This thesis consists of five essays dealing with the fee and commission income in European banks from the macro, sector and bank level perspectives. This topic is of high relevance since fee income represents the largest part of the non-interest income of EU banks. The first part of the thesis deals with banks in general terms, while the second part is focused solely on cooperative banks, which represent approximately 20% of the EU banking sector. We compare the magnitude of the bank fee income across EU countries and study its determinants and impacts on banks' performance. The first essay compares the magnitude of the fee income across EU countries with a special emphasis on the Czech Republic from a macroeconomic perspective. First, we conclude that Czech banks are not abnormally dependent on fee income and their outstanding performance can be attributed to sound risk management, high liquidity and sufficient capital buffers rather than to excessive fees. Second, our evidence suggests that the share of fee income had an increasing trend in EU countries in recent years, which might be connected to the effort to maintain sufficient profitability in the low interest rates environment. We also discuss how new entrants, the so called low-cost banks, changed the banking sector in the Czech Republic....

In the thesis, we examine the bank lending channel and the effect of banking market structure on the transmission of monetary policy in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. We employ bank-level data for the period of 2011-2017 to detect if banks with different characteristics react differently to monetary policy shocks. Banking market structure is proxied by three measures-CR5, HHI, and Lerner Index. We estimate two types of models: dynamic (with system GMM) and static (with FE) models. We also consider the effect of dollarization on bank loan supply as well as on monetary policy. We do not find consistent evidence that banks react differently to monetary policy shocks depending on bank characteristics (size, capitalization, and liquidity). Hence the existence of the lending channel is not conclusive. Nevertheless, the results show that monetary policy is less effective in more concentrated markets. This finding is robust in all specifications with both types of models. In this sense, competition is not significant. The results also suggest that dollarization weakens the effect of domestic monetary policy. Keywords bank lending channel, CR5, HHI, Lerner Index, system GMM, dollarization Author's e-mail t.jvarize@yahoo.com Supervisor's e-mail janxmares@gmail.com

The present study aims to deliberate over a wider perspective on the topic of physical currency, assuming the global conversion to digital payment instruments affecting stakeholders at different scales alters number of aspects. The theoretical section discusses the process of transition to cashless society by identifying transformation stages and the barriers faced to undertake the shift. Subsequently, the links between factors as business environment, globalization, and shadow economy in relation to physical currency in circulation are examined by static and dynamic panel data analyses applying annual panel data for 70 countries for the period from 2013 to 2017. The conclusive inference is formulated based on outputs from the Blundell-Bond (1998) system GMM estimator. The empirical results provide significant evidence on negative relationship between business environment and physical currency in circulation and contrary positive link for shadow economy. Further, the greater impact of business environment on physical money among variables included, implies the promotion of electronic money solutions solely to be not sufficient to transit to cashless economy. We also construct transformation score ranking for the last five years to snap the transit stage among countries included in the study with...

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:34:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JohnatanRSB_DISSERT.pdf: 3910794 bytes, checksum: 43d57ca72250e58dc10b9d5c0f6f4a53 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-06 / The Brazilian tax structure has specific characteristics and the performance level of government. The autonomy given to municipalities to manage their activities after the 1988 Constitution, made them highly dependent on intergovernmental transfers of resources, revealing the fragility of the administrative capacity of these entities. The vertical gap revealed by the constitutional structure of the Brazilian fiscal federalism model contributes to the formation of this specific feature that you are eroding the tax base and the ability of municipal own revenues. Although there was a better regulation of these transfers after the enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Law, it is observed that the amount of resources transferred to the municipalities of Rio Grande do Norte is very high and is the main source of revenue of municipalities. In light of the theory of federalism and fiscal decentralization, in particular, the theories related to intergovernmental transfers, we seek to diagnose the transfers from the systematization of information on the origin, destination and value. We used the econometric model of System Dynamic Panel GMM in making the diagnosis and verification of the impact of transfers on public finances of the municipalities of the newborn, associated with a review in light of the theory of fiscal federalism and intergovernmental transfers. The paper presents some proposals for the transfer system and the composition of spending in order to contribute to greater tax efficiency / A estrutura fiscal brasileira apresenta caracter?sticas espec?ficas quanto ? atua??o das esferas de governo. A autonomia dada aos munic?pios para a gest?o de suas atividades, ap?s a constitui??o de 1988, os tornou altamente dependentes das transfer?ncias intergovernamentais de recursos, revelando a fragilidade da capacidade administrativa destes entes. A brecha vertical revelada pela estrutura constitucional do modelo de federalismo fiscal brasileiro contribui para a forma??o dessa caracter?stica espec?fica que acaba minando a base tribut?ria municipal e a capacidade de arrecada??o pr?pria. Embora tenha havido uma melhor regulamenta??o dessas transfer?ncias ap?s a promulga??o da Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal, observa-se que a quantidade de recursos transferidos aos munic?pios do Rio Grande do Norte ? bastante elevada e constitui a principal fonte de receita desses munic?pios. ? luz da teoria do federalismo e descentraliza??o fiscal e, em particular, nas teorias relacionadas com as transfer?ncias intergovernamentais, busca-se diagnosticar as transfer?ncias a partir da sistematiza??o das informa??es quanto ? origem, o valor e o destino. Utilizou-se o modelo econom?trico de Painel Din?mico System GMM na elabora??o do diagn?stico e na verifica??o do impacto dessas transfer?ncias nas finan?as p?blicas dos munic?pios do RN, associado a uma an?lise ? luz da teoria de federalismo fiscal e das transfer?ncias intergovernamentais. O trabalho apresenta algumas proposi??es para o sistema de transfer?ncias e na composi??o dos gastos a fim de contribuir com uma maior efici?ncia fiscal

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-01-09T16:22:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelferreiradeoliveira.pdf: 2312394 bytes, checksum: f33ded8f4be15a1631188b06f654c1a6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Diamantino Mayra (mayra.diamantino@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-01-31T11:22:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelferreiradeoliveira.pdf: 2312394 bytes, checksum: f33ded8f4be15a1631188b06f654c1a6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-31T11:22:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelferreiradeoliveira.pdf: 2312394 bytes, checksum: f33ded8f4be15a1631188b06f654c1a6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-11 / O objetivo desta dissertação é estudar a dinâmica da produtividade total dos fatores (PTF) através de um modelo de fatores dinâmicos e verificar a importância do catch up e outros determinantes da PTF por meio do estimador do GMM Sistêmico, utilizando dados da Penn World Table 9.0 entre 1970 e 2014. Devido à existência de transbordamentos tecnológicos e comércio internacional, é esperado que existam variações comuns entre as produtividades de diferente países. Sendo assim, estimamos um modelo de fatores dinâmicos para as PTFs de um conjunto de países tecnologicamente avançados para capturar esses efeitos. Dessa estimativa fomos capazes de extrair seu fator comum e usá-la como proxy para PTF mundial. Isso nos permite incluir a tendência comum na regressão da PTF e estimar seus efeitos sobre a PTF. Nosso fator comum estimado reflete bem aos principais choques de produtividade que ocorreram no período e a sensibilidade de cada país com relação ao fator comum parece estar negativamente relacionada com o nível de desenvolvimento de cada país – essa correlação parece estar de acordo com o argumento de que há um efeito de catch up na produtividade: países mais distantes da fronteira têm crescimento maior por absorverem mais da tecnologia mundial. Além disso, nossas estimativas para o painel dinâmico estimado utilizando este fator estimado reforça esse resultado. / The purpose of this dissertation is to study the global dynamics of total factor productivity (TFP) through a dynamic factors model and verify the importance of the catch up effect and other determinants of TFP through the System GMM estimator, using data from the Penn World Table 9.0 from 1970 to 2014. Because there’re technological spillovers and international trade, it would be expected to see the existence of common variations in the productivity of different countries. Therefore, we apply a dynamic factor model to these productivities and its growth rates in order to capture these effects. These estimates allow us to extract the common factor and use it as a proxy for the world TFP. It allows us to include the common trend in the dynamic equation in the TFP regression in order to estimate its effects on the TFP. Our estimated common factor captures well the main productivity shocks that occurred in the period, and the sensibility of each country to the common factor seems to be negatively related to its country level of technological development – this correlation is in accordance with the argument that there’s a catch up effect in productivity: countries more distant from the frontier have higher growth rates because there is more room to absorb from the global technology. Moreover, our estimates for the dynamic panel using this estimated factor reinforces this result.

Europe is in the midst of its deepest crisis since the 1930s where unsustainable debt-to-GDP levels are among the most alarming issues. It is so critical that it is unsure if the Euro can be saved. The risk of moral hazard increases within EMU when governments are taking too much risk in their public debt policies due to the anticipation that ECB or other Member States would eventually bail them out. Moreover, the SGP imposes restrictions on government deficits and debts but have previously failed to enforce them. The weakness seen in the past is that no sanctions have been put in place once the limits have been breached and the SGP is therefore incredible. Previous research on common pool and debt spillovers in a monetary union point to an upward drift of public debt as countries join the EMU. Does this argument hold true? In order to find out, 25 OECD countries between the years of 1995 and 2010 are analyzed using System GMM Arellano-Bover/Blundell-Bond one-step estimator. The primary balance, the interest payments, and GDP growth are regressed respectively in order to see through what channel EMU displays its effect. One regression will cover the entire time period and another will only cover the years from 1995 to 2007 in order to isolate the effects of the current crisis. The results, based on the years over the entire time period (including the crisis) suggest that the effect of an EMU Membership goes via the Interest payments which it is connected to positively. By using the equation of debt dynamics, the fact that net debt interest payments are higher for a country within EMU indicates, all else equal, that they have on average higher levels of debt. Nevertheless, this realization might be a crisis phenomenon and the implication of this is not clear. However more importantly, the regressions based on the years of 1995 and 2007 (prior to the crisis) did not display any significant results. These results indicate that there is no significant relationship between a country’s membership in EMU and its level of debt prior to the crisis.

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

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La diseguaglianza dei redditi è comunemente analizzata e misurata attraverso l’impiego di varie misure quali l’indice di Gini, il coefficiente di variazione, l’indice di Theil, la varianza dei logaritmi ed altri ancora (Sen, 1970). A partire dagli anni ’90 l’applicazione di tecniche di scomposizione relative, ad esempio, all’indice di Theil hanno reso possibile quantificare due diverse componenti della diseguaglianza ovvero la disuguaglianza legata allo sforzo individuale e la disuguaglianza dovuta alle ineguali opportunità. Questa seconda componente dipende esclusivamente da fattori esogeni, non controllabili dall’individuo, e, per questa ragione, è a ragione considerata una diseguaglianza “ingiusta”. Alla componente residua della scomposizione è di solito attribuito, invece, il significato di disuguaglianza nello sforzo, ovvero quanto ciascun individuo si è impegnato per raggiungere un determinato obiettivo di successo economico. L’applicazione di questo approccio alle misure di diseguaglianza ha permesso di studiare quale tipo di disuguaglianza prevalga all’interno di un Paese e, soprattutto, quali siano le circostanze esogene che incrementano la disparità nelle opportunità. Il presente lavoro si muove lungo questa linea di ricerca proponendo un metodo per testare il peso relativo delle due componenti e la loro significativita’. Come misura di diseguaglianza si e’ scelto di considerare il coefficiente di variazione in modo da ricondurre il test ad un problema di Analisi della varianza (ANOVA) a piu’ vie. Il test viene presentato facendo riferimento ai dati dell’ISTAT e dell'indagine Bankitalia sui redditi delle famiglie. Dopo quest'analisi preliminare sulle determinanti della diseguaglianza di opportunità in Italia, si utilizza la scomposizione della diseguaglianza nelle sue due componenti: diseguaglianza di opportunità e diseguaglianza legata all'impegno, per definire univocamente l'effetto della diseguaglianza sulla crescita economica. L'analisi econometria è svolta sui dati dell'indagine sulla ricchezza e sui redditi delle famiglie forniti dalla Banca d'Italia. L'effetto viene stimato utilizzando il modello panel dinamico con il metodo di stima GMM. / While the analysis of inequality has been central to economic studies for cen- turies, in recent years many studies concentrated on the distinction between in- equality of opportunity (IO) and inequality of returns to effort (IE) and attempted empirical estimates of the two components, e.g. in US and in Europe. The decompo- sition of a general inequality index into these two components allows to analyze the prevalence of fair or unfair income inequality within a country. This paper suggests to test the differences between the two sources of inequality in a simple way using the ANOVA framework adapted to decompose the coefficient of variation, to better suit the requirements of an inequality index. The proposed procedure is applied to the Italian Survey on Income and Living Condition (IT-SILC data, wave 2005 and 2011). The analysis of the results help identifying the circumstances that foster the rise of inequality of opportunities in Italy. Our analysis shows in particular, that father education, region of residence and gender result as the most relevant circumstances determining inequality of opportunity. On the other side, the role of mother education starting from a lower level, as an inequality of opportunity factor, is increasing its influence over time. The decomposition of inequality index in two components allows not only to analyze the prevalence of fair or unfair income inequality in a country, but also to find a clearer relation between inequality and growth. In fact, it is still missing an analysis of the relation between inequality of opportunity and economic growth in Italy. This paper aims at filling in that gap, by using Italian data from Bank of Italys Survey on Income and Wealth from 1998 to 2014. We choose the coefficient of variation to measure inequality of opportunity at the regional level and, then, we studied its relation with economic growth using Dynamic Panel Data models estimated through System- GMM. Finally, in order to check if the coefficient of variation could be a measure as good as the Entropy’s index, I will compare the results of the estimated panel models with the two different inequality of opportunity indeces. We evaluate the effect of inequality of opportunity on different length of the economic growth rate, going from a short term (2 years) to a very long term growth rate (10 years). Our results shows that, in Italy, inequality of opportunity is negative in the short period, but it does not have any effect on long run growth.