This thesis investigates to what extent coal prices differed globally during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and whether those differences mattered for economic development. The backbone of my empirical investigation is a new dataset of annual coal prices spanning the years 1840 to 1960 for, on average, over 30 globally distributed ports. This dataset is complemented by pithead prices for all major coal-producing countries. My analysis includes all major steam coals and I eliminate quality differences by accounting for differences in their carbon content. I construct my argument by examining two major drivers of differences in coal prices. First, I examine trade costs for Welsh steam coals, which were shipped to most regions of the world. Secondly, I estimate the effect of the spread of coal mining, for example to India, on local coal prices by initating competition between coals from different origins. While trade costs declined most during the late nineteenth century, the spread of coal mining led to continued price convergence in the interwar period. And yet, global coal price differences remained significant, especially between producing and importing countries. Arguably, my most interesting finding is on the effect of those coal price differences. More specifically, I calculate the ratio of coal prices to wages, and explore whether countries where this ratio was closer to the British ratio were in the best position to use the most advanced steam technology. My econometric results indeed show that countries with a low coal price/wage ratio experienced higher manufacturing output growth during the period 1870 to 1940. This finding of my thesis highlights one potential way in which different levels of coal prices may have contributed to varying degrees of technology adoption between countries and ultimately economic growth.

The main aim of this thesis is analysis of history, present and future development of cross-border trade in electricity in the EU. A number of instruments is used -- analysis of generation mix, the role of renewables, degree of international interconnection and usage of these routes, institutional organization of the sector and price convergence of national markets. The research's output is the description of past and recent development and a forecast of possible future progress at the national level. The outcome of this thesis enables the reader to fully understand the complexity of EU electricity market and its probable future direction.

This Thesis deals with the convergence of European states and identifies the influence of the European union enlargement in 2014 on the course of convergence. Both real and price convergences are analyzed by using beta convergence and sigma convergence concepts. The Balassa Samuelson effect is tested as well. The Balassa Samuelson effect explains the existence of price convergence and also indicates the relationship between real and price variables. The existence of real and price convergence was verified for the whole period from 1995 to 2013. During 2004 the integration of European states was strengthened, which was significant for real convergence because the speed of convergence was positively influenced. As for the price convergence, the year 2004 was insignificant as the break point. Despite a similar course of both convergences, price convergence was more affected by the crisis in 2008. The presence of Balassa Samuelson effect was confirmed. Despite the complications during intensity measurement, caused by problematic dividing into tradable and non tradable sectors, corresponding values are realistic.

The price level convergence of the transition economies towards the reference economies is linked to the relative price of nontradables, which is explained by the total factor productivity differentials in tradable and nontradable sector. Basic concept is offered by the Balassa Samuelson model and its modifications. Testable equations are derived from these models, and the panel data approach is applied for their estimation. The results indicate faster growth of the relative price of nontradables in transition economies as succession of higher growth rate of the total factor productivity in tradable sector. Hence estimated models confirm the price level convergence of transition economies towards the reference economies. The analyses of price dynamics of the complementary field, i. e. of the tradables, follows, and the basic concept is represented by the rational bubble hypothesis. The stress is putted on the impact of the word prices on the price levels of the Czech Republic. After a cointegration analysis of the time series is carried out, the influence of the word prices of tradable commodities is estimated within a vector error correction model and regression analysis. This cost factors analysis is afterwards related to the export dynamics of the Czech Republic, and models suitable for quantitative analysis of export dynamics as well as its prediction based on vector error correction model and regression analysis are evaluated. Their forecasting ability is assessed within a simulation of ex-post forecasts and a root mean squared error. The aim is to consider the relationship between the price levels and the export dynamics, for the relation of both variables evaluated within the Granger causality seems to be less straightforward then the standard export equations suggest, and the estimated equations confirm significant influence of the export dynamics on the price level.

The dissertation consists of three empirical papers in institutional microeconomics. The first paper examines the role of institutional quality in international trade, the second paper focuses on unintended consequences of intellectual property rights for social welfare, and the last one addresses the impact of banking on corporate financing and investment. An introductory chapter puts these three papers into perspective. In the first paper I analyze the role of institutions in price dispersion among cities in the European region in the 1996-2009 period. Using a number of institutional quality measures I find that the better the institutions, the lower the predicted dispersion. The result is robust to different specifications of the regression model and is consistent with a hypothesis that arbitrage, as an entrepreneurial activity and the main power behind the law of one price, is influenced by institutional quality. In the second paper I use a large data set of U.S. patents applied for between 1980 and 2007 by 22 large technology companies to study development of strategic patenting over time and across industries. Using two complementary methods I reveal strong evidence against the hypothesis of more strategic patenting after 1995. Contrary to the expectations, aerospace patents appear to be on average...

This PhD thesis aims at exploring price convergence in the European Union with a particular emphasis paid to the Czech Republic and new EU member states. Fundamental issues are discussed in the first chapter, starting with the notion and term `convergence' since many alternative definitions have been proposed in the literature. Apart from that, main indicators utilized when investigating price convergence are defined (for example purchasing power parity/purchasing power standard, PPP/PPS, comparative price level, CPL) and a brief review of the literature is added. The second chapter deals with several issues accompanying price convergence in general and in transforming countries in particular such as the club convergence hypothesis, issues of tradability, availability of datasets and their strenghts and weaknesses, the link between price levels and rates of inflation, and determinants. Both `standard' and `modern' approaches are utilized in the last chapter so that several hypotheses can be verified. For the sake of comparability, individual CPLs for EU-27 countries for the period 1995(9)-2011 are employed. Firstly, stylised facts for both old EU and NMS are presented (including effects stemming from the on-going financial crisis). Secondly, the club convergence hypothesis is examined with help of two different ways - cluster analysis and the Phillips-Sul test (both for the EU and its `subgroups'). Both of them do confirm the existence of convergence clubs in the EU (including its old and new part). Following the previous findings, a somewhat broader and richer view on price level dynamics is supplemented via utilization of the so-called Stochastic kernel (Quah, 1993). This methodology shows both convergence and divergence (divergence/polarization/stratification) in the EU. Finally, the last section of this chapter is focused on a thorough search for determinants of price levels in the EU. The Bayesian approach is employed (Bayesian model averaging, BMA) and our results confirm both the importance of both `traditional' determinants such as labour costs and output gap and new ones such as broadly defined institutional factors. Main findings of this thesis are summarized and commented in the conclusion aiming at providing implications for policymakers and some guidance for future research.