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

This paper offers a re-assessment of the finance-growth nexus in a framework that allows to distinguish between short-run versus long-run effects. Our dataset contains information on 45 developed and developing countries over the period 1995-2011. We make use of the integration and cointegration properties of the data, establish a cointegrating relation and derive the long-run elasticities of per capita GDP with respect to employment, the physical capital stock, and financial development. We employ these results to specify an error correction model and assess whether the years of crisis have changed the relationship between finance and growth. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

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 contains three main parts. In the first part, we adapt a model developed for the US economy to the unique Chinese economic and institutional context. The uniqueness is mainly from two perspectives: the dual-channel housing financing system in China and the existence of the shadow banking sector (which differs from the shadow banking in developed economies) in China’s housing market. It would be difficult to obtain a clear picture of the Chinese housing market and macroeconomy without a thorough understanding of these two characteristics. This is due to the crucial role played by shadow banking and other informal finance institutions within the context of China in both the development and purchase of housing, in supporting productive economic activities in general, and that the housing market is in turn intricately connected to the health of the Chinese economy, being a key ‘barometer’. The second part of the research is the quantification of the determinants of the scale of shadow banking in China. The quantification is crucial since policy makers need to be aware of how sensitive shadow banking is to various factors. We develop a theoretical framework to explain the evolution of the scale of shadow banking in China. As part of this research, we investigate whether the real interest rate of household saving deposits, the required reserve ratio and bank loans to business and household are the main factors in explaining the evolution of China’s shadow banking. In the third part of research, we employ a credit risk and macroeconomic stress test to investigate the vulnerability of the commercial banks in China. Our originality here is the integration of both the role of shadow banking and housing market related loans in the commercial banks’ stress test scenarios at the macro level. Since a systematic analysis regarding the effect of changes in the macroeconomy and housing market on the credit risk of commercial banks in China is scarce, we use bank stress tests to analyse the credit risk in terms of the non-performing loans ratio of commercial banks in China; this is in response to changes in the macroeconomic factors and housing market. We address the role of the variation of the scale of shadow banking in China in terms of its contribution to the credit risk because of its uncertainty and close link with the commercial banks. Stress tests often focus on a single bank or financial institution yet we apply the same principles to examine the financial system as a whole in China, which would allow us to quantify the systemic risk in the entire Chinese financial system; and which variables, especially shadow banking contribute to the risks and by how much. This thesis contributes to the understanding of how China’s dual-channel housing finance system and shadow banking affect the evolution of house prices; and also, the main driving factors of the scale of China’s shadow banking and whether the housing market related loans and shadow banking pose risks to commercial banks. Possible research questions raised by the main findings of this thesis will enrich the debate on China’s housing market, shadow banking and regular banks, especially at a time when China is reforming its economic structure.

Este trabalho busca apurar a existência de assimetria na transmissão dos preços dos combustíveis no atacado para o varejo no Estado de São Paulo. Desde a introdução dos veículos flex-fuel no mercado brasileiro em 2003, o consumidor pode optar por abastecer com a gasolina comum ou com o etanol hidratado, sendo a sua escolha influenciada pelas variações na relação dos preços desses combustíveis, o que evidencia a importância de um estudo para entender o comportamento desses preços. Para tal, medias mensais dos preços da gasolina comum e do etanol hidratado nos níveis de distribuição e revenda, referentes ao estado paulista, para o período de novembro de 2002 a abril de 2015 foram consideradas na condução da analise empírica, que compreende a estimação de Modelos de Correção de Erros. Os resultados indicam a presença de assimetria na transmissão dos preços de ambos os combustíveis do atacado para o varejo, contudo esta se manifesta somente no curto prazo. Ademais, constata-se no mercado de combustíveis a assimetria positiva, de modo que no curto prazo aumentos nos preços no atacado elevam com maior intensidade os preços ao consumidor, em comparação a decréscimos nos preços ao consumidor provocados por choques negativos nos preços de distribuição. Tal assimetria pode proceder de uma combinação entre as reações dos consumidores as futuras oscilações nos preços e a gestão de estoques por parte dos postos de combustíveis. / This work aims to determine the existence of asymmetry in the transmission of fuel prices in the wholesale to retail in the State of Sao Paulo. Since the introduction of flex-fuel vehicles in the Brazilian market in 2003, the consumer can choose to fill up with regular gasoline or hydrated ethanol, and your choice is influenced by variations in the relative prices of these fuels, which highlights the importance of a study to understand the behavior of these prices. To this end, monthly average of prices of regular gasoline and hydrated ethanol in the levels of distribution and resale, for the State of Sao Paulo, for the period November 2002 to April 2015 were considered in conducting empirical analysis, which includes the estimation of Error Correction Models. The results indicate the presence of asymmetry in transmission of price of both fuels of wholesale for retail, however it is manifested in the short term only. Moreover, it appears in the fuel market the positive asymmetry, so that in the short term increases in wholesale prices rise more strongly consumer prices compared to decreases in consumer prices caused by negative shocks in distribution prices. Such asymmetry can come from a combination of consumer reactions to future fluctuations in prices and inventory management by the fuel stations.

Does monetary policy affect the real economy? If so, what is the transmission mechanism or channel through which these effects occur? These two questions are among the most important and controversial in macroeconomics. This dissertation presents some new empirical evidence that addresses each question for the U.S. and Chinese economies. Literature on monetary transmission suggests that the monetary policy can take effect on the real economy through several ways. The most noteworthy one is credit channels, including the bank lending channel and the interest channel. First, I use a new method to test for structural breaks in the U.S. monetary policy history and present some new empirical evidence to support an operative bank lending channel in the transmission mechanism of monetary policy. Results show that an operative bank lending channel existed in 1955 to 1968, and its impact on the economy has become much smaller since 1981, but it still has a significant buffering effect on output by attenuating the effect of the interest channel. Second, I adopt the recently developed time series technique to explore the puzzling negative correlation between output and stock returns in China currently, and posit that it is due to a negative link between monetary policy and stock returns when monetary policy increases output. The monetary policy has not been transmitted well in the public sector which is the principal part of Chinese stock market, and increased investment capital from monetary expansion goes to real estate sector instead of the stock market. Last, I demonstrate how monetary policy has been transmitted into the public and private sectors of China through the credit channel. The fundamental identification problem inherent in using aggregated data that leads to failure in isolating demand shock from supply shock is explicitly solved by introducing control factors. I find that the monetary policy has great impact on private sector rather than public sector through credit channel in China. These findings have important practical implications for U.S. and China’s economic development by improving the efficiency of the monetary policy because a comprehensive understanding of monetary transmission will lead to better policy design.

This study investigates the interest rate pass through from the money market rate to the lending rate by utilizing monthly data of fifteen countries, grouped as high income, upper middle income and lower middle income, over the period 1999:01-2011:09. Taking the linear cointegration test of Engle-Granger as benchmark, we employ threshold cointegration tests of Enders and Siklos (2001) in order to account for the possible nonlinearities in the pass-through process. Empirical results reveal that the pass through process is complete in three countries / Republic of Korea, Latvia and Malaysia and the adjustment of the lending rate is symmetric in two countries / Armenia and Republic of Korea. Moreover, it is observed that the adjustment of the lending rate is upward sticky in six countries / Bolivia, Philippines, Malaysia, Dominican Republic, Thailand and Croatia, whereas it is downward sticky in seven countries / Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Latvia, Peru, Kuwait, Hong Kong and Czech Republic. Furthermore, our estimation results suggest that heterogeneities in the pass-through mechanism across countries can be mainly explained by income level, inflation, market power, financial sector development and market volatility.

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