Dantao Zhu
| Date of Ph.D. defense: | 21 April 2006 |
| Title of thesis: | Essays on Financial Structure and Macroeconomic Performance |
| ISBN: | 90 5668 166 4 |
| Promotor: | Prof.dr. H.P. Huizinga |
| Copromotor: | Dr. H.G. van Gemert |
Abstract: Full text
This thesis is a collection of essays exploring an understudied field: how financial structure can affect aspects of an economy's macroeconomic performance such as economic growth, macroeconomic volatility, and consumption smoothing.
In addressing the matter, two essays study the effects of the debt vs. equity dimension of the financial structure on international consumption smoothing and macroeconomic volatility (in particular, economic downturns). Another essay evaluates the role of informal financial institution by looking into the economic growth implications of the coexistence of formal-informal financial institutions. The final essay examines interest-rate determination as the optimization choice of the central regulator with ideological bias who is lobbied by interest groups. Taken together, the essays collectively reveal interesting insights on determination of some aspects of financial structure and their impacts on macroeconomic performance. In conveying practical messages, the thesis is offered as a tool to be used by policy-makers to set proper financial structure policies in the years to come.
Global / English