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This thesis consists of an introduction and four self-contained papers, designated I-IV, which extend previous research on national political parties and voters in Western Europe. More specifically, the issues addressed are parties’ positions and voters’ opinions on European integration and their dynamic interactions, i.e. the extent to which parties’ influence voters’ opinions, voters influence parties, and the conditions under which they influence each other. All four papers make contributions to both the content of the research field and methodology (statistical techniques) applied. Paper I re-examines and evaluates several hypotheses regarding the way national political parties position themselves with respect to European integration. Based on analysis of panel data on references to Europe in the election manifestos of political parties in 16 West European countries between 1970 and 2003, I present evidence that their stances on European integration have been largely determined by their ideology, here measured by the locations of the parties within party families and their general orientation along the left/right ideological continuum. The results indicate that the influence of ideology has diminished over time and parties have adopted more favourable positions towards the European project, but it is too early to ignore the connection between left/right and pro/anti integration, since many marginal parties are still taking oppositional stances that are strongly related to their ideological commitments. In Paper II, I discuss how configurational comparative methods (i.e. Qualitative Comparative Analysis, QCA) and statistical methods can be combined to provide tests for the sufficiency of any given set of combination of causal conditions. The potential utility of the mixed-method approach for analyzing political phenomena is demonstrated by applying it to cross-national data regarding party-based Euroscepti¬cism in Western Europe. The findings show that oppositional stances to European integration are mainly restricted to non-governmental ideological fringe parties on both the left and right. Further, radical left parties with Eurosceptical positions are largely restricted to countries with social democratic (i.e. Nordic) welfare state regimes. The empirical example presented in this paper demonstrates that configurational methods can be successfully combined with related statistical methods. Paper III examines and evaluates the link between electorates’ opinions and national political parties’ positions on European integration, i.e. the extent to which political parties lead and/or follow public opinion on this issue. Applying a method for causal modelling to panel data concerning political parties’ positions and voters’ opinions in 15 countries from 1973 to 2003, I find (contrary to previous investigations of this relationship) that there is little empirical support for an electoral connection or reciprocal causation between party positions and electorates’ opinion regarding European integration. Parties have an influence on voter opinions, but they are largely unresponsive to changes in voter opinion. In Paper IV, I examine when parties do (and do not) influence voters’ opinions about EU policy issues. According to previous research, whether parties are able to persuade their constituents to adopt their standpoints depends on several conditions: characteristics and preferences of individual voters, intra-party factors, inter-party factors and several factors that affect the salience of EU issues at the domestic level. Applying hierarchical linear models to data concerning voters’ opinions and political parties’ positions in 14 West European countries, I present findings regarding the conditions under which parties are actually able to influence voters’ opinions concerning European integration.

由於台灣近幾十年來產業結構快速變遷，影響了垃圾量的增加，垃圾掩埋場、焚化爐的興建用地也越來越難取得，因此垃圾減量是唯一的解決方法。目前台灣的垃圾政策大部分是由中央制定向各縣市實施。其中最具有爭議性的政策就是「一般廢棄物清除處理費徵收辦法」，其採用的收費標準是與水費或是用水量有關，不符合公平正義原則，甚至無法達到垃圾減量的誘因，故本文以整體的角度作為出發點，欲先了解台灣目前所面臨的垃圾問題與實施的相關垃圾政策，並對台灣各地區的垃圾相關資料的趨勢作一深入分析探討，才能真正了解台灣的垃圾政策是否真的能切中各地的垃圾問題核心、達到解決當地垃圾問題的目的。 本文在經過探討台灣的垃圾政策與垃圾問題、分析台灣整體地區、台灣分四個區域、北高兩直轄市、五省轄市的垃圾相關統計資料趨勢走向後，運用Panel data模型作實證分析，可得到以下結論： 一、產業因素成為影響垃圾清運量的主要因素 垃圾處理政策開始實施後，人口數、所得不再是主要影響垃圾清運量的因素，反而是第二、三級產業因素對垃圾量有顯著的影響，表示垃圾相關政策對於第二、三級產業的誘因仍嫌不足，亦有可能第二、三級產業所製造出來的垃圾量大多是無法回收再利用，因而造成對垃圾清量的影響顯著。 二、垃圾清潔規費徵收政策對垃圾清運量並不具有影響性 目前台灣採用的收費政策，與實際用水量有關，垃圾清潔規費可能反而是會隨實際用水量而變動，但對垃圾量並無任何影響。 三、各縣市影響垃圾清運量之地方化差異並不明顯 實證結果發現各縣市地方化差異並不明顯，因此若由中央統一制定垃圾相關政策，應該是可行的方法。 而本文對於垃圾政策所提出的建議為： 一、垃圾減量政策應從影響垃圾量的因素著手改善 目前若要進行垃圾減量，就要針對產業因素著手改善，給予產業更多的誘因來進行如垃圾減量工作，才能真正達到垃圾減量。 二、垃圾收費政策仍有待改善 實證結果當中發現垃圾清潔規費對於垃圾清運量並無任何影響，表示我國的垃圾清潔規費跟垃圾量之間並無相關性存在。目前僅有台北市採用隨袋徵收，落實使用者付費原則，然而是否每個地區均能採用隨袋徵收垃圾清潔規費仍有待評估，政府應該盡快尋求其他的徵收辦法，才有辦法達到垃圾減量的目的。 三、垃圾政策在一體適用下，更需要注重各縣市資源分配的情況 本研究的實證模型當中，發現目前各縣市地方化差異並不明顯，表示由中央統一制定實施垃圾政策應為可行的方式。但畢竟每個縣市的產業發展程度不同，因此在適用相同政策的同時，更要注重各縣市產業發展差異、資源分配等問題，否則雖然各縣市能適用相同的垃圾政策，但若沒有足夠的資源來處理當地的垃圾，還是有可能無法解決當地的垃圾問題。 關鍵字：地區差異、垃圾量、垃圾政策、垃圾問題、Panel data

本篇論文在panel data 的模型基礎下，將Hansen (1999)所提出的 panel threshold model與Arellano and Bond (1991)的panel dynamic model進行結合，成功推導出panel dynamic threshold model的模 型設定，本模型的特色在加入內生解釋變數落後項的動態解釋下， 進行門檻效果的檢定，以觀察實證資料是否存在顯著的門檻效果。 我們並進一步運用此panel dynamic threshold model 對於金融發 展與經濟成長間的互動關係進行實證分析，發現若不採用門檻變數 將實證資料進行區分，所獲得的實證結果將會受到金融發展程度較 高國家的資料所影響，而金融發展程度較低的國家資料卻因此喪失 其原本應具有的影響力。此外，若比較採用股市發展變數做為門檻 變數的實證結果和以銀行發展變數做為門檻變數的實證結果，則於 金融發展變數對於經濟成長影響的差異性上，以銀行發展變數做為 探討金融發展對於經濟成長影響性的門檻變數應是較為適合的選擇。 / The aim of this article is to investigate whether finance development has positive or negative relationship with the economic growth. We argue that the past studies do not reach consensus between finance development and the economic growth because the relationship may be indeed nonlinear. We plan to examine whether the effect of finance development on the growth depends on the threshold variable of bank development and stock market development. To examine this hypothesis, we develop a panel dynamic threshold model (PDTM) to test this hypothesis. The PDTM is a direct extension of the recent two research strands when using panel data. One is the dynamic panel model of Arellano and Bond (1991), who consider the lagged dependent variable into the panel data. The other is the non-dynamic panel threshold model of Hansen (1999), who takes threshold effect into the panel data model. Past studies, however, did not take dynamic and threshold into account simultaneously. Our PDTM thus incorporates the threshold into the dynamic panel data. Results demonstrate that the relationship between finance development and economic growth is nonlinear.

China's phenomenal economic growth has coincided with a substantial increase in FDI inflows and hence led researchers, including the author, to believe that increased inflows of FDI into China has had important implications for the country's trade and economic development over the past decades. The objective of this thesis is to identify and investigate several key issues associated with inward FDI in the Chinese economy. These include the determinants of FDI inflows at the sectoral level, spillover effects of FDI on labour productivity and innovation, the causal linkage between FDI and China's bilateral trade with selected OECD countries, and the performance of foreign funded enterprises (FFEs) compared to the performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China. This thesis adds to the existing research on the role that FDI has played in recent growth of the Chinese economy by applying new as well as established techniques to China's regional and sectoral data. In particular, it integrates descriptive and empirical analysis to extend existing studies in several ways. First, analyses in the empirical chapters of this thesis are undertaken using data at the regional and sectoral level. Second, this thesis uses panel data from official sources for all empirical examinations. Last, whereas most existing studies have ignored the importance of unit-root issues when using panel data, and therefore possibly producing unreliable results, this thesis employs unit-root tests for all panel data analyses. The key findings in this thesis can be summarized in four points. First, at the sectoral level, for China as a whole, foreign investors are influenced by labour productivity, wage costs and innovation activities but not by the level of state ownership. For Guangdong province, foreign investors are concerned with labour productivity and wages as well as state ownership at sectoral level. However, the level of innovation does not play an important role in influencing inflows of FDI into Guangdong province at sectoral level. Second, the thesis found that FDI generates spillover effects on labour productivity in China although no spillover effects on the level of innovation were detected. At the regional level, it was concluded that the coastal and western regions experience a greater amount of spillover effects from FDI than do the municipal cities. Furthermore, the western region is the only region that experiences greater spillover effects from FDI on innovation than the municipal cities. Also, the spillover effects of FDI appear to be no different prior to or post-1997 when the Asian financial crises occurred. Third, a co-integrating relationship exists between FDI and total trade, FDI and exports, and FDI and imports in China. The thesis further concluded that bidirectional causality between FDI and trade variables exists in China in the long-run. However, short-run causality runs only from FDI to trade. Fourth, the thesis further shows that FFEs in China are more efficient than SOEs. Over time it is observed that SOEs and FFEs in the municipal cities and the coastal regions experienced greater productivity gains than those in the central and western regions during the sample period. It is also concluded that both SOEs and FFEs in the municipal cities have experienced more productivity growth than those in other regions with SOEs in the central region and FFEs in the western region experiencing the least productivity growth.

Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2004.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:33:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FERRO_Aline_2012.pdf: 668281 bytes, checksum: cb4f315d67a767998cd128eb7837850f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-29 / This study aims to evaluate the impact of some factors on prices of agricultural land in three different regions: agricultural frontier (in the south of Maranhão, south of Piauí, eastern region of Tocantins and west of Bahia), transition area (relatively recent agricultural use of the land; however, it already represents a major soybean producing region, such as the Central-Western region in Brazil) and developed (more traditional agricultural areas, such as the South of Brazil). The period of the analysis is from 2002 to 2010, due to the recent availability of prices of regional lands. Several studies regarding the land market were analyzed; consequently, some factors related to the revenue obtained with land, to the technological level, to the infrastructure, to the need of credit, to the availability of land to expand crops and to one factor linked to expectations of agents. The elasticity in relation to the land price was obtained, using the econometric model of panel data. Soybean prices, which represent the revenue of land, had a positive relation with the price of this factor. Moreover, it was possible to verify that, in less occupied regions, an increase in the demand for area may bring negative impacts on its prices, because of the higher elasticity of the land supply and the possibility to convert raw lands and pastures in agricultural areas. This occurs because the land conversion shifts the supply curve to the right, which might impact negatively the land price. On the other hand, in the developed area, the relation is positive, since the land supply is almost inelastic. The factor of speculation was very important in the agricultural frontier region, differently from what was observed in other regions, which has highlighted the sharp interest of investors groups interested in the potential of the land valuation in that region in the period considered. / O presente estudo tem como objetivo analisar o impacto de algumas variáveis sobre o preço da terra agrícola em três regiões distintas: fronteira agrícola (localizada no sul do Maranhão, sul do Piauí, leste do Tocantins e oeste da Bahia), área de transição (com exploração agrícola relativamente recente, mas que já representa um grande pólo produtor de soja, como o Centro-Oeste) e desenvolvida (áreas agrícolas mais tradicionais, como o Sul do País). O período de análise foi de 2002 a 2010, em virtude da recente disponibilidade de preços de terras regionais. Tendo sido analisados diversos trabalhos referentes ao mercado de terras, foram selecionadas algumas variáveis relacionadas à renda da terra, ao nível tecnológico, à infraestrutura, à necessidade de crédito de subsídio, à disponibilidade de terras para expansão do cultivo e a um fator relacionado às expectativas dos agentes. Foram obtidas as elasticidades em relação ao preço da terra utilizando-se o modelo econométrico de dados em painel. Observou-se que o preço da soja, que representa a renda da terra, teve relação estreita e positiva com o preço deste fator. Além disso, foi possível verificar que nas regiões menos ocupadas, um aumento da demanda por área pode impactar negativamente em seu preço, tendo em vista a maior elasticidade da oferta de terras e a possibilidade de conversão de terras brutas e pastagens em áreas agrícolas. Isso ocorre porque a conversão de terras possibilita um deslocamento da curva de oferta para a direita, o que pode proporcionar um impacto negativo no preço da terra. Já na região desenvolvida, a relação é positiva, já que a oferta de terras é praticamente inelástica. O fator especulativo foi bastante representativo na região de fronteira agrícola, ao contrário do observado nas demais regiões, o que evidenciou o forte interesse por grupos investidores com interesse no potencial de valorização da terra nessa região no período analisado.

This thesis is divided into several sections the first section deals with aggregate data about the amount, dynamic and structure of municipal expenditures and the second section is focused on determinants which influence the amount and dynamic of municipal expenditures. In this thesis there is operated with data from years 2001-2013. In the first part of practical part there were used all municipalities which existed in 2001-2013; in the second part there were used 6 236 municipalities in the Czech Republic. Expenditures were grouped into several expenditure areas according to types and then also according to lines. It has been found out 17 determinants which could influence municipal expenditures. Relations between the explained variable (individual expenditure areas of municipalities) and explanatory variables (individual determi-nants) have been determined by using analysis of panel data (random effects model). It has been found out that municipal expenditures are influenced mainly by: jurisdiction of the municipality to a certain region, scope of delegated powers of municipalities, years of elections to municipal councils, existence of allowance organization or legal entity, population density of the municipality, built-up area of the municipality and the number of children and pupils at schools which were set up by municipalities.

The aim of this thesis is to identify fiscal behaviour of municipalities in the Czech Republic within economic cycle. The starting point of this thesis is that municipalities do not have the responsibility for macroeconomic stability, unlike the central level of government, and their preference is sustainability of its own budget. Absence of a motivation for implementing the countercyclical policy leads to a consideration that the behaviour of municipalities is rather procyclical. For the analysis there were used datas of 325 municipalities during the time from 2001 to 2014. The research was designed to test the dependence of the budgetary indicator on the output gap. As a method of exploration there was used the panel regression analysis with random effects estimate for help with robust standard errors in the version of White cross-section method. The results confirmed a statistically significant effect of the output gap on the budgetary indicators, tax revenues, tax on personal income from self-employment and capital expenditures. With the growth of the output gap also tax revenues and revenues from taxes on a personal income from self-employment are growing. With the growth of the output gap capital expenditures are declining. These budgetary indicators are developed countercyclical. A statistically significant effect of the output gap on the other budgetary indicators failed to prove. The main hypothesis of this thesis is not rejected. Budgetary behaviour municipalities in the Czech Republic is influenced by the economic cycle. Fiscal behaviour of municipalities in the Czech Republic within economic cycle is countercyclical.

A literatura de Finanças oferece evidências de que, tanto no Brasil quantos nos E.U.A., as firmas de capital aberto estão retendo cada vez mais caixa ao longo das últimas décadas. Sobre a fonte de caixa retido, há algumas evidências do importante papel da emissão de ações para as firmas estadunidenses, porém não foram localizados trabalhos relacionados sobre o caso brasileiro. Usando uma base de dados em painel com dados contábeis e de mercado de firmas listadas na BMF&BOVESPA de 1995 a 2013 e o modelo proposto por McLean (2011), estimado através do método dos mínimos quadrados, este estudo objetiva obter evidências sobre as fontes de caixa retido pelas firmas no mercado brasileiro através de análise da amostra completa e de grupos de firmas classificadas como irrestritas e restritas financeiramente. Os resultados encontrados sugerem que a emissão de ações, o endividamento e o fluxo de caixa operacional têm correlação positiva e significante com a variação em caixa e que o fluxo de caixa operacional é a principal fonte de caixa retido das firmas brasileiras. Explorou-se o papel dos motivos precaucionários sobre a decisão de retenção e foram encontradas evidências de que o grupo de firmas restritas financeiramente retém mais a partir do fluxo de caixa operacional em tempos de crescimento nestes motivos. Por último, buscou-se verificar o papel de impactos macroeconômicos sobre a decisão de retenção, com os resultados mostrando que choques exógenos afetam de maneira diferente as firmas consideradas irrestritas e restritas financeiramente. / The Finance literature offers evidence that, in Brazil as in the U.S.A., publicly traded firms are saving more and more cash over the past decades. About the source of cash savings, there is some evidence of the important role of shares issuance for US firms, but no work was found related with the Brazilian case. Using a panel database formed by accounting and market data from listed firms in BM&FBOVESPA from 1995 to 2013 and the model proposed by McLean (2011), estimated by the least squares method, this study aims to gather evidence on the sources of cash retained by companies in the Brazilian market through analysis of the full sample and groups of firms classified as financially unconstrained and constrained. The results suggest that the shares issuance, debt and operating cashflow have positive and significant correlation with the change in cash savings and that operating cashflow is the main source of cash for Brazilian firms. The role of precautionary motives for the retention decision was explored and evidence was found that in times of growth in these motives, more is retained from operating cashflow. Finally, we sought to determine the role of macroeconomic impacts on the retention decision, with the results showing that exogenous shocks affect differently the firms considered financially unconstrained and constrained.