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).

GDP and GDP per capita are widely used to gauge for living standards across countries. However, they have originally not been constructed for this purpose and are therefore subject to significant limitations. This paper aims at developing a better and non-monetary development index with which cross-country living standards can be assessed. This index, the BDI, can then be utilized for policy making. When constructing the BDI, this study utilizes time series analysis and panel unit root tests. A major finding of this study is that the BDI does indeed produce statistically significantly different results/ rankings for a special set of countries, compared to GDP and GDP per capita.

The impact of fuel price changes can be seen in practically all sectors of the United States economy. Fuel prices directly and indirectly influence the daily life of most Americans. The national economy as well as the high standard of living we have come to enjoy in the United States is run on gasoline. Since the late 1990's the days of cheap oil and $1.00 gallons of gas are clearly over, understanding the influences of fuel price is more important now than ever. Since 1998 regular gasoline prices have increased $0.22 per gallon per year on average through the present with little evidence suggesting this trend will slow down or reverse substantially. The drastic and permanent change to the status quo of fuel prices has potentially rendered traditional knowledge of fuel price elasticities inapplicable to current analysis. Obtaining accurate measures of fuel price elasticities is important as it is used as a measure of personal mobility and can be related to the quality of life the public is experiencing. Price elasticities are also used in determining the future revenue available for surface transportation projects. Traditionally, short-run fuel price elasticities are thought to be inelastic allowing transportation agencies to ignore short-run fuel price changes to some degree when creating future projects and evaluating its economic feasibility. By using driving data collected from The National Evaluation of a Mileage-based Road User Study the fuel price elasticity of vehicle-miles traveled (VMT), as well as the sensitivity of gas prices relative to a historical high price, were estimated for the first year study participants using a panel data set approach with linear regression. The short-run fuel price elasticity of VMT was determined to be -1.71 with a range of -1.93 and -1.48. The elasticities found were significantly higher than the average short-run fuel price elasticity of -0.45 but can be rationalized by the impact poor economic conditions as well as the historically high fuel prices experienced prior to the researches time table had on the individuals driving behavior. The results suggest current short-run elasticities are not inelastic, if this trend continues transportation agencies must re-evaluate how they predict the future funding available for surface transportation projects.

The dissertation seeks to meld the two dominant competing theories of party identifi?cation in the US context: the expressive view, where Party ID is seen as a long standing psychological attachment to a political party; and the instrumental view, where Party ID is subject to reevaluation. Using ANES panel data, the paper examines both expressive and instrumental elements of partisanship. In keeping with past research, it finds strong evidence for the expressive understanding of Party ID; partisan groupings tend to be highly stable. However, the strength of identifications varies considerably over time, with perceptions of candidates, presidential approval, policy preferences, and ideological orientations driving these changes. These results are in keeping with an instrumental conceptualization of partisan identities.

The introduction of the single currency (Euro) in Europe has been referred to as the ‘world’s largest economic experiment’ and has led to major research on the effects of the adoption of a common currency on economic activity with considerable emphasis on its effect on trade flows at the macroeconomic level. However, the investigation of the euro effect on individual sectors has received very little attention and this provides the motivation for the research. The main contribution of this thesis is to the sectoral analysis of the single currency’s effect on bi-lateral trade flows, specifically the effects on the transport equipment manufacturing sector. In order to achieve this, a comparison of the different estimation methods applied in the gravity model literature will be employed to investigate this effect and to identify the factors affecting trade in this sector. This study uses a panel data set which comprises the most recent information on bilateral trade for the EU15 countries from 1990 to 2008. This research aims to build on the results obtained in previous studies by employing a more refined empirical methodology and associated tests. The purpose of the tests is to ensure that the euro’s effect on trade is isolated from the other pro- trade policies of the European integration processes, particularly the introduction of the Single Market. The desirable feature of this approach is that, while other studies limit their attention to a particular issue (zero trade flow, time trend, sectoral analysis, cross-correlation, etc.), very few, if any, apply a selection of techniques. Overall, the results demonstrate that the single currency’s effect on trade in this sector is limited with only the fixed effects formulation with year dummy variables showing a significant positive effect of the euro. An obvious policy implication for countries looking to adopt a single currency is that they should be cautious regarding the potential for growth in intra-bloc trade in a particular sector, although they will benefit from the on-going process of integration.

FDI inflow to developing countries has shown a drastic increase in the past few decades. Accordingly, many policy makers and academics are concerned about policies that attract FDI inflows to enhance economic growth from the positive spillover effects of FDI. Hence this study examines the general impact of FDI on the economic growth of 56 developing countries for the period 1985-2014. In order to analyze the growth effect of FDI into different macroeconomic situations, the sample countries are grouped into 24 low-income developing countries and 32 upper middle-income countries. The overall panel data analysis based on endogenous growth theory supported the positive growth effect of FDI for the pooled 56 countries and upper middle- income countries. However the growth effect of FDI for low-income countries tend to be statistically significant but negative. Moreover, to investigate the absorptive capacity of the host country an interactive term of FDI and human capital is included to estimate the general model. The regression results from the interactive term denote that the growth effect of FDI is dependent on the level of human capital in the host country. Hence a minimum level of human capital is essential in order to maximize and absorb the positive growth effect of FDI.

Determinants of financial development Abstract The paper studies effects of country level determinants on the rate of financial development and, in particular, assesses the empirical question whether democracy and political freedom can enhance financial development, as measured by Bank Private Credit to GDP and Liquid Liabilities to GDP. Using Fixed Effects estimation techniques and a panel data for a list of 39 countries over the period 1990 to 2011, we provide evidence that suggests positive link between political openness and financial development. The empirical evidence also confirms financial openness and real per capita income to be positively correlated to financial deepening and in contrast, we find that size of financial sector does not spur the rate of financial development.

One of the most visible signs of the globalization of the world economy is the increase of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows across countries. This past decade the trend of FDI has shifted from developed countries to emerging economies, which is most notably in the BRICS countries. However, as BRICS reputation has been damaged these past years due to its weak growth outlook in the early 2010s, investors are shifting to the new economic grouping acronym, the MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) countries for better future prospects of FDI destination. Since the MINT countries have emerged as a popular destination of FDI, it is necessary to investigate what are the key factors that make these four countries attractive as FDI destinations. Hence, this paper analyzes what are the determinants of inward FDI into the MINT countries during the time period from 1990 to 2014. To be able to answer the research question and demonstrate the effect of the seven independent variables (market size, economic instability, natural resources availability, infrastructure facilities, trade openness, institutional stability and political stability) on FDI as a dependent variable, the study uses a panel data analysis. The data is based on secondary data, which is collected from the World Bank dataset. The empirical finding from the study illustrates that market size, economic instability, infrastructure facilities, trade openness, institutional stability, and political stability are significant as determinants FDI inflows to the MINT countries, meanwhile, natural resources availability appears to be an insignificant determinant of FDI inflows to the MINT countries.

Sedan 2015, då antalet asylsökande i Sverige nådde rekordhöjder, har frågan om hur flyktingar ska integrera sig i samhället tagits upp. Konsensus är att arbetsmarknadsetableringen är en viktig faktor och därmed har så kallade ”enkla jobb” föreslagits som en lösning på att öka sysselsättningen för flyktingar. Samtidigt kan det observeras ett nytt fenomen på arbetsmarknaden, gigekonomin. Kan gigekonomins enkla jobb vara lösningen?  Syftet med denna undersökning är att analysera gigekonomins påverkan på flyktingars arbetsmarknadsutfall i form av sysselsättning och inkomst. I studien används paneldataanalys för att isolera effekten av gigekonomiföretagens etablering på flyktingars sysselsättning och inkomster. Undersökningens huvudestimat visar att existensen av gigekonomi i en kommun ökar sysselsättningen för flyktingar med 5,2 procentenheter. Efter utförande av flera känslighetstest kan dock denna effekt inte betraktas som robust. Därmed kan inte undersökningen påvisa att det är just gigekonomin som har orsakat denna effekt. / Since 2015, when the number of asylum seekers in Sweden grew to record breaking heights, the question about how refugees will integrate into society has been raised. The consensus is that the integration into the labour market is an important factor and therefore entry level jobs have been suggested as a solution. Currently a new phenomenon can be observed on the labour market, the gig economy. The objective of this paper is to analyse the effect of the gig economy on refugees’ social outcome in terms of employment and income. The study uses panel data analysis to isolate the effect of the gig economy on refugees employment and income. The main estimate of the study shows that the impact of the existance of a gig economy in i municipality increases the employment for refugees by 5,2 percentage points. However, after the execution of multiple robustness tests the effect cannot be considered robust. Therefore, the study cannot prove that it is specifically the gig economy that is the cause to this effect.

Na teoria clássica de finanças, o sentimento do investidor não é considerado um fator importante sobre os preços das ações. Embora a existência do sentimento do investidor não seja negada, as teorias normalmente partem do princípio de que, em mercados financeiros competitivos, comportamentos de agentes quase-racionais são rapidamente eliminados. Esta tese tem o objetivo de investigar a relação entre o sentimento de mercado e as taxas de retorno futuras das ações. É proposta uma metodologia para a criação de um índice de sentimento específico para o mercado brasileiro com uso da análise de componentes principais. Com o objetivo de verificar a relação deste índice de sentimento com as taxas de retorno das ações, foi estimado um modelo de apreçamento em que esta variável foi incluída, para o período de 1999 a 2008. A amostra foi composta por empresas não-financeiras com ações listadas na BOVESPA, com uma negociabilidade mínima que garantisse observações suficientes e representativas para validar os resultados encontrados na pesquisa. O modelo de apreçamento foi estimado por GMM, levando em consideração o índice de sentimento de mercado, o risco sistêmico das empresas (medido pelo beta) e fatores como tamanho, índice market-to-book, alavancagem, momentum e crescimento da receita. Empregaram-se diferentes procedimentos para estimar os parâmetros dos modelos empíricos formulados, com o propósito de isolar influências espúrias, ocasionadas pela presença de heterogeneidade não-observada, pela existência de eventuais observações extremas ou mesmo pela possível endogeneidade dos regressores. Os resultados deste estudo empírico sugerem que o sentimento é um fator relevante no apreçamento das ações no mercado brasileiro. A relação negativa e significante entre o índice de sentimento e as taxas de retorno, encontrada consistentemente em diferentes modelos, indica um padrão de reversão nas taxas de retornos, ou seja, após um período de sentimento positivo, o impacto nas taxas de retorno no período seguinte é negativo, e vice-versa. / In classical finance theory investor sentiment is not considered an important factor in asset pricing. Although the existence of investor sentiment is not denied, theories assume that in competitive markets quasi-rational behavior is quickly offset by rational agents. The main goal of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between investor sentiment and future stock return rates. It is proposed a methodology to create a sentiment index specifically to the Brazilian market using principal components analysis. In order to analyze the relationship between this sentiment index and the future stock returns, it was estimated a pricing model including this variable for the period comprehending 1999 to 2008. Considering a negotiability restriction to assure representative and sufficient observations to validate a pricing model, the sample consisted of non-financial firms listed at BOVESPA. The pricing model was estimated by GMM considering the sentiment index, systematic risk (market beta) and factors as firm size, market-to-book ratio, leverage and return predictability measured by momentum or income growth. Different estimation procedures were applied to find empirical models coefficients which are less affected by spurious influence such as unobserved heterogeneity, outliers or possible regressors endogeneity. Results of the empirical study suggest that sentiment is a relevant factor in Brazilian asset pricing models. A negative and statistically significant relationship between the sentiment index and stock returns was consistently found in different models specifications. These findings suggest the existence of a reversion pattern in stock returns, meaning that after a positive sentiment period, the impact on subsequent stock returns is negative and vice-versa.