Essays in finance, trade and politics

• This thesis consists of three essays in economics:Financial markets, industrial specialization and comparative advantage. Evidence from OECD countries. Due to underlying technological and organizational differences, industries differ in their need for external finance. Since services provided by the financial sector are largely immobile across countries, the pattern of industrial specialization should be influenced by the degree of financial development. We find this effect to be strong. In fact, the financial sector has greater impact on industrial specialization among OECD countries than differences in human and physical capital. We also show that causality indeed runs from the financial sector to specialization. Further, financial sectors are a source of comparative advantage in a way consistent with the Hecksher-Ohlin-Vanek model. Results are also presented on which aspects of financial systems are important for specialization and comparative advantage.Markets for risk and openness to trade: How are they related? examines if there is a relationship between a country’s financial development and its openness to trade. If protectionist trade policies aim to insure domestic industries against swings in world market prices, the development of financial markets could lead to trade liberalization. Likewise, trade liberalization could lead to the development of financial markets that help agents diversify the added risks. In this paper, we empirically address the hypothesis that there is a positive interdependence between financial development and liberal trade policies. We find a positive and economically significant relationship between the two, with causation running in both directions. The results are, however, somewhat dependent on the measure of trade policy being used.Female representation – Is it important for policy decisions? investigates if female representation on Swedish local councils affects local public expenditure patterns. Theoretically, the individual preferences of elected representatives may impact public expenditure if full policy commitment is not feasible. To empirically address the question, I first analyze the preferences expressed by elected local council representatives using survey data. This permits me to make precise predictions about the effects of female representation on spending. The subsequent panel study on the composition of public spending in Swedish municipalities supports the predictions derived from the survey. Using an instrumental-variable approach I establish that the findings are not a result of reverse causality or an omitted variable.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Financial systems

Financial markets

Trade policy

Local government

gender

Sweden

Finansiella marknader

Handelsteori

Handelspolitik

Kommunal ekonomi

genusaspekter

Economics

nationalekonomi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

dok (ämneskategori)