The main aim of this thesis is to discover a suitable instant of time for the Czech Republic to join European Monetary Union. I am analyzing dependence between monetary policies of the Czech National Bank (CNB) and the European Central Bank (ECB) themselves as well as in relation to essential Czech macroeconomic indicators. My observation is focused on interest rate policies represented by operative interest rates, on monetary policies represented by indices of nominal effective exchange rates and on convergence monitoring. The analytical instruments I used in the thesis are correlation analyses, linear trends, the Granger causality test and the Impulse-Reaction test. Besides, my thesis examines fulfillment of the Convergence (Maastricht) criteria in the Czech Republic and other central European countries. This thesis also examines impact of the European monetary policy on some Eurozone member countries.

The main contribution of my thesis is the analysis of substantial empirical material that I have collected from Community trade union actors. My analysis focuses on the institutional strategies of the sectoral European trade union federations and their implications for the Europeanisation of wages policy. I have demonstrated that the development of European coordination processes of national collective bargaining, particularly at sectoral level, has contributed to reviving the concept of collective bargaining and professional relations in the European Area, which until then had been covered in the literature by the social dialogue. I have identified three obstacles to collective negociations at a European level: the “depoliticised” wage in the economic partnership, employers identified as the “lobby partner” in the sectoral social dialogue, and the difficulties encountered in the Europeanisation of trade unions. L’apport majeur de notre thèse est l’analyse d’un matériel empirique conséquent que nous avons collecté auprès des acteurs syndicaux communautaires. Notre analyse se concentre sur les stratégies institutionnelles des fédérations syndicales sectorielles européennes et sur leurs implications en matière d’européanisation de la politique salariale. Nous avons démontré que le développement des processus de coordination européenne des négociations collectives nationales, en particulier au niveau sectoriel, peut contribuer à renouveler la conception de la négociation collective et des relations professionnelles dans l’espace européen jusqu’alors appréhendée dans la littérature par le dialogue social. Nous avons identifié trois obstacles à la négociation collective européenne : le salaire « dépolitisé » dans le partenariat économique, le patronat devenu « partenaire-lobby » dans le dialogue social sectoriel, et la difficile européanisation syndicale.

Les marchés financiers sont traditionnellement considérés comme le lieu où se confrontent une demande et une capacité de financement. Le développement des intermédiaires financiers a toutefois contribué à complexifier les transactions et les nœuds de relations sur les places. L'objet de cette thèse est d'examiner le marché des euro-obligations non plus comme le lieu de rencontre d'une offre et d'une demande dans l'exercice d'un jeu concurrentiel, mais comme une organisation dans laquelle des membres adoptent des rationalités et des modes d'action diversifiés et évolutifs. La méthodologie utilisée articule une étude historique événementielle et une analyse des pratiques inscrite dans la longue durée. Les observations tirées de cette double appréhension sont confrontées, dans le cadre d'une démarche abductive, à des cadres conceptuels constitutifs de la théorie des organisations. Cette confrontation s'opère en trois étapes. Tout d'abord, l'évolution et les pratiques sont étudiées pour montrer en quoi le marché euro-obligataire se comporte comme une organisation, et pas seulement comme un lieu de transaction. Ensuite, les formes prises par cette dernière au cours de son histoire sont identifiées. Enfin, le modèle firme semblant le plus approprié pour caractériser la morphologie ultime du marché étudié, la question du mode de coordination mis en œuvre est envisagée. Au final, il est établi que le marché euro-obligataire s'apparente à une bureaucratie professionnelle. De ce fait, les risques dominants sur ce dernier ne sont plus des " risques de marché " à proprement parler. Ils émanent au contraire de problématiques typiquement organisationnelles : la maîtrise du comportement des membres et la gestion du changement.Ces résultats de recherche doivent contribuer à renouveler le regard porté sur des marchés financiers qui, du fait de la dérégulation, tendent à s'aligner sur ce qui faisait jusqu'à aujourd'hui la singularité euro-obligataire. Ces regards sont avant tout ceux des régulateurs, dont la capacité de contrôle sur les intermédiaires financiers demeure désormais limitée. Ils sont aussi ceux des emprunteurs qui, de facto, s'adressent plus à un fournisseur de fonds qu'ils n'en lèvent auprès d'un marché.

Estimating the Euro effect with Synthetic Control Method for Eastern Europe Abstract This thesis estimates the effect of Euro adoption on newest Eurozone members using synthetic control method. The effect is estimated on income per capita and GDP growth. Estimates indicate overall indecisive effect for Slovakia and Malta, neutral effect for Estonia and negative effect for Slovenia and Cyprus. The cost of Euro for Cyprus is estimated to be as high as 1/3 of GDP per capita. In some cases the direction of the effect changed before and after the financial crisis. The quality of inference suffers from low number of observations. Methodological assumptions are discussed, concluding that quality of Eastern European time series likely causes substantial bias in the results.

Spain is one of the founding countries of the European Monetary Union, that adopted the single currency in 1999. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the overall impact of the Euro on the Spanish economy. The first part briefly introduces Spain's economy. The second part is about the European Central Bank's monetary policy. This part analyses the suitability of the single monetary policy and then examines its specific implications on the Spanish economy. The third part deals with the fiscal policy and the Stability and Growth Pact. This part analyses the impact of the Euro on the public finances.

The aim of this graduation theses is an evaluation of the economic advancement of the last five euro area countries, i.e. Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia and Estonia, in the context of the decaying world's economic crisis and adumbration the possible perspectives of their next economic advancement. The thesis is structured into five chapters (according to countries), whereas the structure is always the same - introductory subchapter evaluates the way to euro area by convergence reports of EC and ECB, the second one predicates current economic advancement by chosen economic indicators from Eurostat and the last one implies expected advancement by EC Autumn forecast 2010.

This master thesis deals with the euro adoption in the Czech Republic, comparing the possible effects of the euro adoption on the Czech economy and consequences of currency changeover after the Slovak Republic joined the eurozone in 2009. After introducing the theoretical concepts inevitable for the euro adoption, the process of preparation for the currency changeover in the Slovak Republic and the currency changeover itself will be described. Subsequently, the work focuses on the conditions which the Czech government has already met in the process of preparation for the euro adoption and which still need to be fulfilled. In addition, the Czech Republic's economic alignment with euro area countries is analyzed, especially focusing on particular areas. A significant part of this work deals with the comparison of positive and negative effects of the euro adoption in the Slovak Republic with possible impacts of euro on the Czech Republic. In the end, the emphasis is put on the strength of the Czech economy to deal with the possible future financial crisis.

Este trabalho tem como objetivos analisar as semelhanças das respostas dos países da Zona do Euro aos choques na política monetária e no câmbio (identificados através de restrições de sinais nas funções impulso-resposta) e investigar a simetria das flutuações na taxa de crescimento do nível de atividade na região através da análise da importância relativa da resposta do crescimento do PIB destes países aos choques comum e específico identificados pelo modelo FAVAR utilizado, que foi estimado através de um método Bayesiano desenvolvido para incorporar prioris de Litterman (1986). A importância do choque comum (relativamente ao específico) nos diversos países, fornece uma medida do grau de integração dos diversos membros da Zona do Euro. O trabalho contribui para a análise do grau de integração dos países da Zona do Euro ao utilizar uma metodologia que permite o uso de um amplo conjunto de variáveis e ao identificar o grau de simetria das flutuações na taxa de crescimento do nível de atividade dos membros da região através da identificação dos choques comuns e específicos. Foram utilizados dados trimestrais de 1999.I a 2013.I para os 17 países da região. Os resultados encontrados apontam para a existência de uma maior integração entre as grandes economias da Zona do Euro ( com exceção da França) e uma integração menor para as menores economias (com exceção da Finlândia). / This dissertation aims at analyzing the similarities of the responses of countries in the Eurozone to shocks in the monetary policy and exchange rate policy (identified through restrictions on the signs in the impulse-response functions) and to investigate the symmetry of fluctuations in the rate of growth of the level of activity in the region by analyzing the relative importance of the response of GDP growth in these countries to common and specific shocks identified by the FAVAR model used in the paper, which was estimated using a Bayesian method developed to incorporate priors of Litterman (1986). The importance of the common shocks (in the particular) in many countries provides a measure of the degree of integration of several members of the Eurozone. The dissertation contributes to the analysis of the degree of integration of the countries of the Eurozone by using a methodology that allows the use of a big set of variables and to identify the degree of symmetry of the fluctuations in the growth rate of the activity level of members region through the identification of common and specific shocks. Using quarterly data from 1999.I to 2013.I for 17 countries in the region, the results show the existence of greater integration among the major economies of the Eurozone (except France) and lesser integration among the small economies (with the exception of Finland).

The dissertation deals with interbank payment systems with finality of settlement in Czech Republic and Slovakia. First chapter defines each payment system based on different criteria and deals with risks related to operation of payment systems. As both countries are members of European Union, same legal documents of European Union apply for both of them. These documents are described in the second chapter. A brief description of payment systems used in European Union is included in the third chapter. There is also described the development of payment flows in European payment systems TARGET, TARGET2 and EURO1. Forth chapter contains global analysis of Czech payment system CERTIS and Slovak payment systems EURO SIPS and TARGET2-SK from different perspectives. Very important part of this dissertation is fifth chapter, where payment systems are analyzed based on the comparison -- number of participants, number of process payments and volumes of these transactions.

The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the stability of the euro area in the context of the impact of the economic crisis. The work is divided into three chapters. The theory of optimum currency area was identified as a fundamental theoretical basis for subsequent analysis, and then Ireland and Portugal were chosen as the two countries representing vulnerable economies, which have been subjected to more detailed examination and comparison. These two parts were for the coherence of the whole work set in the historical context of European monetary integration. The first part deals with a theory of optimal currency area. The first chapter is further analysis of potential benefits and costs of the monetary area. The second chapter focuses on the historical context of monetary integration in Europe and recent developments in euro area countries. The theme of the third chapter is to compare the impact of the crisis on the Irish and the Portuguese economy. This chapter focuses on the main causes of the crisis in Ireland and then in Portugal, the impact of the crisis on them and stability restoring program adopted in the context of drawing loans from the European Commission, ECB and IMF. In the last part of the third chapter the causes and effects of the crisis in Ireland and Portugal were mutually compared. The conclusion of this chapter is devoted to the prospects of these countries into the future.