Background: Economic and Business cycle indicators are used when predicting a country’s Gross Domestic Products, GDP. During recent time, Purchasing Managers Index and its ability to signal changes in the economy have received attention. It provides inconsistent signals since the financial crisis in 2008. Decision makers in the society rely on macroeconomic forecast when implementing strategic decisions. It is therefore necessary for indicators to provide correct signals in relation to GDP. Previous research about indicators’ stability is mostly conducted in the U.S. According to the authors’ knowledge, scarce research has been made in Sweden. The area lacks observations where a wider range of indicators is included to get a broader perspective of the economy. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine Swedish indicators and observe if they are stable and provide accurate, reliable and consistent signals in relation to GDP growth. Furthermore, the financial crisis in 2008 is used as a benchmark when observing stability and indicators’ predictive ability. Method: Ten indicators within the categories financial, survey-based and real economy indicators are selected. Quarterly data with a time period of maximum 1993-2013 are analyzed. The statistical tests conducted include Correlation, Cross-Correlation and Simple Linear Regression, an interaction term is also included to account for the financial crisis. Conclusion: The results show that nine out of ten indicators are unstable. Purchasing Managers Index show largest changes compared to other indicators. Industry Production index is the best performing indicator. When it comes to the categories; survey-based, financial and real-economy indicators, no category overall provide stability.

GDP is used to measure the economic state of a country and accurate forecasts of it is therefore important. Using the Economic Tendency Survey we investigate forecasting quarterly GDP growth using the data mining technique Random Forest. Comparisons are made with a benchmark AR(1) and an ad hoc linear model built on the most important variables suggested by the Random Forest. Evaluation by forecasting shows that the Random Forest makes the most accurate forecast supporting the theory that there are benefits to using Random Forests on economic time series.

This paper investigates the impact of trade openness on economic growth through a panel analysis containing a set of 61 countries over 15 years. The method we use is the fixed effect regression model in Stata, to see whether openness to trade has explanatory power over GDP per capita growth. We use secondary data taken from World bank and Worldwide Governance Indicators. The data used is a panel data containing 61 countries and the period we are studying starts at 2002 and ends in 2016, a 15 years' time interval. Our empirical results suggest that openness during these years have had a small negative impact on growth, but although this, the variable does not seem to have a statistical significance upon per capita growth within this period of time. Therefore, with reference to this study we cannot see any significance of openness upon growth.

This paper estimates the income elasticity of government pharmaceutical spending and assesses the simultaneous effect of such spending on gross domestic product (GDP). Using a panel dataset for 136 countries from 1995 to 2006, we employ a two-step instrumental variable procedure where we first estimate the effect of GDP on public pharmaceutical expenditure using tourist receipts as an instrumentforGDP. In the secondstep,weconstructanadjusted pharmaceutical expenditure series where the response of public pharmaceutical expenditure to GDP is partialled out and use this endogeneity adjusted series as an instrument for pharmaceutical expenditure. Our estimations show that GDP has a strong positive impact on pharmaceutical spending with elasticity in excess of unity in countries with low spending on pharmaceuticals and countries with large economic freedom. In the second step, we find that when the quantitatively large reverse effect of GDP is accounted for, public pharmaceutical spending has a negative effect on GDP per capita particularly in countries with limited economic freedom.

This dissertation investigates various micro and macro level domestic factors affecting attitudes towards immigrants and emigration of international students. The first chapter examines if an individual’s religiosity affects his attitude against immigrants in jobs in rich and poor countries using data from World Values Survey, wave 6 for the period 2010-2014. The main finding of this study is that per capita income affects an individual’s attitudes against immigrants in getting hired but religiosity does not matter in affecting attitudes of people against immigrants in rich and poor countries. The second chapter explores Europeans opposition against Muslims, Jewish and Roma immigrants based on perceived economic, religious and security threats in strong and weak economies using European Social Survey for the period 2014-2015. The results suggest that the state of economy dominates a respondent’s perception of economic, religious or security threats against banning Muslims, Jews and Roma immigrants. The third chapter sheds lights whether corruption in countries promote students to study abroad using data on outbound students from UNESCO for the period 1999-2015. The results indicate that corruption promotes emigration of international students for only high income countries in the sample but this result does not hold for low and middle income countries.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo testar a hipótese da convergência de renda entre os estados e municípios brasileiros entre os anos de 1999 e 2013. Para avaliar os dados é empregado instrumental exposto em Tirado et al. (2015), no qual encontra-se análises de modalidade, mobilidade e agrupamento espacial. Os resultados apontam para a persistência das diferenças regionais tanto entre os estados, quanto entre os municípios, consequentemente não estaria ocorrendo um movimento de convergência. Foi constatado uma elevação da mobilidade de classes de renda entre 1999 e 2002, porém tal acréscimo não se manteve nos anos seguintes. Em relação ao agrupamento espacial, este mostrou-se relevante apenas para os estados. / This work aims to test the income convergence hypothesis among Brazilian states and counties from 1999 to 2013. For assessing the data was used the instrumental presented in Tirado et al. (2015), in which finds modality, mobility and spatial clustering analysis. The results indicate for persistence in regional differences among states as well as among counties, thereafter it would not be occurring a convergence movement. It was found a mobility elevation among income classes from 1999 to 2002, however this increase did not mantain to the following years. Concerning to spatial clustering, this was relevant only for the states.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo testar a hipótese da convergência de renda entre os estados e municípios brasileiros entre os anos de 1999 e 2013. Para avaliar os dados é empregado instrumental exposto em Tirado et al. (2015), no qual encontra-se análises de modalidade, mobilidade e agrupamento espacial. Os resultados apontam para a persistência das diferenças regionais tanto entre os estados, quanto entre os municípios, consequentemente não estaria ocorrendo um movimento de convergência. Foi constatado uma elevação da mobilidade de classes de renda entre 1999 e 2002, porém tal acréscimo não se manteve nos anos seguintes. Em relação ao agrupamento espacial, este mostrou-se relevante apenas para os estados. / This work aims to test the income convergence hypothesis among Brazilian states and counties from 1999 to 2013. For assessing the data was used the instrumental presented in Tirado et al. (2015), in which finds modality, mobility and spatial clustering analysis. The results indicate for persistence in regional differences among states as well as among counties, thereafter it would not be occurring a convergence movement. It was found a mobility elevation among income classes from 1999 to 2002, however this increase did not mantain to the following years. Concerning to spatial clustering, this was relevant only for the states.

Submitted by Guilherme Branco Gomes (guilherme.branco.gomes@gmail.com) on 2018-04-17T00:19:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao Guilherme Branco Gomes versao final.pdf: 2137139 bytes, checksum: cead1d1fa55323ea0f81e275c713796e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by GILSON ROCHA MIRANDA (gilson.miranda@fgv.br) on 2018-04-18T19:53:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao Guilherme Branco Gomes versao final.pdf: 2137139 bytes, checksum: cead1d1fa55323ea0f81e275c713796e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-08T17:43:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao Guilherme Branco Gomes versao final.pdf: 2137139 bytes, checksum: cead1d1fa55323ea0f81e275c713796e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-19 / This work compares dynamic factor model’s forecasts for Brazilian GDP. Our approach takes into account mixed frequencies and can handle missing data. We implement three models: the first is based on the Principal Components Analysis methodology; the second employs a two-step estimation method with quarterly inputs; the last is similar to the former but uses monthly series. A real-time out-of-sample exercise is proposed to assess the performance of these models. A dataset is created for each day within 27 quarters - from the fourth quarter of 2010 up to the second quarter of 2017. For recent periods, the nowcasts estimated by both two-step procedures perform better than the average predictions of Focus Survey, a bulletin organized by the Brazilian Central Bank. We also show evidence that the average of GDP forecasts from this survey may be biased / Esse trabalho compara previsões para o PIB brasileiro utilizando modelos de fatores dinâmicos. Nossa abordagem leva em consideração frequências mistas e lida com dados incompletos na base (missing data). Nós implementamos três modelos: o primeiro é baseado na metodologia de componentes principais; o segundo emprega uma estimação por dois estágio com variáveis trimestrais; o último é similar ao anterior mas utiliza series mensais. Um exercício em tempo real, fora da amostra, é proposto para comparar o desempenho desses modelos. Uma base de dados é criada para cada dia dentro de 27 trimestres - do quarto trimestre de 2010 até o segundo de 2017. Para períodos recentes, os nowcasts estimados para ambos os procedimentos de dois estágios se mostram melhores do que a média de previsão da pesquisa Focus, um boletim organizado pelo Banco Central do Brasil. Nós também mostramos evidências que a média das previsões do PIB dessa pesquisa pode ser viesada

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This study examines whether preliminary estimates of real growth of GDP and the major user side components in the Swedish quarterly national accounts are unbiased forecasts of revised estimates, and whether available information from the process of reconciling GDP from the production and user side is used efficiently to minimise revisions. Regression analysis is performed to find that preliminary GDP growth estimates are rational forecasts of revised estimates. The results are mixed for the user side components. Preliminary estimates of growth of investments and exports are rational forecasts whereas revisions of growth of government spending could be minimised by more efficiently using information about preliminary estimate values. Moreover, information about the statistical discrepancy between the GDP growth estimates from the production and user side could be used to minimise revisions of growth of consumer spending and imports, but these conclusions are sensitive to the period of volatile economic development 2008-2010.