This thesis describes hedging transactions against foreign exchange rate risk which is a significant problem for a number of domestic companies trading with foreign partners. The objective of this paper is to characterize possible ways to eliminate or minimize a foreign exchange rate risk and to assess effects on economic results and liquidity of the company arising from the use of hedging instruments compared to the situation without hedging transactions. The practical analysis is shown on two Czech companies exposed to a foreign exchange rate risk. The analysis is focused on currency forwards negotiated with the bank and natural hedging in connection with an application of a hedge accounting.

The thesis deals with the exchange rate policy of the People's Republic of China. The objective is to evaluate the effect of exchange rate policy on the current account balance and the monetary policy. The theoretical part of the thesis outlines basic concepts of the foreign exchange market and relevant theories. The following section deals with the evolution of exchange rate policies. The final part is devoted to the analysis of influence of renminbi exchange rate on current account deficit and monetary policy. When assessing the impacts of renminbi exchange rate on monetary policy, open market operations and reserve requirements of banks can be considered as a vital tool of monetary policy of China. The central bank employs interest rate adjustments as a secondary instrument of the Chinese monetary policy.

Master’s thesis deals with analysis of specific business transactions, where company exchange-rate risks happen. On the basis of findings, the thesis includes the proposals of treasury instruments for exchange-rate loss minimalization.

L'objectif de cette thèse est double. Premièrement, elle vise à proposer une revue de la littérature économique s'intéressant à l'exposition au taux de change de la profitabilité des entreprises non-financières, et à fournir de nouveaux enseignements sur son hétérogénéité intra et inter-sectorielle. Deuxièmement, cette thèse analyse les stratégies de production et de produits mises en œuvre par les firmes pour se prémunir des effets de ces variations de change. Puisque l'éventail de telles stratégies est large, le dernier chapitre se concentre sur la stratégie de montée en gamme. / This thesis follows a dual objective. First, it aims to summarize previous evidence on the magnitude and channels underpinning a non-financial firm’s operating exposure, i.e. the extent to which currency fluctuations can alter a company's future operating cash flow, and to provide new highlights on the heterogeneity of this exposure across firms. Second, this thesis investigates the product and production strategies that are appropriate for coping with the economic consequences of exchange rate changes on firms’ operating profits. Since the range of these strategies is large, it focuses on providing theoretical and empirical evidence for the strategy of up-market positioning.

A volatile real exchange rate and high unemployment rate is a growing concern in South Africa, therefore the right macroeconomic policy is required. The challenge is to find stability in the real exchange rate paired with a low inflation rate, both of which are necessary to promote long term economic growth, which in turn creates more job opportunities. This study analyses the impact of the exchange rate on unemployment in South Africa by considering quarterly data for the period 2003 to 2013. In this study, the macroeconomic transmission channel is divided into two transmission paths, imports and exports. These find their roots in the Phillips curve and the Keynesian theory on unemployment respectively. The vector error correction model (VECM), together with an analysis of the impulse response functions and variance decompositions, are implemented to determine the short and long run impacts of the exchange rate on unemployment. After the completion of a variety of specifications, estimations and tests, both macroeconomic transmission paths revealed in the empirical analysis that the real exchange rate has a significant impact on unemployment. In the imports transmission path, the real exchange rate, imports and the CPI have significant long term relationships with unemployment. Furthermore, the exports transmission path found significant short term relations with unemployment in considering the real exchange rate, exports and economic growth. The impulse responses in both transmission paths indicated that a shock in the exchange rate will have a significant effect on unemployment in the short run. Similar results were found with the variance decomposition. In the import transmission path, movements in the real exchange rate explained an increasing portion of the variance in unemployment. Alternatively, in the export transmission path the real exchange rate and exports explained an increasing portion of the variance. The evidence therefore suggests that South Africa should focus more on stabilising the exchange rate, since fluctuations in unemployment are a result of shocks in the real exchange rate, following the macroeconomic transmission channels discussed. / MCom (Economics)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015

South Africa has become more dependent on portfolio inflow to finance investment and consumption due to the low rate of government and household savings. Therefore, it is important from South Africa‟s perspective to maintain a stable portfolio inflow in order to ensure that the current account deficit does not reach unsustainable levels. However, portfolio inflow is anything but stable in South Africa. The risk associated with this is that when foreigners‟ expectations of South Africa shift, due to any form of instability or risk within the country or even internationally, it leads to massive withdrawals or outflow of funds, which in turn causes the currency to depreciate. The portfolio balance theory on the other hand states that an increase in portfolio inflow leads to the appreciation of the nominal exchange rate, and that this is perceived to work against economic growth. The main objective of this research is to determine the nature of the relationship between exchange rate volatility and portfolio flows, and the extent to which volatility in the exchange rate affect South Africa‟s portfolio inflow. The research uses Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models and quarterly data, ranging from 1995 to 2012 to investigate this relationship. From the VAR models a Granger causality test, as well impulse response functions is used to shed light on the influence of a one-unit shock in both foreign portfolio inflow and exchange rate volatility on the other variables in the model. Exchange rate volatility is measured using both Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (ARCH) family models and the conventional standard deviation, in order to control for possible biasness caused by the choice of instrument of volatility. The results showed the nature of the relationship between exchange rate volatility and foreign portfolio inflow to South Africa‟s capital markets can be described as country-dependent and time-varying. South Africa‟s portfolio inflow exhibits high volatility and low persistence that are characteristics normally associated with “hot money”, which is largely driven by foreign investors‟ appetite for short-term speculative gains. The study identified the consistent presence of bidirectional causality between the exchange rate volatility and foreign portfolio inflow to South Africa, irrespective of the measurement of exchange rate volatility. The results also revealed that net portfolio flows are associated with exchange rate appreciation and that foreign portfolio inflow react much stronger to changes in exchange rate volatility than vice versa. / MCom (Risk Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

South Africa has become more dependent on portfolio inflow to finance investment and consumption due to the low rate of government and household savings. Therefore, it is important from South Africa‟s perspective to maintain a stable portfolio inflow in order to ensure that the current account deficit does not reach unsustainable levels. However, portfolio inflow is anything but stable in South Africa. The risk associated with this is that when foreigners‟ expectations of South Africa shift, due to any form of instability or risk within the country or even internationally, it leads to massive withdrawals or outflow of funds, which in turn causes the currency to depreciate. The portfolio balance theory on the other hand states that an increase in portfolio inflow leads to the appreciation of the nominal exchange rate, and that this is perceived to work against economic growth. The main objective of this research is to determine the nature of the relationship between exchange rate volatility and portfolio flows, and the extent to which volatility in the exchange rate affect South Africa‟s portfolio inflow. The research uses Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models and quarterly data, ranging from 1995 to 2012 to investigate this relationship. From the VAR models a Granger causality test, as well impulse response functions is used to shed light on the influence of a one-unit shock in both foreign portfolio inflow and exchange rate volatility on the other variables in the model. Exchange rate volatility is measured using both Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (ARCH) family models and the conventional standard deviation, in order to control for possible biasness caused by the choice of instrument of volatility. The results showed the nature of the relationship between exchange rate volatility and foreign portfolio inflow to South Africa‟s capital markets can be described as country-dependent and time-varying. South Africa‟s portfolio inflow exhibits high volatility and low persistence that are characteristics normally associated with “hot money”, which is largely driven by foreign investors‟ appetite for short-term speculative gains. The study identified the consistent presence of bidirectional causality between the exchange rate volatility and foreign portfolio inflow to South Africa, irrespective of the measurement of exchange rate volatility. The results also revealed that net portfolio flows are associated with exchange rate appreciation and that foreign portfolio inflow react much stronger to changes in exchange rate volatility than vice versa. / MCom (Risk Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

A volatile real exchange rate and high unemployment rate is a growing concern in South Africa, therefore the right macroeconomic policy is required. The challenge is to find stability in the real exchange rate paired with a low inflation rate, both of which are necessary to promote long term economic growth, which in turn creates more job opportunities. This study analyses the impact of the exchange rate on unemployment in South Africa by considering quarterly data for the period 2003 to 2013. In this study, the macroeconomic transmission channel is divided into two transmission paths, imports and exports. These find their roots in the Phillips curve and the Keynesian theory on unemployment respectively. The vector error correction model (VECM), together with an analysis of the impulse response functions and variance decompositions, are implemented to determine the short and long run impacts of the exchange rate on unemployment. After the completion of a variety of specifications, estimations and tests, both macroeconomic transmission paths revealed in the empirical analysis that the real exchange rate has a significant impact on unemployment. In the imports transmission path, the real exchange rate, imports and the CPI have significant long term relationships with unemployment. Furthermore, the exports transmission path found significant short term relations with unemployment in considering the real exchange rate, exports and economic growth. The impulse responses in both transmission paths indicated that a shock in the exchange rate will have a significant effect on unemployment in the short run. Similar results were found with the variance decomposition. In the import transmission path, movements in the real exchange rate explained an increasing portion of the variance in unemployment. Alternatively, in the export transmission path the real exchange rate and exports explained an increasing portion of the variance. The evidence therefore suggests that South Africa should focus more on stabilising the exchange rate, since fluctuations in unemployment are a result of shocks in the real exchange rate, following the macroeconomic transmission channels discussed. / MCom (Economics)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015

Emerging insurance markets, have limited access to financial instruments that they can use to create common hedge(s) to manage foreign exchange risk. This is the first empirical study to focus on the limitations when modelling foreign exchange rate transaction exposure in emerging insurance markets. This work is based on the cash flow methodology proposed by Martin and Mauer (2003, 2005) in reference to banks, and employed by Li et al. (2009) when assessing US insurance companies. Some econometric methodological innovations have been introduced to study the limitations of modelling foreign exchange rate transaction exposure in emerging insurance markets. An extensive literature review is followed by a quantitative investigation, to answer the following research questions. 1) Is the foreign exchange transaction exposure, as measured by a fundamental (economic) method of modelling the interplay of foreign exchange rates with other economic variables, significant, for all Egyptian insurance companies? 2) Is the foreign exchange transaction exposure, as measured by a technical (statistical) way of modelling the interplay of foreign exchange rates with other economic variables, significant for all Egyptian insurance companies? 3) Is the exchange transaction exposure for the Egyptian insurance industry, as a whole, significant? Although the foreign exchange rate transaction exposure for the Egyptian insurance industry, as a whole, is insignificant (question3), the percentage of Egyptian insurers affected by foreign exchange rate transaction exposure in US dollars, estimated at the individual firm level, was found to be 22% (question 1) and 35% (question2) respectively.

There are four chapters in my dissertation. Chapter one gives a brief introduction of the three essays. Chapter two studies the choice of exchange rate regimes in East Asia using a business-cycle approach. My results suggest that countries in East Asia are driven mainly by country-specific shocks, making more rigid exchange rate regimes less desirable. Neither a yen bloc nor a dollar bloc has been identified in East Asia. However, Japan seems more influential to countries such as Korea and Taiwan. An optimum currency area does not seem feasible for East Asia, at least in the short run. Chapter three applies the cointegration and causality analyses to the real effective exchange rates to study the degree of monetary integration in East Asia. I find that the ASEAN and the NIE countries, respectively, have achieved some degree of integration, but not East Asia as a whole. The yen is found to move closely with the NIE currencies. However, neither the yen nor the dollar imposes a dominant driving force on the East Asian currencies. My results suggest that East Asia is not an optimum currency area. Chapter four expands the traditional monetary model of exchange rate determination into a structural VAR model incorporating various capital flows and the balance of trade in addition to the macroeconomic fundamentals. The model is then applied to the Australian dollar (AUD), the Canadian dollar (CAD), and the US dollar (USD) exchange rates over 19802004. I find that capital flows, especially portfolio investments, explain a major portion of the exchange rate fluctuations in the relatively small and open economies such as Australia and Canada in the short-to-medium run. The impacts of capital flows are limited to the US dollar exchange rates. Among the macroeconomic fundamentals, the interest rate plays an important role in exchange rate determination for all three currencies. The results imply that different capital flows do influence exchange rates differently and are important determinants of exchange rates.