都會區之發展乃是由人口與產業之帶動所形成，因人口與產業的聚集促成了都市之成形，且於人口聚集移動的過程中，住宅區位的選擇便成為人口遷徙之另一種表現態樣，也因此住宅土地使用類別之變動情況，間接說明了人口遷移之方向，後促成了都會區內部居民生活空間結構之改變，進而影響了都會區的擴張與成長。都會區於持續擴張的過程中，如何抑制無效率之擴張蔓延趨勢，乃是未來都市規劃者所需關注之課題。本研究選取台北都會區為研究對象，以之探討台北都會區之住宅開發分佈情形及區位選擇因素，透過結合都會區發展與住宅開發區位影響因素，來探究政府的重大投資建設與其他因素，對於住宅開發之區位影響關係為何？期能有助於有效率地引導都會區內部人口之移動方向與意願。首先，針對台北都會區之發展背景進行說明，其中包含人口變遷之空間圖示分析；同時，藉由分析民國79-94年之住宅開發分佈情形，瞭解其於台北都會區之發展概況；最後，根據相關理論與文獻回顧，找出可能影響住宅開發分佈變遷之替代變數，建立實證模型，以供未來都市發展與住宅政策之規劃實施參考。獲得以下結論： 一、由都會區發展角度切入觀察發現：台北都會區目前處於Hall(1984)的城市演變模型中之相對去中心階段。其住宅開發利用分佈之趨勢與人口之空間分佈變遷走勢，皆是呈現核心地區減少而外圍地區增加之分佈情況，有移往郊區地區分散之趨勢。 二、住宅開發區位影響因素方面：由Panel Data實證模型結果發現：民國84-94年間台北都會區住宅開發分佈影響因素有：各鄉鎮市人口密度、家庭戶數、各鄉鎮市市中心距離最近交流道距離、各鄉鎮市市中心最近捷運車站之有無、景氣指標概況及區域因素。且住宅開發之分佈同時受到區域間之發展差異影響，驗證了台北都會區住宅開發之分佈，符合Newling（1969）都會區發展階段說，其指出整體都會發展過程中，都市內部各不同分區（市中心、郊區）之發展態樣亦有所差異。因此，各不同發展分區之都市發展規劃策略也應有所差異，不應出現一體適用之情況。 三、模型設定之政府重大投資因素為各市鄉鎮市中心距離最近交流道距離，實證結果發現：其顯著地影響台北都會區之住宅開發分佈；距離交流道距離愈近的地區，住宅開發增加情形愈多，此說明了政府重大投資建設對於住宅開發之分佈產生顯著之正面效益。因此，於政府重大政策投資建設之規劃引導下，同時有助於降低都會中心或附近區域內，人口與住宅土地使用過度飽和與擁擠的情況，並促成都會區周圍之其他地區的發展，以有效達到區域均衡發展與防止無秩序之擴張的目的。

時至今日，公立大學在財務收入來源方面有企業捐贈及教育部穩定來源支持，反觀私立大專院校，其收入來源卻是不穩定，可能造成其財務困難進而影響其辦學成效，故私立大學需思量如何作好其資金運用。本研究希望藉由相關文獻之彙總整理，歸納出影響私立大專校院資金運用之因素，以本期餘絀為衡量指標，分析在財務及非財務面的經營產出上的差異，提供學校經營者管理上的建議。 / 在財務構面影響因素，以短期流動比率與本期餘絀呈現負向且較顯著的影響，顯示在短期私立學校財務狀況過於保守，未充分使用其當前的借款投資能力。而長期負債比例可能因受教育部限制而不具顯著影響。另外，學校會在辦學及捐贈方面的收入，有所抉擇。 / 而在非財務構面方面，在師資水準方面：私立大學的生師比，與本期餘絀有正向關係，間接反映出私立大學的生師比較高，而教育素質較為低落的狀況。在研究生比例與本期餘絀有負向關係，顯現出私立大學願意投資花費更多在碩博士生的教學品質上，朝向「研究型」導向的大學邁進。在退學比例與本期餘絀產生負向且顯著性的影響，反應私立大學也會有自動淘汰品質不佳學生的機制。 / 最後觀察時間趨勢與區域特定固定效果的存在與否，亦會對本期餘絀產想影響。在特定的時間內，會因政府政策修改而對本期餘絀呈現大量正向增加趨勢；且學校皆因各自擁有的特定群體特性，而擁有正向的區域特定固定效果，其中以醫學院為背景的學校，由於本身有其它附設醫院做支持，顯著地展現其較佳結餘能力。

This thesis aims to study the macroeconomic performance of China. China has been experiencing rapid economic growth and it has been changing gradually from a planned to a market economy since it initiated the well known “open door policy” combined with a “coastal development strategy” in 1978. However, rapid growth has occurred on the background of increasing regional disparity. Meanwhile, unemployment has increased significantly during last two decades, and has become one of the most pressing problems of the Chinese economy today. Moreover, another major challenge facing the Chinese economy is how to deal with various shocks, and to ensure the sustainability and balance of economic growth in the face of the increasing economic uncertainties associated with its deep reform and integration into the world trade and financial system. Based on the above concerns and literature review, this study, firstly, uses an augmented Solow-Swan model of Mankiw, Romer and Weil (1992) to assess the role FDI plays in underlying regional differences in economic growth across Chinese provinces over the reform period 1978-2008. My analysis indicates that the augmented Solow growth model appears to provide a good description of regional growth patterns in China over the period 1978-2008 and the data display conditional convergence. After controlling for FDI and other determinants of growth, provinces that were initially poor tend to grow faster and the evidence in favour of conditional convergence becomes even stronger after splitting the data into subsamples. I then focus on the study of the relationship between unemployment and growth at both national level and regional level in order to find out how unemployment affects China’s economic growth and economic reform progress overall. I find that Okun’s relationship does not hold in China universally and, furthermore, the nature of the observed relationship has changed during the transition progress. I argue that there are hump shaped relationships both between growth and unemployment and between the speed of transition and unemployment in China. The results are consistent with several theoretical and empirical studies in the literature. Finally, structural VAR methodology pioneered by Bayoumi and Eichengreen (1993) is used to identify and decompose supply and demand shocks to two variables, (the log of) output (annual real GDP) and (the log of) prices (annual GDP deflator). I then compute and discuss the correlation of such shocks across provinces and show how it has evolved over the four main sub-periods of China’s history. Moreover, I investigate which factors contribute to economic integration or divergence in the Chinese economy.

This thesis studies the effect of innovation activities and productivity by using the CDM-model and extend the existing knowledge by using the CIS-dataset in combination with official statistics performing a such detailed regional analysis that have not been done before. By using the different labour market codes interacted with the industry codes I can capture informative deviations between different industries in different regions. The results show a significant variation between the different regions and industries, and that the urban and metropolitan areas are more innovative and more productive than the rural areas. However, the financial sector and health sectors showed a steady innovation input activity across most regions while the metropolitan areas showed to invest less in innovation inputs in the real estate sector compered to rural and urban areas.

This study investigates the impact macroeconomic factors have on corporate capital structure in Sweden. We use a panel data analysis of unbalanced data for the sample period, 2005-2014. While previous research has shown that key factors internal to the firm are highly correlated with leverage, such as profitability, asset tangibility and firm size, we add external factors and test for economic growth, inflation, interest rates, corporate tax rates, and exchange rates. Our models do not present any substantial explanatory power for the relationship between the macroeconomic environment and different leverage ratios. This study finds some support for certain indicators, although not consistent across ratios.

Whether we would like to model imports and exports, or forecast inflation, structural variation in an economy frequently causes problems. This thesis examines such variation in two dimensions: first, in a cross-section of individuals, and secondly, over time. A panel of manufacturing industries in several developed countries reveals that there is substantial variation across sectors, in the response of trade to changes in prices and incomes. Ignoring this heterogeneity can render conventional results biased and inconsistent, so a number of robust methods are used to obtain reliable estimates of long-run and short-run trade relationships. The findings point to common behaviour across sectors, which could be due to similarities in technology. The impact of structural breaks over time is examined in the second part of the thesis. Unpredictable shifts in deterministic terms such as the mean of a process are shown to generate significant forecast failure, and even the methods used to evaluated forecast accuracy are affected. Using the Kullback-Leibler discrepancy to measure the size of forecast errors, various robust mechanisms are discussed, that do not fail systematically after a break. Although they can provide a degree of insurance if a shift does occur, this comes at a cost if there is no change, and in the presence of measurement error they can exacerbate the uncertainty surrounding a forecast. An empirical illustration with a model of UK money demand provides some support for the automatic correction mechanisms, although there does seem to be a role for direct modeling of a break process.

Performance of stock markets is determined by three classes of variables: macroeconomic indicators, industry & firm heterogeneity and third country effects. When assessing performance of a stock market index, impact of industry & firm heterogeneity is marginal as it is already embedded in the index through its constituent companies. This paper will therefore focus on the other two. Chinese stock market was selected as an application as their performance compared to other domestic indicators (mainly GDP growth) is considered inferior by many researchers. Using econometric framework for panel data and a Bayesian extension, the paper estimates multiple models of Chinese stock market performance examining individual determinants of it. Subsequently, it predicts development of theoretical prices of two main Chinese stock indices on two time samples until 2013. The paper then demonstrates underperformance of Chinese stock market by comparing the modeled prices to actual prices realized on the market. JEL Classification C23, C51, C53, G15, G17 Keywords underperformance, panel data, fixed effects model, Bayesian Model Averaging Author's e-mail roman_kovac@ymail.com Supervisor's e-mail karel.bata@seznam.cz

Well-managed working capital plays an important role in running a sound and successful business as it has a direct influence on liquidity and profitability. Working capital management (WCM) has recently received an increased focus from businesses and been regarded as a key managerial intervention to maintain solvency, especially during the global financial crisis when external financing was less available (PwC, 2012). This thesis contains a comprehensive analysis of the determinants and consequences of WCM. For the determinants of WCM, the results suggest that the nature of a firm’s WCM is determined by a combination of firm characteristics, economic condition, and country-level variables. Sources of financing, firm size, and levels of profitability and investment in long-term assets play a vital role in the management of working capital. The financial downturn has also put increased pressure on firms to operate with a lower level of working capital. In addition, country-level variables (i.e., legal environment and culture) have a significant influence on determining a firm’s WCM as well as its determinants. For the consequences of WCM, the findings highlight the importance of higher efficiency in WCM in terms of its potential contribution in enhancing profitability. In particular, firms operating with lower accounts receivable, inventory, and accounts payable periods are associated with higher profitability. Firms can also enhance their profitability further by ensuring a proper “fit” among these components of working capital. Finally, achieving higher efficiency in inventory management can be a source of profitability improvements during the financial crisis. Overall, the thesis contributes to the accounting and finance literature in two distinct ways: research design and new findings. A more extensive data set (in terms of countries coverage and time frame), new estimation technique (i.e., dynamic panel generalised method of moments (GMM) estimation to produce more consistent and reliable results), and substantive robustness tests (conspicuous by their absence in prior studies) were applied and result in several new empirical findings. First, a firm’s WCM is influenced not only by internal factors but also external factors such as country setting, legal environment and culture. Second, a comprehensive measure of WCM (i.e., cash conversion cycle (CCC)) does not represent a useful surrogate for the effects of WCM on corporate profitability. Instead, an examination of the individual components of CCC gives more pronounced and valid results. Third, by managing working capital correctly, firms can enhance their profitability even further, at different levels, and through different components of profitability (including profit margin and asset productivity).

<p>This paper investigates the effects of intergovernmental grants on municipal labour demand in Finland and Sweden during the period 1985-2002. Both these countries have large public sectors in which local authorities play a significant role. In addition, both countries went through major grant reforms in 1993, reforms that meant that most targeted grants were replaced by general, non-earmarked grants. This allows for studying the effects of the different types of grants separately. The results suggest that targeted grants affect Finnish municipal employment more than general ones do, at least when looking at levels. When looking at elasticities, however, the opposite is indicated. In Sweden intergovernmental grants appear to have no effect at all on municipal employment before the reform, but after the estimated elasticity is 0.10. This is somewhat lower than in Finland, where the estimated elasticities are 0.13 and 0.14 before and after the reform, respectively. The results also lend additional support to the so called “flypaper effect”, an empirical phenomenon that has been observed in numerous previous studies.</p>

This paper investigates the effects of intergovernmental grants on municipal labour demand in Finland and Sweden during the period 1985-2002. Both these countries have large public sectors in which local authorities play a significant role. In addition, both countries went through major grant reforms in 1993, reforms that meant that most targeted grants were replaced by general, non-earmarked grants. This allows for studying the effects of the different types of grants separately. The results suggest that targeted grants affect Finnish municipal employment more than general ones do, at least when looking at levels. When looking at elasticities, however, the opposite is indicated. In Sweden intergovernmental grants appear to have no effect at all on municipal employment before the reform, but after the estimated elasticity is 0.10. This is somewhat lower than in Finland, where the estimated elasticities are 0.13 and 0.14 before and after the reform, respectively. The results also lend additional support to the so called “flypaper effect”, an empirical phenomenon that has been observed in numerous previous studies.