This dissertation proposal examines empirically the determinants of Olympic performance and the transition and persistence of Major League Soccer (MLS). The first chapter estimates the relationship between the performance by a country at the Olympics, measured by number of medals obtained, and a country's health indicators. We want to examine the relationship that improved sanitation access has on Olympic performance. The data sources are from the Olympic Committee, World Development Indicators and various sources. A panel tobit estimation will be used to examine this relationship. The second chapter deals with the determinants of Major League Soccer teams' performance. We want to examine and estimate variables that improve the performance of MLS teams. The data sources are taken from Major League Soccer teams main pages, Bureau of Economic Analyis, Bureau of Labor Statistics and the United States Census Bureau. We will use a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation and instrumental variable (IV) estimation which assists us in controlling for observed endogeneity. The third chapter examines the competitive transition and persistence associated with Major League Soccer. A proportional hazard model and a multinomial logit model is used in this estimation to examine the ability of teams to remain competitive, where we explore the factors that assists teams in remaining in specific states of competitiveness.

The objective of this Dissertation is to develop alternative macromodels that explore macroeconomic implications of some environmental and ecological economics concerns. The first essay develops an environmental extension of a Lewis dual economy model to explore long-run effects of a pollution abatement rule in developing economies. It is shown that this pollution abatement requirement makes for the possible emergence of an ecological development trap. Meanwhile, this economy can be released from such a trap not only through a standard Big Push, but also by means of what the essay calls an Environmental Big Push. The second essay presents an extension of a Harrodian model of cyclical growth, which explores a bidirectional causal relationship between the environment and effective demand in dual low-income economies with relatively low levels of environmental quality. The model shows that perpetual vicious circles may characterize the pattern of fluctuations in economic activity. Finally, the third essay presents a classical--Marxian model that describes a possible transitional dynamics to clean technology based on evolutionary game theory. The results show that heterogeneity in the frequency distribution of strategies of the adoption of clean and dirty techniques may be a persistent outcome. An outcome in which all, or at least a great proportion of firms, adopt the clean technique is theoretically possible, but inevitably, such a result is only achieved with an initial profit-reducing shock on functional income distribution and thus a fall in economic growth. / O objetivo desta Dissertação é desenvolver modelos macro que exploram implicações econômicas de algumas questões ecológicas e ambientais. O primeiro ensaio desenvolve uma extensão ambiental de um modelo Lewisiano de economia dual para explorar efeitos de longo prazo de uma regra de abatimento da poluição em países em desenvolvimento. Mostra-se que tal regra pode gerar uma armadilha de desenvolvimento ecológica. Contudo, essa economia pode ser libertada da armadilha não apenas por meio de um Big Push padrão, mas também por meio do que o ensaio chama de um Big Push Ambiental. O segundo ensaio apresenta uma extensão de um modelo Harrodiano que explora uma relação causal bidirecional entre meio ambiente e demanda efetiva em economias duais de baixa renda com níveis baixos de qualidade ambiental. Mostra-se que círculos viciosos perpétuos podem caracterizar o padrão de flutuações cíclicas da atividade econômica. O terceiro ensaio apresenta um modelo clássico--Marxiano que explora uma possível dinâmica de transição para a tecnologia limpa baseada em jogos evolucionários. Mostra-se que a heterogeneidade na distribuição de frequência das estratégias de adoção de tecnologia limpa e suja pode ser persistente. Um resultado em que todas, ou uma grande proporção de firmas adota a tecnologia limpa, é teoricamente possível, mas só será atingido com um choque inicial redutor de lucros sobre a distribuição funcional da renda e uma queda no crescimento econômico

This thesis is a collection of essays on the relevance of property right reforms on the wellbeing of poor households in developing countries; specifically titling programmes in urban Peru. The first essay assesses the effects of titling on housing investment. The availability of a unique dataset permits us to trace households' investment behaviour. This allows us to investigate if tenure security induces households to make sizeable investments, the evolution of this effect over time, and whether heterogeneous expectations about future tenure security matter for the estimated impact. Evidence reveals significant effects, especially on large investment; however, the response on this type of investment may take several years to become effective. The second essay contributes to the debate on the sustainability of property rights reforms by emphasising the importance of strong registration systems. Policymakers have focused on the process of granting titles but the conditions needed to maintain the formality of future plot transactions have been left unattended. The analysis exploits an exogenous variation in legislation to examine the impact of a change in the registration process on the registration rate of plot transactions. Evidence suggests a large negative effect, implying that a weak registration system could threaten the reform. The third essay explores the impact of titling on the risk preferences of slum dwellers. The analysis provides evidence that titled dwellers reported lower values of the risk aversion measure than their non-treated counterparts. Results also suggest that tenure security can influence slum dwellers' preference formation process. Evidence shows that beneficiaries who were exposed to tenure security during their youth report on average lower values of the risk aversion indicator than individuals titled at an older age.

This dissertation comprises three essays on the allocation of labour and capital in a large developing country, Indonesia. In the first essay, I examine the impact of the 1998 East Asian recession on child schooling outcomes in Indonesia. Using panel data on 7-15 year-olds, I exploit the heterogeneous impact of the recession across urban communities as measured by the variation in rice price increases, under the assumption that communities where rice prices increased the most were those where real wages declined the most. I find that for the youngest children (aged 7-12 years) there is a large negative impact of higher rice prices on school attendance and no effect on labour market participation. For older children (aged 13-15 years), schooling enrolment does not respond to rice prices but labour market participation declines sharply in the worst-hit communities. I find no evidence of adverse long-term consequences on human capital formation. In the second essay, I test the hypothesis that there exists a significant earnings differential between similar workers in the formal and informal sectors. Using panel data on salaried and self-employed individuals, I find that after controlling for firm size and individual-specific heterogeneity, there is no formal sector earnings premium, except in the public sector. The results are robust to the presence of unpaid family workers, measurement error, and non-random attrition in the survey. This questions the commonly held belief that labour markets in developing countries are segmented because of legal institutions that protect high formal sector earnings. In the third essay, I estimate the effect of a large exchange rate depreciation on the performance of importers. The ability to manage volatility in the cost of imported inputs is likely to depend on a firm's access to external sources of finance as well its ability to hedge against exchange rate movements. Using data from a census on Indonesian firms, I find that while domestic importers face lower value-added due to a rise in their costs of production, foreign-owned importers fare better: they are more likely to sustain higher value-added, hire more labour and use more materials than domestic owned firms. This suggests another channel through which FDI can add value to a firm in a developing country, particularly with the increasing importance of trade in intermediate goods.

Poverty in Subsaharan Africa and the role of Chine in its solution worries many supporters of current development assistance. Hypothesis: The role of China is markedly different than the help from the rest of the world, it could help the countries to find their way out of poverty but it could also damage their insitutions or worsen unemployment by importing their own labor. Main target of the asian investors is extraction of natural resources, which shows in exports. In first part of the thesis will be discussed theories of poverty and models of its solution, mainly approach of Albert O. Hirschman, Jeffrey Sachs and the World bank. Will be characterized situtation in Zambia, Nigeria and South African Republic. Then will be analysed motives and especially approach of China during its involvement in Africa with focus on beforementioned countries. The point will be to characterize and evaluate impacts of chinese investments and development assistance on economies and poverty in given countries. Mainly, if the rates of growth and structure of exports changed. Will be used databases of UNCTAD and World bank. Main methods will be analysis and iduction.

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At a glance, this study is a critique of local development policies with specific reference to the Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipalities in the Eastern Cape. The researcher enters the debate by posing a primary research question: Do the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) ventures that constitute anti-poverty strategies succeed in addressing the issues of poverty, and achieving more equitable development at the municipal level in the Eastern Cape? This research proposes a problem statement: The local development policies of PPP and BBBEE that are being applied through Local Economic Development strategies are not in the interests of the majority of people living in the Eastern Cape. At a methodological level this research employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches to answer the central question and to verify the problem statement of this study. This triangulation approach is employed to utilize the strengths of both quantitative and qualitative methods. More specifically, the researcher uses a number of different research instruments to collect the data including four hundred questionnaires, four focus groups and elite interviews in both municipalities. The findings of this study indicate that local development policies in both municipalities do not improve the lives of the people. This line of thinking is indicated by both the empirical study conducted by the researcher and is supported by a number of scholarly materials. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in Political Economy and Development Studies including other disciplines in Social and Economic Sciences. The central argument of this thesis is that both BBBEE and PPPs are inspired by neo-liberalism (BBBEE is not neo-liberal per se though it may be heavily influenced by it) and neo-liberalism in practice is contradictory in nature as it involves the allocation of state resources to politically influential individuals, rather than promoting economic development for the majority. The evidence of this research further shows that the local business and political elites through the BBBEE, PPPs and outsourcing of services are using their strong networks (associated political, social and capital resources) in their efforts for personal accumulation. The researcher in this study examines the local development policies from a particular standpoint which is a political economy approach. The business and political elites according to political economic perspective use state resources to enrich themselves.

This thesis is about how elected politicians stay in power and about some of its economic and social consequences, fundamental political economy questions. It takes advantage of the decentralized political structure in the Philippines to test models of voter and politician behavior. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on clientelism and retrospective voting. In Chapter One, I assess the impacts of targeted government transfers on a local incumbent's electoral performance. I use the randomized roll-out of a CCT program in the Philippines where a number of municipalities are tightly controlled by political dynasties. In a competitive political environment, incumbent vote share is 26 percentage-points higher in municipalities where the program was implemented in all villages than in municipalities where the program was implemented in half of them. The program had no impact in municipalities with low levels of political competition. In Chapter Two, I test for the presence of political business cycles in Philippine municipalities over the period 2003-2009, a context where according to the literature such cycles are likely to be observed. I find robust evidence for the presence of political business. This effect is only present when I use quarterly data and vanishes when I aggregate the data at the yearly-level. The difference is not merely driven by a decline in statistical power due to aggregation: point estimates for the overall effects are 7 times larger when I use quarterly data than when I use yearly data. This discrepancy can be explained by a drop in employment post-election that dilutes the yearly effects. In Chapter Three, we estimate the impacts of being connected to local politicians, either currently in office or in opposition, on occupational choice. We use a large administrative dataset collected between 2008 and 2010 on all individuals in 700 Philippine municipalities along with information on all candidates in the 2007 and 2010 municipal elections. We rely on local naming conventions to assess blood and marriage links between households. Using individuals connected to successful candidates in the 2010 elections that did not run in 2007 as a control group, we find that connections to current office-holders increase the likelihood of being employed in better paying occupations. Individuals connected to candidates that were close to being elected in 2007 are less likely to be employed in better paying occupations.

In many developing countries, the electricity system is too weak to meet growing demand and the availability and reliability of generating capacity is inadequate. Protracted mismanagement, political interference, subsidised pricing, and corruption all undermine the ability of developing electricity supply industries to finance and deliver service or attract new private investment. Power sector reform is an acute need in developing countries where implementation of a top-down liberalisation approach has been pursued without adequately considering the social, political and economic conditions. The conventional response to low levels of electricity sector investment has been from the top-down: aim to create competitive electricity markets by encouraging new entry into the generation sector and by breaking up vertically integrated power companies. Using a case study from Gujarat, India, this thesis argues for an alternative approach—utilise distributed generation (DG) and captive power capacity (self-generation) of industry to reshape the generation and distribution sectors from the bottom-up. The thesis examines the economic viability of distributed generation in a rural setting and captive power for industrial use in Gujarat, India, taking into account the economic, technical and political factors that shape investment decisions. In India, 40 percent of the population still does not have an electricity connection, but an array of new energy technologies for small-scale electricity generation near the site of use may provide a new development path. The bottom-up model enables rapid addition of generation capacity to a system struggling to meet demand while increasing competition in the power market. The thesis concludes that more power from independent and industrial sources will best harness the financial and engineer resources of the Indian electricity supply industry (ESI) and ultimately benefit the economy. The solution proposed is not suggested as an optimal policy programme, but instead is advanced as the best of the feasible options available within current political and economic constraints.