This thesis has studied short and long-term dependence structures between European stock markets. Johansen's test for cointegration and Granger's test for non-causality have been applied in order to measure the degree of financial integration in Europe. The cointegration analysis has employed a comparative perspective in which different countries with different institutional adaptation to the economic cooperation within Europe have been considered. The study finds strong support for the existence of cointegration between the Belgian, Norwegian, Swiss and British stock markets in the period after the launch of the euro. This result indicates that financial integration has increased in Europe since no cointegration was identified prior to the introduction of the euro. However, it is more difficult to determine to what extent the European financial cooperation has affected the degree of integration because of the difficulties with isolating formal treaties contribution to the stationary equilibrium. Both the EU and the euro's importance may have affected the integration process, but this thesis finds that this is not the only explanation. Thus, it is more likely that the liberalization of financial markets and the overall integration process best explain the increase in financial integration. The most significant finding is that the cointegrated stock markets in the long-term can be regarded as a regional financial market characterized by similar systematic risk factors. This has implications for both policy-makers who adjust existing policies in Europe and investors looking to allocate portfolios in an efficient manner.

The goal of this dissertation is to present an investigation of the theoretical and empirical relationship between financial integration, capital flows and the exchange rate, and between financial integration, capital flows and financial crises for developing countries. The theoretical literature analysis developed in Chapter 1 clarifies that there is no consensus regarding the hypothesis that financial integration and capital flows stimulate economic growth and consumption smoothing, also showing that there are channels through which they can lead to financial crises and appreciation of the exchange rate. Chapter 2 develops an econometric investigation regarding the relationship between financial integration, capital flows and the exchange rate, for a sample of 63 developing countries. The econometric results do not suggest that there is a statistically significant relationship between financial integration and exchange rate, and, therefore, they do not support the hypothesis that financial integration causes currency appreciation. Besides, the results suggest that capital flows cause appreciation of the exchange rate, and there are evidences that the effect of the capital flows over the exchange rate depends on the level of financial development, which means that the effect of appreciation is gradually attenuated by higher levels of financial development. Chapter 3 develops an econometric investigation regarding the relationship between financial integration, capital flows and financial crises, for a sample of 53 developing countries. The econometric results suggest that financial integration and capital flows do not raise the probability of financial crises. / O objetivo desta dissertação é realizar uma investigação teórica e empírica acerca da relação entre integração financeira, fluxos de capitais e taxa de câmbio, e entre integração financeira, fluxos de capitais e crises financeiras para países em desenvolvimento. A análise da literatura teórica, realizada no Capítulo 1, explicita que não existe consenso quanto à hipótese de que a integração financeira e os fluxos de capitais estimulam o crescimento econômico e a suavização do consumo, mostrando que existem canais por meio dos quais a integração financeira e os fluxos de capitais podem levar a crises financeiras e à apreciação cambial. No Capítulo 2, é feita uma investigação econométrica acerca das relações entre integração financeira, fluxos de capitais e taxa de câmbio, para uma amostra de 63 países em desenvolvimento. Os resultados econométricos não sugerem que há uma relação estatisticamente significativa entre integração financeira e taxa de câmbio e, portanto, não corroboram a hipótese de que a integração financeira cause apreciação cambial. Além disso, os resultados sugerem que os fluxos de capitais causam apreciação cambial, e há evidências de que o efeito dos fluxos de capitais sobre a taxa de câmbio real efetiva dependem do nível de desenvolvimento financeiro, sugerindo que o efeito de apreciação da taxa de câmbio real efetiva é gradativamente atenuado ou revertido à medida que os países apresentam níveis mais elevados de desenvolvimento financeiro. No Capítulo 3 é feita uma investigação econométrica acerca das relações entre integração financeira, fluxos de capitais e crises financeiras, para uma amostra de 53 países em desenvolvimento. Os resultados encontrados sugerem que a integração financeira e os fluxos de capitais não aumentam a probabilidade de crises financeiras. / Mestre em Economia

Cette thèse a pour objet de revisiter, à la lumière de données financières historiques inédites, certains résultats de la littérature en histoire économique concernant la propagation de la Grande Dépression vers l’Europe, et plus particulièrement vers la France. Nous cherchons notamment à étudier les différents canaux de transmission à l’échelle internationale -boursiers, bancaires et monétaires- de cette crise et évaluons le rôle respectif qu’ils ont pu exercer dans la propagation de cette crise aux marchés financiers français. Les différentes contributions, que nous proposons dans cette thèse, sont avant tout empiriques et s’appuient sur un travail important effectué en amont de collecte et de traitement de données financières originales, provenant principalement des archives de la Bourse de Paris.Plusieurs résultats importants émergent de notre travail. Notre analyse sur les marchés boursiers montre, tout d’abord, que le krach boursier américain de 1929 a eu un faible impact sur la bourse de Paris, De même, le système bancaire français a, dans son ensemble, plutôt bien résisté à la crise bancaire du début des années 1930, en raison notamment de la forte spécialisation qui le caractérisait à cette époque. Enfin, nous montrons que le niveau d’intégration financière entre les États-Unis, la France et la Belgique, à travers l’étude des relations bilatérales entre les marchés actions de ces trois pays, a eu tendance à se renforcer avec l’adoption par ces pays du système de l’étalon "de change" or. Cette forte intégration financière, couplée aux contraintes en matière de politique économique liées à ce système monétaire, pourraient ainsi expliquer comment la Grande Dépression s’est propagée en Europe et pourquoi la crise économique s’est prolongée dans des pays comme la France ou la Belgique, comparativement à d’autres grandes économies. / The aim of this thesis is to shed new light on how the Great Depression spread to Europe, and more particularly to France by relying on new historical financial data compiled from original source documents. In particular, we analyze the different transmission channels - stock markets, banking sector and international monetary system - of this crisis, in order to assess the respective role they have played in the impact of this crisis on French financial markets. We contribute empirically to this larger literature by providing evidence based on original historical data hand-collected from the archives of the Paris Stock Exchange.Several important results emerge from our work. Our analysis based on the stock markets shows, first, that the American stock market crash of 1929 had a low impact on the Paris stock exchange. Similarly, the French banking system, as a whole, remained quite resilient to the banking crisis of the beginning of the 1930s, mainly due to its strong specialization of the sector at that time. Finally, we show that the level of financial integration between the United States, France and Belgium - proxied by bilateral relationships between their equity markets - has tended to increase with the adoption by these countries of the Gold Exchange Standard. This high financial integration, coupled with economic policies constrained by the exchange rate regime, could explain how the Great Depression spread to Europe and why the economic crisis lasted longer in countries such as France or Belgium, compared to other major economies

nÃo hà / This work analyzes the level of financial integration of an economic bloc entitled, on an ad hoc way, BRIC, composed by emerging economies with common and growth patterns, where more than 40% of the population live in one quarter of the worldâs territory. Following methodologically Vahid and Engle (1993), the results suggest that financial markets are determined by domestic economic fundamentals in periods of global economic stability, while in crisis periods, the cycles have greater importance in the composition of the returns of the indices analyzed, indicating a higher influence of financial risk. The individual cycles, as well as the individual trends are robustly correlated. These evidences are not trivial since Brazil is a market economy, with high level of inequality, poverty, democracy and urbanization, Russia is a an exsuperpower socialist, with high per capita income and human capital levels, India is a rural society with strong cultural and religious aspects, while China is a communist dictatorship with a high degree of trade openness and high levels of international reserves. The Indian financial market, which has been undergoing reforms since 1991, is such that the SENSEX-30 index plays important role in terms of predictability of others, as well as its tendency is the only individual to be significant in the exercise of causality Granger in the first common trend, the unique related to a promising scenario. / Este trabalho analisa o nÃvel de integraÃÃo financeira de um bloco econÃmico intitulado, de forma ad hoc, BRIC, composto por emergentes com padrÃes comuns e potenciais de crescimento, os quais dispÃem de um quarto do territÃrio mundial, onde residem mais de 40% da populaÃÃo. Seguindo metodologicamente Vahid e Engle (1993), os resultados sugerem que estes mercados financeiros sejam determinados por fundamentos econÃmicos domÃsticos em perÃodos de estabilidade econÃmica global, enquanto em perÃodos turbulentos, hà uma maior relevÃncia dos ciclos na composiÃÃo dos retornos dos Ãndices analisados, sinalizando uma maior influÃncia de fatores de risco financeiros. Em termos individuais, os ciclos, assim como as tendÃncias dos quatro emergentes sÃo robustamente correlacionados entre si. Estas evidÃncias nÃo sÃo triviais tratando-se se o Brasil de uma economia de mercado desigual, pobre, democrÃtica, fortemente urbanizada, a RÃssia de uma antiga superpotÃncia, exâadepta do socialismo que se destaca pela renda per capita e pelo capital humano, a Ãndia de uma sociedade rural, com forte traÃo cultural e religioso e a China de um comunismo ditatorial com elevado grau de abertura comercial e elevados nÃveis de reservas internacionais. O mercado financeiro indiano, o qual tem passado por reformas na desde 1991, à tal que, o Ãndice SENSEX-30 exerce relevante papel em termos de previsibilidade dos demais, assim como sua tendÃncia individual, a qual à a Ãnica a ser significativa no exercÃcio de causalidade de Granger na primeira tendÃncia comum, a Ãnica que està associada a um cenÃrio promissor.

O presente estudo tem dois objetivos. O primeiro (1) é substantivo: contribuir com o debate sobre globalização financeira, ajudando a nele incorporar uma dimensão que parecia um pouco fora de foco em diversas discussões a dimensão jurídico-institucional empírica. O segundo (2) é metodológico, e não se relaciona diretamente com o objeto da pesquisa: ajudar a incorporar ao estudo do direito no Brasil a utilização de certas técnicas empíricas que permitiriam o exercício mais freqüente do que se será chamado aqui de ceticismo esclarecido pela empiria o salutar questionamento de afirmações doutrinais peremptórias com o auxílio de evidência empírica. Em relação ao objetivo (1), apresenta-se a seguinte tese. A globalização financeira é produto de diversos processos heterogêneos de cooperação internacional, políticas governamentais, reformas legislativas e estratégias políticas. Tais processos têm determinantes diversos, e objetivos variados, não apenas liberalização. De fato, mera liberalização unilateral não daria suporte suficiente ao aumento de fluxos financeiros transfronteiriços a globalização só pôde e só pode ocorrer em vista da criação de uma diversidade de estruturas internacionais, incluídas aí as bilaterais, plurilaterais e multilaterais. Estas resultaram em uma densa malha jurídico-institucional que, para ser criada, demandou mudanças por diversas vezes dolorosas e custosas aos países que as implantaram, assim como grandes esforços de negociação. Somente porque existe essa malha jurídica, cuja origem é a atividade política dos governos nacionais, é que investidores e empresas financeiras puderam e podem cruzar fronteiras, deter ativos no estrangeiro, e fazê-los circular em nível global. A globalização é resultado, não da abdicação e retração dos Estados, mas do ativo engajamento de seus governos na persecução de objetivos de política pública. Trata-se, portanto, de uma reação a interpretações concorrentes, segundo as quais a globalização financeira estaria sendo causada pela retração dos Estados Nacionais, que estariam se retirando da atividade regulatória, de forma geral, e da regulação das finanças, de formas mais específicas. A primeira parte consiste de dois capítulos discutindo os arranjos jurídico-institucionais que geraram a globalização financeira. A metodologia utilizada foi primordialmente qualitativa. Realizaram-se reconstruções institucionais comparadas, discutindo a evolução de certos arranjos de governança do sistema financeiro. Dois conjuntos de análises de casos foram realizados: (a) uma sobre a formação comparada de Sistemas Financeiros Nacionais, e (b) outra sobre processos comparados de integração financeira. A segunda parte consiste de um capítulo discutindo correlações entre indicadores econômicos e processos de globalização financeira. Aplicaram-se métodos econométricos sobre uma grande base de dados reunida e criada exclusivamente para esta pesquisa. / This study has two objectives. The first (1) is substantive: to contribute to the debate on globalization by helping to incorporate to it a dimension that has been somewhat left aside in many discussions the legal-institutional dimension. The second (2) is methodological, and not directly related to the subject of research: to help incorporating to the study of law in Brazil the use of certain empirical techniques that allow the exercise of what can be called a skepticism enlightened by the empiricism - the healthy questioning of doctrinal statements with the aid of empirical evidence. In relation of (1), the following thesis is advanced. Financial globalization is the product of several heterogeneous processes of international cooperation, government policies, legislative reforms and legal strategies. These processes have several determinants, and varied objectives, not just liberalization. In fact, a mere unilateral liberalization process would not give enough support to increase cross-border financial flows - globalization could only and may only occur in view of a diversity of international structures, including bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral agreements. These resulted in a dense mesh of legal and institutional structures, that to be created, demanded changes several times painful and costly to the countries that have implemented, as well as major efforts to negotiate. Only because of such legal tissue, whose origin is the political activity of national governments, is that investors and financial institutions could and can cross borders, holding assets abroad, and circulate them globally. Globalization is the result, not the abdication of the retraction, but the active engagement of governments in their pursuit of public policy objectives. The thesis is therefore a reaction to competing interpretations, under which financial globalization was being caused by the retraction of nation states, they were withdrawing from regulatory activity, in general, and regulation of finance, more specific forms. The first part consists of two chapters discussing the legal and institutional arrangements that led to financial globalization. The methodology was primarily qualitative. There were institutional compared reconstructions, discussing the evolution of certain governance arrangements of the financial system. Two sets of case studies were conducted: (a) training on a comparison of national financial systems, and (b) the other on the comparative analysis of financial integration. The second part consists of a chapter discussing correlations between economic indicators and processes of financial globalization. Were applied econometric methods on a large database collected and created exclusively for this research.

The objective of the study is to establish how original financial integration could be attained in southern Africa in order to attract more foreign investment and develop a financially robust and stable region in the southern part of Africa; also to deal with the challenges, risks and remedies of prospective future financial crises. Financial markets are rapidly integrating into a single global market. Developing countries of various regions are drawn into the process with little choice, and without having sound financial infrastructure and policies in place. It is against this background that countries and regions of global integration choose policies that would benefit their regional economy and avert potential economic shock. The challenges posed to countries and regions by the progressive global integration of financial markets are becoming more urgent by the day. These challenges need to be addressed more effectively, either nationally or regionally, as demonstrated by the 1998 financial turmoil in Asia. Private capital flows are becoming intra regionally concentrated, particularly in the USA, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Be that as it may, failure in one market is likely to have immediate and large regional repercussions. Globalisation also marginalises Africa and other Least Developed Countries (LDC), leaving them more impoverished and with greater disparities in terms of income, GDP and FDI. Regional financial integration has to be efficient and sound in order to prevent or contain currency and capital market crises in the southern African region. This study identifies macro economic challenges and risks associated with financial integration. Recommendations are made about methodologies of addressing these issues in order to realise the benefits of regional financial integration in southern Africa, which could be a building block in realising the dream of an African Monetary Union. The study contributes greatly to the debate around the most appropriate criteria that are to be met by the SADC countries, before monetary integration can become a reality. A comparison of the benchmark macro economic convergence criteria of the EU and of the African Monetary Union is done and the performance of SADC countries is assessed in terms of both sets of benchmarks. Southern African states are found to not even be at a comparable level with regard to the EU targets of 1997. The thesis is also critical to the impact of the political instability in the SADC region on prospective monetary integration. Most importantly, SADC would be at a permanent disadvantage and face a long-run depreciation of its common currency, should it continue to integrate financially at macro economic benchmark levels inferior to those of its major trading partner, the EU. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Economics / unrestricted

Financial integration has been at the centre of a wide debate, especially with respect to its effects on stability, inequality and welfare. This thesis presents an empirical investigation on the relationship between financial integration and macroeconomic volatility. The present study takes advantage of the publication of a new database on integration in the banking industry, and estimates its effects on the volatility of output and consumption, on a set of 136 countries over the years 1996 to 2009, using regions and country fixed effects. The analysis focuses on the effect of foreign bank presence on macroeconomic volatility, and as a further application, on the effect of foreign bank assets on macroeconomic volatility. Furthermore, the present study will determine whether the findings change for Central and Eastern European Countries and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The main finding is that foreign bank presence is significantly related to the volatility of output, but it is not related to the volatility of private consumption growth. The original contribution of this paper is to empirically analyse data on foreign bank presence as proxies for financial integration, and to relate them to the volatility of output and consumption.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Diversification is one of the more familiar concepts in finance because of its ability to curtail risk towards investors. However, for diversification to be efficient, the assets combined should have inversely related price movements. In the same light, previous research done on international portfolio diversification has consistently found that having investments diversified across different global markets that have low to medium correlations helps to get as close to an optimal portfolio as possible. However, previous research also indicates that both global financial integration and exogenous shocks increase correlations among international markets, hence negating the benefits of international portfolio diversification to an extent. Therefore, with global integration on the rise, coupled with economic and political instability in some BRICS nations, the research examines these factors and gauges the current viability of international portfolio diversification from the perspective of a South African investor.

Diese Dissertation besteht aus drei Kapiteln, die durch die europäische Schuldenkrise als gemeinsames Thema verbunden sind. Kapitel eins untersucht die Auswirkungen der Finanzintegration auf das Kreditangebot der Banken und die Realwirtschaft. Im Jahr 2007 ersetzt die Europäische Zentralbank die nationalen Sicherheitenlisten durch eine einzige Euroraumliste. Für Banken mit solch neu zugelassene Sicherheiten sinken die Finanzierungskosten. Diese Banken vergeben mehr Kredite, insbesondere an risikoreichere und unproduktivere Firmen in anderen Euroraumländern. Bei diesen Firmen wiederum nehmen Beschäftigung und Investitionen zu. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen die unbeabsichtigte Rolle der Finanzintegration beim Anheizen grenzüberschreitender Kreditblasen. Kapitel zwei untersucht die politischen Verbindungen von Bankvorständen in Krisenzeiten. Regierungen beeinflussen nach einer staatlichen Bankenrettung die Zusammensetzung von Bankvorständen, um sich Kontrollrechte zu sichern. Wir stellen fest, dass die Anzahl der politischen Vorstandsmitglieder nach einer staatlichen Unterstützung um 21,4% steigt. Gerettete Banken mit solch neuen politischen Vorständen schneiden in Bezug auf Marktkapitalisierung und Bewertung deutlich besser ab als gerettete Banken ohne solche Verbindungen. Kapitel drei liefert kausale Belege für die Auswirkungen von Kreditklemmen auf politische Radikalisierung. Mit Daten zu Bank-Firmen-Verbindungen und kommunalen Wahlergebnissen zeigen wir, dass Unternehmen mit einer Beziehung zu schwachen Banken einen Rückgang ihres Kreditangebots und des Beschäftigungswachstums erleben. Anschließend schätzen wir die Auswirkungen der Arbeitslosigkeit auf das Wahlverhalten. Wir konstruieren ein Instrument für die Arbeitslosigkeit, das auf der Abhängigkeit gegenüber schwachen ausländischen Banken auf kommunaler Ebene basiert. Ein Anstieg der instrumentierten Arbeitslosigkeit führt zu einer Steigerung der Wählerradikalisierung um 7 Prozentpunkte. / This thesis consists of three chapters linked by the European Debt Crisis as their common theme. Chapter One studies the effect of financial integration on bank credit supply and the real economy. In 2007, the European Central Bank replaces national collateral lists with a single euro area list. Banks holding newly eligible assets experience a reduction in their cost of funding.These banks lend more, especially to riskier and less productive borrowers located in other euro area countries. The borrowers in turn experience growth in employment and investment. The results highlight the unintended role of financial integration in fueling crossborder credit booms. Chapter Two investigates the political ties of too-big-to-fail bank boards in crisis times. After a bailout, governments are likely to influence bank board compositions to secure control rights. Combining two novel datasets on political ties of banks and state aid in the European Union, we find that the number of politically connected board members increases by 21.4% following government support. Bailed-out banks with such new political ties perform better in terms of market capitalisation and valuation than bailed-out banks without such ties. Chapter Three provides causal evidence on the effect of credit crunches on political radicalisation. We combine data on bank-firm connections and electoral outcomes at the city-level during the 2008-2014 Spanish Financial Crisis. First, we show that firms in a relationship with weak banks experience a reduction in their loan supply and employment growth. Next, we estimate the effects of unemployment on voting behaviour. We construct an instrument for unemployment based on the city-level exposure to foreign weak banks. We find that a one standard deviation increase in instrumented unemployment translates into a 7 percentage point increase in the radicalisation of voters.

La crise européenne des dettes souveraines est l'occasion de constater l'instauration de nouveaux rapports entre puissances publiques nationales et marchés financiers. A la fois acteur et arbitre de la confrontation des forces du marché, l'Etat se trouve pris dans une logique concurrentielle, libérale et internationaliste qui menace sa capacité à rester la principale source d'édiction de la réglementation financière. Dans un contexte de globalisation et d'autonomisation de la sphère financière, ainsi qu'en raison des impératifs d'efficience et de compétitivité économique qui pèsent sur le droit financier, la notion même de " droit financier français " perd progressivement de son sens. Le renforcement impressionnant de l'action européenne en la matière, l'importation systématique des solutions juridiques anglo-américaines, ou encore la délégation croissante de l'édiction des normes aux experts, menacent le maintien d'un droit financier véritablement français, distinct des autres réglementations nationales. Sans doute, la régulation a vocation à changer d'échelle de manière durable et irréversible, pour accompagner l'intégration internationale des marchés financiers et épouser leur nouvelle dimension régionale, voire mondiale. Plus généralement, les modalités contemporaines de production de la norme financière disqualifient l'appareil étatique comme une source pertinente d'édiction des règles, qui sont toujours plus fines, expertes et évolutives, sans avoir pour autant perdu leur dimension politique. Tel est le dilemme fondamental de la régulation financière moderne, vouée à réconcilier la pertinence économique avec la légitimité démocratique. / The current European sovereign debts crisis is a good opportunity to observe the brand new balance of powers between national public authorities and financial markets. Both an actor and an arbitrator of the interaction between market forces, the State is increasingly following a competitive, liberal and internationalist approach to regulation that threatens its ability to remain the main source of enactment of financial rules. In a context of globalization and empowerment of the financial sphere, and under the economic imperatives of efficiency and competitiveness, the very notion of "French financial law" is losing its significance. The recent and impressive strengthening of the European financial legislation, the systematic importation of Anglo-American legal solutions, as well as the increasing delegation of the law-making to experts, all contribute to threaten the survival of a truly French financial law, distinct from other national regulations. Clearly, financial regulation is on the verge of a new international scaling to sustain the integration of financial markets and adapt to their regional, not to say global, dimension. More broadly, the modern methods of financial law-making tend to discredit the State as a relevant source to enact financial rules, themselves increasingly precise, expert and adaptive, while still quite political. Such is the key dilemma of modern financial regulation, bound to reconcile economic relevance and democratic legitimacy.