El proceso de apertura comercial experimentado por Argentina en los años 90 sometió a la industria por primera vez en mucho tiempo a la competencia externa. Este trabajo investiga en qué medida la competencia externa potencial actuó como un limitante del poder de mercado de la industria local. Utilizando modelos dinámicos para datos en panel se demostró que dicha competencia fue significativa durante el período 1995-2001. En particular, algunos de los modelos estimados sugieren que aquellas industrias menos concentradas, con menor protección arancelaria, con economías de escala más reducidas, no vinculadas directamente a la actividad agropecuaria o que producen productos menos diferenciados son las que enfrentaron una competencia potencial externa significativa. / The process of trade liberalization experienced by Argentina in the 90s subjected domestic industries to foreign competition for the first time in many years. This paper studies to what extent potential foreign competition was a limiting factor of domestic market power. Using dynamic panel data models, this paper shows that such competition was significant between 1995 and 2001. Specifically, some of the models suggest that those industries not directly linked to agricultural activities, with a low degree of concentration, with low tariff barriers, with a low degree of economies of scale and whose output has a low degree of differentiation are the ones that experienced significant potential foreign competition. / Una versión de este trabajo obtuvo el premio "Elías Salama" otorgado en las X Jornadas de Economía Monetaria e Internacional, organizadas por el Departamento de Economía de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

This thesis comprehensively examines financial structure choices of firms in three emerging economies of the East African region. It highlights the lack of research in this area and empirically examines three panel data models of financial structure (ownership, firm-specific factorsâ and firm performance models, whilst incorporating the influence of macroeconomic factors) using panel data estimation techniques, including the method of moments framework. It estimates these models using panel data from 47 listed firms; and then data from 20 private firms. The original and significant contributions to knowledge of my thesis are as follows: it provides novel insights into the relation between ownership structure and firm financial structure; it provides new understanding of the relation between firm-specific factors and financial structure of quoted and private firms in emerging economies (an area where research has been lacking); it provides new understanding and additional evidence with respect to the effect of ownership structure on the performance of firms in the East African region; it incorporates the influence of macroeconomic and institutional factors on financial structure choices; and it proposes frameworks for reviewing knowledge of financial structure choices, which can be used for further scholarly work on financial structure of firms in emerging economies. The findings of this research have implications for a possibility of a new theoretical framework for researching financial structure choice of firms in emerging economies; for policy makers to design deliberate policies that enhance access to finance for firms operating in an emerging economy; and for policy makers to regulate institutions (banking sector and capital market) as they develop to ensure equitable access (particularly for the private firms) to finance by all firms operating within the economy. Taken together, the results have implication for future scholarship in that they provide clearer and useful insights on ownership structure, financial structure choices and performance of both quoted and private firms in emerging economies; and the methods used are highly replicable and can be replicated in future studies of financial structure choices of firms in emerging economies. It has also invoked further questions that require answers.

In this paper we study the occurrences of outdoor vehicle fires recorded by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) for the period 1998-2019, and build static panel data models to predict future occurrences of fire in Stockholm County. Through comparing the performance of different models, we look at the effect of different distributional assumptions for the dependent variable on predictive performance. Our study concludes that treating the dependent variable as continuous does not hamper performance, with the exception of models meant to predict more uncommon occurrences of fire. Furthermore, we find that assuming that the dependent variable follows a Negative Binomial Distribution, rather than a Poisson Distribution, does not lead to substantial gains in performance, even in cases of overdispersion. Finally, we notice a slight increase in the number of vehicle fires shown in the data, and reflect on whether this could be related to the increased population size.

The study aims to investigate the impact of natural resource wealth on the shadow economy. The theoretical section provides the basis of understanding the nature of two phenomena and discusses the possible transmission channels through which natural resources might influence the shadow economy. Consequently, the key determinants of the shadow economy are examined by static and dynamic models. Natural resource abundance is proxied by natural resource rents. We employ a panel data set for 109 countries for the period from 1996 to 2006. The results reveal that resource wealth is associated with the decrease of the shadow economy. This result is robust for different resource types (durable and non-durable), and the effect is more profound for countries with a low income level. JEL Classification C33, E26, O13 Keywords natural resources, shadow economy, dynamic panel data models, system GMM estimator Title Natural Resource Curse and Shadow Economy: Empirical Evidence

La réduction de la mortalité maternelle et infantile est universellement acceptée comme un objectif du millénaire pour le développement. L'aide étrangère est un des moyens utilisés pour l'atteindre. Cependant, malgré les succès, à l'échelle microéconomique, de certains programmes de santé financés par les aides étrangères, l'efficacité globale de ces aides demeure inconnue. Plusieurs travaux ont traité de l'efficacité de l'aides sur la croissance économique, mais peu d'entre eux concernent le secteur de la santé. Le but de cette thèse, est précisément d'évaluer l'efficacité des aides étrangères sur des indicateurs de santé à l'échelle macroéconomique. On va essayer d'explorer l'impact des aides étrangères octroyées par des bailleurs privés et publics sur l'état de santé telle que la mortalité infantile, maternelle et des adultes dans les pays en développement. La thèse examine l'affectation des aides étrangères au secteur de la santé, à travers trois documents de travail à soumettre à publication. / The reduction of child and maternal mortality is universally accepted as a millennium development goal (MDG). Foreign aid for health is one of the means implemented to reach it. However, even if many successes of health aid activities have been underlined at the microeconomic level, the effectiveness of health aid in general remains unknown. In spite of many macroeconomic works on aid effectiveness on economic growth, only little deals with its effectiveness in health. The purpose of this thesis is precisely to assess the effectiveness of foreign aid in improving health measurements, at the macroeconomic level. I tried to explore the impact of health aid disbursed by the donors through the government and private sector on health outcomes like child, maternal and adult mortality rates in developing economies. The thesis examines the issue of foreign aid earmarked for health sector using a three-paper format. The three chapters of this thesis can be read independently.

This thesis uses innovative approaches to analyse energy policy interventions aimed at enhancing the environmental sustainability of energy use as well as its consequential welfare implications. First, we examine the relationship between energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emissions at the macro level. We use the Index Decomposition Analysis to derive energy efficiency by separating out the impact of shifts in economic activity on energy intensity. We then employ econometric models to relate energy efficiency and CO2 emissions accounting for non-economic factors such as consumers lifestyle and attitudes. The applications for 13 OPEC and 30 OECD countries show that at the country-group and individual country level, increase in energy intensity for OPEC is associated with both deteriorations in energy efficiency and shifts towards energy-intensive activities. The model results suggest that the reduction in energy efficiency in general go in tandem with substantial increases in CO2 emissions. The decline in energy intensity for OECD can be attributed mainly to improvements in energy efficiency which is found to compensate for the impact on CO2 emissions of income changes. The results confirm the empirical relevance of energy efficiency improvements for the mitigation of CO2 emissions. The method developed in this chapter further enables the separate assessment of non-economic behavioural factors which according to the results exert a non-trivial influence on CO2 emissions. Secondly, having empirically confirmed the relationship between energy efficiency improvements and CO2 emission at the macro level in Chapter 2, we investigate potential underlying drivers of energy efficiency improvements taking into account potential asymmetric effects of energy price change in Chapter 3. This is crucial for designing effective and efficient policy measures that can promote energy efficiency. In addition to the Index Decomposition Analysis used to estimate the economy-wide energy efficiency in Chapter 2, we also use Stochastic Frontier Analysis and Data Envelop Analysis as alternative methods. The driving factors are examined using static and dynamic panel model methods that account for both observed and unobserved country heterogeneity. The application for 32 OECD countries shows that none of the three methods leads to correspondence in term of ranking between energy efficiency estimates and energy intensity at the country level corroborating the criticism that energy intensity is a poor proxy for energy efficiency. The panel-data regression results using the results of the three methods show similarities in the impacts of the determinants on the energy efficiency levels. Also, we find insignificant evidence of asymmetric effects of total energy price but there is proof of asymmetry using energy specific prices. Thirdly, in Chapter 4 we offer an improved understanding of the impacts to expect of abolishing fuel price subsidy on fuel consumption, and also of the welfare and distributional impacts at the household level. We develop a two-step approach for this purpose. Key aspect of the first step is a two-stage budgeting model to estimate various fuel types elasticities using micro-data. Relying on these estimates and the information on households expenditure shares for different commodities, the second step estimates the welfare (direct and indirect) and distributional impacts. The application for Nigeria emphasises the relevance of this approach. We find heterogeneous elasticities of fuel demand among household groups. The distributional impact of abolishing the kerosene subsidy shows a regressive welfare loss. Although we find a progressive loss for petrol, the loss gap between the low- and high-income groups is small relative to the loss gap from stopping kerosene subsidy, making the low-income groups to suffer a higher total welfare loss. Finally, from the highlighted results, we draw the following concluding remarks in chapter 5. Energy efficiency appears a key option to mitigate CO2 emissions but there is also a need for additional policies aiming for behavioural change; energy specific prices and allowing for asymmetry in analysing the changes in energy efficiency is more appropriate and informative in formulating reliable energy policies; the hypothesis that only the rich would be worse-off from fuel subsidy removal is rejected and the results further suggest that timing of the fuel subsidy removal would be crucial as a higher international oil price will lead to higher deregulated fuel price and consequently, larger welfare loss.

近年來，全球氣候變遷與環境惡化顯示目前人類活動與永續發展的衝突，如何減少能源消耗以降低溫室氣體排放成為當務之急。在都市規劃方面，以緊密都市理念探討都市發展與交通能源消耗最受到關注，然而都市發展與產業活動、家戶行為密切相關，因此若僅從交通方面分析能源消耗，恐忽略其他影響能源消耗的重要因素。故本研究著重於探討都市發展特性與能源消耗的關聯性，將產業活動與家戶行為納入模型分析，可更全面性了解都市與能源消耗的關聯性。此外，基於「全球思考、地方行動」的考量，如何落實節能減碳的目標，必須就各縣市的都市發展特性著手，透過追蹤資料模型，進一步了解各縣市的固定效果對能源消耗之影響以及能源消耗之時間趨勢。 透過對都市耗能部門進行分類，並以台灣改制後19個縣市為實證範圍，可以確認都市發展特性的幾個面向：土地使用密度、土地混合使用、交通屬性、產業屬性、家戶屬性、環境屬性與交通運輸、產業發展、家戶活動的耗能關係。實證結果發現，緊密都市有助於節能目標達成；道路增加可及性，但亦助長汽車使用，增加交通耗能；為提升大眾運輸使用率，需加強轉乘便利性以及改變私人交通運輸偏好；產業耗能與出口貿易關聯性高，不利能源減量；家戶居住行為與生活型態對能源消耗有正向影響；公園綠地能調節都市氣溫，減少耗能。 綜上所述，欲形塑一個節能減碳的都市必須透過多元途徑，在土地使用方面須維持適當的發展密度與混合程度；交通方面須加強大眾運輸便利性以提高民眾使用意願並抑制汽車使用；產業方面須透過政府獎勵節能措施及促進產業轉型以提升能源效率；家戶方面應透過教育及政策宣導以培養節能生活習慣，方能達成節能減碳的目標。 / In recent years, global climate change and environmental deterioration show a conflict between human activities and sustainable development. How to reduce energy consumption in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emission has become a top priority. According to the concept of compact city, urban planning is seen as the effective way to reduce transportation energy consumption. However, urban development is associated with industry development and household activities, so it would be improper to focus only on transportation sector. Thus the main motivation for this study is trying to illustrate urban development characteristics by combing transportation sector, industry sector and household sector, in order to understand the influence the urban development characteristics on energy consumption more comprehensively. In addition, on the concept of “global thinking, local action”, how to successfully implement energy saving policies should first understand the urban development characteristics of all counties. The purpose of this study is to empirically explore the influences of urban development characteristics on energy consumption by using panel data models, which uses the reorganization of nineteen counties areas in Taiwan as samples.In order to find out the fixed effect of all counties on energy consumption and trend of energy consumption. The empirical results show that the concepts of compact city still contributes the energy-saving goal；construction of roads increase accessibility, but also encourage car use, which increase energy consumption；to encourage the use of public transportation need to improve the convenience of transfer and change the preference of people；energy consumption in industry is highly associated to international trade, so it would be difficult for energy reduction；the trend of energy consumption has increased due to household lifestyle change；the green resources provides by park, which can adjust the temperature of city and reduce energy consumption. In sum, achieving the energy-saving city need diversified approaches, it can’t just keep increasing the density or land mixed-use. Traffic should be strengthened by improving transfer system. In order to increase the willingness to use public transport system and decrease car dependency；industry must trying to improve energy efficiency；households should cultivate the habit of saving energy by education in order to be a true energy-saving city.

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Esta tesis contribuye a la literatura analizando los efectos causales que el estado de salud tiene sobre la participación laboral en la población en edad de trabajar. De este modo, analiza los efectos que un deterioro en el estado de salud tiene sobre la participación laboral del individuo, así como los efectos de proveer cuidados informales sobre la participación laboral femenina. El primer capítulo utiliza una aproximación empírica homogénea en nueve países europeos, lo que hace posible relacionar las diferencias encontradas con diferencias en el contexto institucional. El segundo capítulo analiza el papel que juega el estado de salud en las transiciones hacia y fuera del empleo. Los resultados muestran que el estado de salud general afecta simétricamente las entradas y salidas del empleo, mientras que cambios en el estado de salud mental sólo influyen el riesgo de abandonar el empleo. El tercer capítulo examina los efectos de varios tipos de cuidados informales en el comportamiento laboral femenino. Los resultados sugieren que los costes de oportunidad laborales aparecen en aquellas mujeres que conviven con la persona dependiente, al mismo tiempo que los efectos negativos surgen cuando se proveen cuidados informales por un período superior al año. / This thesis aims to contribute to the literature with an attempt to identify the causal effects of health on labour market outcomes in the working-age population. I analyse the effects of the onset of a health shock on the individuals' labour market outcomes, and also the effects of caregiving on female labour participation. The first chapter uses a homogeneous empirical framework to estimate the first set of effects on nine European countries, which allows me to relate the empirical estimates to differences in social security arrangements across these countries. The second chapter analyses the role of health in exits out of and entries into employment and the results show that general health affects symmetrically entries into and exits out of employment, but changes in mental health status influence only the hazard of non-employment for the stock sample of workers. The third chapter examines the effects of various types of informal care on female labour behaviour and the results suggest the existence of labour opportunity costs for those women who live with the dependent person they care for, and the negative effects appear when caregiving for more than a year.

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)