame do diálogo e da interação entre o sistema de linguagem musical e o sistema de linguagem verbal. Analisamos formas de representação do discurso musical em contos de Machado de Assis (1839-1908). Para tanto, refletimos inicialmente sobre a relação de M. M. Bakhtin (1895-1975) com a música, o seu pensamento musical e sua importância teórica para a constituição da metodologia dialógica de análise da linguagem. Como são as ideias do Círculo sobre dialogismo, discurso direto, indireto e indireto livre, polifonia, modulação tonal e sinfonismo dialógico? A partir dessas ideias, como é possível analisar os alcances objetivos do pensamento musical de Machado de Assis em seus contos? Sendo assim, expomos e comentamos a estrutura, a organização e o funcionamento do material, da forma e do conteúdo do "som significativo" representado na linguagem verbal e musical. Por meio dessa concepção bakhtiniana, estudamos os alcances de continuidades e descontinuidades materiais, formais e semânticas do pensamento musical nas relações do sujeito com os elementos de linguagem musical e verbal. Desse modo, exploramos como o discurso musical de Machado de Assis foi percebido e tratado em perspectiva literária historiográfica e musicológica. Discorremos sobre como o sujeito, o tempo e o espaço aparecem refletidos, refratados e acomodados no diálogo da literatura com a música. Também examinamos como os temas do discurso musical machadiano são modulados no gênero conto e como eles são representados em esferas de atividades da cultura musical brasileira. Por fim, analisamos a posição dialógica do sujeito autor na enunciação do discurso musical e sua condução temática / Abstract: In this dissertation, we have researched the productivity of ideas from "Bakhtin's Circle" to the examination and understanding of "dialogue" and possible interactions between verbal and musical languages. By this way, we have analyzed Machado de Assis (1839-1908)'s musical discourse representation forms in his Brazilian short stories. So, at first, we have reflected about M. M. Bakhtin's musical language relationships answering what your musical thought is like and showing its theoretical importance to the constitution of dialogical methodology on language analysis. In other words, what the ideas from the Circle about dialogism, reported direct and indirect and free indirect speech, polyphony, tonal modulation and dialogical symphonism are like? Starting from those ideas, how is possible to analyze material objective reaches of the Machado de Assis's musical thought in his short stories? We have exposed and commented the material structure, the formal organization and the content semantic function of the "meaningful sound" represented in verbal and musical language. Through that bakhtinian conception, we have studied material reaches, formal and semantic continuities and descontinuities of musical thought in subject's relationships with musical and verbal language elements. We have explored how Machado de Assis's musical discourse was first perceived and treated by historiographic literary critic and musicology perspective. We have discoursed about how subject, time and space appear contemplated, refracted and suitable in literature's dialogue with music. We have also examined how musical themes from machadian literary discourse are modulated by short story genre and how they are represented in Brazilian culture spheres of musical activities. Finally, we have analyzed the subject author's dialogic position, his musical discourse enunciation and his thematic conduction / Mestre

Este trabalho pretende mostrar os efeitos expressivos gerados pelo emprego das locuções adjetivas nos contos de Clarice Lispector. Para tanto, foi realizada a recolha de sintagmas nominais com locuções adjetivas das narrativas que compõem as duas primeiras obras de contos da autora: Laços de família e A legião estrangeira. Focando-se a análise semântico-estilística na descrição das personagens, as locuções adjetivas revelaram-se como um dos motores da prosa poética, contribuindo para a construção de um mundo ficcional introspectivo. Por meio das relações semânticas entre a locução adjetiva e o substantivo nuclear do sintagma nominal, há o engenho de imagens que demonstram a subjetividade das personagens e arquitetam uma escritura plena de recursos expressivos, entre eles a metáfora, a sinédoque e a antonomásia. / This study aims at detailing the expressive effects produced by the use of the adjective clauses in Clarice Lispectors short stories. This objective was achieved by the selection of noun syntagms containing adjective clauses taken from the narratives found in the first two pieces of work of the authors short stories: Laços de família and A legião estrangeira. By focusing on the semanticstylistic analysis of the description of the characters, the adjective clauses presented themselves as one of the driving engines of the poetic prose, thus contributing to the construction of an introspective fictional world. This can be explained by the semantic relastionships, divided up into the adjective clause and the nuclear subject of the noun syntagm, among which there is and inventive production of images that demonstrate the characters subjectivity and build up a writing full of expressive resources such as the metaphor, the synecdoche and the antonomasy.

Cette thèse porte sur l'introduction des entités dans un discours narratif dans deux langues cibles différentes, le français et l'anglais, par des apprenants libanais de 10, 13 et 16 ans. Nous nous intéressons a l'ordre d'acquisition des langues cibles considérées. Ainsi, nous avons analysé les récits de film à l'oral produits par deux groupes d'apprenants, un groupe ayant reçu l'enseignement du français (L2) avant celui de l'anglais (L3) et inversement, un autre groupe ayant etc. d'abord scolarise en anglais (L2) et ensuite en français (L3). Nous abordons donc la question de l'impact des langues sources, l'arabe libanais (L1), le français (L2 ou L3) et l'anglais (L2 ou L3) dans l'acquisition des moyens linguistiques nécessaires pour construire la référence aux entités dans un discours narratif, notamment en ce qui concerne l'introduction de la référence. Pour pouvoir mieux évaluer le rôle des langues sources en question, nous avons recueilli et analyse les productions issues de la même tache communicative effectuées par 3 groupes de contrôle composes des locuteurs natifs de l'anglais, du français et de l'arabe libanais. Cette recherche s'inscrit dans l'approche fonctionnaliste (Klein et Perdue 1997) et s'appuie sur le modèle de la quaestio (Klein et von Stutterheim 1991) qui permet d'examiner l'interaction entre la structure discursive et la structure phrastique des énoncés. L'analyse fait apparaitre les spécificités des langues étudiées et la variation de leurs procédés linguistiques nécessaires à l'introduction des entités. Cette étude contribue a la meilleure compréhension du processus d'acquisition en ce qui concerne l'impact des langues sources, le facteur de l’âge et l'ordre d'acquisition de différentes langues étrangères. Par ailleurs, nos résultats permettent d'aborder la question de l'apport de la recherche en acquisition à la didactique des langues. Et finalement, l'analyse du corpus en libanais du groupe de contrôle ouvre des perspectives nouvelles pour la description de cette langue dans une approche relativement peu adoptée dans les travaux en linguistique arabe. / The present study concerns the introduction of entities in a narrative discourse in two different target languages, French and English, by Lebanese learners of 10, 13 and 16 year old. The main purpose is to observe acquisitional sequences in the two mentioned target languages. We analyzed the oral production – a story of a film – of two groups of learners, one group who first received French (L2) instruction at school before English (L3) instruction and inversely, the other group who initially attended school in English (L2) and later in French (L3). Therefore, we are investigating the impact of source languages, Lebanese Arabic (L1), French (L2 or L3) and English (L2 and L3) on the acquisition of the linguistic means essential for the construction of the reference to entities in a narrative discourse, especially as regards introduction of the reference. In order to evaluate the role of the specified source languages better, we collected and analyzed productions from the same verbal task performed by three control groups, French English and Lebanese Arabic of adult native speakers. We adopt a functionalist approach (Klein & Perdue 1997), building on the quaestio model (Klein & von Stutterheim 1991) that allows us to analyze the relationship between informational/discourse structure and the phrasal structure of utterances. Our analysis shows the specificity of studied languages and the variation of their linguistic processes necessary for the introduction of entities. This study contributes to a better comprehension of the acquisition process regarding sources languages impacts, age factors and sequences of acquisition of different foreign languages. Moreover, our results enable us to approach the question of contribution of research in acquisition of the languages’ didactic. Finally, the analysis of the Lebanese corpus of the control group offers new and promising prospects for the description of this language, in an approach only rarely adopted in Arabic linguistic research.

This diploma thesis deals with the trends in the implicit tax rates of corporations in the Czech Republic comparing to the statutory tax rates which are stipulated in the legislation. Implicit tax rates of corporations are defined by the European Commission and measure actual tax burden of companies in particular states of European Union. Data for their measure proceed from the statistics ESA95 which enable to compare particular states of European Union. The thesis deals with the methodology of the calculation of implicit tax rate of corporation and influences with which it operates. By the method of comparison it compares these tax rates across the European Union. The significant part of the diploma thesis is devoted to the analysis of Czech legal regulations of corporate taxation between 1995 and 2009. By this analysis the causes of the differences between implicit and statutory tax rates in the years when the differences between tax rates are the most significant are determined. In the last chapter diploma thesis compares the development of differences between the tax rates in the Czech Republic in comparison with the selected states of European Union by chain and basis indexes. The aim of the diploma thesis is to analyze development of differences between implicit and statutory tax rates of corporations in the Czech Republic compared to the member states of the European Union.

O objetivo maior deste trabalho é argumentar em favor de que a informação sobre a estrutura argumental das nominalizações está codificada em núcleos funcionais, os quais podem possuir sabores diferentes, isto é, propriedades diversas como causatividade, eventividade, reflexividade etc., em vez de tal informação estar codificada nas raízes abstratas como assumem autores como: Marantz (1997), Embick (2004), Harley (2008), entre outros. O objetivo específico deste trabalho, por sua vez, é analisar como é formado um grupo de padrões do hebraico, o qual forma nomes de ações (cf. GLINERT, 1989), e mostrar que nem todas as nominalizações são formadas por uma camada verbal, contra Hazout (1995) e Shlonsky (2004). Utilizamos como arcabouço teórico do presente trabalho a Morfologia Distribuída (cf. HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993; MARANTZ, 1997; SIDDIQI, 2009), uma teoria não-lexicalista, a qual propõe que tanto palavras, quanto sentenças são formadas pelas mesmas operações durante a derivação sintática. De modo especial, utilizamos a noção de fase dentro de palavras (cf. MARANTZ, 2001 e ARAD, 2003), para explicar que alguns nominais possuem padrões vocálicos que não são atômicos (contra ARAD, 2005), mas são formados em duas fases: uma fase verbal e outra nominal, enquanto outros nominais são formados em apenas uma fase: a nominal. Em nossa análise, privilegiamos quatro padrões vocálicos formadores de nominais de ação: CCiCa, CiCuC, haCCaCa, hitCCaCut, de modo que encontramos restrições diferentes para cada um dos padrões. Tais restrições dizem respeito a: (i) modificação por adjetivos e advérbios; (ii) possibilidade de alçamento dentro de DPs; (iii) obrigatoriedade de interpretação de um argumento agente e (iv) obrigatoriedade de interpretação reflexiva. Além disso, analisamos os possíveis contextos sintáticos em que são encontrados esse nominais, isto é, analisamos quais são as possibilidades de interação desses nominais com o Construct State, o Free State, a Marca Diferencial de Objeto et e com a presença de uma by phrase. Como resultado da análise, defendemos que o padrão CCiCa seja um padrão formado por apenas uma fase nominal, o que explica a sua impossibilidade de modificação por advérbios genuínos, isto é, advérbios que possuem uma morfologia típica de advérbio. Por sua vez, o padrão CiCuC é formado por duas fases: uma fase verbal, que aceita a modificação por advérbios genuínos; e uma fase nominal, que permite a modificação por adjetivos. Já o padrão haCCaCa foi analisado como formado por apenas uma fase nominal, tanto por causa da sua morfologia, que não apresenta resquícios de uma morfologia verbal, quanto pela sua semântica obrigatoriamente agentiva, que o diferencia do padrão verbal ao qual ele está relacionado. Por fim, consideramos que o padrão hitCCaCut é formado por duas fases, o que está de acordo com a presença de uma morfologia verbal que compõe o padrão e com o tipo de argumento interno que é licenciado. / The main goal of this work is to argue that information over argument structure of nominalizations is coded in functional heads, which can have distinct flavors, that is, distinct properties, such as causativity, eventivity, reflexivity, etc., instead of that information being coded in the abstract roots, as assumed by Marantz (1997), Embick (2004), Harley (2008), among others. The specific object of this work, on the other hand, is to analyze how a certain group of patterns that generates action nouns in Hebrew is formed, and to show that not all nominalizations are formed by a verbal layer, contra Hazout (1995) and Shlonsky (2004). We use, in this work, the theoretical framework of Distributed Morphology (cf. HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993; MARANTZ, 1997; SIDDIQI, 2009), a non-lexicalist theory which claims that both words and sentences are formed by the same operations, within the syntactic derivation. In a special way, we use the notion of phases within words (cf. MARANTZ, 2001 e ARAD, 2003) in order to explain that some nouns possess vocal patterns that are not atomic (contra ARAD, 2005), but are formed in two separate phases: a verbal one, and a nominal one, while other nouns are formed only by the nominal phase. In our analysis, we privilege four noun formation vocal patterns: CCiCa, CiCuC, haCCaCa, hitCCaCut, each one of them bearing a distinct set of restrictions. Such restrictions concern: (i) modification by adjectives and adverbs; (ii) possibility of raising within DPs; (iii) mandatory interpretation of an agentive argument and (iv) mandatory reflexive interpretation. Furthermore, we analyzed the possible syntactic contexts in which these nouns are found, that is, we analyzed which are the possibilities of interaction between these nouns and the Construct State, the Free State, the Differential Object Marker et a the presence of a by phrase. As a result of the analysis, we defend that the pattern CCiCa is formed by only a nominal phase, which explains its impossibility of being modified by genuine adverbs, that is, adverbs that possess adverbial morphology. On the other hand, the pattern CiCuC is formed by two phases: a verbal phase, which accounts for the modification by genuine adverbs; and a nominal phase, which allows for the modification by adjectives. The pattern haCCaCa, in its turn, was analyzes as formed by a nominal phase alone, both because its morphology, which does not present traces of verbal morphology, as for its obligatory agentive semantics, which differentiates it from the verbal pattern to which it is related to. Last, we considered that the pattern hitCCaCut is formed by two phases, which is compatible to the presence of verbal morphology, that composes the pattern, and to the type of argument that is licensed by it.

Esta dissertação investiga nomes nus e classificadores numerais do chinês mandarim, assim como a distinção lexical entre nomes contáveis e massivos do chinês. O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar e avaliar as possíveis denotações dos nominais do chinês mandarim. O texto é divido em três partes. Na primeira, investigam-se nomes nus do chinês mandarim, que manifestam número geral. Defende-se que o número geral não ocorre em sintagmas nominais em que existe numeral. No Chinês mandarim, nomes nus podem ser interpretados como indefinidos, definidos e genéricos de acordo com suas posições sintáticas e contextos em que ocorrem. A hipótese defendida na segunda parte da dissertação é a de que, no chinês mandarim, há distinção lexical entre nomes contáveis e massivos. Um fator importante na distinção contável-massivo do chinês mandarim é a presença de classificadores e suas relações com os nomes. Defende-se que a combinação entre os nomes e os classificadores é seletiva e, com base nisso, os nomes comuns do chinês podem ser divididos em nomes contáveis, nomes massivos, nomes coletivos, nomes abstratos e nomes próprios. Além de classificador, mais uma evidência para a contabilidade dos nomes do chinês é o morfema men. A terceira parte da dissertação avalia a presença de classificador nos sintagmas nominais com numerais. Defende-se que diferentes grupos de classificadores possuem diferentes funções: classificadores individuais são marcadores gramaticais de contabilidade e não têm a função individualizadora e, os outros grupos têm suas restrições na combinação com os nomes. A combinação entre numeral e classificador pode ser tratada como um núcleo complexo que ocorre morfologicamente como um item lexical, mas o numeral pode-se omitir dentro deste complexo e classificador não. Sendo assim, Os classificadores devem ser tratados como um sufixo na sua ocorrência dentro do complexo [Num-CL], mas como um clítico em outras ocorrências. / This dissertation investigates bare nouns and numeral classifiers in Mandarin Chinese, as well as the lexical distinction between count and mass nouns of Chinese. The goal of this work is to study and assess the possible denotations of nominals in Mandarin Chinese. The dissertation is divided in three parts. In the first part, the bare nominals in Mandarin Chinese will be investigated and they have general number. We argue that the general number can not happen in noun phrases when they contain numerals. In Mandarin Chinese, the bare nouns can be interpreted as indefinites, definites and generics, according to their syntactic positions and contexts in that they happen. The hypothesis presented in the second part of this dissertation is that in Mandarin Chinese, there is the lexical distinction between count and mass nouns. One important factor in this count-mass distinction of Mandarin Chinese is the presence of classifiers and their relationships with the nouns. We argue that, based on the selective combination between names and classifiers, the common nouns of Chinese can be divided in count nouns, mass nouns, collective nouns, abstract nouns and proper nouns. Besides the classifier, one more evidence for the accounting of Chinese\'s names is the morpheme men. The third part of the dissertation assesses the classifiers presence in the noun phrases with numerals. We argue that, different groups of classifiers have different functions: the individual classifiers are grammatical markers of accounting and they do not have the individualizing function, while the other groups have their restrictions in the combination with the nouns. The combination between the numeral and the classifier can be treated as a complex head that happens morphologically as a lexical item, but the numeral in which can be omitted in some contexts and the classifier can not. Thus, the classifiers should be treated as a suffix in his occurrence with the complex [Num-CL], but as a clitic in other occurrences.

O objetivo maior deste trabalho é argumentar em favor de que a informação sobre a estrutura argumental das nominalizações está codificada em núcleos funcionais, os quais podem possuir sabores diferentes, isto é, propriedades diversas como causatividade, eventividade, reflexividade etc., em vez de tal informação estar codificada nas raízes abstratas como assumem autores como: Marantz (1997), Embick (2004), Harley (2008), entre outros. O objetivo específico deste trabalho, por sua vez, é analisar como é formado um grupo de padrões do hebraico, o qual forma nomes de ações (cf. GLINERT, 1989), e mostrar que nem todas as nominalizações são formadas por uma camada verbal, contra Hazout (1995) e Shlonsky (2004). Utilizamos como arcabouço teórico do presente trabalho a Morfologia Distribuída (cf. HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993; MARANTZ, 1997; SIDDIQI, 2009), uma teoria não-lexicalista, a qual propõe que tanto palavras, quanto sentenças são formadas pelas mesmas operações durante a derivação sintática. De modo especial, utilizamos a noção de fase dentro de palavras (cf. MARANTZ, 2001 e ARAD, 2003), para explicar que alguns nominais possuem padrões vocálicos que não são atômicos (contra ARAD, 2005), mas são formados em duas fases: uma fase verbal e outra nominal, enquanto outros nominais são formados em apenas uma fase: a nominal. Em nossa análise, privilegiamos quatro padrões vocálicos formadores de nominais de ação: CCiCa, CiCuC, haCCaCa, hitCCaCut, de modo que encontramos restrições diferentes para cada um dos padrões. Tais restrições dizem respeito a: (i) modificação por adjetivos e advérbios; (ii) possibilidade de alçamento dentro de DPs; (iii) obrigatoriedade de interpretação de um argumento agente e (iv) obrigatoriedade de interpretação reflexiva. Além disso, analisamos os possíveis contextos sintáticos em que são encontrados esse nominais, isto é, analisamos quais são as possibilidades de interação desses nominais com o Construct State, o Free State, a Marca Diferencial de Objeto et e com a presença de uma by phrase. Como resultado da análise, defendemos que o padrão CCiCa seja um padrão formado por apenas uma fase nominal, o que explica a sua impossibilidade de modificação por advérbios genuínos, isto é, advérbios que possuem uma morfologia típica de advérbio. Por sua vez, o padrão CiCuC é formado por duas fases: uma fase verbal, que aceita a modificação por advérbios genuínos; e uma fase nominal, que permite a modificação por adjetivos. Já o padrão haCCaCa foi analisado como formado por apenas uma fase nominal, tanto por causa da sua morfologia, que não apresenta resquícios de uma morfologia verbal, quanto pela sua semântica obrigatoriamente agentiva, que o diferencia do padrão verbal ao qual ele está relacionado. Por fim, consideramos que o padrão hitCCaCut é formado por duas fases, o que está de acordo com a presença de uma morfologia verbal que compõe o padrão e com o tipo de argumento interno que é licenciado. / The main goal of this work is to argue that information over argument structure of nominalizations is coded in functional heads, which can have distinct flavors, that is, distinct properties, such as causativity, eventivity, reflexivity, etc., instead of that information being coded in the abstract roots, as assumed by Marantz (1997), Embick (2004), Harley (2008), among others. The specific object of this work, on the other hand, is to analyze how a certain group of patterns that generates action nouns in Hebrew is formed, and to show that not all nominalizations are formed by a verbal layer, contra Hazout (1995) and Shlonsky (2004). We use, in this work, the theoretical framework of Distributed Morphology (cf. HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993; MARANTZ, 1997; SIDDIQI, 2009), a non-lexicalist theory which claims that both words and sentences are formed by the same operations, within the syntactic derivation. In a special way, we use the notion of phases within words (cf. MARANTZ, 2001 e ARAD, 2003) in order to explain that some nouns possess vocal patterns that are not atomic (contra ARAD, 2005), but are formed in two separate phases: a verbal one, and a nominal one, while other nouns are formed only by the nominal phase. In our analysis, we privilege four noun formation vocal patterns: CCiCa, CiCuC, haCCaCa, hitCCaCut, each one of them bearing a distinct set of restrictions. Such restrictions concern: (i) modification by adjectives and adverbs; (ii) possibility of raising within DPs; (iii) mandatory interpretation of an agentive argument and (iv) mandatory reflexive interpretation. Furthermore, we analyzed the possible syntactic contexts in which these nouns are found, that is, we analyzed which are the possibilities of interaction between these nouns and the Construct State, the Free State, the Differential Object Marker et a the presence of a by phrase. As a result of the analysis, we defend that the pattern CCiCa is formed by only a nominal phase, which explains its impossibility of being modified by genuine adverbs, that is, adverbs that possess adverbial morphology. On the other hand, the pattern CiCuC is formed by two phases: a verbal phase, which accounts for the modification by genuine adverbs; and a nominal phase, which allows for the modification by adjectives. The pattern haCCaCa, in its turn, was analyzes as formed by a nominal phase alone, both because its morphology, which does not present traces of verbal morphology, as for its obligatory agentive semantics, which differentiates it from the verbal pattern to which it is related to. Last, we considered that the pattern hitCCaCut is formed by two phases, which is compatible to the presence of verbal morphology, that composes the pattern, and to the type of argument that is licensed by it.

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Trauma Inventory for Partners of Sex Addicts (TIPSA). Using the Nominal Response Model (NRM), I examined several aspects of item and option functioning including discrimination, empirical category ordering, and information. Category Boundary Discrimination (CBD) parameters were calculated to determine the extent to which respondents distinguished between adjacent categories. Indistinguishable categories were collapsed through recoding. Empirically disordered response categories were also collapsed through recoding. Findings revealed that recoding solved some technical functioning issues in some items, and also revealed items (and perhaps option anchors) that were probably poorly conceived initially. In addition, nuisance or error variance was reduced only marginally by recoding, and the relative standing of respondents on the trait continuum remained largely unchanged. Items in need of modification or removal were identified, and issues of content validity were discussed.

This dissertation treats two different themes. The first, addressed in Chapter 1, regards the pricing of interest rate swaps. The second, studied in the remaining two chapters, regards the implications of monetary policy for the term structure of interest rates.The pricing of interest rate swaps An interest rate swap is an agreement between two parties to exchange fix for floating interest rate payments for a certain period of time. Floating rate payments are made at a floating-rate index, e.g. the three-month interbank rate, while the fixed rate payment, the swap rate, is determined on the market. The swap rate may include a compensation for credit risk depending on the counterparty's credit quality, but in the standard agreement there is no exchange of principal, only interest is transacted, and this effectively reduces concerns about credit risk. The swap spread for a given maturity is the difference between the swap rate and the risk-free rate, measured as the yield on a government bond with similar cash flows. If the standard swap agreement entails negligible credit risk one might expect swap spreads to be low and stable, but market swap spreads vary over time. There are periods when swap spreads are low in accordance with the general theory, but there are also periods when swap spreads reach levels that seem high.The first chapter of this dissertation examines a setting where a positive swap spread arises as part of an equilibrium in a perfectly competitive capital market. The model is one of insurance under adverse selection. A firm that seeks debt financing can insure itself against interest rate risk either by borrowing long-term or by borrowing short-term and entering a pay fix - receive float interest rate swap. The latter alternative allows for a partial hedge as the firm can choose to swap only a fraction of the nominal amount. In this setting, if firms' credit quality and interest rate risk tolerance are correlated creditors can use the pricing of interest rate swaps as a screening device. A low-risk firm, being a firm with favorable private information, selects short-term borrowing and partial insurance. A high-risk firm, being a firm with less favorable prospects, is by assumption also less risk tolerant. It therefore has a higher demand for insurance and the equilibrium swap spread is set such that the high-risk firm finds it more beneficial to borrow long-term at a cost that exceeds the expected cost from short-term financing, but that provides a full insurance to interest rate risk. Monetary policy and the term structure of interest rates Taken separately monetary policy and term structure modeling are two well-established research areas each comprising a substantial amount of research. But relatively few attempts have been made to integrate the two. The last two chapters of this dissertation take the view that the conduct of monetary policy is an essential element in the determination of the term structure of interest rates, and that explicitly considering the role of amonetary authority in the analysis has a potential of enhancing our understanding of term structure dynamics, and its relation to macro-economic fundamentals in particular. This approach to the term structure is supported by the fact that the analytical framework developed in the literature on optimal monetary policy translates conveniently into a setting well suited for term structure analysis. Chapter 2 makes the point in the simplest setting. A standard model of optimal monetary policy is reformulated in continuous time. Combined with a parameterized form for the market price of risk this produces a standard term structure model with well-known characteristics. This model is estimated on US data for the period 1987 - 2002, treating state variables as latent factors of the term structure. The parameters that are estimated comprise parameters describing the monetary transmission mechanism, parameters describing the monetary authority's preferences and parameters describing the market price of risk. Our estimation technique differs from comparable estimations in the monetary policy literature as these typically take state variables to be directly observable measures of macro-economic aggregates. The results using term structure data are both similar and different to previous findings. The main difference when using term structure data is that the central bank's estimated policy is more aggressive, i.e. more responsive to changes in the underlying state variables.Chapter 3 is devoted to the zero bound on nominal interest rates. While the zero bound is well recognized in the literature on term structure modeling, not much has been said about term structure dynamics under the special circumstance that the short rate is close to zero. I find the optimal monetary policy approach to be particularly well suited for this analysis. The chapter studies a continuous time reduced form version of the monetary transmission mechanism. The monetary authority's optimization problem is formed according to two specifications, interest rate stabilization and interest rate smoothing. For the former the optimization problem is solved analytically, while numerical procedures are adopted forthe latter. The chapter then turns to study implications for the term structure under risk-neutrality. Term structure equations are solved numerically and implications for the term structure are discussed. Data for a low-interest rate country like Japan for 1996 - 2003 exhibits s-shaped yield curves and yield volatility curves. This shape is found to be consistent with a smoothing objective for the short rate. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2004</p>

<p>This project &quot / An application of multiple regression in exchange rate arrangement&quot / focused on the processes followed by different countries when choosing an exchange rate regime for currency stabilization. It analyses the consequences faced by emerging markets as a result of changes in volatility of developed countries&rsquo / currencies (American Dollar, Japanese Yen, EURO, British Pound and the Canadian Dollar).</p>