The goal of the Master thesis is to assess potential benefits and costs for Czech economy resulting from joining the euro-zone. The thesis also reviews the preparedness for the euro adoption in terms of fulfilment of both the nominal and real convergence criteria. First part summarizes the brief history of European monetary integration and theoretical aspects associated with function of monetary union. Follows the major part namely euro adoption in the Czech Republic where current status of fulfilment of maastricht convergence criteria and additional factors of real convergence will be analysed. This part of thesis also deals with direct and indirect impact of euro adoption on Czech economy. In the thesis I will also review current problems of euro-zone which could negatively affect the strategy of euro adoption in the Czech Republic.

Euro and the Czech Republic - the benefits and pitfalls of the euro currency Abstract The thesis focuses on possible benefits, hazards and costs which could rise up from the entrance of Czech Republic to the Euro Zone and implementation of euro currency. The aims of the thesis are as follows: to acquaint the reader with the history of the monetary and economical integration in the Europe after the second world war to the present time; present the criteria of the nominal and real convergence used to determinate the level of convergence between states, assess the level of convergence reached by the Czech Republic in relation to the Euro Zone; and present the possible benefits hazards and costs of the introduction of the euro. To achieve the abovementioned aims, the method of analysis, synthesis, comparison and description was used. The content of the thesis is divided to five major chapters. The first chapter contains the history of the monetary and economic integration in Europe after the second world war starting with the establishment of the Council of Europe up to the acceptance of the Maastricht Treaty, establishment of the monetary and economic union - the Euro Zone and introduction of the euro in its member states. The second chapter introduces the nominal convergence criteria defined by the...

The current euro crisis is shaped by urgency and actuality. Since it affects a lot of people and different countries, it is also denoted by transboundary effects. Considering these circumstances, the call for quick crisis solution occurs. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to investigate the leadership issue during the euro crisis. Based on theoretical principles of crisis leadership, we examine the role and behavior of Germany in the euro crisis. Due to the fact that Germany is currently in a significant position, we narrow down the crisis leadership aspect to this specific view. Providing an overall and thorough picture, we investigate Germany’s leadership in the euro crisis from different perspectives. In order to achieve this purpose, we determine this issue from a political, economical and societal perception, which seem to be the most influencing factors in the case of the euro crisis. By assembling the crucial findings of these separate categories, we gain a broader perspective and hence a generalized evaluation and understanding of the German leadership style.

Le déclenchement de la dette des Subprime en 2007, suivie de la crise de la dette Européenne en 2011, a attiré l'attention vers le risque de crédit, ses causes et ses implications. Depuis, Les décideurs des politiques économiques cherchent à trouver un moyen pour réguler les mouvements sur le marché des obligations et des dettes. Ainsi, sous l'impulsion du Conseil de stabilité financière, les accords de Bâle III sont apparus. Ce sont des réformes visant à renforcer le système financier afin d'affirmer la solidité financière des banques en imposant des conditions d'emprunt dont un niveau minimum de capitaux propres. Les travaux étudiant les risque de crédit avec ses différentes façades ont connu un boom. Il y a notamment la modélisation du risque de crédit qui s'est énormément développée. Cette thèse s'inscrit dans une branche macroéconomique à l'échelle Européenne. Nous essayons d'identifier les déterminants du risque de crédit aux niveaux souverains et bancaires et d'étudier les connections entre les deux. Dans une première partie, nous utilisons une modélisation Autoregressive à retards échelonnés1(ARDL) an de définir les déterminants macroéconomiques d'un échantillon de pays européens. Nous suggérons que le risque de crédit de ces derniers dépend largement des fondamentaux macroéconomiques avec des élasticités différentes selon la santé économique du pays. Plus précisément, nous trouvons que l'endettement a des effets opposés suivant le niveau du risque de crédit du pays. Dans la deuxième partie, nous nous intéressons aux déterminants du risque de crédit d'un échantillon de groupes bancaires Européens. Depuis 2007, Ces derniers ont été affectés par les deux crises (Subprime et la crise de la dette Européenne). Les relations de long terme dénies selon les tests de cointégration via l'approche des Bounds Tests 2, montrent qu'une dévaluation de l'Euro baisse le risque de crédit des banques étudiées en rendant leurs dettes libellées en Euro moins coûteuses. Aussi, notre analyse indique que la valeur de marché de l'entité ainsi que l'indice boursier dans lequel la banque est inscrite sont inconsistant dans l'explication du risque de crédit de cette dernière. Dans la dernière partie nous étudions les relations de causalité entre les risques de crédit des entités souveraines et bancaires étudiées dans les chapitres précédents. Les tests de causalité au sens de Granger révèlent que les relations trouvées sont asymétriques et dynamiques. Ces liens varient considérablement en fonction de l'état de l'économie de la région. L'analyse montre aussi que juste avant les période de grandes turbulences financières, notamment les crises financières, le transfert du risque de crédit est très important augmentant ainsi les contagions et par la suite le risque systémique. Cependant, la propagation de la méfiance et de la prudence pendant les périodes d'incertitude et des crises, fait baisser significativement le transfert du risque de crédit. Ceci s'accentue dans une zone monétaire comme la zone Euro puisque les pays adoptent forcément les mêmes politiques monétaires voire fiscales malgré leur hétérogénéité. / The outbreak of the Subprime debt in 2007, followed by the European debt crisis in 2011, drew attention to credit risk, its causes and implications. Since then, the economic policy makers are seeking to and a way to regulate the movementson the bond and debt market. Thus, the Basel III appeared under the guidance of the Financial Stability Board. These are reforms aiming at strengthening the financial system in order to assert the financial soundness of banks by imposingloan conditions and requirements including a minimum level of Capital. Works studying the credit risk with its diferent fronts boomed. Credit risk modeling has expanded tremendously. This thesis fits into a macroeconomic branchon a European scale. We try to identify the determinants of credit risk on the sovereign and banking levels and to study the connections between both. In the first section, Using Autoregressive Distributed Lag Modeling (ARDL), weempirically investigate the link between the macroeconomic fundamentals and sovereign credit risk for particular countries in the Euro zone. The studied sample was affected by disadvantageous economic conditions. We did not retain the same macroeconomic factors to explain the risk of default for the selected countries. The results, indicate that the reditworthiness of the studied entities depends largely on macroeconomic fundamentals with various elasticities which require a different economic policy for each country. The assessment of the results shows that the unemployment rate is the most influential variable especially for countries with disadvantageous economic conditions. The estimated relationships are globally stable in the long run (for 7 out of 9 countries), while the short run links are rare (except the unemployment rate). In the second section, we investigate the long-run relationships between European Banks' Credit default swap spreads and contextual factors using Bounds testing approach to cointegration (ARDL-ECM). The results reveal that in the long run, an increase of the inflation and/or the home countries' credit risk rise the European banks' credit risk as measured by credit default swap spreads. The estimatessuggest that the devaluation of the Euro, makes Euro-denominated debt less costly which lowers the credit risk of the European entities. Yet, unlike what is expected, our analysis shows that the market value of an entity as well as the stock index in which the firm is registered are becoming insignificant in explaining its credit risk. In this last section, we investigate the evolution and the expansion of the CDS network among the studied entities over the 2008 - 2013 period by splitting it intothree sub-periods. We highlight the variation of the connectedness according to the financial and economic characteristics of each studied sub-period. We found that the resulting relationships are not symmetrical and that they vary considerablydepending on the state of the region economy. We also show that just before huge financial turmoil phases, the risk transfer is very important increasing contagion and the systemic risk, while it drops significantly during uncertainty times marked by mistrust spread. This is particularly important in the European Union as countries adopt the same monetary policies while being heterogeneous.

The recent financial and economic crisis led to a deepening of fiscal problems in many countries all over the world. European countries were also hit hard by the economic downturn. The critical situation in Greece and its negative impact on the economic situation in the whole Euro zone has brought up many questions about the rigidity and functionality of the euro concept. A majority of economists and politicians support the idea of saving the Euro zone since the break up would be quite costly. There are many ideas regarding a solution to the current situation, and one of the most radical is the introduction of a parallel currency in the states which are trapped in the debt crisis. The aim of the thesis is to take a critical look at the historical development of different approaches to this theme with a focus on theories based on the devaluation as the solution. The parallel currency theory is compared to Euro zone break-up scenario and hard restructuring option and the positives and negatives of each approach are analysed. Finaly the simulation on the Greeek case is performed to prove or diproved the positive effects of parallel currency establishment. JEL Classification E31, E42, E52, E63, F15, F36 Keywords Parallel currency, financial crisis, the euro, the European Union, the Euro zone

The thesis analyses the change of monetary policy of the European central bank during financial and sovereign debt crisis. Main focus of the thesis is given on the analysis of non-standard measures of monetary policy of the ECB. This thesis explains in detail how the ECB has responded to the various phases of the financial and debt crisis, starting with the period of financial turmoil, continuing with the intensification of the financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis. Finally, the thesis compares these phases and assesses the impact of these non-standard measures.

This thesis analyses economic and political situation of France and its position during the evolution of the European integration process. The first chapter focuses on the role of France in the European integration process from its beginnings to the present. The second chapter discusses the current position of France in the EU and its attitude to reforms which address the issue of the euro zone debt crisis. The third chapter concentrates on the macroeconomic analysis of France from the perspective of the most important macroeconomic indicators and it also compares France with other EU countries.