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Finance and Growth: A Bayesian Model Averaging Evidence
Mareš, Jan ; Horváth, Roman (advisor) ; Seman, Vojtěch (referee)
The question whether financial development is conducive to economic growth has entered the debate with new intensity following the financial crisis of 2007-2008. We use standardized dataset on economic growth established by the literature and Financial Development Database by World Bank to inspect the relationship. Unlike other studies, we employ Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) to address model uncertainty inherent to modelling of economic growth. Apart from dealing with omitted variable bias it also allows us to compare relative importance of banking sector and financial markets along with their varying characteristics. Examining real economic growth rates 1960-2011 in 68 countries, we find little evidence in favour of traditional financial development proxy - financial depth - to affect economic growth. Our initial results point to the importance of banking sector efficiency, approximated by net interest margin, as essential growth determinant. Moreover, we use financial indicators to construct overall measure of financial development and find it highly relevant to economic growth. The results are robust to different parameter and model priors in BMA, but not to specifications dealing with potentially endogenous nature of the finance-growth correlation.
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Essays in Applied Meta-Analysis
Polák, Petr ; Havránek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Pugh, Geoff (referee) ; Rusnák, Marek (referee) ; Reed, William Robert (referee)
The dissertation consists of three papers presenting applications of meta-analysis in economics and introductory chapter which discusses the development of meta-analysis in author's perspective as well as strengths and weaknesses of this quantitative method to synthesize empirical research. In the first paper analyses the impact of information and communication technology investments on productivity. The second paper focuses on the trade effect of the euro. In the third investigates the relation between international trade flows and trade costs.
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What explains different duration of the Great Recession across countries?
Petrů, Vojtěch ; Baxa, Jaromír (advisor) ; Hlaváček, Michal (referee)
The research concerning differences in duration of the Great Recession is limited and inconclusive. We define duration of crisis as the count of years lost due to the crisis, and estimate the determinants of crisis duration on the dataset of 54 developed and developing countries. This thesis contrasts with previous literature by employing Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) to accommodate for the large amount of potential explanatory variables and to address model uncertainty. Moreover, an innovative measure of export competitiveness, which accounts for the changes in non-price factors such as quality, is used. The results bring suggestive evidence of positive impact of developed financial markets, high share of private consumption and improvements in export competitiveness. We also find positive effect of fiscal policy stimulus once it is controlled for the feedback loop of uncertainty which appears when heavily indebted countries finance fiscal stimulus through issuance of additional debt. Lastly, it needs to be concluded, that the results are not robust to all prior specifications. In particular, the more restrictive Beta binomial model prior shrinks the statistical significance of aforementioned results heavily. JEL Classification F12, F21, F23, H25, H71, H87 Keywords Great Recession, Crisis duration, Economic...
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Determinants of the Mode of Payment in Mergers & Acquisitions in the European Union
Maryniok, Adam ; Kočenda, Evžen (advisor) ; Teplý, Petr (referee)
Topic of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is popular both in academia and financial circles and press. A great deal of research has been focused on the value creation side of M&A deals, nonetheless factors influencing the particular method of payment used in M&A transactions are equally interesting. This thesis focuses on number of factors influencing the choice of medium of exchange in M&A deals with European Union domiciled bidders. Using Bayesian model averaging and a relatively new dataset of transactions announced between 2010 and 2018, the analysis finds several bidder, target and deal specific characteristics to be of a provable effect on the choice of payment. Finally, several enhancements and research questions for a further research are identified.
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A Meta-Analysis of FDI Spillovers in China
Herman, Dominik ; Havránek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Semerák, Vilém (referee)
Assessment of the foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers in the People's Republic of China (PRC) has become a lively area of research in the past decades; nonetheless, the existing primary literature seems to be inconclusive. The present thesis revises the literature through a meta-analytical approach using Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA). Considering that the previous liter- ature reviews are of either inferior quality or incomparable focus, our research is based on a collection of 1081 estimates from 14 primary studies published between 2007 and 2017 comprising data from 1995 to 2012. A variety of 85 characteristics of the observations is coded whilst we employ at least 30 of these within each BMA estimation. Through separate testing of individual spillover measures (horizontal, forward, and backward), an extensive evidence of publication bias is collected for horizontal spillovers in PRC-exaggerating the mean magnitude of the reported estimates. Finally, the thesis identifies that the spillover effect from FDI inflows originating from the area of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan is systematically different from the others. JEL Classification O1, O3, O4 Keywords FDI, spillover effect, China, PRC, meta- analysis, publication bias, BMA Author's e-mail hermandominik@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail...
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The Role of Income Tax Progressivity in GDP Smoothening: Empirical Analysis
Žofák, Pavel ; Baxa, Jaromír (advisor) ; Cahlík, Tomáš (referee)
This thesis studies the relationship of income tax progressivity and output volatility. Using our dataset of 31 OECD countries and Bayesian model averaging (BMA) approach to address the model uncertainty issue, we find positive evidence that higher income tax progressivity leads to lower output volatility. This effect is robust to different prior specifications in BMA and to different tax progressivity measures, including our newly constructed measure which is based on the slope of the average tax curve. We also find a strong effect of tax progressivity on the consumption volatility and the volatility of hours worked which we see as the main channels for the reducing effect of tax progressivity on output volatility.
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Finance and Growth: A Bayesian Model Averaging Evidence
Mareš, Jan ; Horváth, Roman (advisor) ; Seman, Vojtěch (referee)
The question whether financial development is conducive to economic growth has entered the debate with new intensity following the financial crisis of 2007-2008. We use standardized dataset on economic growth established by the literature and Financial Development Database by World Bank to inspect the relationship. Unlike other studies, we employ Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) to address model uncertainty inherent to modelling of economic growth. Apart from dealing with omitted variable bias it also allows us to compare relative importance of banking sector and financial markets along with their varying characteristics. Examining real economic growth rates 1960-2011 in 68 countries, we find little evidence in favour of traditional financial development proxy - financial depth - to affect economic growth. Our initial results point to the importance of banking sector efficiency, approximated by net interest margin, as essential growth determinant. Moreover, we use financial indicators to construct overall measure of financial development and find it highly relevant to economic growth. The results are robust to different parameter and model priors in BMA, but not to specifications dealing with potentially endogenous nature of the finance-growth correlation.
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A theoretical and empirical analysis of the nominal convergence in transition countries with a particular attention to the Czech economy
Žďárek, Václav ; Komárek, Luboš (advisor) ; Dědek, Oldřich (referee) ; Feldkircher, Martin (referee)
This PhD thesis aims at exploring price convergence in the European Union with a particular emphasis paid to the Czech Republic and new EU member states. Fundamental issues are discussed in the first chapter, starting with the notion and term `convergence' since many alternative definitions have been proposed in the literature. Apart from that, main indicators utilized when investigating price convergence are defined (for example purchasing power parity/purchasing power standard, PPP/PPS, comparative price level, CPL) and a brief review of the literature is added. The second chapter deals with several issues accompanying price convergence in general and in transforming countries in particular such as the club convergence hypothesis, issues of tradability, availability of datasets and their strenghts and weaknesses, the link between price levels and rates of inflation, and determinants. Both `standard' and `modern' approaches are utilized in the last chapter so that several hypotheses can be verified. For the sake of comparability, individual CPLs for EU-27 countries for the period 1995(9)-2011 are employed. Firstly, stylised facts for both old EU and NMS are presented (including effects stemming from the on-going financial crisis). Secondly, the club convergence hypothesis is examined with help of two different ways - cluster analysis and the Phillips-Sul test (both for the EU and its `subgroups'). Both of them do confirm the existence of convergence clubs in the EU (including its old and new part). Following the previous findings, a somewhat broader and richer view on price level dynamics is supplemented via utilization of the so-called Stochastic kernel (Quah, 1993). This methodology shows both convergence and divergence (divergence/polarization/stratification) in the EU. Finally, the last section of this chapter is focused on a thorough search for determinants of price levels in the EU. The Bayesian approach is employed (Bayesian model averaging, BMA) and our results confirm both the importance of both `traditional' determinants such as labour costs and output gap and new ones such as broadly defined institutional factors. Main findings of this thesis are summarized and commented in the conclusion aiming at providing implications for policymakers and some guidance for future research.
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