This diploma thesis investigates the impact of monetary policy upon economic performance in the Eurozone, the Czech Republic and Poland. The research focuses on differences in sensitivity of output on money supply in form of monetary aggre-gates M1 and broader M2 and Real Interest Rate calculated from the EURIBOR, PRIBOR and WIBOR. The sensitivity is examined using Granger causality. The the-sis proves whether money supply and real interest rate granger causes real output in the Eurozone, the Czech Republic and Poland. Also monetary policies of the se-lected central banks are described and compared using Taylor monetary rule.

The diploma thesis deals with financial stability and its indications. In the theoretical part is firstly described the evolution of theory of money in order to clarify the role of money in financial stability. After that the financial instability is defined according to the authors Borio and Lowe (2002) as a rapid credit expansion combined with strong growth in asset prices. The mutual relationship of credit and asset prices is examined, especially how the credit creation of money can contribute to the creation of asset price bubbles. Empirical part analyses the possibility to use volumes of credit and asset prices to indicate financial instability. The empirical analysis is performed on the time series of the volume of credit, residential property prices and stock indices for the USA and the Eurozone. At first the tightness of relationship of credit and asset prices is examined by the rolling correlations and it is followed by testing Granger exogeneity to reveal causal links. Based on the results of the empirical analysis the recommendation for monetary authorities is made regarding the indication of financial instability.

This thesis analyzes the issue of fiscal imbalance in selected member states of European Union, namely, the first 12 states which officially introduced the Euro banknotes and coins in 2002. Empirical part of thesis analyzes the development of indebtedness in selected countries. The thesis also deals with the existence of causal relationship between public debt and economic growth in these countries via regression analysis of data panel for period 1995-2014 and 2008-2014. Sub-analysis of the thesis aims also at research of determinants of public debt in these countries.

This thesis analyses the chief relations inside the transmission mechanism of the monetary policy of the U.S. Federal Reserve System during the period from 1955 to 2007. The theoretical part of the thesis describes the principles of the history of Federal Reserve and his monetary policy, the development of Fed's monetary policy and its transmission mechanism, the lags in the monetary policy and various theories which deal with try to explain the monetary policy relations. In the analytical part I focus on answering the most laid questions whether, how much and for how long do the nominal interest rates and monetary aggregates affect the real variables (mainly the real domestic product) of the United States. Next I focus on investigating the monetarist assumption of money neutrality in the long run. I also introduce Granger causality and Impulse and Responses investigations into proposed VAR model.

In this paper is tested validity of the neoclassical migration model. For this purpose, were used Fixed effects model and VAR model. Data contain period of years 2001 to 2010 from 14 regions of the Czech republic and dataset contains 140 observations. Empirical results of Fixed effects model show that socioeconomic determinants had signifficant influence on regional rate of migration in the Czech republic. The direction and strength of influence of the most explanatory variables corresponded to the neoclassical theory. Estimations of VAR model indicate that regional migration did not decrease disparities within regions. These results questioned validity of neoclassical migration model.

The aim of this PhD thesis is to analyze the history and current situation of hedge funds and assess their potential to destabilize financial markets. The findings of the analysis are used to validate the assumptions underlying the major regulatory changes of hedge funds in the key global economic centres after the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Since their inception early last century hedge funds have gone through a period of great expansion in the sixties, followed by a decline due to large losses sustained in the early seventies. The nineties meant a real breakthrough for hedge funds as a result of which they became prominent players in the alternative investment space. As of today, there is over ten thousand hedge funds that globally manage close to 3 trillion US dollars. Compared to mutual funds and other financial institutions the volume of assets under management is still relatively small, the rate of growth over the past fifteen years has however been very significant. What is emphasized with respect to the impact of hedge funds on financial markets is the contribution to increasing the liquidity and efficiency and their role on the financial derivatives market where hedge funds are actively involved in the transfer of risk. They are at the same time subject of criticism for their purported destabilizing effect on financial markets and contribution to fluctuations in the prices of investment instruments. Although the share of hedge funds in triggering major financial crises has not been conclusively established, these investment entities were one of the targets of the wide-ranging regulatory changes following the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. The dissertation first discusses the history and current situation of hedge funds and defines the term hedge fund. The following section describes the basic characteristics and principles of their functioning and reviews the regulation in the major domiciles. The final chapter is focused on the empirical analysis of the impact of hedge funds on financial markets. The inputs for this analysis include a global hedge fund index and representative market indices and data from the CFTC on positions in the 10 year US government treasury note futures. In the first step the descriptive statistics for the transformed time series are presented. The second part of the analysis focuses on lagged correlations between returns and volatility of the global hedge fund index and representative market indices. Granger causality tests are applied in the following section to determine the relationships between the returns and volatility of hedge fund and representative market indices. In the final step of the analysis Granger causality tests are used to analyze the link between the changes in positions in the 10-year US treasury note futures held by hedge funds and the change in settlement prices of these futures with the aim to assess whether hedge funds have the capacity to move the market. In conclusion, the results of this analysis are discussed in light of the recent regulatory changes and the potential for the future growth of hedge funds is assessed.

Economic decline in Zimbabwe has manifested in several ways, one of which is in the form of persistent trade deficits. This is not unique to Zimbabwe alone, with trade imbalances also extending to its neighbouring countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether PPP deviations can be used to manage bilateral trade balances in such a way that parties concerned benefit from the trade proportionally. The literature review analysed research done on the validity of PPP theory in developing and developed countries all over the world. Studies generally confirmed that the long-run PPP holds strong for developed countries and weak for developing countries. The study makes use of secondary yearly data from international financial institutions and employs unit root tests and the Engle Granger cointegration test to investigate the Purchasing Power Parity theory. In addition, Granger causality tests were also performed on the observed deviations and trade balances to find out if a relationship is present. It was noted that PPP theory does not hold between Zimbabwe and its neighbouring countries (Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, South Africa, and Mozambique). As such, PPP deviations cannot be used to improve bilateral trade balances between Zimbabwe and its trading partners.

In this diploma thesis we gather information on European mutual funds and ETFs that would help to inform the decision of an investment manager. We cre-ated OLS models for three types of mutual funds - money market, bond and equity – to demonstrate a relationship between funds' volatility and their annualised return. We then utilised VAR models to test Granger causation between an ETF and its tracking index using their net asset value.

The aim of the thesis is to verify the interdependence of stock markets with the development of the national economies of the V4 countries and on basis of the established links, to assess possible forecasting of the future development of GDP and the development of V4 stock markets. Literary overview of the diploma thesis describes the economic development of the V4 countries with a focus on the eco-nomic indicator of GDP, the critism of the GDP indicator and its possible alternati-ves measuring the efficiency of the economy. In addition, there are described indi-vial stock exchanges of V4 countries, theory of efficient markets together with possible anomalies in the financial markets. The last part of the literky review contains previously Publisher studies dealing with the issue. The work itself is dividend into main parts, namely the correlation analysis and the compilation of VAR models according to which the direction of the relationship will be tested within Granger causality.

The thesis explores quantitative relationship between space R&D expenditures and economic growth of the EU Member States. So far, there hasn’t been done quantitative research on the causal relationship of these two variables in Europe. The paper attempts to compose appropriate review of the previous research and to find the best method to evaluate the aforementioned relationship. It presents limitations in available literature in this field, as well as limitations in suitable methodology and available data. For our panel dataset we chose Granger causality. The results of the research show that there is no significant quantitative relationship - space expenditures per capita don’t Granger cause real GDP per capita, and vice versa. In the end, we provide recommendations for the EU policy, as well as for the national policies. Researchers should try to use unified time periods as well as corresponding type of data, measures, and methodology.