In the past two decades the Latin American region has experienced a number of credit crises stemming from large sovereign debt levels and sharp currency devaluations. This study aims to discover whether or not the sovereign credit default swaps (CDS) in the Latin American region lead equity markets prior to these sovereign credit events. Through a sample of the seven largest Latin American economies and daily return data from 2001 to 2018, I try to empirically test this question through a Generalized Least Squared model. The paper finds little significant evidence of CDS leading equity markets in price discovery prior to sovereign credit events. Additionally, the paper observes a potential momentum effect present amongst Latin American equity market returns. However, this effect is more likely serial correlation amongst equity market returns due to the illiquidity of these equity markets.

天然資源價格高漲，及全球貿易失衡，造成新興國家累積大量美元資產，資本市場自由化、投資商品多元化，促使主權基金備受矚目。擁有高額外匯存底的台灣，是否需成立主權基金，成為國內學者專家關注議題。贊成者認為可以降低持有外匯存底機會成本，增加財政收入；扶植國內產業、提升國際競爭力，反對者認為主權基金並非穩賺不賠；容易特權干預、政商勾結，不符合企業報酬最大化原則。各種研究報告顯示主權基金有可能變成金融巨獸，但是，歷經金融海嘯的洗禮，面對投資績效與保護主義雙重壓力，會不會逐漸萎縮泡沫化，值得進一步觀察與研究。 本篇論文希望透過有關文獻的整理與回顧，對主權基金相關概念做一彙整與分析，歸納主要主權基金之經驗，包括政治環境、資產規模與追求目標等共同屬性，與台灣財政、經濟現況做相關性研究，佐以其他國家成立主權基金與否原因之比較結果，傾向現階段台灣以尚不需成立主權基金為宜。 關鍵詞：主權基金、外匯存底 / The prices of natural resources have increased, while global trade has became unbanced; as a result, the developing countries have accumulated lots of reserves assets, which are invested in diversified financial products. The above situation has caused Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) to attract a lot of attention. This study investigates whether Taiwan, should establish its own Sovereign Wealth Fund. Supporters of the SWF believe that it will reduce the opportunity costs of holding foreign exchange reserves while increasing revenues, supporting domestic industries, and enhancing international competitiveness. In contrast, opponents of the SWF argue that it is too risky, easy prey to government and business collusion as well as corruption. Various studies indicate that SWFs may become financial giants, but after the latest financial crisis, investment performance is limited by conservative hedging. The new development of SWFs are worthy of further observations and research. This paper aims to review the literature on SWFs. It goes through the world’s major SWFs, asset scales and objectives. The study concludes that due to Taiwan’s specific financial and economic status, it is not appropriate for Taiwan to set up a Sovereign Wealth Fund at this moment. Key words：Sovereign Wealth Funds、foreign exchange reserves

This dissertation consists of three independent essays in macroeconomics. The first essay studies the transition to a low carbon economy using an extension of the neoclassical growth model featuring endogenous energy efficiency, exhaustible energy and explicit climate-economy interaction. I derive the properties of the laissez faire equilibrium and compare them to the optimal allocations of a social planner who internalizes the climate change externality. Three main results emerge. First, the exhaustibility of energy generates strong market based incentives to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions without any government intervention. Second, the market and optimal allocations are substantially different suggesting a role for the government. Third, high and persistent taxes are required to implement the optimal allocations as a competitive equilibrium with taxes. The second essay focuses on coal fired power plants (CFPP) - one of the largest sources of CO2 emissions globally - and their generation efficiency using a macroeconomic model with an embedded CFPP sector. A key feature of the model is the endogenous choice of production technologies which differ in their energy efficiency. After establishing four empirical facts about the CFPP sector, I analyze the long run quantitative effects of energy taxes. Using the calibrated model, I find that sector-specific coal taxes have large effects on generation efficiency by inducing the use of more efficient technologies. Moreover, such taxes achieve large CO2 emissions reductions with relatively small effects on consumption and output. The final essay studies the procyclicality of fiscal policy in developing countries, which is a well-documented empirical observation seemingly at odds with Neoclassical and Keynesian policy prescriptions. I examine this issue by solving the optimal fiscal policy problem of a small open economy government when the interest rates on external debt are endogenous. Given an incomplete asset market, endogeneity is achieved by removing the government's ability to commit to repaying its external obligations. When calibrated to Argentina, the model generates procyclical government spending and countercyclical labor income tax rates. Simultaneously, the model's implications for key business cycle moments align well with the data.

This thesis investigates the pricing of sovereign credit risk in the bond and credit default swap (CDS) market for Turkey. Using daily data, CDS premiums and Emerging Market Bond Index (EMBI) are examined over the period 1, January 2001- 20, June 2012. Firstly, the short-run and long-run determinants of CDS premiums are compared with those of EMBI, employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach. Then, the basis, the difference between CDS and EMBI spreads is analyzed seeking the factors which drive the two markets apart. Empirical results reveal that the CDS and bond market price credit events differently and hence, two spreads deviates in the short run. On the other hand, cointegration analysis shows that two prices move together in the long run, as theory predicts. Applying VECM analysis, the findings suggest that CDS spreads move ahead of the EMBI in the terms of price adjustment.

Over the past decade, the European Union has been characterized by an explosion of expenditure, insufficient revenue, high deficits and a lack of budget discipline. Financial markets in Europe are currently dealing with enormous government debts, poor government balance sheets and a weakening banking system. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the origins of the current Euro-crisis and specifically identify the extent to which it will affect the nation of Italy going forward. To understand Italy's stance amid the Euro-crisis, we proceed as follows: First, a historical background section will develop the fundamental issues that have developed in Europe over time leading to the current situation. Next, a discussion about Italian economics and politics will identify Italy's central policy issues placed in the context of the Euro-crisis. Subsequently, Italy's issues with tax evasion will be covered illustrating its history and enforcement addendums going forward. The final section of this paper will present a forward-looking prediction about the fate of Italy and the Euro-zone and will include some of the necessary steps toward avoiding an international economic collapse.

This dissertation consists of three independent essays in macroeconomics. The first essay studies the transition to a low carbon economy using an extension of the neoclassical growth model featuring endogenous energy efficiency, exhaustible energy and explicit climate-economy interaction. I derive the properties of the laissez faire equilibrium and compare them to the optimal allocations of a social planner who internalizes the climate change externality. Three main results emerge. First, the exhaustibility of energy generates strong market based incentives to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions without any government intervention. Second, the market and optimal allocations are substantially different suggesting a role for the government. Third, high and persistent taxes are required to implement the optimal allocations as a competitive equilibrium with taxes. The second essay focuses on coal fired power plants (CFPP) - one of the largest sources of CO2 emissions globally - and their generation efficiency using a macroeconomic model with an embedded CFPP sector. A key feature of the model is the endogenous choice of production technologies which differ in their energy efficiency. After establishing four empirical facts about the CFPP sector, I analyze the long run quantitative effects of energy taxes. Using the calibrated model, I find that sector-specific coal taxes have large effects on generation efficiency by inducing the use of more efficient technologies. Moreover, such taxes achieve large CO2 emissions reductions with relatively small effects on consumption and output. The final essay studies the procyclicality of fiscal policy in developing countries, which is a well-documented empirical observation seemingly at odds with Neoclassical and Keynesian policy prescriptions. I examine this issue by solving the optimal fiscal policy problem of a small open economy government when the interest rates on external debt are endogenous. Given an incomplete asset market, endogeneity is achieved by removing the government's ability to commit to repaying its external obligations. When calibrated to Argentina, the model generates procyclical government spending and countercyclical labor income tax rates. Simultaneously, the model's implications for key business cycle moments align well with the data.

In 2007, Chinese Government has established the first sovereign wealth fund in formal and funded with $2,000 billion dollars which called as China Investment Corporation(CIC).It is purposed to settle the bad debts of State-owned Bank and process the restrcuting of financial management system. At the same time, CIC invest overseas investment actively. The Chinese Government treats the sovereign wealth funds as a vehicle, positively to establish the strategic reserve system for energy and raw materials. Except to hedge the volatility of international market price,in the other hand, to optimize the Chinese industrial structures to be more efficiency. But, in beginning stage of China's sovereign wealth funds, they faced the problems with other state-owned enterprises in overseas investments.It happens the group-overlapping effect and huge losses when deals with multinational enterprises,and it caused the dosmestic critisms . However, China's sovereign wealth fund set up by the time is not long, mostly of the chinese scholars have proposed a strategy as ¡§Fund Exchange for Technology¡¨ .It is through the usages of China's foreign investment to acquire the resources and technology. On the national development strategic, the China's sovereign wealth funds which controlled by the Chinese Central Financial leading group, are responsible to execute the national missions.In addition to the country's political security,economic security,it also to ensure the food security,energy security,water resources, and other important resources. Clearly, political motivations and core technology is the Chinese Government's core interests, which is China's national security and sustainable development. This article is researching into the core interests for the Triangular Strategy of China`s Sovereign Wealth Funds. In the raising of the "Strong Power" of China , national security issues are priority to be settled .Acquisition for the "Power Composition" ,which included the key technolgy and resources , and Chinese government is facing the main challenges.Would the China's sovereign wealth fund still keep investing although it occurred huge losses in overseas energy procurement,acquisition of dosmestic and abroad enterprises, financial assets, investment activities of configuration? Comparatively, would the CIC continuing to expand and investing with "trianglular strategy" to achieve the core interests.In general, keep the subsequent to focus on the economical discourse power and the core technology.

This paper focuses on stock markets, including Portugal¡BItaly¡BIreland¡BGreece and Spain, and these are named PIGS by economists. Furthermore, we add the other three countries, U.S.A.¡BU.K. and Germany in this paper for investigating the dependence structure in the stock markets between these countries during the period 2001-2011. We implement a regime-switching copula model based on Gaussian copula, which uses a GARCH specification for the marginal distributions and the Gaussian copula for the joint distribution. Our method combines copulas and regime-switching models to demonstrate dependence sructures in stock markets between these countries. Based on this paper, we have two reports for international investors. First, if the dependency changes over time, the returns of portfolio diversification may be prone to diversification disasters, and the international investors' degrees of diversification can cause higher systemic risk in the period of financial crisis. Second, the phonomenon of the asymmetric dependence exists in financial markets, and we conclude that non-diversification may be better than diversification in the period of financial crisis.

A multidisciplinary approach is needed to critique the frequently invoked but seldom questioned notion of "human dignity," a discursive tool that is subtly serving abusive power structures while seemingly promoting human rights. The discourse of human dignity misrepresents the meaning of empowerment for modern citizens, making them interested more in political gestures and less in profit, comfort and protection from abuse. Dignity‘s epistemes—self-assertion, recognition, political action, public-spiritedness, responsibility, resistance, the denial of animal instinct, sacrifice—should not be human ideals, for they are exactly the opposite of the sovereign‘s characteristics and because they are responsible for recursive violence that preserves the status quo. They should be replaced with ethics based on sensuous interest, instinct, and natural-spiritedness (a sense of mystical oneness with other living beings). This dissertation answers Foucault‘s question about how the modern state endows citizens with a political subjectivity while simultaneously subjecting them to a totalized system, exposing human dignity as just the link between individuation and totalization. It questions Agamben‘s notion of the indistinction between political life and natural life, arguing that sovereign power, using the discourse of human dignity, creates a clear distinction. The human dignity discourse keeps the human within political life, representing such life as the middle point between the instinctive life of the animal and the mechanical life of the laborer. In reality, the dissertation shows, these two demonized modes of life are the same mode, which should be championed as a valuable and empowered state of being. In the literary field, a close examination reveals that J. M. Coetzee‘s fiction subverts the human dignity discourse while Kazuo Ishiguro‘s work is enmeshed in it. Coetzee generates sympathy for humans who lack the sense of human dignity and act on mere instinct. He offers ―disgrace‖ as a spiritual-ethical state of sensuality, acceptance and humility and promotes an agenda of desire-based rights in lieu of dignity-based ones. His writings also eschew authorial dignity as they discount the values of newness and originality in favor of expression attuned to desire, even when such moves appear selfish and politically irresponsible.

This dissertation consists of three essays in international finance. The first two essays study emerging market sovereign risk with a focus on local currency denominated sovereign bonds. The third essay examines econometric tools for robust inference in the presence of missing observations, an issue frequently encountered by researchers in international finance. / Economics