The purpose of this thesis is a characterization of the monetary regime followed by the Brazilian authorities during the 80's and beginning of the 90's, and its consequences for the credibility of anti-inflationary policies, the solvency condition of the government, and the power of restrictive...

The inability of institutions in an economy to accommodate full diversification of risks is the key idea behind the incomplete asset markets and the differential information models. The interface between these classes of models, lies in the fact that both of them limit the degree of risk sharing...

That a firm's initial equityholders often emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings with more value than the absolute priority rule (APR) would suggest is now a generally accepted fact. The form in which this value is distributed, however, is less well understood. In particular, why do the...

Brazilian economic development is marked by the reproduction of a very unequal income distribution profile. This has been justified by theories which prescribe the optimal allocation of resources and full employment of factors of production. Supposedly, a higher rate of economic growth is...

Direct foreign investment (DFI) by transnational enterprises (TNEs) is an important vehicle of capital and technology transfer among countries. Yet, the possibility of heavy taxation and expropriation by the governments of host countries seems to be a serious impediment to the more extensive use...

This dissertation is divided into three essays. The first essay focuses on the question of enfranchisement of groups of individuals. Existing research work in the area has not adequately addressed this question. Indeed, previous analyses have focused on the value of a vote for a single...

The focus of this study was to learn more about a critical commodity market participant, the long term speculator. The speculator's activity broadens a market, creates essential liquidity, and performs an irreplaceable pricing function. Working knowledge of the profiles, motivations, and modes...

The choice problem between a profit and an investment center revolves around whether it is desirable to delegate investment decision responsibility to a divisional manager who is better informed about the investment opportunities of the division. We show that an accounting performance measure...

It is well known that most of the standard specification tests are not robust when the alternative is misspecified. We consider the three types of typical misspecification encountered in econometric model specification testing, namely, complete misspecification, underspecification, and...