The aim of this thesis is to examine a cost- benefit analysis of the petrochemical industry comparing the costs of production, such as capital cost, labour cost, etc. in Saudi Arabia, and show the degree of its competitiveness in the international market. Also it discusses and evaluates the industrial development process in Saudi Arabia. The labour shortage and the marketing problems of the petrochemical products will be examined and solutions to these problems will be given. This research started by dealing with the theoretical background of the development planning. Various sources of energy literature have been reviewed, describing the role that hydrocarbon resource exploitation played in the Saudi development plans. Its objectives are to identify and understand the development problems, its strategies, objectives and plans of the Saudi government by paying attention to the role of the oil and gas resources and the country opportunities for diversification of the economy and decreasing dependence on crude oil and to use their limited resources more efficiently. Various procedural approaches were considered for evaluating development projects in order to increase the effectiveness of the development programs in Saudi Arabia. These include: improving the people's welfare, increasing national income, expanding the country's absorptive capacity and shifting to a renewable resource base. The petrochemical industry is the most feasible industry to be established in Saudi Arabia at this time. It would provide the country with the best alternative for steady economic growth with decreasing emphasis on the export of oil. The thesis will try to prove that the development of the petrochemical industry in Saudi Arabia is an adequate economic project, only if the major constraints such as labour shortage and marketing and profitability on the international market for petrochemical products can be overcome or at least minimised.

This thesis focuses on how trade openness influences the average annual growth rates of developing countries in Latin America and Asia. We find that there is a positive correlation between trade openness and economic growth and this indicates the positive impact that can be made by governments through efforts to stimulate growth with trade. We construct a simple regression model to highlight the positive association between trade openness and economic growth and add several control variables such as initial GDP per capita and gross domestic investment. We use a sample of 33 developing countries in Asia and Latin America to test the relationships. Our results confirm a positive relationship between trade openness and growth, as well as a negative correlation between initial GDP per capita and economic growth which means that poorer countries grow faster. We also find a positive correlation between the level of investment and growth. In addition to testing the relationship between trade openness and rate of growth generally, we also conduct a regression to examine if there is a significant difference in this effect between Asia and Latin America. We introduce regional dummy variables and interaction terms into the new regression and find that the impacts of trade on growth are not significantly different between these two regions.

The main purpose of our research is to examine the role of economies of scale in influencing the United Kingdom domestic production and its exports and imports. Chapter One discusses the role of economies of scale in the theory of-international trade. Chapter Two discusses the various methods of measuring economies of scale, classified according to different types of cost-curves. In Chapter Three I estimate the minimum efficient firm size in U. K. industries, and also "point elasticities" for scale-economy cost-curves for 1963 and 1972. The scale elasticities were estimated at firm and plant levels. Chapter Four uses the point elasticity estimates to analyse the U. S. /U. K. relative exports and imports. In addition I also consider two other explanatory variables, namely skill intensities and import tariffs. The tests were carried out for 1963 and 1972 for three different markets, namely the World, OECD, and non-OECD. In general the independent variables performed well and showed the expected signs. Chapter Five examines whether the average size of plants and capital intensity in British and American industries have a significant effect on productivity within the plants. The test makes use of a weighted average size of plants and weighted average productivity. The tests were undertaken separately at the level of the entire industry and for each of two groups, namely the large and small plants. The regression results were significant for ii" tests on both small and large sized level plants. The co-variance technique was used to see whether the relationship between the variables differs. Chapter Six states the implications, that large firms in the U. K. operate at a disadvantage as diseconomies of scale, such as strike activities, bad labour relations and inadequate managerial control, outweigh the advantages which arise from producing on a large scale. Also, the United Kingdom has a disadvantage in skill requirements, more training courses are needed to increase the number of workers with vocational qualifications.

In this thesis. theories of regional integration. particularly neofunctionalism and intergovemmentalism. are applied to a case study of the shipping sector. Actor behaviour at three levels is explored: national and European-level pressure groups. national governments. and EC institutions. These actors are constrained or empowered by a range of variables at the national. regional. and global levels. and it is the impact of these variables on agent behaviour that explains the dependent variable - - outcome of negotiations leading to elements of an EC common shipping policy. One variable has not previously been identified in the literature capital mobility. It is significant because it alters pressure group power In negotiations over certain policies. Mobile capital will not accept policies which Impose costs if they can be avoided through exit. and this entails a major limit to integrative possibilities. This limit IS likely to be increasingly significant as foreign direct investment both into and out of the EC grows.

It is now well recognised that the improvement of the economic performance and the restructuring of industries depends not only on the generation (or production) of new technology but also on the rate and level of diffusion of technology throughout the economy. This thesis presents an inter-industrial analysis of the effect of diffusion of technological change on the Canadian economy. To do so, it describes the diffusion of information using Canadian patent statistics potential sector of manufacturing and use. It then uses the patent matrices as 'support' matrices to transform R&D data by industry of origin into R&D data by industry of use to calculate the direct and indirect R&D inducement based on a static input-output model. Finally it is used to estimate the impact of own R&D and R&D spillover on total factor productivity growth, differentiating the R&D spillover according to various 'support' matrices and different 'gestation times'. II The empirical results confirm: i) the existence of an important interindustrial flow of innovation, ii) the existence of a 'common core' of industry at the source of technological change, as well as the importance of using industries as 'core innovative' industries, and iii) the emergence of service industries as a strong user of capital goods. It also concludes that i) the scale and structure of the external trade has an impact on the R&D inducement of all industries, ii) innovative activity has a positive and significant effect on productivity growth and iii) the rates of return in R&D spillover are found only after 8 years of 'gestation time'.

I depart from traditional theories of production fragmentation to allow for the explicit consideration of frictions on the labor and product markets. These are crucial in yielding outcomes that cast some shadows on “optimistic” views of outsourcing that emerge from frictionless models. While in general the overall positive welfare effect is confirmed, the distributional consequences may be particularly adverse for some categories of workers. The three chapters that constitute the thesis deal, respectively, with the role played by the imperfect mobility of workers, imperfect competition in outsourcing industries, and imperfect factor price adjustments.

<p>In this thesis, trade with waste between developed countries and the third world will be presented to analyze whether waste‐trading can create a possible win-win situation. To carry on this question problem, three theories have been considered to explain why and how developing countries can be affected by international waste-trade. A few case-studies regarding waste-trade in developing countries such as, India, China and Vietnam, will show the situation of waste-trade today. These theories and case-studies will set the foundation for analysis and conclusion. To sum up, trade with waste is a complex problem that can affect the importing country in both positive and negative ways. If the negative externality that is caused by handling waste is controlled with a tax or regulation, trade with waste can be a win-win situation for the trading countries.</p>

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