Yes / This paper develops a model of optimal choice over an array of different assets, including domestic and foreign bonds, domestic and foreign equities and domestic and foreign real money balances in order to examine the determination of the real exchange rate in the long-run. The model is tested empirically using data from the UK and the USA. The results show that all the coefficients of the model are right signed and significant and consequently financial assets may play a significant role in the determination of the real exchange rate.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:25:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eli Hadad Junior.pdf: 290403 bytes, checksum: 413b010b2b66c535b71df800b9626c61 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-10 / The dissertation analyzes data of the Brazilian household consumption and income between the years 1947 and 2009. The study aims to evaluate to what extent the aggregate consumption of Brazilian household may approximate be a random walk. The dissertation uses Johansen's cointegration techniques (1988, 1991) and super exogeneity tests as proposed by Engle and Hendry et al. (1983). The dissertation attempts to evaluate whether interventions that affect consumption will impact the dynamics of aggregate income. These interventions can occur through credit policies and tax changes, among other macroeconomic shocks. Finally, a decomposition is made following the methodology proposed by Gonzalo-Granger (1995) and evaluating the importance of shocks in permanent and temporary changes in consumption. / A dissertação analisa os dados de consumo e renda das famílias brasileiras entre os anos de 1947 e 2009. O trabalho visa avaliar em que medida o consumo agregado das famílias brasileiras pode ser bem aproximando a partir de um passeio aleatório puro. O trabalho utiliza técnicas de cointegração de Johansen (1988, 1991) e testes de super exogeneidade na forma proposta por Hendry, Engle et al. (1983). A dissertação procura avaliar se intervenções que afetam o consumo das famílias geram impacto na dinâmica da renda agregada das mesmas. Tais intervenções podem ser por políticas de crédito, alterações tributárias, choque macroeconômicos entre outras. Por fim uma decomposição entre fatores permanentes e transitórios será feita pela metodologia proposta por Gonzalo-Granger (1995) com o objetivo de avaliar-se a importância dos choques permanentes e transitórios para as variações do consumo.

The 2007-2008 US subprime mortgage crisis evolved into a financial crisis that negatively affected many economies in the world and therefore it was widely referred to as the global financial crisis. Since the beginning of this financial crisis of 2008-2009, South Africa experienced a significant increase in its household debt to income ratio. In the main, the aim of this dissertation is to investigate the prominent factors contributing to the rise in the level of household debt in South Africa. Also, we study the response of household debt to various shocks originating from the aforementioned crisis. Additionally, in the context of our timeline (1985 Q1-2012 Q1) we will extrapolate possible graphical trends in the rise and fall of household indebtedness in South Africa associated with various crises. Working from past research papers and a theoretical framework developed by Franco Modigliani and Milton Friedman, seven macroeconomic variables will be considered to examine the rise of household borrowing to income namely; the real house price index, consumer price index. real income, real prime rate, real household consumption expenditure, real gross domestic product and real household savings. Both a long-run cointegration analysis and a short-run error correction model will be used to evaluate the relationship between household debt and the chosen variables by estimating a Vector Error Correction Model. Furthermore, the Variance Decomposition and the Generalized Impulse Response Function will be utilized to assess the impact of household debt to various shocks emanating from the 2008-2009 financial crisis. The different models and tests conducted in this research will be executed using the statistical software package EVIEWS 7. Based on the results, household debt was seen to have been fairly affected by the 2008-2009 financial crisis. The cointegration analysis maintains that in the long run, household borrowing is positively and significantly determined by consumer price index and real household consumption. In addition, it confirms that household borrowing is negatively affected by real household income and real GOP. The rest of the variables were found insignificant. Nevertheless, the short run error correction model reveals that about 3.6% of the disequilibrium will be corrected each quarter for the equilibrium state to be restored. Also, the Variance Decomposition results confirmed that the South African household debt is mostly affected by shocks from real house price index, real household income, real household consumption and real household savings, respectively. Furthermore, the Generalized Impulse Response Function results established the significant positive response of household debt to a shock from real house price index and real household consumption. The response of debt to shocks from consumer price index, real household savings and real income is negative and this outcome is confirmed by the theory. However, the response of debt shows fluctuating behaviours to shocks from LRIN, LRPR and LRGDP over the estimated period. In conclusion, our econometric investigation highlighted the main causes of the high levels of household debt in South Africa both in the short and long run. The Generalized Impulse Response Functions confirm that shocks like the occurrence of the 2007-2008 financial crisis will have a significant impact on real house price index, consumer price index, real household consumption and real household savings. The Engle granger results show that there exist no significant relationship between household debt and unemployment in South Africa over the period 1980 to 2010. However, we propose that this result may have been significant if quarterly unemployment data was available and included in the main data set. Finally, based on the stability, validity and reliability of our model, we recommend its use to facilitate policy analysis and decision making regarding household debt levels in South Africa. / Thesis (M.Com.( Economics) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2012

The transition from communism to capitalism at the end of the last century was one of the most significant events in the world economy since industrialization. During the latter part of the 1980s, people the Central and Eastern European countries and former Soviet Republics opted for a change from highly distorted command economic system to a market driven economic system. Privatization and liberalization policies led to major changes in the commodity mix and volume of agricultural production, consumption and trade. However, the changes and the impacts varied among countries as they followed different transition strategies. This study investigated the impact of market liberalization on the agricultural sector, as well as how the inter-sectoral linkages among the agricultural, industrial and service sectors responded in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary using time-series analysis. The study estimated an econometric model that incorporates the linkages among the sectors using a Vector Error Correction Model. The procedure identified long-run and short-run relationships for each country. The results showed that a sector can have a negative linkage to other sectors in the short-run; however, that does not mean that the linkage will be negative in the long-run. Impulse response functions were constructed to determine how a system reacts to a shock in one of the endogenous variable in a model. The study explored how a shock in the agricultural sector was absorbed by the other sectors in the economy, and how a shock in the other sectors was absorbed by the agricultural sector, in all four countries. The responses reflected how the variables are interrelated within a country, and how the shocks are transferred through different linkages over a long period of time. Such dynamic analysis was used to identify the total impacts of different policy alternatives.

A presente tese tenta avaliar a política monetária sob o Regime de Metas de Inflação (RMI), num contexto de flexibilidade cambial e integração financeira. No campo teórico, este trabalho avalia no primeiro ensaio, os aspectos teóricos do RMI e também do Novo Consenso Macroeconômico (NCM), assim como a crítica pós-keynesiana ao NCM. Na sequência, avalia-se a evolução do debate acerca da política monetária após a Crise Financeira Internacional, assim como os aspectos teóricos da integração financeira global e dos Ciclos Financeiros Globais, e suas consequências para a condução da política monetária. No aspecto histórico, avalia-se brevemente no segundo ensaio, o comportamento das principais variáveis macroeconômicas concernentes a política monetária, taxa de câmbio e crescimento econômico, assim como, os arranjos institucionais do RMI de cada país, evidenciando suas principais diferenças. O Brasil tem um dos RMI mais rígidos e as maiores taxas de juros entre os países analisados. No âmbito empírico, realizou-se três exercícios econométricos distintos. O primeiro, por meio do modelo VEC, comparam-se a eficiência do RMI brasileiro com outros 12 países selecionados, no que diz respeito ao controle inflacionário, ao repasse cambial e do crescimento econômico. O Brasil, assim como outros países em desenvolvimento, tem um dos RMI mais ineficientes, com evidencias da presença de price-puzzle, além de apresentar um elevado repasse cambial para o nível de preços e ter impactos no crescimento econômico. O segundo exercício econométrico buscou-se analisar a não-linearidade da política monetária brasileira com relação ao repasse cambial para o nível de preços, utilizando o modelo MS-VAR. O modelo mostrou fortes evidências empíricas de que há repasse cambial tanto em momentos de apreciação, quanto de depreciação cambial, configurando assim, uma política monetária com dois regimes cambiais. O terceiro exercício busca evidenciar, por meio do modelo VEC, os impactos que a integração financeira global, tem na condução da política monetária brasileira. Encontrou-se indícios de que a taxa de câmbio opera entre os ciclos financeiros globais e o nível de preços da economia brasileira, mostrando, assim, que a política monetária sob o RMI, tendo como base altas taxas de juros, é ineficiente. Tais fatos sugerem que a taxa de câmbio tem um papel fundamental no controle da inflação e no desempenho do próprio RMI; todavia, há a necessidade de uma reavaliação da política cambial que vêm sendo adotada no Brasil para além do papel de mecanismo de controle de preços. / This study aims to evaluate the monetary evolution of the Inflation Target Regime (IT) in a context of exchange rate flexibility and financial integration. In the theoretical field, this work was evaluated in the first essay, the theoretical questions of the IT and also of the New Macroeconomic Consensus (NMC), as well as a post-Keynesian criticism to NMC. Following an assessment of the monetary policy debate following an International Financial Crisis, as well as the financial issues for the financial and global integration of Global Financials, and their consequences for the generation of monetary policy. The evaluation of the risk in the historical statistics, the evaluation of the risk changes the monetary changes, the risk must change the expansion policies, and the risk must have different conditions. Brazil has one of the most rigid ITs and the main interest rates among the analyzed countries. In the empirical context, the different econometric exercises are carried out. The first one, through the VEC model, compares the efficiency of the Brazilian IT with 12 other selected countries, than respect for inflationary control, exchange rate transfers and economic growth. Brazil, like other developing countries, has more inefficient IT, with evidence of the presence of price-puzzles, as well as a high exchange rate repayment for the price level and the impacts on economic growth. The second econometric exercise sought to analyze the non-linearity of the Brazilian monetary policy in relation to the pass-through to the price level, using the MS-VAR model. The model of empirical demonstrations that there is to change both in moments of appreciation and the exchange depreciation, thus forming a monetary policy with two exchange rate regimes. The third study seeks the evidence, through the VEC model, of the impacts that global financial integration has on Brazilian monetary policy. We find that the indexes of an exchange rate between the cycles and the level of prices of the Brazilian economy, thus showing a monetary policy on the IT, based on interest rates, is inefficient. Such facts should that an exchange rate has a key role in controlling the rate and performance of the IT itself; however, there is a reappraisal of the exchange rate policy that has been adopted in Brazil beyond the role of the price control mechanism.

This thesis estimates the quarterly electricity demand of Turkey. First of all proper seasonal time series model are found for the variables: electricity demand, temperature, gross domestic product and electricity price. After the right seasonal time series model are found Hylleberg, Engle, Granger and Yoo (1990) test is applied to each variable. The results of the test show that seasonal unit roots exist for the electricity price even it cannot be seen at the graph. The other variables have no seasonal unit roots when the proper seasonal time series model is chosen. Later, the cointegration is tested by looking at the vector autoregressive model. As the cointegration is seen vector error correction model is found. There is long-run equilibrium when the price is the dependent variable and independent variable is gross domestic product. Temperature is taken as exogenous variable and demand is not statistically significant.

The focus of this paper is to evaluate if forecast produced by the Central Bank of Sweden (Riksbanken) for the 12 month change in the consumer price index is unbiased? Results shows that for shorter horizons (h < 12) the mean forecast error is unbiased but for longer horizons its negatively biased when inference is done by Maximum entropy bootstrap technique. Can the unbiasedness be improved by strict ap- pliance to econometric methodology? Forecasting with a linear univariate model (seasonal ARIMA) and a multivariate model Vector Error Correction model (VECM) shows that when controlling for the presence of structural breaks VECM outperforms both prediction produced Riksbanken and ARIMA. However Riksbanken had the best precision in their forecast, estimated as MSFE

This study presents our attempt to examine the linkages and to investigate the linkage of stock price indexes among Taiwan, China and its major trading countries. Our empirical analysis employs daily data on stock price indexes over the period of January 2, 2000 to May 10, 2010. The total number of observations is about 2500. This study employ a sequence of time-series methodologies, including unit root test, cointegration test, vector error correction model, Granger causality test, Criterion, autocorrelation test, heteroscedasticity test, GARCH and Bi-GARCH. The findings of this study as follows. First, after first difference, every stock price indexes series all became stationary. Second, we found there has no long-run interrelationship among these stock markets. Third, we found that Taiwan¡¦s stock market exits leading role to China¡¦s stock market, but other countries¡¦ stock market lead Taiwan¡¦s stock market. For China, the stock market of United States, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong has a leading role to China¡¦s stock market. Only the rela-tionship between South Korea and China¡¦s stock market is independent. Forth, the result of autocorrelation test and ARCH test indicates that the influence of stock price indexes of major trading countries to Taiwan and China¡¦s stock price index has changed over time. Finally, the result of study indicates that every stock market can forecast its future trend by using its past stock data and investor can use the past stock data of stock market of major trading countries to forecast Taiwan and China¡¦s stock market.

This study aims to investigate the direction of the relationship between financial deepening and economic growth after the completion of financial liberalization in Turkey. In order to do this, an unbalanced panel data set of 49 OECD and emerging countries for 1953-2005 period is examined with Granger causality and panel data estimation techniques. In the light of panel data analysis results, quarterly Turkish time series data for 1987-2006 period is examined by using Granger causality, cointegration and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) procedures. Although the unbalanced panel data analysis reveals a relationship that is from financial deepening to economic growth, country specific Granger causality analysis employed with the panel data gives the opposite relationship for Turkey. Moreover, it is observed that quarterly time series data analysis mainly gives a relationship that is from economic growth to financial deepening.

This study investigates the long-term and short-term dynamic relationships among the variables of stock returns and institutional investors' buy-sell difference in Taiwan's stock market for the sample periods from Jan., 2000 through May, 2009. Some econometrical methodologies are used in this study, such as unit test, vector autoregressive model, cointegration test, vector error correction model, impulse response function. The major empirical results are shown as follows: 1. Cointegration test For the sample periods, one long-term equilibrium relationship is found from the Johansen's cointegration test, significantly with 5% confidence level between stock year returns and the buy-sell difference for the foreign investment institutions, the domestic investment institutions, and the dealers. The long-term equilibrium relationship is Ry=1.65*QFII+4.28*FUND+35.22*DLR-1142.6. 2. VECM estimation (1)With the vector error correction model (VECM) being applied to the sample periods, the findings indicate that the changes of stock returns are not influenced among the short-term dynamic relationships by the changes of institutional investors' buy-sell difference, but only affected by one-period-lag of itself. (2) Among the short-term dynamic relationships, the changes of foreign investment institutions' buy-sell difference are affected by one-period-lag of institutional investors that positively affected by one-period-lag of the dealers, and inversely affected by one-period-lag of itself and one-period-lag of the domestic investment institutions. However, it is positively affected by one-period-lag of long-term equilibrium, which indicates foreign investment institutions follow positive feedback trading strategies. (3)The changes of the domestic investment institutions' buy-sell difference are only affected by one-period-lag of itself among the short-term dynamic relationships. (4)The changes of the dealers' buy-sell difference are positively affected among the short-term dynamic relationships by one-period-lag of the foreign investment institutions. As for the long-term relationships, it is affected by one-period-lag of long-term equilibrium, which also indicates the dealers follow positive feedback trading strategies. (5)The foreign investment institutions and the dealers have the mutual feedback relationship.