Financial development and economic growth before and after the recent financial crisis: evidence from EU countries

This thesis investigates the nance-growth relationship in view of the recent nancial crisis for the EU countries from 1990 to 2016. The empirical approach examines two sub-periods before and after the crisis and employs static and dynamic panel models. The results from the static panel approach suggest that nancial development promoted economic growth at regular times, with market sector prevailing in this positive eect. In contrast, at stress times, nancial development hindered economic activity, with the bank sector dominating in this adverse eect. The ndings of the dynamic models in the long-run suggest a positive and signicant eect of the market sector before the crisis, while after the crisis, there is an inverse nance-growth relationship. However, the overall results reveal that the post-crisis economic growth recovery rather weak and the nancial system has not enhanced the economic activity. With respect to the previous literature, the present research provides new evidence on the nance-growth nexus in view of the recent crisis, suggesting that the weakness of the nancial system to enhance economic growth exhibits high persistence eight years after the occurrence of nancial crisis and the banking system evolves signicantly in a worse way compared to the pre-crisis period. Moreover, when the nancial development is examined in conjunction with the role of scal policy, the ndings reveal that banks and other institutions held more government bonds to enhance the governments' credibility not to default, and the ability of intermediaries to invest on assets was limited. Furthermore, a signicant nding in this study is that of the deposit guarantee schemes, and the capital adequacy of banks during 2008-2009 protected depositors and promoted the stability of the nancial system which restrained the economy to permissible growth levels thus not leading to a collapse. A further remarkable nding is that the stock market participants during crisis periods, because of the doubt about the direction of the stock market, are reluctant to act as investors, and thus future trading on specied securities tends to increase as well as share prices fell

Takagi-Sugeno Fault Tolerant Control of an Autonomous Vehicle

This work proposes a solution for the longitudinal and lateral control problem of urban autonomous vehicles using a gain scheduling Takagi-Sugeno (TS) control approach. Using the kinematic and dynamic vehicle models, a TS representation is adopted and a cascade control methodology is proposed for controlling both vehicle behaviours. In particular, for the control design, the use of both models separately will lead to solve two TS LMI-LQR problems. Furthermore, to achieve the desired levels of performance, an approach based on cascade design of the the kinematic and dynamic controllers has been proposed. This cascade control scheme is based on the idea that the dynamic closed loop behaviour is designed to be faster than the kinematic closed loop one. The obtained gain scheduling TS control approach, jointly with a trajectory generation module, has presented suitable results in a simulated city driving scenario

Hemorrhagic Shock as a Sequela of Splenic Rupture in a Patient with Infectious Mononucleosis: Focus on the Potential Role of Salicylates

Despite the fact that the vast majority of splenic ruptures are traumatic, infectious mononucleosis has been incriminated as a major predisposing factor that affects the integrity of the spleen, thus causing atraumatic ruptures and life-threatening hemorrhages. Herein we present a case of a 23-year-old Caucasian male who underwent an emergency laparotomy for acute abdomen and hemorrhagic shock, caused by spontaneous splenic rupture secondary to infectious mononucleosis. The potential role of salicylates in the development of a hemorrhagic complication in a patient with infectious mononucleosis is discussed

The relationship between financial development and economic growth during the recent crisis: Evidence from the EU

This paper aims to examine the relationship between financial development and economic growth on the face of the recent financial crisis, using a panel dataset of 26 European Union countries over the period 1990-2016. The empirical approach uses multiplicative dummies to compare two distinct sub-periods before/after the crisis. The results show that before crisis, financial development promoted economic growth, while after the crisis it hindered economic activity. Also, the findings suggest that during the years 2008 and 2009 the capital adequacy of banks protected depositors and promoted the stability of the financial system

Financial development, economic growth and the role of fiscal policy during normal and stress times : evidence for 26 EU countries

This article empirically explores the finance-growth relationship and the performance of the financial system measured by financial depth, accessibility, and efficiency of both financial sectors, that is, institutions and stock markets. It also examines the role of fiscal policy in conjunction with the performance of financial development during both normal and stress times. The data consists of a panel of 26 European Union countries over the period 1990–2020. The results show that during normal times, the finance-led growth relationship and the stock market are greatly important, while during stress times the relationship becomes insignificant. Interestingly, financial institutions are found to be more effective at promoting growth and there is clear evidence that a potentially dynamic positive effect of institutions to growth is absorbed by macroeconomic shocks. In addition, there is evidence for a threshold at a lower level compared to those previously identified in the literature. This latter finding can be attributed to different measures of financial institutions used and the impact of macroeconomic shocks. The inability of both financial sectors to enhance economic activity seems to exhibit persistence from the occurrence of the global financial crisis until the onset of the recent Covid-19 pandemic

Dynamic stability of public debt : evidence from the Eurozone countries

This paper investigates the dynamic stability of public debt and its solvency condition in the face of crisis periods (1980–2021) in a sample of 11 euro-area countries. The focus is on the feedback loop between the dynamic stability of public debt and interest rates, discounted by economic growth, in conjunction with budget deficits during tranquil and turbulent periods. Using the GMM panel dynamic model, the results show that dynamic stability was the case before the global financial crisis (GFC), while from GFC to the pandemic, dynamic instability prevailed and persisted in the evolution of public debt. Furthermore, panel threshold estimates show that dynamic instability of debt starts to violate the solvency condition when the borrowing cost is above 3.29%, becomes even stronger when it is above 4.39%, and exerts even more pressure when the level of debt is greater than 91%. However, the debt sustainability condition reverses course when economic growth is higher than 3.4%. The main policy implication drawn from the results is that low interest rates can create a self-reinforcing loop of high debt, which itself is a serious matter for public authorities when designing economic policies

Dynamic Stability of Public Debt: Evidence from the Eurozone Countries

This paper investigates the dynamic stability of public debt and its solvency condition in the face of crisis periods (1980–2021) in a sample of 11 euro-area countries. The focus is on the feedback loop between the dynamic stability of public debt and interest rates, discounted by economic growth, in conjunction with budget deficits during tranquil and turbulent periods. Using the GMM panel dynamic model, the results show that dynamic stability was the case before the global financial crisis (GFC), while from GFC to the pandemic, dynamic instability prevailed and persisted in the evolution of public debt. Furthermore, panel threshold estimates show that dynamic instability of debt starts to violate the solvency condition when the borrowing cost is above 3.29%, becomes even stronger when it is above 4.39%, and exerts even more pressure when the level of debt is greater than 91%. However, the debt sustainability condition reverses course when economic growth is higher than 3.4%. The main policy implication drawn from the results is that low interest rates can create a self-reinforcing loop of high debt, which itself is a serious matter for public authorities when designing economic policies