Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Equilibrium of savings and investments'

Aims: In this article, we will apply the multinational view to explore the relationships between saving, investment and economic growth. We will explore the dynamic relationship among these three factors from the empirical perspective. We are going to compare the mutual influence among these three factors and try to figure out the dynamic correlation. And find out the factors that influence economic growth the most in the short run and long run respectively.   Method: For the research purpose and the contents, our article applies several methods such as literature research, quantitative research, comprehensive analysis and logical induction and comparison research. We separate two parts to analysis. In the first part we will use the stepwise regression method to prove our five assumptions and through path analysis to calculate path coefficient. In order to guarantee the stability of these data, these indexes apply the average value of 214 countries from 2000 to 2011. In the second part, we will use a Cobb-Douglas production model to figure out the long run economic growth behavior, we will introduce the concept of total factor productivity. And use the data of a sample space of 35 in the interval of 1975 to 2009.   Limitations: Firstly, the paper didn’t investigate datum on further step, or has deeper proceeding of default datum, the data quality might occur to important influence to the conclusion, it did need to take cautious attitudes. Secondly, the paper acquires relative simple control variables, where default datum of control variable might induce strong influence on the conclusion, thus a deeper analyses need take many various factors into considerations, in order to analyze net effects of two variables. Thirdly, it clarifies from the degree of fitting, the paper using relative simple model, and does affect quality of the process, to get deeper analyze then needs more precious model for further analyze.   Conclusion: This paper provided evidence to show economic growth is positive related to saving and investment and is negative to income level. Saving rate is positive related to income level and positive related to investment level, saving rate has indirect effect on economic growth, and saving rate has indirect effect on economic growth via investment rate. And there is a close relationship between investment and economic growth. Solow residual indicates that we will have to rely on the technology progress to increase efficiency in the long run.

The theoretical part of the thesis introduces Austrian theory of business cycles and analyses equilibrium of savings and investments together with the transmission mechanism between savings, deposits, loans and investments. The practical part of the thesis explores business cycle and credit cycle. It analyses an excessive loan expansion of commercial banks together with a excessively expansive policy of central bank. The thesis deals with a procyclical action of commercial banks and contemporary tools of central bank with their limited effectiveness. Furthermore, the thesis analyses the possible adjustments of monetary policy with the emphasis on the macroprudential policy and its individual credit indicators. The end of the thesis deals with the method of credit rationing and with the imbalance between demand and supply at the credit market of non-financial corporations, which is modelled using the technique of disequilibrium model.

Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006.
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 10, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis addresses three relevant macroeconomic issues: (i) why

Central Banks behave so cautiously compared to optimal theoretical

benchmarks, (ii) do monetary variables add information about

future Euro Area inflation to a large amount of non monetary

variables and (iii) why national saving and investment are so

correlated in OECD countries in spite of the high degree of

integration of international financial markets.

The process of innovation in the elaboration of economic theory

and statistical analysis of the data witnessed in the last thirty

years has greatly enriched the toolbox available to

macroeconomists. Two aspects of such a process are particularly

noteworthy for addressing the issues in this thesis: the

development of macroeconomic dynamic stochastic general

equilibrium models (see Woodford, 1999b for an historical

perspective) and of techniques that enable to handle large data

sets in a parsimonious and flexible manner (see Reichlin, 2002 for

an historical perspective).

Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models (DSGE) provide the

appropriate tools to evaluate the macroeconomic consequences of

policy changes. These models, by exploiting modern intertemporal

general equilibrium theory, aggregate the optimal responses of

individual as consumers and firms in order to identify the

aggregate shocks and their propagation mechanisms by the

restrictions imposed by optimizing individual behavior. Such a

modelling strategy, uncovering economic relationships invariant to

a change in policy regimes, provides a framework to analyze the

effects of economic policy that is robust to the Lucas'critique

(see Lucas, 1976). The early attempts of explaining business

cycles by starting from microeconomic behavior suggested that

economic policy should play no role since business cycles

reflected the efficient response of economic agents to exogenous

sources of fluctuations (see the seminal paper by Kydland and Prescott, 1982}

and, more recently, King and Rebelo, 1999). This view was challenged by

several empirical studies showing that the adjustment mechanisms

of variables at the heart of macroeconomic propagation mechanisms

like prices and wages are not well represented by efficient

responses of individual agents in frictionless economies (see, for

example, Kashyap, 1999; Cecchetti, 1986; Bils and Klenow, 2004 and Dhyne et al. 2004). Hence, macroeconomic models currently incorporate

some sources of nominal and real rigidities in the DSGE framework

and allow the study of the optimal policy reactions to inefficient

fluctuations stemming from frictions in macroeconomic propagation

mechanisms.

Against this background, the first chapter of this thesis sets up

a DSGE model in order to analyze optimal monetary policy in an

economy with sectorial heterogeneity in the frequency of price

adjustments. Price setters are divided in two groups: those

subject to Calvo type nominal rigidities and those able to change

their prices at each period. Sectorial heterogeneity in price

setting behavior is a relevant feature in real economies (see, for

example, Bils and Klenow, 2004 for the US and Dhyne, 2004 for the Euro

Area). Hence, neglecting it would lead to an understatement of the

heterogeneity in the transmission mechanisms of economy wide

shocks. In this framework, Aoki (2001) shows that a Central

Bank maximizing social welfare should stabilize only inflation in

the sector where prices are sticky (hereafter, core inflation).

Since complete stabilization is the only true objective of the

policymaker in Aoki (2001) and, hence, is not only desirable

but also implementable, the equilibrium real interest rate in the

economy is equal to the natural interest rate irrespective of the

degree of heterogeneity that is assumed. This would lead to

conclude that stabilizing core inflation rather than overall

inflation does not imply any observable difference in the

aggressiveness of the policy behavior. While maintaining the

assumption of sectorial heterogeneity in the frequency of price

adjustments, this chapter adds non negligible transaction

frictions to the model economy in Aoki (2001). As a

consequence, the social welfare maximizing monetary policymaker

faces a trade-off among the stabilization of core inflation,

economy wide output gap and the nominal interest rate. This

feature reflects the trade-offs between conflicting objectives

faced by actual policymakers. The chapter shows that the existence

of this trade-off makes the aggressiveness of the monetary policy

reaction dependent on the degree of sectorial heterogeneity in the

economy. In particular, in presence of sectorial heterogeneity in

price adjustments, Central Banks are much more likely to behave

less aggressively than in an economy where all firms face nominal

rigidities. Hence, the chapter concludes that the excessive

caution in the conduct of monetary policy shown by actual Central

Banks (see, for example, Rudebusch and Svennsson, 1999 and Sack, 2000) might not

represent a sub-optimal behavior but, on the contrary, might be

the optimal monetary policy response in presence of a relevant

sectorial dispersion in the frequency of price adjustments.

DSGE models are proving useful also in empirical applications and

recently efforts have been made to incorporate large amounts of

information in their framework (see Boivin and Giannoni, 2006). However, the

typical DSGE model still relies on a handful of variables. Partly,

this reflects the fact that, increasing the number of variables,

the specification of a plausible set of theoretical restrictions

identifying aggregate shocks and their propagation mechanisms

becomes cumbersome. On the other hand, several questions in

macroeconomics require the study of a large amount of variables.

Among others, two examples related to the second and third chapter

of this thesis can help to understand why. First, policymakers

analyze a large quantity of information to assess the current and

future stance of their economies and, because of model

uncertainty, do not rely on a single modelling framework.

Consequently, macroeconomic policy can be better understood if the

econometrician relies on large set of variables without imposing

too much a priori structure on the relationships governing their

evolution (see, for example, Giannone et al. 2004 and Bernanke et al. 2005).

Moreover, the process of integration of good and financial markets

implies that the source of aggregate shocks is increasingly global

requiring, in turn, the study of their propagation through cross

country links (see, among others, Forni and Reichlin, 2001 and Kose et al. 2003). A

priori, country specific behavior cannot be ruled out and many of

the homogeneity assumptions that are typically embodied in open

macroeconomic models for keeping them tractable are rejected by

the data. Summing up, in order to deal with such issues, we need

modelling frameworks able to treat a large amount of variables in

a flexible manner, i.e. without pre-committing on too many

a-priori restrictions more likely to be rejected by the data. The

large extent of comovement among wide cross sections of economic

variables suggests the existence of few common sources of

fluctuations (Forni et al. 2000 and Stock and Watson, 2002) around which

individual variables may display specific features: a shock to the

world price of oil, for example, hits oil exporters and importers

with different sign and intensity or global technological advances

can affect some countries before others (Giannone and Reichlin, 2004). Factor

models mainly rely on the identification assumption that the

dynamics of each variable can be decomposed into two orthogonal

components - common and idiosyncratic - and provide a parsimonious

tool allowing the analysis of the aggregate shocks and their

propagation mechanisms in a large cross section of variables. In

fact, while the idiosyncratic components are poorly

cross-sectionally correlated, driven by shocks specific of a

variable or a group of variables or measurement error, the common

components capture the bulk of cross-sectional correlation, and

are driven by few shocks that affect, through variable specific

factor loadings, all items in a panel of economic time series.

Focusing on the latter components allows useful insights on the

identity and propagation mechanisms of aggregate shocks underlying

a large amount of variables. The second and third chapter of this

thesis exploit this idea.

The second chapter deals with the issue whether monetary variables

help to forecast inflation in the Euro Area harmonized index of

consumer prices (HICP). Policymakers form their views on the

economic outlook by drawing on large amounts of potentially

relevant information. Indeed, the monetary policy strategy of the

European Central Bank acknowledges that many variables and models

can be informative about future Euro Area inflation. A peculiarity

of such strategy is that it assigns to monetary information the

role of providing insights for the medium - long term evolution of

prices while a wide range of alternative non monetary variables

and models are employed in order to form a view on the short term

and to cross-check the inference based on monetary information.

However, both the academic literature and the practice of the

leading Central Banks other than the ECB do not assign such a

special role to monetary variables (see Gali et al. 2004 and

references therein). Hence, the debate whether money really

provides relevant information for the inflation outlook in the

Euro Area is still open. Specifically, this chapter addresses the

issue whether money provides useful information about future

inflation beyond what contained in a large amount of non monetary

variables. It shows that a few aggregates of the data explain a

large amount of the fluctuations in a large cross section of Euro

Area variables. This allows to postulate a factor structure for

the large panel of variables at hand and to aggregate it in few

synthetic indexes that still retain the salient features of the

large cross section. The database is split in two big blocks of

variables: non monetary (baseline) and monetary variables. Results

show that baseline variables provide a satisfactory predictive

performance improving on the best univariate benchmarks in the

period 1997 - 2005 at all horizons between 6 and 36 months.

Remarkably, monetary variables provide a sensible improvement on

the performance of baseline variables at horizons above two years.

However, the analysis of the evolution of the forecast errors

reveals that most of the gains obtained relative to univariate

benchmarks of non forecastability with baseline and monetary

variables are realized in the first part of the prediction sample

up to the end of 2002, which casts doubts on the current

forecastability of inflation in the Euro Area.

The third chapter is based on a joint work with Domenico Giannone

and gives empirical foundation to the general equilibrium

explanation of the Feldstein - Horioka puzzle. Feldstein and Horioka (1980) found

that domestic saving and investment in OECD countries strongly

comove, contrary to the idea that high capital mobility should

allow countries to seek the highest returns in global financial

markets and, hence, imply a correlation among national saving and

investment closer to zero than one. Moreover, capital mobility has

strongly increased since the publication of Feldstein - Horioka's

seminal paper while the association between saving and investment

does not seem to comparably decrease. Through general equilibrium

mechanisms, the presence of global shocks might rationalize the

correlation between saving and investment. In fact, global shocks,

affecting all countries, tend to create imbalance on global

capital markets causing offsetting movements in the global

interest rate and can generate the observed correlation across

national saving and investment rates. However, previous empirical

studies (see Ventura, 2003) that have controlled for the effects

of global shocks in the context of saving-investment regressions

failed to give empirical foundation to this explanation. We show

that previous studies have neglected the fact that global shocks

may propagate heterogeneously across countries, failing to

properly isolate components of saving and investment that are

affected by non pervasive shocks. We propose a novel factor

augmented panel regression methodology that allows to isolate

idiosyncratic sources of fluctuations under the assumption of

heterogenous transmission mechanisms of global shocks. Remarkably,

by applying our methodology, the association between domestic

saving and investment decreases considerably over time,

consistently with the observed increase in international capital

mobility. In particular, in the last 25 years the correlation

between saving and investment disappears.

Doctorat en sciences économiques, Orientation économie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

In the 1950s and 1960s, after gaining independence from their colonial powers, most developing countries adopted “market substitution” as their policy for economic development and growth. In essence, this was an industrialisation strategy followed by these developing economies to concentrate on home-grown products and nurture their expertise in order to reach the status of industrialised nations. However, by the end of 1970s, many developing countries began to realize the failures of their inward-looking approach to industrialization when their economies were mired with high unemployment, inflation and chronic external debt. By the middle of 1980s, many of these countries began to change their policies and reorient themselves into market economies. However, with financial crises and economic recessions that resulted from pursuing market driven liberalization policies, these economies began to realize the flaws of the market driven approach to industrialization. Nevertheless, they continued with the liberalised policies incorporating market as well as non-market (institutional) reforms, aimed at strengthening regulation, improving corporate governance and curbing corruption to avoid the destabilising consequences of financial liberalization. The evolving economic policies that influenced financial development and growth in developing economies came about with the objective of enhancing household and private sector‘s savings. These policies have been designed to influence financial development and economic growth (which can impact upon private savings) in two different ways: (i) by increasing saving due to households taking precautionary motives, or (ii) negatively by spending more due to increase in overall expenditures. Theoretically, the combined effect on private saving is therefore ambiguous. The purpose of this thesis is to assess empirically the importance of various economic factors influencing private sector savings in emerging market economies. In addition, the influence of non-market institutional factors on savings is explored from the incorporation of newly institutional measures into these countries economic policies. Several econometric methodologies are employed with empirical analysis conducted on data for twenty emerging economies across three primary regions in the world, i.e. Asia Pacific, Middle East and North African (MENA), and South America. The twenty countries also include other emerging economies that are proximate to MENA regions such as South Africa, Turkey and Israel. In general, the findings based on SUR (Seemingly Unrelated Regression) methodology show that per capita growth, financial development, government savings, and trade openness have a positive impact on private savings; while youth and old dependency-age groups, real interest rate, and urban growth have a negative effect on private savings. In general, most of these results are consistent with previous studies for other countries. Additionally, causality tests are conducted using Vector Autoregressive (VAR) methodology as well as Pedroni and Johansen cointegration methods within the Vector Error Correction (VEC) model to determine both short-term and long-term causality effects between financial development and economic growth. The results indicate that in the long run financial development has a causal effect on growth; however, in the short run the results are quite mixed. For example, the short run result using the VAR method shows that income growth has Granger causality effect on financial development, but the F-test result for the VEC method shows evidence of bivariate causality. The long-term causality results also confirm the finding of previous research about the importance of developing financial sector in order to spur the country‘s economic growth. The final empirical investigation is to conduct panel data regression to test the impact of non-market institutions on private savings. The main result here is that sound institutional factors based on respect for property rights (e.g. bureaucracy, accountability and regulation quality) have a positive effect on aggregate private savings. Furthermore, political stability is found to have a negative impact on savings while efficient bureaucracy has a positive impact on savings. It can be construed that with an uncertain political environment, i.e. diminishing political stability, the public in general would save more than spend. On the other hand, efficient bureaucracy would boost public confidence about the country‘s governance, which can lead to increased overall savings by the public.

This dissertation explores household risk and savings behavior in Zimbabwe, and agricultural technology adoption, and the impact of public investments on the economy and community health in Ethiopia. The first paper analyzes changes in per capita consumption and savings behavior in Zimbabwe before and after a range of financial and weather-related shocks using comparable national income, consumption and expenditure surveys of 1990/91 and 1995/96. The empirical results show that before droughts and macroeconomic adjustments Zimbabweans used savings to smooth consumption. In contrast, risk management strategies were severely limited after the shocks; consumption tracked income more closely in the latter period. The inability to effectively address the risks arising from droughts and economy-wide structural changes implies that any subsequent economic and social uncertainty will have serious welfare consequences. The second paper examines the interaction between public investments, community health, and productivity- and land-enhancing technology adoption decisions by farm households in Northern Ethiopia. It models technology adoption as a sequential process where the timing of choices can matter. The econometric test results indicate that the decision and intensity of technology adoption are highly correlated with the sequential nature of adoption. The most striking results concern the importance of disease - the amount of time spent sick and time spent caring for sick family members are inversely associated with both the decision and intensity of technology adoption. Finally the third paper looks at the welfare impacts of a public water resource development project with health side effects in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. It uses a model of a social planner to characterize the optimal implementation of such projects over time, showing how health and production are important considerations in this decision. The empirical analysis shows that the marginal net benefits of Tigray's current microdam investments are positive. The lost income households suffer from increased time away from productive activities (due to sickness) is compensated for by increased yields and market opportunities brought about through irrigated agriculture. However, it should be noted that this conclusion is based on efficiency and not equity.
Ph. D.

We introduce the tractable buffer stock savings setup of Carroll (2009 NBER Working Paper) into an otherwise conventional New-Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with financial frictions. The introduction of a precautionary saving motive arising from an uninsurable risk of permanent income loss, affects the model's properties in a number of interesting ways: it produces a more hump-shaped reaction of consumption in response to both supply (technology) and demand (monetary) shocks, and more pronounced reactions in response to demand shocks. Adoption of the buffer stock savings setup thus offers a more microfounded way, compared to, e.g., habit preferences in consumption, to introduce Keynesian features into the model, serving as a device to curbing excessive consumption smoothing, and to attributing a higher role to demand driven fluctuations. We also discuss steady state effects, determinacy properties as well as other practical issues. (authors' abstract)
Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examined the causal relationship between foreign direct investment and domestic savings in Zambia. Data over the period 1970–2012 was extracted from the World Development Indicator and Global Economic Monitor Databases (2014). The study employed the Johansen cointegration approach to establish the long-standing relationship between domestic savings and foreign direct investment. In addition, the Granger causality test was also carried out to examine the causal relationship between foreign direct investment and gross domestic savings. The results suggest that although foreign direct investment inflow can lead to domestic savings growth in the short run, in the long run it would substitute domestic savings. This implies that the effect of the increased inflows of foreign direct investment experienced in the recent past may in the long run hurt domestic savings growth in Zambia. Policy makers should therefore improve the governance mechanism for the use and monitoring of foreign direct investment inflows in Zambia and promote diversification away from mining, the main economic activity that accounts for more than 60 percent of direct foreign investment in Zambia.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het ondersoek ingestel na die oorsaaklikheidsverwantskap tussen direkte buitelandse belegging en binnelandse besparing in Zambië. Data vir die tydperk 1970 tot 2012 is uit die Wêreldbank se databasisse World Development Indicators en Global Economic Monitor (2014) bekom. Die studie het die Johansen-benadering van ko-integrasie gevolg om die lank bestaande verwantskap tussen binnelandse besparing en direkte buitelandse belegging te bepaal. Daarbenewens is die Granger-oorsaaklikheidstoets uitgevoer om die oorsaaklikheidsverwantskap tussen direkte buitelandse belegging en bruto binnelandse besparing te ondersoek. Die resultate dui daarop dat hoewel die invloeiing van direkte buitelandse belegging binnelandse besparing op kort termyn ’n hupstoot sal gee, dit binnelandse besparing op lang termyn sal vervang. Dít impliseer dat die verhoogde direkte buitelandse belegging wat in die onlangse verlede ondervind is, op lang termyn ’n skadelike uitwerking op groei in binnelandse besparing in Zambië kan hê. Beleidsvormers behoort dus die beheermeganisme vir die aanwending en monitering van direkte buitelandse belegging in Zambië te verbeter en diversifikasie aan te moedig weg van mynbou, die vernaamste ekonomiese aktiwiteit in die land wat tans vir meer as 60% van alle direkte buitelandse belegging in Zambië sorg.

Nearly all individuals who purchase a property will have to get a mortgage, which raises the issue of repayment of the loan. Is it more profitable to get out of debt or can we make the money grow faster through alternative investments? The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there are incentives for individual households to refrain from amortize. In general, one can identify three reasons to amortize; the first is a general need to save, the second reason is to save specifically for retirement and the third reason is the household's assessment of the probability of large negative shocks, such as a a decline of the real estate market. But the question is whether the principal is what is the most profitable for households? Based on actual interest rates and yields for the last 30 years and empirical research, this paper will analyze whether it is more advantageous for households to save by investing in financial assets such as mutual funds than by amortizing. Acknowledgement: This bachelor thesis is the final part for me at the bachelor program Real Estate and Finance at The Royal Institute of Technology and has been implemented in the spring of 2014. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has contributed information to this paper.
Näst intill samtliga personer som köper en fastighet kommer att behöva ta ett lån för att ha råd med köpet, vilket väcker frågan om återbetalning på lånet. Är det mest lönsamt att bli skuldfri eller kan pengarna växa snabbare genom alternativinvesteringar? Målsättningen med denna uppsats är att undersöka om det föreligger incitament för enskilda hushåll att avstå från att amortera. I stort kan man identifiera tre skäl till att amortera; det första är ett generellt behov av att spara, det andra skälet är att spara specifikt till pensionen och det tredje skälet är hushållens bedömning om sannolikheten för stora negativa chocker, exempelvis ett stort fall i bostadspriserna. Men frågan är om amortering är vad som är mest lönsamt för hushållen? Baserat på faktiska räntor och avkastningar under de senaste 30 åren samt empirisk forskning kommer denna uppsats att analysera frågan om det är mer förmånligt för hushåll att spara genom att investera i finansiella tillgångar såsom aktie- och räntefonder än genom att amortera. Förord: Denna kandidatuppsats utgör det avslutande momentet för mig på kandidatprogrammet Fastighet och Finans vid Kungliga Tekniska högskolan och har genomförts under våren 2014. Jag vill rikta ett stort tack till alla som har bidragit till information till denna uppsats.

Micro-economic reform is a primary objective of modern Australian socio-economic policy. The key outcome targetted by this reform is increased efficiency, measured by a range of factors, including cost reduction, increased savings, and a more facilitative environment for business activity. These benefits are sought by the proponents of reform as part of a push to increase national prosperity, but concerns that social equity is undermined by it are expressed by opponents of that reform. The debate between efficiency and equity is raging in current Australian tax policy, a key site for micro-economic reform. As Government Budget restructuring occurs in Australia, demographic change (eg, the ageing population) undermines the ability of public funded welfare to provide retirement benefits. Responsibility for self-funded retirement is an important contributor to increasing private savings. Investment in growth assets such as corporate stock is increasing in Australia, however concerns about volatility of asset values and yield stimulate the importance of investment risk management techniques. Financial contract innovation utilising financial derivatives is a dominant mechanism for that risk management. Synthetic equity products which are characterised by capital protection and enhanced yield are popular and efficient equity risk management vehicles, and are observed globally, particularly in the North American market. Financial contract innovation, risk management using financial derivatives, and synthetic equity products suffer from an adverse tax regulatory response in Australia, which deprives Australian investors from access to important savings vehicles. The negative Australian tax response stems from anachronistic legislation and jurisprudence, which emphasises tax outcomes based on legal form. The pinnacle of this approach is the tax law insistence on characterisation of financial contracts as either debt or equity, despite some important financial similarities between these two asset types. Since derivatives produce transactions with novel legal forms this approach is unresponsive to innovation. The negative tax result also stems from a perception that the new products are tax arbitrage vehicles, offering tax benefits properly available to investment in stocks, which is thought to be inappropriate when the new products resemble debt positions (particularly when they are capital protected and yield enhanced). The negative tax response reflects administrative concerns about taxpayer equity and revenue leakage. This approach seeks to impose tax linearity by proxy: rather than utilising systemic reform to align the tax treatment of debt and equity, the current strategy simply denies the equity tax benefits to a variety of innovative financial contracts. It deprives Australians of efficiency enhancing savings products, which because of an adverse tax result are unattractive to investors. The weakness of the current approach is illustrated by critical analysis of three key current and proposed tax laws: the ???debt dividend??? rules in sec. 46D Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (the ???Tax Act???); the 1997 Budget measures (which seek to integrate related stock and derivative positions); and the proposals in the Taxation of Financial Arrangements Issues Paper (which include a market value tax accounting treatment for ???traded equity,??? and propose a denial of the tax benefits for risk managed equity investments). The thesis develops a model for financial analysis of synthetic equity products to verify the efficiency claims made for them. The approach is described as the ???Tax ReValue??? model. The Tax ReValue approach isolates the enhanced investment returns possible for synthetic equity, and the model is tested by application to the leading Australian synthetic equity product, the converting preference share. The conclusions reached are that the converting preference share provides the key benefits of enhanced investment return and lower capital costs to its corporate issuer. This financial efficiency analysis is relied upon to support the assertion that a facilitative tax response to such products is appropriate. The facilitative response can be delivered by a reformulation of the existing tax rules, or by systemic reform. The reformulation of the existing tax rules is articulated by a Rule of Reason, which is proposed in the thesis as the basis for the allocation and retention of the equity tax benefits. To avoid concerns about taxpayer equity and revenue leakage the Rule of Reason proposes a Two Step approach to the allocation of the equity tax benefits to synthetics. The financial analysis is used to quantify non-tax benefits of synthetic equity products, and to predict whether and to what extent the security performs financially like debt or equity. This financial analysis is overlayed by a refined technical legal appraisal of whether the security contains the essential legal ???Badges of Equity.??? The resulting form and substance approach provides a fair and equitable control mechanism for perceived tax arbitrage, whilst facilitating efficient financial contract innovation. The ultimate source of non-linearity in the taxation of investment capital is the differential tax benefits provided to equity and debt. To promote tax linearity the differentiation needs to be removed, and the thesis makes recommendations for systemic reform, particularly concerning the introduction of a system of ???Franked Debt.??? The proposed system of ???Franked Debt??? would align the tax treatment of debt and equity by replacing the corporate interest deduction tax benefit with a lender credit in respect of corporate tax paid. This credit would operate mechanically like the existing shareholder imputation credit. The interface of this domestic tax credit scheme with the taxation of International investment capital, and the problems occasioned by constructive delivery of franking credits to Australian taxpayers via synthetics, are resolved by the design and costings of the new system, which has the potential to be revenue positive.

Investments, a Civil Service department. Initially a Conservative policy, the PPP was reformulated by 'New' Labour whereby a 'partnership' between the public and private sectors is the favoured method of modernising public services. The study seeks to investigate the compatibility of a 'partnership' between two sectors which are fundamentally different, whereby a private sector 'partner' is attempting to make a profit out of a non-profit public sector financial institution. The process of organisational culture change is explored, as prior to the PPP a plethora of government directives were introduced at National Savings involving commercialisation and peripheral privatisation. The thesis attempts to understand the impact such initiatives have had on the lives of workers on the shop floor. Organised resistance from the trade unions and their members to these governmental directives are further examined. The research strategy involves semi-structured interviews with trade union officials and oral history interviews with workers - although management refused to participate in the research - together with various documentary sources. The thesis argues that the culmination of these changes has created a more pressurised and uncertain working environment, and those on shop intensification. The PPP marked the most profound changes with the end of the long-accepted 'job for life', as the creation of a multi-tier workforce, together with the insourcing, outsourcing and offshoring of work have left workers in precarious positions of employment. Yet there has been both formal and informal resistance to many of these directives, as organisational culture change is a complex and continually negotiated process, rather than smooth and unproblematic.

Sustainability is more relevant than ever and has forced the pension industry to acknowledge new types of responsibilities during the last decades. Sustainable pension is based on the investing strategy, social responsible investment (SRI), which implies that pension funds should not solely focus on a good return of their investment, but also care for the social and economical welfare. Research has been conducted on the area of SRI and pension during the last decades but a gap has been identified as to how this research was eventually communicated to the customers. This thesis addresses this in two parts for the target group business customers. Firstly, to meet future demands in the pension industry, a better knowledge is needed of how the business customers understand what sustainable pension really is. This thesis aims to address this by answering the question “What are business customers’ understandings of sustainability and pensions?” Secondly, customers increasingly ask what impact their money is having on sustainability. In answer to this demand, a prototype with a concretization of sustainable pension savings was developed and evaluated, following a Human-Centered Design process throughout the thesis project. Interviews were conducted with pension experts and business customers. Results showed that business customers do not make a connection between sustainability and pension, that sustainability is diffuse and hard to understand in the financial setting, and that pension is too far from the operative business and perhaps the employees’ own responsibility. When explained, the belief was that sustainable pension is something positive. But preconceived notions about it being expensive and non-lucrative are factors that discourages. The final evaluation of the prototype was done with a user test that featured three of the four business customers from the interviews. Results pointed to that the business customers think that sustainable pensions became more understandable, that sustainable pension became more concrete, that it was interesting, fresh and that it broke new ground. The user test also revealed that rebound effects is a potential risk with sustainable pension, as participants expressed that they feel better and compensated with their own CO2 emission after they learned about the positive effects of a sustainable pension.
Hållbarhet är mer relevant än någonsin och har tvingat pensionsbranschen att erkänna nya typer av ansvar under de senaste decennierna. Hållbar pension är baserat på investeringsstrategin, ”social responsible investment” (SRI), som medför att pensionsfonder inte enbart ska fokusera på god avkastning, utan även ta hänsyn till social och ekonomisk välfärd. Forskning har utförts på området SRI ihop med pension under de senaste decennierna och ett kunskapsglapp har blivit identifierat kring hur denna forskning sedermera har kommunicerats vidare till kunderna. Den här avhandlingen adresserar det här i två delar för målgruppen företagskunder. För det första, för att möta framtida krav i pensionsbranschen, behövs det en bättre kunskap för hur företagskunders förståelse för hållbar pension är. Den här avhandlingens mål är att ta sig an detta genom att besvara frågan: ”Vad är företagskunders förståelse för hållbarhet och pension?”. För det andra, kunder frågar allt mer frekvent vilken skillnad deras pengar gör för hållbarhet. För att svara på detta har en prototyp med konkretiseringar av hållbar pension utvecklats och utvärderats. Prototypen följde en Human-Centered Design process genom hela projektet. Intervjuer utfördes med pensionsexperter och företagskunder. Resultat visade att företagskunder inte kopplar hållbarhet till pension, att hållbarhet är diffust och svårt att förstå i en finansiell kontext, och att pension är alldeles för långt från den operativa verksamheten och möjligtvis den anställdes eget ansvar. När det förklarades, upplevdes hållbar pension som någonting positivt. Men förutfattade meningar att det skulle vara dyrt och icke lukrativt är faktorer som avskräcker. Den slutgiltiga utvärderingen av prototypen gjordes med ett användartest med representanter från tre av de fyra företagen från intervjuerna. Resultaten pekade på att företagskunder tyckte att hållbar pension blev mer lättförståeligt, att hållbar pension blev mer konkret, att det var intressant, fräscht och att det bröt ny mark. Användartestet avslöjade också att ”rebound effects” är en potentiell risk med hållbar pension, då deltagarna uttryckte att det kändes bättre och att de blev kompenserade för deras egna CO2 utsläpp efter att de fick veta de positiva effekterna av hållbar pension.

Intention: The purpose of this thesis is to see if an active investment decision in the Swedish Premium Pension System would result in a higher return than a non-active investment decision. A non-active investment decision is equivalent to leaving the money in AP7 Premium Savings Fund. Method: This thesis is a statistical analysis and has a descriptive character in which the calculations are based on secondary data, thus the thesis has a quantitative character. Furthermore three active portfolios in different risk categories have been chosen. These portfolios are compared with the AP7 Premium Savings Fund’s returns. The thesis is deductive because it is using existing financial theories to do empirical examinations. Conclusion: Generally, higher risk is equal to higher returns. This thesis shows that an active investment of the premium pension should be done in portfolios with higher risk. Therefore the selected low-risk portfolio has lower returns than AP7 Premium Savings Fund. Further Research: The authors would find it interesting to redo this study in the future with the new AP7 Såfa as a benchmark.
Syfte: Studien avser att se om ett aktivt sparande och förvaltande av premiepensionen leder till en högre avkastning i jämförelse mot att låta pengarna ligga kvar i AP7 Premiesparfond Metod: Studien är en statistik analys och har en deskriptiv karaktär där sekundärdata ligger till grund för beräkningarna. Studien kan således ses som en kvantitativ studie. Vidare har tre stycken aktiva portföljval i tre olika riskkategorier tagits fram för att jämföras med AP7 Premiesparfonds avkastning. Studien är deduktiv då den empiriska prövningen sker med hjälp av redan befintliga finansiella teorier. Slutsats: Generellt sett ger högre risk en högre avkastning. Studien visar att om premiepensionen ska förvaltas aktivt bör detta göras i portföljer med högre risk. Då den valda lågriskportföljen gav lägre avkastning än AP7 Premiesparfond. Vidare forskning: Författarna anser det intressant att jämföra om AP7 Såfa skulle gynna icke aktiva sparare i högre grad än den gamla AP7 premiesparfonden. AP7 Såfa är en generationsfond där risken anpassas efter spararens ålder. Studien bör därför omprövas då det finns tioårig historik om AP7 Såfa.

The diploma thesis deals with analysis of selected low-risk investments, with wich we can appreciate our savings. It is building savings, pension insurance, passbooks, time deposits, government bonds and savings accounts, while special emphasis is laid on savings accounts. The main goal of the diploma thesis is to estimate annual revenue of the above mentioned low-risk investments, while taking into account such factors as tax relief or government contribution for some of them. Subsequent survey is focused on knowledge and use of savings accounts.

This Master's thesis focuses on family financial planning and emphasizes its importance in our lives. It's divided into several chapters that are logically linked to each other and form a complex whole. The main part consists of an overview of basic financial products, which everyone should have at least basic awareness of. Description of financial products is mainly focused on its functioning, specifics, advantages and disadvantages. In the next chapter is shown a few examples of how to create a family financial plan in practice.

The empirical data indicates that Generation Y generally has a very high average financial literacy. The rationality they exhibit in the mastery of financial information and tools does not affect their savings and investments. Instead, the investment behavior is given in expression by their character, but also demographic basis.

This thesis focuses on financial planning and it's phases. It contains overview and characteristics of general financial products, which are suitable for families such as bank accounts, insurance, investment instruments and loans. Last section of this thesis contains an example, which shows application of some financial products.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de NÃvel Superior
O objetivo deste trabalho à construir um modelo de equilÃbrio geral,de modo a realizar simulaÃÃes contrafactuais dos recentes aumentos dos investimentos pÃblicos no Brasil, visando verificar efeitos nos agregados macroeconÃmicos, bem como no bem-estar social.Para a calibraÃÃo das variÃveis e parÃmetros do modelo foram utilizadas diversas bases de dados, inclusive IBGE, IPEADATA e Banco Central. Os exercÃcios consistem em alterar os valores dos parÃmetros referentes à proporÃÃo da composiÃÃo dos investimentos pÃblicos no qual no ano de 2010 os investimentos da administraÃÃo pÃblica, que se supÃem complementares aos investimentos privados, tiveram uma participaÃÃo de 53% da parcela dos investimentos pÃblicos em relaÃÃo ao PIB. Os investimentos das empresas estatais, que, por hipÃtese, sÃo substitutos dos investimentos privados, participaram com o complementar, 47%. A simulaÃÃo que direciona 80% dos investimentos pÃblicos à administraÃÃo pÃblica enquanto o restante 20% sÃo investidos pelas empresas estatais proporciona resultados de longo prazo no qual o produto cresceria cerca de 9,5%, enquanto o bem-estar cresceria 8%, de acordo com a medida proposta no trabalho. AlÃm disso, nas simulaÃÃes realizadas, mesmo na hipÃtese do capital das empresas estatais possuir maior produtividade que o capital privado,ganhos de bem-estar e crescimento poderiam ser obtidos.
The objective of this work is to build a general equilibrium model, in order to perform counterfactual simulations of recent increases in public investment in Brazil to check effects on macroeconomic aggregates, as well as in social welfare. For the calibration of the model parameters and variables were used several databases, including IBGE, IPEADATA and Central Bank. The exercises consist of changing the values of the parameters for the composition ratio of public investment in the year 2010 in which the investments of public administration, which are supposed to complement private investment, had a participation of 53% of the share of public investment to GDP. The investments of the state enterprises, which, by definition, are substitutes for private investment, participated with 47% complementary. The simulation that directs 80% of public investment to public administration while the remaining 30% is invested by state enterprises provides long-term results in which the product would grow about 9.5% while the welfare would grow 8%, according with the proposed measure on the job. Furthermore, in simulations performed, even if the capital of the state enterprises have higher productivity than private capital, gains in welfare and growth would be obtained.

The topic of this thesis is personal and family finance. At the time of extensive government austerity measures, uncertainty of countries' future, or even international companies, and on the other side the ever bigger influence of advertisement and consumer culture, its importance grows with each year. The main goal of this thesis is to confirm or disprove the hypothesis that presumes the following: although people think they are handling their personal finance right, they often make typical wrong decisions. Part of the theory is a survey dealing with financial literacy of Czechs that support a theory that they have considerable gaps in managing their finances. Further on, the thesis engages in possibilities on how to eliminate these gaps. Doing this, the author perceives the family, or individual, as a parallel to a company, while their finances management makes parallel to the company's accounting. It also briefly deals with why these mistakes are present, using behavioral economics as a tool for explanation. The theoretical part presents possibilities and products that are to find at a usual economy subject on the market to those willing to evaluate their finances. The practical part is looking for answer to question what the most frequent mistakes are. The author then chooses the one he considers the most significant, namely the absence of planning. It then tries to prove, that elimination of this mistake leads to considerable improvements and optimization in managing finances.

El principal objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar las diferencias en rentabilidad obtenidas por medio de los Multifondos (Fondo Tipo 1, Fondo Tipo 2 y Fondo Tipo 3) frente a las obtenidas con el Fondo Único (Fondo Tipo 2) desde el año 2007 al 2014 con la finalidad de evaluar el impacto positivo de este nuevo esquema en el sistema pensionario y en la inversión nacional: para llevar a cabo este análisis se utiliza el índice Sharpe para cuantificar el esquema Multifondos en el SPP y la paradoja de Feldstein-Horioka para visualizar el impacto en la inversión.
The main objective of this envestigation is to evaluate the differences in profitability obtained through the Multi-Funds (Fund Type 1, Fund Type 2 and Fund type 3) compared to those obtained with the fund that exixts sice the creation of the system (Fund Type 2) from 2007 to 2014 with the purpose of evaluating the positive impact of this new scheme in the pension system and in the national investment; to carry out this analysis the Sharpe Index is used to quantify the effect of the Multi-Fund scheme in the Private Pension System and the Feldstein-Horioka Paradox to mesure the impact on the domestic investment.
Trabajo de investigación

O objetivo desta tese é discutir, sob a ótica da multimodalidade, os impactos na economia brasileira decorrentes da redução de custos de transportes. Para atingir este objetivo, um modelo inter-regional de equilíbrio geral computável denominado BR-Transport foi implementado, inspirado na teoria da escola australiana. Os dados calibrados para o modelo foram desagregados conforme quatro modais de transporte: rodoviário, ferroviário, hidroviário e dutoviário. Para a desagregação da atividade de transporte e estimação das elasticidades de substituição preço cruzado, usou-se a base de dados dos Planos Nacionais de Logística e Transportes do Brasil, a qual dispõe de informações sobre os fluxos de transporte entre 551 pontos distribuídos pelas 27 unidades federativas do país e o exterior, incluindo custos e volume de transporte por tipo de modal, discriminados em 29 grupos de produtos. Na estrutura teórica do modelo BR-Transport, introduziram-se mecanismos que se baseiam na racionalidade dos agentes, que minimizam custos, e contemplam as elasticidades de substituição preço cruzado entre os modais de transporte, as quais foram estimadas econometricamente. Foram admitidas duas abordagens para a estimação da função de demanda: a translog do tipo Constant Elasticity of Substitution, que corresponde à especificação teórica das funções de produção implementadas no modelo de equilíbrio geral computável; e a Multinomial Conditional Logit, tipicamente usada em modelos de escolha de modos de transporte. Ambas as estimações contaram com controles adicionais, como atributos do modal, efeitos fixos e variáveis instrumentais. As elasticidades obtidas a partir das diferentes formas funcionais permitiram realizar uma análise de sensibilidade dos resultados do modelo de equilíbrio geral, com base no uso dos diferentes vetores de elasticidades. Os resultados indicaram que choques generalizados de redução de custos no sistema de transporte brasileiro geram um aumento das exportações e importações inter-regionais e beneficiam principalmente os produtos regionais brutos dos estados das regiões Norte e Nordeste do país. Tais resultados estão diretamente associados à melhoria de acesso desses estados aos principais mercados consumidores e fornecedores, localizados nas regiões Sudeste e Sul, e revelam o potencial de redistribuição regional de renda das políticas de reduções de custos de transportes. Em uma análise dos impactos específicos dessas reduções de custos em cada modal, notou-se a preponderância do transporte rodoviário na economia nacional, em todos os estados e setores. Simulando uma redução de custos generalizada no modal ferroviário, o estado mais beneficiado seria o Pará, sobretudo porque ligações específicas por este modal entre os estados do Pará, de São Paulo e Minas Gerais estão entre as vinte mais importantes em termos de benefícios ao Produto Interno Bruto e às exportações nacionais. Melhorias no modal hidroviário, por sua vez, teriam impactos relevantes nos estados da região Norte do país. Já o modal dutoviário ainda mostra pequena expressão em relação a impactos regionais e setoriais
The objective of this thesis is to discuss, from the perspective of multimodality, the impacts on the Brazilian economy resulting from the retrenchment of transportation. To achieve this goal, an interregional computable general equilibrium model named BR-Transport was implemented, inspired by the theory of the Australian school. The calibrated data used in the model were disaggregated according to four modes of transport: roads, rails, waterways and pipelines. For the disaggregation of the transport activity and the estimation of the cross-price elasticities of substitution, the Brazilian National Plan for Logistics and Transport database was used; it contains information about traffic flows between 551 points over the 27 Brazilian states and the rest of the world, including costs and volume of transport for each mode of transportation, discriminated in 29 different product groups. In the theoretical structure of the BR-Transport model, mechanisms were introduced based on the rationality of agents, which minimize costs; they include the cross-price elasticities of substitution between modes of transport, which were econometrically estimated. Thus, two distinct functional forms were admitted: the first one was the Constant Elasticity of Substitution, a translog which corresponds to the theoretical specification of the production functions implemented in the computable general equilibrium model; and the second one was the Multinomial Conditional Logit, which is typically used in choice models of modes of transportation. Both estimations were made using additional controls, such as modal attributes, fixed effects and instrumental variables. The elasticities obtained from the different functional forms allowed the implementation of a sensitivity analysis of the general equilibrium model results, based on the use of different elasticities vectors. Results show that general shocks of retrenchment in the Brazilian transportation system increase inter-regional exports and imports and especially benefit gross regional products in Brazil\'s North and Northeast regions. These results are directly related to the improvement of the accessibility of these states to big markets and suppliers, located in the Southeast and South regions, and they demonstrate that politics of retrenchment of transport improve regional income redistribution. An analysis of the specific impacts of retrenchment in each mode indicates a preponderance of road transport in the national economy, in all states and sectors. A simulation of a general retrenchment of the railway mode shows that the state of Pará would have more benefits due to the fact that specific railway links between this state and the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais are among the 20 most important ones in terms of benefits to the national Gross Domestic Product and the national exports. On the other hand, improvements in waterways would have significant impacts on the states of the North region. Finally, pipelines still show little expression with respect to regional and sectoral impacts.

The four essays included in this dissertation are in the field of open economy Macroeconomics. Essays I, II and IV deal with a work-horse model in this field – a two-sector small open economy growth model with traded and nontraded goods. Writing down such a model requires an assumption about the role of traded and nontraded goods in domestic consumption and investments. While several empirical studies have looked at the consumption side, a systematic examination of the role of traded and nontraded goods in investments is missing. Essay I aims to fill this gap. Drawing on extensive empirical evidence, we show that aggregate investment expenditure shares on traded and nontraded goods are very similar in rich and poor countries. Furthermore, the two expenditure shares have remained close to constant over time, with the average nontraded expenditure share varying between 0.54-0.60 over the 1960-2002 period. Combined with the fact that the relative price of nontraded goods correlates positively with income and exhibits large differences across space and time, our findings suggest that investment can be modeled using the Cobb-Douglas aggregator. The results of this essay offer a new restriction for the two-sector growth model, which can alter the conclusions drawn from the model. To demonstrate this, we apply the new restriction to a study by Hsieh and Klenow (2003), which argues that differences in relative productivity between traded and nontraded sectors, i.e., the Balassa-Samuelson effect, is the main cause of higher PPP-adjusted investment rates in rich countries. With the restriction imposed on the model, no more than 25 percent of the differences in PPP-adjusted investment rates between rich and poor counties can be attributed to the Balassa-Samuelson effect. In Essays II and IV the same two-sector growth model is put to the test using the recent economic developments in countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Essay II investigates whether the two-sector growth model can explain the magnitudes and the timing of the trade flows in the Baltic countries. The model is calibrated for each of the three countries, which we simulate as small closed economies that suddenly open up to international trade and capital flows. The results show that the model can account for the observed magnitudes of the trade deficits in the 1995-2001 period. Introducing a real interest rate risk premium in the model increases its explanatory power. According to the model, trade balances will turn positive in the Baltic states around 2010. Essay IV starts by summarizing empirical regularities for the key aggregate real sector variables in the eight countries that joined the EU in May 2004. It is shown that, following the reforms in the early 1990s, real sector developments in all eight countries exhibit remarkable similarities. Interestingly, this is the case despite the fact that different reform policies were pursued in several dimensions (e.g., privatization, nominal exchange rate). Next, we show that a calibrated two-sector small open economy growth model can account for most of the real sector adjustments in early post-reform years. Empirical studies have found rapid traded sector productivity growth in Central and Eastern European countries over the last decade. When traded sector productivity growth is added to the model, it captures the development in all key real sector variables during the post-reform period. Finally, Essay III contributes to the study of financial crises in emerging markets. In contrast to the other essays, this paper develops a highly stylized theoretical model that allows us to study analytically government response to financial crises. In particular, Essay III develops a framework for analyzing optimal government bailout policy in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model where financial crises are exogenous. Important elements of the model are that private borrowers internalize only part of the social cost of foreign borrowing in the emerging market and that the private sector is illiquid in the event of a crisis. The distinguishing feature of our paper is that it addresses the optimal bailout policy in an environment where there are both costs and benefits of bailouts, and where bailout guarantees potentially distort investment decisions in the private sector. We show that it is always optimal to commit to a bailout policy that only partially protects investment against inefficient liquidation, both in a centralized economy and a market economy. Due to overinvestment in the market economy, the government's optimal level of bailout guarantees is lower than in the social optimum. Further, we show that, in contrast to a social planner, the government in the market economy should optimally bail out a smaller fraction of private investments when the probability of a crisis is higher.
Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2005 S. i-x: sammanfattning, s. 1-187: 4 uppsatser

Senior policy of the state is largely focused on the active life of seniors (eg national strategy to support positive aging for the period 2013-2017 ). From this pont of view is generally expected to stay seniors longer in their natural environment and any subsequent use of social and health services, residential care homes for the elderly. Another phenomenon is the senior policy burden on the state budget in raising funds for the payment of pensions. One means of this policy mainly at regional level is to support seniors through discounts and other advantages Senior Pas project. The author draws a comparison of the consumer basket of the general population in the age structure from 55 years and above users Pas Senior Discount Network , which is primarily intended to support active living. The theoretical part focuses on the description and benefits, deficiencies discount networks in general and the discount network designed primarily for seniors. Thesis will also undertake an excursion to the neighboring countries, especially Austria and Germany, this excursion could give a number of inspiring suggestions in monitoring the functioning of these networks. In the practical part, thesis will devote particular network Senior Discount waist and through a questionnaire survey of members of the network. Thesis will be noticing all the available factors affecting the selection and use of discount networks in relation to age, place of residence, gender and other attributes/parameters. Thesis will help to answer the question whether discount network tends to increase the active life of seniors primarily or secondarily through capital cost savings for common services and goods. Author of acquired knowledge and experience will provide recommendations for fulfilling the mission and good functionality of discount network Senior Pas.

Urbaniseringen i Sverige under 1960–1970-talet medförde en kraftig ökning av byggandet och efterfrågan på bostäder och lokaler var stor. Idag utgör bostad- och service sektorn 40 % av den totala energianvändningen i Sverige. För att åstadkomma ett hållbart samhälle måste energieffektivisering av befintliga byggnader ske samt måste nybyggnationer utförs energieffektivt och sträva efter nära noll energibyggnader (NNE). Detta är viktigt för att energianvändningen skall minska samtidigt som miljöpåverkan blir låg. Viktigt är också att invånarna upplever ett bra inomhusklimat och en bra stadsmiljö att leva i. Examensarbetet omfattar en befintlig byggnad i Göteborg på Doktor Fries Torg 6,7 och 10, där flera verksamheter bedrivs. Projektet har utförts på teknikkonsultföretaget Energi Triangeln AB i samarbete med Förvaltnings AB GöteborgsLokaler. Huvudmålet med projektet är att utföra en energianalys som talar om hur energianvändningen ser ut för hela byggnaden. Genom att undersöka energianvändningen möjliggörs framtagande av åtgärdsförslag för att åstadkomma optimala energiförhållanden, minska energianvändningen och driftkostnaderna för kunden samt att främja hållbar utveckling i samhället. Resultatet för projektet presenteras med hjälp av data från fastighetsägaren, beräkningsfiler och formler inom ämnet Energiteknik i byggnader. Den avgörande fasen under arbetsgången har varit platsbesöken som utförts ett flertal gånger. Platsbesöken har innefattat besiktning av ventilationssystemen, värmesystemet, klimatskalet, verksamhetselen, fastighetselen och interna värmelaster för respektive verksamhet samt på vilket sätt verksamheterna bedrivs. Besöken underlättade arbetsgången då analyser av byggnaden möjliggjordes samtidigt som antagande och slutsatser om byggnaden kunde konstateras utefter branschstandard. Resultatet från projektet visar att byggnaden i nuläget har en energianvändning på cirka 133 kWh/m2, år och cirka 154 kWh/LOA, år. Med framtagna åtgärdsförslag har byggnaden en besparingspotential på cirka 54 % som motsvarar en energianvändning på 71 kWh/m2, år och 83 kWh/LOA, år.
The desire to buy housing and facilities in Sweden was high during the urbanization, which led to a large amount of buildings were built during the time. Today, the housing and the service sector accounts for 40 % of the total energy use in Sweden. To achieve a sustainable society and a sustainable building, energy efficiency of existing buildings needs to be done as well as new constructions needs to be performed energy efficiently and aim for near zero energy buildings (NNEs). This is important for reducing the energy use, and at the same time low the impact on the environment, while people feel a satisfactory environment. The project comprises an existing building in Gothenburg, where several activities are conducted at Doctor Fries Torg 6, 7 and 10. The project will be performed at the technology consulting company Energi Triangeln AB and the client of the project is Förvaltnings AB GöteborgsLokaler. The main purpose of the project is to implement an energy analysis that shows how the energy use in the building is distributed. By examining the energy use, it is possible to develop action proposals to achieve optimum energy conditions, reduce the energy use and the operating costs for the customer by promoting sustainable development. The result of the project is presented using data from the property owner, calculation files and formulas. The decisive phase of the work has been the visits of the building, which were made a couple of times. The visits have included inspection of the ventilation systems, heating system, climate scale, business area, property area, the internal heating keys for the respective activity and the way in which the activities are conducted. The visits facilitated the workflow when analyzes of the building were made, as well as the assumptions and conclusions about the building could be identified according to the industry standards. The results from the project show that the building has an energy use of 133 kWh/m2 and approximately 154 kWh/LOA today. With action proposals, the building has a saving potential of approximately 54 % which corresponds to an energy use of 71 kWh/m2, year and 83 kWh/LOA, year.

M.Comm.
Household savings is an important instrument for any economy and is also a crucial determinant of welfare in developing countries. This study investigates the determinants of household savings in South Africa and the factors that influences the current declines experienced in household savings. Household variables such as household income, expenditure, debt, as well as interest rates were analysed using trends to reveal their specific effect to the overall household savings. The Permanent Income Hypothesis emphasises the notion that people save because they expect a decline in their future income, meaning that savings should be a good predictor of a decline in income. Cointegration analysis on South African Reserve Bank data from 1990Q1 to 2009Q3 was conducted and results revealed that with all variables included, household income is the main determinant of household savings in South Africa. Impulse response functions, variance decomposition functions, as well as the granger-causality test were performed and results showed that household income remains the main determinant of household savings.

This research established the determinants of the investment choices between the RSA Government Retail Bonds and the stokvel by salaried individuals. The research carried out a comparative analysis between the two investment instruments. The main data was drawn from FinMark for the period 2011 to 2015. The research used a combination of data tables and graphs to analyse frequency (distribution) of use in each of the investment choices. The research used Pearson’s Chi square and Fishers’ t-test to determine the distribution, independence and Cramer’s V coefficient was applied to establish the correlation between the investment choices and the demographic under review. The outcome of the research indicated that more than risk or return inherent in the investment instruments under review, social, psychological and cultural disposition towards these investment instruments played a significant part in influencing the investment choices under review. Furthermore, lower educated individuals at low salary levels had the highest usage in stokvel and the highly educated at the higher level of education opted to invest in the RSA Government Retail Bonds. There was a very low usage in both the investment instruments by the ‘no formal education’ and primary education levels. Pearson’s Chi square and Fishers’ exact tests indicated that, race, education, location and salary levels can be used to explain the differences in investment choices between the RSA Government Retail Bonds and stokvel. According to these tests, age was statistically insignificant to explain the effects of the demographics under review on making investment choices. The results indicate that racial, educational, salary and location differences need to be properly factored into the policy development in so far as investment and savings are concerned.
Finance, Risk Management and Banking
M. Com. (Business Management)

M.Com. (Economic Development and Policy Issues)
There is an observable correlation, over time, between domestic savings rates and GDP growth rates: countries with relatively high savings rates over time also enjoying comparably high GDP growth rates. Aggregate saving in South Africa has been in decline and, currently, is at a historic low. Unflattering comparisons between South Africa and faster-growing emerging market economies have led to suggestions that South Africa's low domestic savings rate poses a constraint on the country's ability to grow faster. While the literature, both international and domestic, is relatively rich in studies on the determinants of foreign direct investment as well as the determinants of savings, none of the work done on South Africa has made use of disaggregated savings data to understand whether there is an observable difference in the marginal propensity to save of these economic sectors. In order to successfully raise the level of saving, much more focus needs to be applied to whether there is a difference in the relationship between growth and the components of aggregate saving i.e. which „source‟ of saving if any would yield the greatest impact on GDP and therefore should be encouraged from a policy point of view. The results of the econometric analysis demonstrate that the greatest responsiveness of savings to GDP growth occurs amongst corporates. Since corporates have a choice between retaining earnings and distributing earning as dividends (thus increasing household income) it is clear that tax-rates are an important lever through which government can encourage savings. In essence, a greater level of savings may be achievable if corporates are encouraged to retain earnings, rather than distribute these as dividends to the household sector which has exhibited a relatively weak propensity to save.

碩士
國立高雄應用科技大學
財富與稅務管理系碩士在職專班
102
To achieve capital accumulation and economic development, Taiwan established special deduction for savings and investments whenever applying personal income tax return. However, the tax erosion has exceeded itemized deduction with the declined deposit interest rate over the past decade. The study aims to discuss whether this encouragement policy has achieved its goal. In addition, this study also investigates the tax erosion and taxation fairness of special deduction for savings and investments. Using data from 1998 to 2011, the data of individual income tax is collected to explore the issue. Descriptive statistics and linear regression models are used to find the impacts of special deduction for savings and investments on personal income tax base erosion and taxation fairness. The empirical results indicate that the special deduction for savings and investments are negatively related to total amount of personal income tax, which is consistent with hypotheses. In other words, the special deduction induced tax erosion of personal income tax. After performing different simulation analyses, the study suggests that special deduction for savings and investments should revise to NT$200 thousand dollars to increase taxation and Oshima index. Thus, the taxation fairness would be improved.

The aim of this thesis was to examine the financial knowledge of older people as a vulnerable group of the population of the Czech Republic. For the analysis of the survey were selected. Seniors were considered 9 questions investigating their financial literacy. A questionnaire survey was conducted in homes for the elderly and nursing homes in the Czech Budejovice. The survey was a total of 300 respondents.

Innovative financial instruments in the Czech Republic and their hypothetical use in the field of energy efficiency are analysed and assessed in this thesis. We address lim- ited awareness about multiple benefits of energy efficiency improvements and also emerging innovative financial instruments that are promoted by the European Com- mission as a way to multiply impacts of limited public budgets. Then we identify a suitable segment, Czech residential housing stock and public support of insulation, and compare several forms of possible public support in this field. As the main driver of space heating costs, we predict the future development of heat prices, and assess po- tential energy savings resulting from renovations. Finally, we assess and also simulate the potential of such an initiative and identify four suitable settings of the innovative financial instrument for a majority of stakeholders. Our findings support an idea that this innovative financial instrument offers a valuable alternative to traditional grants. It also suggests that such an initiative can be interesting for a private sector as well as a public sector, with benefits to public budgets, equity investors, households and many other stakeholders. Moreover, this initiative can be sustainable in the long run. JEL Classification G23,...

This thesis examines the relationship of monetary policy and investment in a theoretical framework in which monetary and real economic forces are intrinsically interlinked. The full shift from a money, real dichotomy in historical economic thought to the notion of money being an essential determinant of economic outcomes is traced to the work of Keynes, partly in the Treatise (1930), but more completely in the General Theory (1936). The treatment of monetary forces in economic growth models is examined. It is found that the money, investment relationship, with close money, real interaction, is appropriately pursued in the approach to monetary theory adopted by those who could broadly be characterised as Post Keynesian. The operation of monetary forces through the banking system is examined using this theoretical backdrop. A symbolic model is developed of the influence channels implied by the theoretical analysis, using the South African monetary system as the specific focus. The symbolic model is expressed in a form which enables empirical examination. South African data are compiled and used to determine the nature and statistical significance of hypothesised relationships. The implications of the theoretical analysis and empirical examination are drawn out both for monetary theory within the Post Keynesian mould, and for the conduct of monetary policy, in South Africa in particular.
Economics
D. Litt. et Phil. (Economics)