This paper examines the main determinants of inflation in Madagascar during the period 1984-2011, using cointegration approach. The empirical results highlight the existence of a stable money demand relationship that dictates the movement of prices in the long run, as well as a long run equilibrium involving domestic prices, exchange rate and foreign prices. Also, we found two long term relationships involving money, aggregate price, oil price, as well rice price. In the short run, inflation adjusts to deviation from the long run equilibrium in the monetary market, money growth have a positive impact on inflation while an appreciation of the exchange rates causes inflation to decelerate. We also find that inflation has a considerable inertia, movements in the prices of oil and rice affect the inflation rate in the short term, and the influence of external shocks are quite important. Variance decomposition and impulse response allow to examine the responses of the variables to various shocks.

O Brasil enfrenta o desafio de criar mais emprego e ampliar a geração de renda. O desenvolvimento dos pequenos negócios é condição fundamental para que esses objetivos sejam atendidos, pois são intensivos em postos de trabalho e estão em todos os municípios do país. A sociedade por meio do segmento das Micro e Pequenas Empresas prepararam uma proposta, amplamente discutida, tecnicamente elaborada e longamente negociada. A Lei Geral é o novo Estatuto Nacional das Micro Empresas e das Empresas de Pequeno Porte, Instituído pela Lei Complementar nº 123, de 14 de dezembro de 2006, vem estabelecer normas gerais relativas ao tratamento diferenciado e favorecido a ser dispensado às Microempresas - ME e Empresas de Pequeno Porte - EPP no âmbito dos Poderes da União, dos Estados, do Distrito Federal e dos Municípios. Esta Lei vai preparar o Brasil para uma política efetiva de apoio promoção do desenvolvimento, da competitividade e prosperidade. Unifica impostos e contribuição da União, de Estados e Municípios, dispensa o cumprimento de certas obrigações trabalhistas e previdenciárias, facilita o acesso ao crédito ao mercado, confere preferência nas compras públicas para as empresas de pequeno porte e estimula a inovação tecnológica, entre outros benefícios. A utilização do poder de compra governamental significa dar uma função econômica e social à demanda por bens e serviços da administração pública, potencializando o papel do estado como promotor de políticas redistributivas e indutor do desenvolvimento econômico. A atual perspectiva de alterações na legislação brasileira sobre compras governamentais, as análises das experiências internacionais e, principalmente, das experiências bem sucedidas de governos estaduais, corroboram para a viabilidade de se utilizar o poder de compra do Estado de Roraima como um instrumento alternativo na busca pelo desenvolvimento econômico sustentável das Micro e Pequenas Empresas. Através dos dados sobre as compras governamentais do Estado de Roraima, verificou-se que não existe uma política de incentivos para que as compras sejam feitas localmente. Poucas MPE‟s participam da vendas para órgãos públicos. Quanto à dinâmica interna das compras governamentais, apurou-se um elevado desconhecimento por parte dos gestores públicos sobre a importância e o papel que às MPE‟s exercem na economia do estado. Despreparo dos empresários sobre o tema “Compras Públicas” e o que a empresa precisa para participar das licitações. E ainda um sentimento de pequenez dos empresários respondentes, diante dos concorrentes que participam das vendas para a administração pública. / The Brazil faces the challenge of creating more jobs and increase the generation of income. The development of small businesses is fundamental condition for which these objectives are met, as they are in intensive jobs, and are in all the municipalities of the country. The society through the segment of Micro and Small Enterprises, prepared a proposal, widely discussed, technically elaborate and extensively negotiated. The General Law is the new Statute of the National Micro and Small Enterprises in Porte, set up by Complementary Law No 123 of December 14, 2006, has established general rules to different treatment and favored to be waived and the Micro-ME Companies Small Porte de - EPP under the Powers of the Union, the states, the Federal District and Municipalities. The General Law will prepare Brazil for an effective policy to support the promotion of development, competitiveness and prosperity. It will bring to society and especially for small businesses a number of improvements. The General Law unifies tax and contribution of the Union of states and municipalities, waiver of compliance with certain obligations and labor schemes, facilitates access to credit to the market, gives preference in government purchases for enterprises of small and stimulates technological innovation, among other benefits. The use of government purchasing power means a function to social and economic demand for goods and services of public administration, strengthening the role of the state as promoter of redistributive policies and inducing economic development. The current view of changes in Brazilian legislation on government purchases, the analysis of international experiences, particularly the successful experiences of state governments, support for the viability of using the purchasing power of the state of Roraima as an alternative in the search the sustainable economic development of Micro and Small Enterprises. Using data on government purchases of the State of Roraima, we found that there is no policy of incentives for the purchases to be made locally. Few MEPs participate in sales to public bodies. As for the internal dynamics of government purchases, it was found that there is no knowledge ignorance by public managers on the importance and the role of the MEPs in the exercise of the state economy. Unpreparedness of entrepreneurs on "Public Procurement" and that the companies need to participate in bidding. And yet a sense of small entrepreneurs of respondents, ahead of competitors that participate in sales to the government.

O objetivo desse estudo é avaliar a validade da Teoria da Paridade do Poder de Compra (PPC) no Brasil em sua recente experiência de regime de câmbio flutuante, 1999M01-2009M12. São empreendidas decomposições da taxa de câmbio real de forma a evidenciar o papel da taxa de câmbio nominal, dos preços de bens comercializáveis e não comercializáveis, e preços das exportações e importações. A validade da PPC é diretamente testada através de testes de cointegração. Os resultados apontaram que ambos os setores, dos comercializáveis e não comercializáveis, são relevantes nos desvios da taxa de câmbio real, mas que a fonte de desvios não estacionários da PPC está relacionada ao setor dos não comercializáveis, tendo-se, portanto, evidência favorável à validade da Teoria da PPC para o setor dos comercializáveis no Brasil durante o período. Na relação de cointegração do setor dos comercializáveis, a taxa de câmbio nominal se apresentou fracamente exógena e os índices de preços tiveram velocidades de ajustamento significativas, sendo maior para os preços externos. Esses resultados são consistentes com um cenário em que a determinação da taxa de câmbio nominal é dominada por fatores fora do escopo da PPC e os preços dos comercializáveis se ajustam à relação de equilíbrio. / The aim of this study is to evaluate the validity of the Purchasing Power Parity Theory (PPP) in Brazil during its recent experience of floating exchange rate regime, 1999M01- 2009M12. Real exchange rate decompositions are undertaken in order to highlight the role of nominal exchange rate, prices of tradable goods and relative prices of nontradable goods, and prices of exports and imports. The validity of PPP is directly tested through cointegration tests. The results have shown that both sectors are relevant for the deviations of the real exchange rate, but that the source of non-stationary deviations from PPP is related to the nontradable sector, and, therefore, there was favorable evidence for the validity of PPP theory for tradable goods sector in Brazil between 1999 and 2009. For the cointegration relationship of the tradable sector, the nominal exchange rate appeared to be weakly exogenous and the index prices presented significant speeds of adjustment, which was higher for foreign prices. These results are consistent with a scenario in which the nominal exchange rate determination is dominated by factors outside the scope of the PPP and the prices of tradable goods adjusts to the equilibrium relationship.

O Brasil enfrenta o desafio de criar mais emprego e ampliar a geração de renda. O desenvolvimento dos pequenos negócios é condição fundamental para que esses objetivos sejam atendidos, pois são intensivos em postos de trabalho e estão em todos os municípios do país. A sociedade por meio do segmento das Micro e Pequenas Empresas prepararam uma proposta, amplamente discutida, tecnicamente elaborada e longamente negociada. A Lei Geral é o novo Estatuto Nacional das Micro Empresas e das Empresas de Pequeno Porte, Instituído pela Lei Complementar nº 123, de 14 de dezembro de 2006, vem estabelecer normas gerais relativas ao tratamento diferenciado e favorecido a ser dispensado às Microempresas - ME e Empresas de Pequeno Porte - EPP no âmbito dos Poderes da União, dos Estados, do Distrito Federal e dos Municípios. Esta Lei vai preparar o Brasil para uma política efetiva de apoio promoção do desenvolvimento, da competitividade e prosperidade. Unifica impostos e contribuição da União, de Estados e Municípios, dispensa o cumprimento de certas obrigações trabalhistas e previdenciárias, facilita o acesso ao crédito ao mercado, confere preferência nas compras públicas para as empresas de pequeno porte e estimula a inovação tecnológica, entre outros benefícios. A utilização do poder de compra governamental significa dar uma função econômica e social à demanda por bens e serviços da administração pública, potencializando o papel do estado como promotor de políticas redistributivas e indutor do desenvolvimento econômico. A atual perspectiva de alterações na legislação brasileira sobre compras governamentais, as análises das experiências internacionais e, principalmente, das experiências bem sucedidas de governos estaduais, corroboram para a viabilidade de se utilizar o poder de compra do Estado de Roraima como um instrumento alternativo na busca pelo desenvolvimento econômico sustentável das Micro e Pequenas Empresas. Através dos dados sobre as compras governamentais do Estado de Roraima, verificou-se que não existe uma política de incentivos para que as compras sejam feitas localmente. Poucas MPE‟s participam da vendas para órgãos públicos. Quanto à dinâmica interna das compras governamentais, apurou-se um elevado desconhecimento por parte dos gestores públicos sobre a importância e o papel que às MPE‟s exercem na economia do estado. Despreparo dos empresários sobre o tema “Compras Públicas” e o que a empresa precisa para participar das licitações. E ainda um sentimento de pequenez dos empresários respondentes, diante dos concorrentes que participam das vendas para a administração pública. / The Brazil faces the challenge of creating more jobs and increase the generation of income. The development of small businesses is fundamental condition for which these objectives are met, as they are in intensive jobs, and are in all the municipalities of the country. The society through the segment of Micro and Small Enterprises, prepared a proposal, widely discussed, technically elaborate and extensively negotiated. The General Law is the new Statute of the National Micro and Small Enterprises in Porte, set up by Complementary Law No 123 of December 14, 2006, has established general rules to different treatment and favored to be waived and the Micro-ME Companies Small Porte de - EPP under the Powers of the Union, the states, the Federal District and Municipalities. The General Law will prepare Brazil for an effective policy to support the promotion of development, competitiveness and prosperity. It will bring to society and especially for small businesses a number of improvements. The General Law unifies tax and contribution of the Union of states and municipalities, waiver of compliance with certain obligations and labor schemes, facilitates access to credit to the market, gives preference in government purchases for enterprises of small and stimulates technological innovation, among other benefits. The use of government purchasing power means a function to social and economic demand for goods and services of public administration, strengthening the role of the state as promoter of redistributive policies and inducing economic development. The current view of changes in Brazilian legislation on government purchases, the analysis of international experiences, particularly the successful experiences of state governments, support for the viability of using the purchasing power of the state of Roraima as an alternative in the search the sustainable economic development of Micro and Small Enterprises. Using data on government purchases of the State of Roraima, we found that there is no policy of incentives for the purchases to be made locally. Few MEPs participate in sales to public bodies. As for the internal dynamics of government purchases, it was found that there is no knowledge ignorance by public managers on the importance and the role of the MEPs in the exercise of the state economy. Unpreparedness of entrepreneurs on "Public Procurement" and that the companies need to participate in bidding. And yet a sense of small entrepreneurs of respondents, ahead of competitors that participate in sales to the government.

Abstract The purchasing power parity puzzle, exchange rate disconnection to macroeconomic fundamentals and pricing to market are central issues of international macroeconomics. Recent research has suggested that these issues can be presented by nonlinear behaviour. In this dissertation, we examine and explain the nonlinearities in the form of regime switching behaviour in real exchange rate series, exchange rate and macroeconomic fundamentals relation and exchange rate pass-through into consumer and import prices. Overall, we find evidence that nonlinearities are important in analysing empirical exchange rate models. The dissertation consists of four self-contained empirical studies. In chapter 2 we examine whether the Markov switching models and exponential smooth transition autoregressive models can give any additional insights into real exchange rate behaviour for several OECD countries. The results show that there are long swings in the real exchange rate series, which can be characterize as a depreciation and an appreciation regime. These regimes are very persistent, although the processes are eventually mean reverting. We estimate a multivariate smooth transition autoregressive model for the euro/dollar exchange rate in chapter 3. The significant point of our analysis is the possibility that a nonlinear specification for the exchange rate series might reveal aspects of the exchange rate dynamics that cannot be picked up by linear models. We find that the euro/dollar exchange rate may display random walk or near random walk behaviour within a certain range but the ability of the exchange rate to wander without any bound is limited by long-term government bond interest rate differentials. In chapter 4 we examine nonlinear relationships between macroeconomic fundamentals and exchange rate for G-7 countries. We estimate a smooth transition error correction model that allows for parameter variation in the error correction form and interest rate differentials. The nonlinearity is determined by the inflation rate differentials between countries. We find significant error correction terms in monetary models. Our findings suggest the importance of nonlinear dynamics for examining deviations from the long-run equilibrium. We examine whether the degree of exchange rate pass-through is dependent on importing country inflation rate in chapter 5. Our model shows that import prices respond differently to exchange rate changes when we are in a high inflation regime compared to a low inflation regime. We also present empirical evidence by estimating pass-through elasticises for several OECD countries. We find that consumer prices are not very sensitive to exchange rate changes. For aggregate import prices, we find partial or full exchange rate pass-throughs. The tested nonlinear regime specific models proved appropriate for testing exchange rate dynamics for several currency pairs. Furthermore, we were able to present that macroeconomic fundamentals are important predictors of exchange rates.

Magister Commercii - MCom / This paper tested the purchasing power parity hypothesis for Botswana and South Africa using cointegration analysis. The data used are the spot exchange rate between the two countries (rand and pula) and their consumer price indices. / South Africa

The goal of this diploma thesis is to assess purchasing power parity (PPP) under the conditions of transition process. The thesis provides a survey of the purchasing power parity theory and concentrates on the relative version. It outlines main causes of possible deviations and modifications of the model. In the empirical part four transition economies are tested for the PPP theory: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The diploma thesis concludes with analysis of the role of the exchange rate under conditions of a small open economy. The overall analysis is implemented within the context of real and nominal convergence towards European Union and future accession to the European Monetary Union.

This thesis deals with the effect of advertising on children and their degree of personal autonomy, which is an attempt to evaluate the topic from the perspective of parents. The aim is to analyze how parents perceive the impact of advertising on their children and what is the purchasing power of children not only in terms of its own funds, but also the impact of children on family purchasing decisions. Primary data were collected by an electronic survey, when for a period of one week was obtained 96 questionnaires. Based on the results of own survey it is possible to say that children are susceptible target group for which the advertising is engaging and they remember its story. Children are able to distinguish different brands and can thus significantly influence the purchasing decisions of the family, because in most cases, parents want to satisfy the wishes of their children. Children usually receive pocket money only occasionally and if they want to buy something, the parents want to have an overview about it. The power of children as consumers therefore lies primarily in the possibility to participate in the purchase decision.

The thesis explains the theory of purchasing power parity and related concepts. It shows differences in prices and wages all around the globe and gives theoretical explanation of existing disparities. The goal is to find out how prices differ in reality, where costs of living are the highest or the lowest and what makes some products more or less expensive in different countries. In order to answer the questions the thesis deals with, the variety of sources was used, starting from economics textbooks, academic journals, literature reviews, the Economist website, a study of UBS 'Prices and Earnings', International Monetary Fund database and others.

The diploma thesis is focused on price discrimination of a selected company operating in an international environment. The work is divided into three main parts. The theoretical part of the thesis describes the key concepts and characteristics necessary to understand the issues related to the topic of the thesis. The analytical part of the work is focused on the description of the current state of the company in selected foreign markets. The proposal part of the work used the method of multiple regression analysis and also presents possible proposals and recommendations for price discrimination in individual foreign markets with regard to the purchasing power of individual countries.