Defence date: 29 October 1994Examining board: Prof. Alan Kirman, E.U.I., supervisor ; Prof. Pierre-Marie Larnac, Université Paris Dauphine ; Prof. Andrei Shleifer, Harvard University ; Prof. Xavier Vives, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona ; Prof. Robert Waldmann, E.U.I., co-supervisorPDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 201