In the first chapter, entitled “On Cross-country Differences in the Contribution of Nontraded Goods to Real Exchange Rate Fluctuations”, The contribution of nontraded goods to Real Exchange Rate (RER) fluctuations for a large number of countries that include high, middle, and low-income countries are estimated using Engel’s (1999, JPE) approaches. We also propose a new quantity dual approach which does not require any assumption regarding the functional form for either the production function or for the overall price index to estimate similar measures. All the three approaches used yield qualitatively similar estimates, but there exists a large cross-country variation in the contributions of the nontraded goods to RER fluctuations. Income, government expenditure, exchange rate volatility, and political stability are found to be negatively correlated to the contributions of nontraded goods, while inflation, consumption expenditure, and openness are positively correlated to the contributions of nontraded goods to RER fluctuations. In the second chapter, entitled “The Great Recession and Price Convergence in the United States”, We analyze the differential nature of commodity price convergence in cities in the U.S.A. before and after the Great Recession of 2008. Using quarterly retail price data for 50 commodities from 279 cities for the period 1992- 2014, we show that the speed of price convergence for almost all the commodities increased after the great recession, and that observation is more pronounced for nonperishable prices. We also observe that the price convergence disparity between the most and the least affected states widened, with the most affected areas experiencing much higher speed of price convergence than before the Great Recession. Moreover, the geographic variations of changes in rate of convergence are noteworthy. In the third chapter, entitled “Language, Topography, and Price Convergence”, we ask what else can downgrade technological innovations, improvement of transportation infrastructures, and other policy tools in boosting integrations of commodity markets? This paper analyzes the impact of two highly exogenous variables – languages and elevations - on retail price convergence which indicates the level of market integration. Using data from a very ethnic and topographically diversified country- India- we show that language and topographical variations represent intrinsic barriers to market integration and should not be overlooked. Therefore, ceteris paribus, a country with more similarities in languages and less variation in topographical features is likely to benefit more from technological improvements and from the improvement of transportation infrastructures due to the resulting faster rate of convergence.

[pt] A literatura teórica sobre taxas de câmbio apresenta uma série de resultados de difícil respaldo empírico como o forecasting puzzle da taxa de câmbio. Ao realizarmos previsões dentro da amostra e fora da amostra para as taxas de câmbio, nominal e real, e para o índice de preços de commodities do Brasil, encontramos evidências empíricas que comprovam algumas das explicações para este puzzle. Basicamente, os resultados dentro e fora da amostra apontam que o câmbio nominal apresenta um forte componente forward looking, o que poderia explicar o fracasso de muitos modelos em prever esta variável. Os valores passados do câmbio nominal conseguem gerar previsões para preços de commodities substancialmente melhores que a de um passeio aleatório, tanto no curto quanto no longo prazo, embora a relação reversa não se verifique. Uma análise comparando as previsões de nosso modelo a um modelo autorregressivo univariado mostra que esta evidência é mais fraca do que constatamos inicialmente. Para a taxa de câmbio real estendemos a análise feita na literatura de commodity currencies para medir o poder preditivo dos modelos utilizados. Considerando o exercício dentro da amostra, os preços de commodities contribuem significativamente para as previsões da taxa de câmbio, mas a causalidade no sentido contrário também ocorre. Já para as previsões fora da amostra, o modelo de correção de erros não conseguiu superar o passeio aleatório para nenhuma variável, nem mesmo no longo prazo. Os resultados são robustos à presença de quebras estruturais. / [en] In the theoretical literature on exchange rates we find many results with little empirical support. This paper seeks to contribute to a better understanding on one of the main issues that were not fully answered: the forecasting puzzle on exchange rates. By analyzing in-sample and out-of-sample forecasts for nominal and real exchange rates and the commodity price index of Brazil, we find empirical evidence on some of the explanations for this puzzle. The results insample and out-of-sample indicate that the Brazilian nominal exchange rate has an important forward looking component, which could explain the failure of many models to predict this variable. Past values of nominal exchange rate forecasts commodity prices substantially better than a random walk, both in short and long term horizons, while the reverse relation does not hold. An additional analysis in which we compare our model with a univariate autoregressive one suggests that the evidences may not be as robust as we thought at first. For the real exchange rate we extend the analysis made in the literature on commodity currencies to measure the predictive power of these models. Considering the in-sample exercise, commodity prices play an important role in predicting the Brazilian real exchange rate. However, there is also Granger causality in the opposite direction. Regarding the out-of-sample forecasts, our error correction model could not overcome the random walk model. Our results are robust to structural breaks.

O aumento da internacionalização das economias emergentes e a tendência de financeirização da economia mundial motivaram este estudo que tem como principal objetivo analisar estatisticamente o impacto das variações cambiais no retorno das ações das principais empresas brasileiras internacionalizadas, segundo o ranking realizado pela Fundação Dom Cabral, no período entre 2000 e 2012. Além disso, buscou-se, também, descrever o processo inicial de internacionalização dessas mesmas companhias. Para isso, foi realizada uma pesquisa descritiva e quantitativa, por meio da utilização do método estatístico de regressão linear múltipla. Constatou-se que nas 28 empresas analisadas não há correlação entre variações nas taxas de câmbio e variações no retorno das ações das empresas brasileiras internacionalizadas, evidenciando assim, que outras variáveis são as responsáveis por impactarem o retorno dessas ações. Verificou-se, ainda, que a maior parte das empresas brasileiras iniciam seu processo de internacionalização por meio da instalação de linhas de produção no exterior, seguida de exportação e fusões e aquisições com outras companhias. / The increasing internationalization of companies from emerging economies, in a context of financial globalization of the World economy, has motivated this research, which has as its main goal to analyze the impact of the exchange rate fluctuations on stock returns of main Brazilian international corporations (classified according to the Dom Cabral Foundation annual ranking), covering the period between 2000 and 2012. In addition, this work intended to describe the internationalization process itself of those companies. For this, it was structured a descriptive and quantitative research, using the statistical method of linear regression. Among the main research findings it can be mentioned the non-existent correlation between the fluctuations in exchange rates and the variation in the shares returns of the 28 most internationalized Brazilian companies analyzed. This situation suggests that other variables are more impacting on the shares return. It was also verified that most of the Brazilian companies has begun their internationalization process by investing on production chains abroad, what it is not usual, rather than exporting, merging or acquiring with local companies abroad.

This diploma thesis deals with the issue of financial derivatives, their reporting, classification, accounting point of view and use on the example of a particular entity. The theoretical part summarizes the general theoretical knowledge about the given issue. The main goal of this thesis is to evaluate possibilities of using financial derivatives from the accounting and financial perspective of company named Schäfer Sudex s.r.o. This enterprise produces food containers made of stainless steel. The analysis of receivables and payables shows that the enterprise should ensure against the possible decline in value of foreign receivables as result of exchange rate variability. This thesis presents suggestions for securing receivables. Based on results, recommended solutions were created. Company should secure value of their receivables by using forward. Based at conservative exchange rate development, profit would be 4 mil CZK. But at aggressive change, earnings would exceed 18,7 mil CZK.

As empresas calçadistas brasileiras, em sua grande maioria intensivas em mão de obra, vêm ao longo do tempo perdendo a sua competitividade exportadora devido à valorização do real frente ao dólar americano. A trajetória recente de apreciação da taxa de câmbio, além de fazer com que a margens de lucros sejam cada vez menores, também favorece um aumento das importações de calçados provenientes de outros países, principalmente asiáticos, a preços mais baixos, prejudicando, assim, a diversificação delas para o mercado doméstico. Esta situação causou, e vem causando, uma grande redução na força de trabalho do setor e também o fechamento de inúmeras empresas. Frente a uma situação cambial adversa e que tende a se manter uma constante pelos períodos próximos, é necessário que as empresas adotem medidas para garantir os seus lucros e a sua sobrevivência. A estruturação de um sistema de gestão e de controle dos custos poderá proporcionar melhores margens e certa proteção contra variações cambiais negativas. Aliado a este fato, a busca por produtos de maior valor agregado promoverá um aumento da receita que, em conjunto com o controle dos custos, poderão trazer para as empresas o lucro necessário para a continuidade do negócio. Saber como abordar estas soluções será essencial para trazer de volta a competitividade às empresas do setor. / The Brazilian footwear companies, most of them labor intensive, have lost its export trade competitiveness over time due to appreciation of the Real (Brazilian currency) against the US dollar. The recent appreciation of the exchange rate in Brazil are shrinking the companies’ profit margins and also favors an increase in footwear imports from other countries, mainly Asian, at lower prices. These imports are also damaging the companies’ performance in the domestic market. Such situation caused, and it is still causing, a great reduction in the workforce in the industry and also the closure of many companies. Faced with an adverse exchange rate situation, which tends to remain constant in a short term, it is necessary for companies to adopt measures to ensure their profits and upcoming survival. The structuring of a management system and cost control could provide better margins and certain protection against non-favorable exchange rate variations. Joined to this fact, the search for products and markets with higher value added will promote an increase in revenues which, together with costs control, could bring the companies the profit necessary for continuity of business. The understanding of how to approach these solutions will be essential topic to bring back the competitiveness to the Brazilian footwear industry.

The objectives of this thesis are to: (1) examine if the resource curse exists in the context of Libya; (2) assess the role of institutions in avoiding or minimising the resource curse, and; (3) evaluate institutional and economic reforms required, and the best options to diversify the economy from oil, hence avoid the resource curse in Libya. To achieve these, three approaches are applied, (i) a three country comparative analysis; (ii) Libya country-level time-series analysis, and; (iii) institutional descriptive analysis. This thesis uses time-series data and annual datasets covering 1970-2010. Johansen’s co-integration is used to establish the long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables in the models. The Johansen co-integration test, based on the Trace and Maximum Eigenvalue statistics, is applied. In the first approach, the three case studies included in the study are Nigeria, Norway and UAE, with outcomes suggesting that Norway managed to avoid the Dutch disease, the UAE show no major signs of the resource curse, Norway and the UAE have largely managed to overcome Dutch disease, while Nigeria suffers a management curse. The first model suggests that Libya may experience a resource curse, but this may not be as a result of an appreciation of the real exchange rate. A 1% increase in the oil price will cause the Libyan exchange rate to increase (depreciate) by 1.41%. The country could potentially suffer from Dutch disease, but no evidence can be brought by the first model alone. In an attempt to reinforce the first analysis, the second model examined the sectoral impacts of the Dutch disease. Three relations are estimated; tradable sectors (manufacturing and agricultural), and non-tradable sectors (construction and services). These were all found to have been affected by oil revenue. This therefore confirms the existence of Dutch disease in Libya. The descriptive statistics analysis is used alongside five governance indicators: political stability, government effectiveness, and regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption. It is concluded that the quality of institutions in Libya affects economic growth negatively. The study holds several implications for policy-makers.

As empresas calçadistas brasileiras, em sua grande maioria intensivas em mão de obra, vêm ao longo do tempo perdendo a sua competitividade exportadora devido à valorização do real frente ao dólar americano. A trajetória recente de apreciação da taxa de câmbio, além de fazer com que a margens de lucros sejam cada vez menores, também favorece um aumento das importações de calçados provenientes de outros países, principalmente asiáticos, a preços mais baixos, prejudicando, assim, a diversificação delas para o mercado doméstico. Esta situação causou, e vem causando, uma grande redução na força de trabalho do setor e também o fechamento de inúmeras empresas. Frente a uma situação cambial adversa e que tende a se manter uma constante pelos períodos próximos, é necessário que as empresas adotem medidas para garantir os seus lucros e a sua sobrevivência. A estruturação de um sistema de gestão e de controle dos custos poderá proporcionar melhores margens e certa proteção contra variações cambiais negativas. Aliado a este fato, a busca por produtos de maior valor agregado promoverá um aumento da receita que, em conjunto com o controle dos custos, poderão trazer para as empresas o lucro necessário para a continuidade do negócio. Saber como abordar estas soluções será essencial para trazer de volta a competitividade às empresas do setor. / The Brazilian footwear companies, most of them labor intensive, have lost its export trade competitiveness over time due to appreciation of the Real (Brazilian currency) against the US dollar. The recent appreciation of the exchange rate in Brazil are shrinking the companies’ profit margins and also favors an increase in footwear imports from other countries, mainly Asian, at lower prices. These imports are also damaging the companies’ performance in the domestic market. Such situation caused, and it is still causing, a great reduction in the workforce in the industry and also the closure of many companies. Faced with an adverse exchange rate situation, which tends to remain constant in a short term, it is necessary for companies to adopt measures to ensure their profits and upcoming survival. The structuring of a management system and cost control could provide better margins and certain protection against non-favorable exchange rate variations. Joined to this fact, the search for products and markets with higher value added will promote an increase in revenues which, together with costs control, could bring the companies the profit necessary for continuity of business. The understanding of how to approach these solutions will be essential topic to bring back the competitiveness to the Brazilian footwear industry.

Recentemente, importantes questionamentos emergiram na literatura sobre repasse cambial. Mais especificamente, foi dada crescente atenção à hipótese de Taylor (2000) de que o pass-through se reduziu em diversos países como conseqüência do ambiente de inflação mais baixa. Esta dissertação investiga o tema através da aplicação de painéis dinâmicos para um conjunto de economias desenvolvidas. Deste modo, são estimados modelos de efeito fixo e Arellano-Bond em janelas fixas (rolling windows), que apontam para uma redução substancial na transmissão do câmbio para a inflação. A análise de potenciais determinantes macroeconômicos dessa queda indica que o ambiente inflacionário foi o principal elemento por trás do fato, sobretudo nos anos oitenta e noventa, em que o processo de desinflação foi mais intenso. Por outro lado, os anos dois mil apresentam um coeficiente de pass-through bastante baixo e estável, visto que o cenário de inflação baixa já estava consolidado para o conjunto de economias analisadas. / Recently, economists have become more interested in studying exchange rate pass-through. More specifically, increasing attention has been given to Taylors (2000) hypothesis that the passthrough has declined in several countries as a result of a lower inflation environment. This dissertation examines this issue through the application of dynamic panels for a number of developed economies. Panel data models are estimated here using fixed effects and Arellano- Bond estimators in rolling windows. The results point to a substantial reduction in the transmission of exchange rate to inflation. The analysis of potential macroeconomic determinants of this decline indicates that the inflationary environment was the main factor behind this fact, mainly in the eighties and nineties when the disinflation process was more intense worldwide. On the other hand, in the first decade of this century the pass-through coefficient was fairly low and stable, perhaps because the scenario of low inflation was already a longstanding reality to the economies analyzed in the present study.

A presente dissertação discute o repasse cambial para o IPCA na economia brasileira durante o período compreendido entre janeiro de 1999 e dezembro de 2007. A ampla maioria dos trabalhos que versam sobre este tema aborda a redução do repasse após a adoção do regime de metas de inflação e/ou tem como único foco o impacto das desvalorizações cambiais no aumento dos índices de preços. Este trabalho, por outro lado, aborda de maneira explícita o papel da valorização do Real sobre a variação do IPCA no período recente, configurando o que denominamos de repasse cambial reverso. Para tanto, estimamos o repasse cambial por meio de um modelo de vetores auto-regressivos tanto para o referido período (1999-2007), quanto para outros dois recortes temporais: entre janeiro de 1999 e junho 2003 (amostra 1), período no qual se verifica uma tendência de desvalorização cambial e aumento de preços; e de julho de 2003 a dezembro de 2007 (amostra 2), período caracterizado pelo processo inverso, de valorização da taxa de câmbio e de cumprimento das metas de inflação na maioria dos anos. Os principais resultados foram: (i) no longo prazo os coeficientes de repasse cambial para o IPCA para as duas amostras foram superiores àqueles verificados para o período completo; e (ii) o repasse estimado para a amostra 2 foi bem elevado, ainda que inferior àquele obtido para a amostra 1. Estes resultados reforçam o argumento de que a taxa de câmbio desempenhou um papel proeminente no controle da inflação no período 2003-2007. / The present dissertation discusses the exchange rate pass-through to the headline inflation index, i.e. extensive national consumer price index (IPCA) in the Brazilian economy between January 1999 and December 2007. The vast majority of works dealing with this issue addresses the reduction of the pass-through after the adoption of the inflation targeting regime and / or focuses on the impact of exchange rate devaluation over the price index. This work, alternatively, discusses the role of the Brazilian currency appreciation in the recent period, resulting in what was labeled as reverse exchange rate pass-through. Thus, we have used a model of auto-regressive vectors to estimate the exchange rate pass-through for the full period (1999-2007), and for two other periods: between January 1999 and June 2003 (sample 1), during which there was a tendency for devaluation and increase in domestic prices, and from July 2003 to December 2007 (sample 2), that was a period characterized by the reverse process, that is exchange rate appreciation and in the most cases the achieving of the inflation targets. The main results were: (i) in the long run the exchange rate pass-through coefficients to IPCA of the two samples were higher than those observed for the full period, and (ii) the pass-through estimated for the sample 2 was very high, despite the fact that it was lower than that obtained for the sample 1. Those results reinforce the argument that the exchange rate played a prominent role in controlling inflation in the period 2003-2007.

O aumento da internacionalização das economias emergentes e a tendência de financeirização da economia mundial motivaram este estudo que tem como principal objetivo analisar estatisticamente o impacto das variações cambiais no retorno das ações das principais empresas brasileiras internacionalizadas, segundo o ranking realizado pela Fundação Dom Cabral, no período entre 2000 e 2012. Além disso, buscou-se, também, descrever o processo inicial de internacionalização dessas mesmas companhias. Para isso, foi realizada uma pesquisa descritiva e quantitativa, por meio da utilização do método estatístico de regressão linear múltipla. Constatou-se que nas 28 empresas analisadas não há correlação entre variações nas taxas de câmbio e variações no retorno das ações das empresas brasileiras internacionalizadas, evidenciando assim, que outras variáveis são as responsáveis por impactarem o retorno dessas ações. Verificou-se, ainda, que a maior parte das empresas brasileiras iniciam seu processo de internacionalização por meio da instalação de linhas de produção no exterior, seguida de exportação e fusões e aquisições com outras companhias. / The increasing internationalization of companies from emerging economies, in a context of financial globalization of the World economy, has motivated this research, which has as its main goal to analyze the impact of the exchange rate fluctuations on stock returns of main Brazilian international corporations (classified according to the Dom Cabral Foundation annual ranking), covering the period between 2000 and 2012. In addition, this work intended to describe the internationalization process itself of those companies. For this, it was structured a descriptive and quantitative research, using the statistical method of linear regression. Among the main research findings it can be mentioned the non-existent correlation between the fluctuations in exchange rates and the variation in the shares returns of the 28 most internationalized Brazilian companies analyzed. This situation suggests that other variables are more impacting on the shares return. It was also verified that most of the Brazilian companies has begun their internationalization process by investing on production chains abroad, what it is not usual, rather than exporting, merging or acquiring with local companies abroad.