[pt] Esta tese é composta por 3 capítulos. No primeiro capítulo mostro que quando um banco central não é totalmente apoiado financeiramente pelo tesouro e enfrenta uma restrição de solvência, um aumento no tamanho ou uma mudança na composição de seu balanço pode servir como um mecanismo de compromisso em um cenário de armadilha de liquidez. Em particular, quando a taxa de juros de curto prazo está em zero, operações de mercado aberto do banco central que envolvam compras de títulos de longo prazo podem ajudar a mitigar a deflação e recessão sob um equilíbrio de política discricionária. Usando um modelo simples com produto exógeno, mostramos que uma mudança no balanço do banco central, que aumenta seu tamanho e duração, incentiva o banco central a manter as taxas de juros baixas no futuro, a fim de evitar perdas e satisfazer a restrição de solvência, aproximando-se de sua política ótima de commitment. No segundo capítulo da tese, eu testo a validade do novo mecanismo desenvolvido no capítulo 1, incorporando um banco central financeiramente independente em um modelo DSGE de média escala baseado em Smets e Wouters (2007), e calibrando-o para replicar principais características da expansão do tamanho e composição do balanço do Federal Reserve no período pós-2008. Eu observo que os programas QE 2 e 3 geraram efeitos positivos na dinâmica da inflação, mas impacto modesto no hiato do produto. O terceiro capítulo da tese avalia as consequências em termos de bem-estar de regras fiscais simples em um modelo de um pequeno país exportador de commodities com uma parcela da população sem acesso ao mercado financeiro, onde a política fiscal assume a forma de transferências. Uma constatação principal é que as regras orçamentárias equilibradas para as receitas de commodities geralmente superam as regras fiscais mais sofisticadas, em que as receitas de commodities são salvas em um Fundo de Riqueza Soberana. Como os choques nos preços das commodities são tipicamente altamente persistentes, a renda atual das famílias está próxima de sua renda permanente, tornando as regras orçamentárias equilibradas próximas do ideal. / [en] This thesis is composed of 3 chapters. In the first chapter, It s shown that when a central bank is not fully financially backed by the treasury and faces a solvency constraint, an increase in the size or a change in the composition of its balance sheet (quantitative easing - QE) can serve as a commitment device in a liquidity trap scenario. In particular, when the short-term interest rate is at the zero lower bound, open market operations by the central bank that involve purchases of long-term bonds can help mitigate deflation and recession under a discretionary policy equilibrium. Using a simple endowment-economy model, it s shown that a change in the central bank balance sheet, which increases its size and duration, provides an incentive to the central bank to keep interest rates low in the future to avoid losses and satisfy its solvency constraints, approximating its full commitment policy. In the second chapter, the validity of the novel mechanism developed in chapter 1 is tested by incorporating a financiallyindependent central bank into a medium-scale DSGE model based on Smets and Wouters (2007), and calibrating it to replicate key features of the expansion of size and composition of the Federal Reserve s balance sheet in the post-2008 period. I find that the programs QE 2 and 3 generated positive effects on the dynamics of inflation, but mild effects on the output gap. The third chapter of the thesis evaluates the welfare consequences of simple fiscal rules in a model of a small commodity-exporting country with a share of financially constrained households, where fiscal policy takes the form of transfers. The main finding is that balanced budget rules for commodity revenues often outperform more sophisticated fiscal rules where commodity revenues are saved in a Sovereign Wealth Fund. Because commodity price shocks are typically highly persistent, the households current income is close to their permanent income, so commodity price shocks don t need smoothing, making simple balanced budget rules close to optimal.

Dissertação sobre o regime jurídico das infrações e sanções administrativas aplicadas pelo Conselho Monetário Nacional e o Banco Central do Brasil em conformidade com a legislação do Sistema Financeiro Nacional, especialmente a Lei 4.595/64. Apresenta o regime de distribuição da função legislativa a partir da Constituição Federal de 1998, o sistema jurídico das infrações e sanções administrativas e a diferenciação destas em relação a outros atos derivados do denominado poder de polícia. Em seguida, analisa a recepção pela Constituição Federal de 1988 do modelo normativo trazido pela Lei 4.595/64 e os limites da discricionariedade administrativa para aplicação de infrações e sanções administrativas à luz dos princípios da legalidade e da tipicidade apresentados pela doutrina. / Dissertation on the legal regime of the administrative infractions and penalties imposed by the National Monetary Council and the Central Bank of Brazil in accordance with the rules of the Financial System, especially the Law 4.595/64. Displays the distribution scheme of the legislative function from the Federal Constitution of 1998, the system of legal administrative infractions and penalties and differentiation of these acts in relation to others derived from the so called police powers. It then goes through the reception by the Constitution of 1988 of the normative model issued by Law 4.595/64 and the limits of the administrative authorities discretion for application of administrative infractions and sanctions in the light of the principles of legality and typicality as presented by the doctrine.

[pt] Este trabalho mostra que o VIX e sua versão de mais curto prazo tem poder preditivo sobre a variância realizada do S e P 500 em dias de FOMC (reuniões do Banco Central do Estados Unidos – FED). Apesar disto, o resultado não persiste quando utilizamos o Índice de Volatilidade do S e P 500 de Longo Prazo (3 meses). / [en] This work shows that the VIX and its shorter-term version have predictive power over the variance of the S and P 500 on FOMC days (meetings of the United States Central Bank - FED). Despite this, the result does not persist when we use the Long Term S and P 500 Volatility Index (3 months).

O crédito bancário é a principal fonte de financiamento de pessoas físicas e jurídicas no Brasil. Ainda assim, comparações internacionais apontam que o mercado de crédito no Brasil é pequeno em volume de empréstimos concedidos, limitado em número de instrumentos e caro nos preços praticados. O propósito desta tese é apreender as expectativas em relação ao direito supostas em documentos oficiais do Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) que sugeriram, entre 1999 e 2006, medidas para a reversão desse quadro. Para tanto, analisa os argumentos apresentados para a implementação de um conjunto específico de medidas de reforma jurídica dos sistemas de insolvência e de cobrança de dívidas, considerados cruciais para o desenvolvimento financeiro. Como resultado da análise, foi possível identificar um continuum discursivo entre as justificativas apresentadas pelos documentos oficiais do BCB para a adoção das medidas de reforma do mercado de crédito e o que se designou de perspectiva da dotação institucional. Segundo essa visão, a clara definição de direitos de propriedade e eficientes mecanismos para o cumprimento de contratos são precondições essenciais para o crescimento econômico. / Bank loans are the main source of financing for individuals and corporations in Brazil. Nevertheless, when compared to those of other countries, the credit market in Brazil is still small in the overall amount of loans, limited in the number of loan instruments and expensive for borrowers. The present dissertation aims at identifying the role assigned to Law by official Brazilian Central Bank (BCB) documents tackling this problem issued between 1999 and 2006. In order to do so, it analyses the arguments used to justify a set of specific measures intending to reform the legal framework for dealing with two key elements for the development of the credit market: default and forfeiture. It is argued that there is a discursive continuum between the arguments present in the official BCB documents aimed at the reform of the credit market and the tenets of what is called institutional endowment. According to these tenets, the clear definition of property rights and efficient means for contract enforcement are pre-conditions for economic development.

L’intégration européenne des marchés financiers semble se heurter de manière répétée à un certain type de problèmes concernant la substance et les limites conceptuelles de ce « marché » en cours d’intégration, ainsi que le statut et le rôle qu’y revêtent la monnaie, les infrastructures et la gouvernance publique. Ces problèmes et les controverses qu’ils soulèvent présentent un parallélisme avec des débats classiques de théorie économique tels que celui qui oppose les conceptions du marché comme espace sans frottements et comme processus de concurrence. Ce parallélisme est attribué ici à une « conception concurrentielle du marché » car celle-ci implique l’idée contradictoire d’une « intégration de la fragmentation ». La thèse repère ces thèmes et ces parallèles dans un grand projet récent d’intégration des infrastructures de marché financier : la plateforme paneuropéenne de règlement-livraison de titres Target2Securities (ou T2S), censée surmonter la fragmentation des systèmes qui réalisent les transferts de monnaie et de titres lors de transactions financières. L’analyse de ce projet permet en outre d’avancer une réponse à une énigme que les approches habituelles de l’intégration européenne en sociologie et en économie politique (political economy) – principalement centrées sur les intérêts et idées des acteurs les plus puissants – sont bien en peine d’éclaircir : à savoir la raison pour laquelle T2S sera de facto un monopole de la Banque centrale européenne, alors que les institutions européennes privilégient depuis le début l’intégration par les acteurs privés. La notion foucaldienne de « formation discursive » est mise à contribution pour conceptualiser ces thèses. / European integration of financial markets appears to repeatedly encounter specific kinds of problems about the substance and limits of the notion of “the market” undergoing integration, and about the status and role of money, market infrastructures, and government within it. Moreover, these problems and the controversies around them parallel classical discussions in economic theory such as that between conceptions of the market as a frictionless space and as a process of competition. A “competitive conception of the market” is identified as producing these parallel problems and controversies in European market integration and economic theory because it implies a contradictory “integration of fragmentation.” These themes and parallels can be specifically identified in a recent major project to integrate financial market infrastructures: a pan-European settlement platform – “Target2-Securities (T2S)” – to overcome existing fragmentation between the systems that perform the actual delivery of money and securities from financial transactions. Moreover, a close analysis of T2S answers a question that existing sociological and political economy approaches to European integration – focusing primarily on the interests and ideas of powerful players – struggle with: why T2S will become de facto a monopoly for the European Central Bank when early on in the integration process EU institutions emphasized an industry-led integration. Foucault’s notion of “discursive formation” is employed to conceptualize these arguments.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit soll der Zusammenhang zwischen Staatsverschuldung und Inflation untersucht werden. Es werden theoretische Übertragungswege von der Staatsverschuldung über die Geldmenge und die langfristigen Zinsen hin zur Inflation gezeigt. Aufbauend auf diesen theoretischen Überlegungen werden die Variablen Staatsverschuldung, Verbraucherpreisindex, Geldmenge M3 und langfristige Zinsen im Rahmen eines Vektor-Fehlerkorrekturmodells untersucht. In der empirischen Analyse werden die Variablen für Deutschland in dem Zeitraum vom 1. Quartal 1991 bis zum 4. Quartal 2010 betrachtet. In ein Vektor-Fehlerkorrekturmodell fließen alle Variablen als potentiell endogen in das Modell ein. Die Ermittlung der Kointegrationsbeziehungen und die Schätzung des Vektor-Fehlerkorrekturmodells erfolgen mithilfe des Johansen-Verfahrens. / In the following study the relation between the public debt and the inflation will be analysed. The transmission from the public debt to the inflation through the money supply and long term interest rate will be shown. Based on these theoretical thoughts the variables public debt, consumer price index, money supply m3 and the long term interest rate will be analysed within a vector error correction model. In the empirical part of this paper we will evaluate the timeperiod from the first quarter in 1991 until the fourth quarter in 2010 for Germany. In a vector error correction model every variable can be taken as endogenous. The variables in the model will be tested for cointegrated relationships and estimated with the Johansen-Approach.

This dissertation consists of four papers, each with an application of a discrete dependent variable model, censored regression or duration model to a credit market phenomenon or monetary policy question. The first three essays deal with bank lending policy, while the last one studies interest rate policy by Central Banks. In the first essay, a bivariate probit model is estimated to contrast the factors that influence banks’ loan granting decision and individuals’ risk of default. This model is used as a tool to construct a Value at Risk measure of the credit risk involved in a portfolio of consumer loans and to investigate the efficiency of bank lending policy. The second essay takes the conclusions from the first paper as a starting point. It investigates if the fact that banks do not minimize default risk can be explained by the existence of return maximization policy. For this purpose, a Tobit model with sample selection effects and variable censoring limits is developed and estimated on the survival times of consumer loans. The third paper focuses on dormancy, instead of default risk or survival time, as the most important factor affecting risk and return in bank lending. By means of a duration model the factors determining the transition from an active status to dormancy are studied. The estimated model is used to predict the expected durations to dormancy and to analyze the expected profitability for a sample loan applicants. In the fourth paper, the discrete nature of Central Bank interest rate policy is studied. A grouped data model, that can take the long periods of time without changes in the repo rate by the Central Bank into account, is estimated on weekly Swedish data. The model is found to be reasonably good at predicting interest rate changes. / Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

This thesis contains four chapters, each of which examines different aspects of the uncertainty facing monetary policymakers.''Monetary policy and market interest rates'' investigates how interest rates set on financial markets respond to policy actions taken by the monetary authorities. The reaction of market rates is shown to depend crucially on market participants' interpretation of the factors underlying the policy move. These theoretical predictions find support in an empirical analysis of the U.S. financial markets.''Predicting monetary policy using federal funds futures prices'' examines how prices of federal funds futures contracts can be used to predict policy moves by the Federal Reserve. Although the futures prices exhibit systematic variation across trading days and calendar months, they are shown to be fairly successful in predicting the federal funds rate target that will prevailafter the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee from 1994 to 1998.''Monetary policy with uncertain parameters'' examines the effects  of parameter uncertainty on the optimal monetary policy strategy. Under certain parameter configurations, increasing uncertainty is shown to lead to more aggressive policy, in contrast to the accepted wisdom.''Should central banks be more aggressive?'' examines why a certain class of monetary policy models leads to more aggressive policy prescriptions than what is observed in reality. These counterfactual results are shown to be due to model restrictions rather than central banks being too cautious in their policy behavior. An unrestricted model, taking the dynamics of the economy and multiplicative parameter uncertainty into account, leads to optimal policy prescriptions which are very close to observed Federal Reserve behavior. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1999</p>

From the 1970s onwards, it is argued that central banks should be independent from politicians since the latter have an interest in seeking populist interventions to the conduct of the monetary policy. Additionally, it is often maintained that the sole aim of a central bank should be to seek price stability. Despite the seemingly neutral and objective tone of these arguments, central bank independence can find its meaning as a part of Neoliberalism, which restructured the economic administration of the state. The main objective of this thesis is to analyse the notion of central bank independence and the case of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey in a multidisciplinary manner, in order to reveal its political and administrative implications.

The author sketches the development and legal status of the European Currency Unit (ECU), the predecessor of today's European single currency Euro, and asks whether from the perspective of (former) German monetary law, this currency unit had to be looked at not as a domestic currency ("Deutsche Mark"), but rather as a foreign one.