The extraction of natural resources, most importantly petroleum, is associated with weak governance, economic underperformance and environmental degradation and companies from the oil and mining sectors are often able to exploit host countries’ insuffcient regulatory environments. Since the mid-1990s the corporate social responsibility agenda as well as increased regulation by companies’ home governments has partly addressed the externalities of natural resource extraction. On the face of it, the rise of China and the increased international presence of statowned Chinese oil and mining companies challenges the effectiveness of these efforts. The companies’ foreign ventures have been accompanied by increased activity of the Chinese government in diplomacy and development cooperation with resource-rich countries, mainly in Africa but also elsewhere. Criticism commonly levelled at China includes its diplomatic and financial support for human-rights abusing regimes, and the destabilisation of world raw materials supplies and markets, both in the form of diplomacy and development aid. Seemingly unconstrained by regulation and public opinion at home, Chinese oil and mining companies are able to leverage their home government’s support and thus gain preferential access to natural resources. This thesis challenges this view. It argues that the assumptions about China’s role are misplaced and do not account for changes in Chinese behaviour. In an industry where corporate and state actors have a less-than-stellar record, China is quickly catching up with the emerging global standards. The reasons for this have to do with the way that governance gaps in the extractive industries are increasingly being filled by civil regulation. By now, numerous regulatory initiatives — in the form of industry voluntary codes of conduct and corporate social responsibility, multi-stakeholder initiatives as well as host and home-government as well as financial market regulation — seek to mitigate the negative impacts of natural resource extraction. Civil society pressure has helped create norms on governance in the extractive industries that have led to the establishment of a transnational web of regulation which large companies — regardless of their origin — cannot easily escape.

Public policies are an important determinant of the welfare of individuals and the society at large. Careful evaluation of the impact of public policies on welfare is therefore imperative for our understanding of the positive and normative implications for these institutions. The three chapters of this thesis examine the welfare consequences of specific economic and political institutions. Chapters 1 and 2 study two distinct channels through which social housing, a common feature of developed countries, may impact the neighborhoods in which they are built and the labor market outcomes of their low income tenants. Chapter 1 is concerned with the effect of the provision of social housing on neighboring private ats. It assesses the spillovers of low-income tenants and the change in the composition of the housing stock that are to be expected from the provision of new social housing units. In particular, it uses the direct conversion of private rental flats into social units without any accompanying rehabilitation to identify the impact of the inflow into the neighborhood of low income tenants, separately from the effects of social housing on the quality of the existing housing stock. Chapter 2 shows that social housing influences the location of low income tenants, and that the neighborhood of social housing units may improve the labor market outcomes of the poorest tenants. I observe the relocation of welfare recipients through the selection process of social housing applicants in the city of Paris from 2001 to 2007. The institutional process acts as a conditional randomization device across residential areas in Paris. The empirical estimates outline that neighborhoods have weak short- and medium-run effects on the economic self-sufficiency of poor households. Chapter 3, by contrast, focuses on how regional migrations of unemployed workers may affect their job search prospect in Europe. Using a longitudinal sample of French unemployment spells, the empirical estimates outline positive migration effects on transitions from unemployment to employment that depends on the previous duration of the unemployment spells.

This thesis is composed of three chapters. The first one investigates the impact of distance, market and supply access and agglomeration externalities on FDI locations. Chapter 2 studies the change in trade costs on FDI locations. Chapter 3 examines the relative effect of trade costs on horizontal and vertical FDI locations. Chapter 1 provides empirical evidence of the effect of agglomeration with firms from the same country on other location determinants. I use data for the Taiwanese FDI projects in Chinese provinces from 1991 to 1996. In order to estimate the relative change in coefficient magnitude over time, I exploit Taiwan’s FDI policy shock in 1991. I find negative effects of the bilateral distance between the home and host country on FDI locations. Sectoral agglomeration with firms from the same country also has significant and positive impact on FDI locations. Chapter 2 investigates the impact of the change in trade costs on FDI locations. I study the effect on the FDI growth rate and the number of new FDI projects. Taiwan’s cross-strait direct flights policy in 2008 provides a quasi/natural experiment on the change in trade costs, arising from the implementation of direct flights between Taiwan and China. I use difference-in-difference estimator with Taiwanese firm-level data for the period 2002 to 2011 to identify the casual effect of the change in trade costs on FDI locations. Furthermore, I decompose the effect of trade costs by identifying the transaction and transport costs channels. Contract and unit value intensity are created to measure the relative effect of trade costs through two channels. I find that the dispersion of Taiwanese FDI after the policy shock in 2008. Chapter 3 investigates the impact of trade costs on horizontal and vertical FDI locations. I study the relative effects of trade costs on the number of new horizontal and vertical FDI affiliates across industries. I use Taiwanese firm level data during the period 2001 to 2011 in combination with the input-output links between the parent firm and affiliates to identify horizontal and vertical FDI as well as inter-and intra-industry vertical FDI. My findings indicate trade costs have additional negative impact on vertical FDI relative to horizontal FDI. In addition, as an increase in trade costs occurs, vertical FDI affiliates are affected relatively more than horizontal FDI through both transaction and transport costs channels.

Despite the vast amount of scholarship completed on the First World War, relatively little work has focused on the British Left and the conflict. The aim of this thesis is to rectify this, by examining left-wing support for the war effort, and the implications of this for the labour movement. This study aims to ascertain the extent and nature of support for the war effort amongst the Left. It will survey the relationship between patriotism and the Left in the years before 1914, in order to give context for the events of the war years. It will then examine the reactions of the men and women of the Left – at both an elite and subaltern level – to the First World War. Furthermore, it will investigate how left-wing patriotism in this period impacted on the fortunes of the labour movement after the Armistice. The war also saw a great increase in the size and scope of the state, and the significance and implications of this will be examined. Finally, this thesis will aim to enhance our understanding as to why and how the labour movement was able to remain united and purposeful in the war years and immediately after 1918. Overall, this thesis will contribute to our understanding of the nature and extent of support for the war on the Left, the impact of the war on Labour’s electoral fortunes, the relationship between the Left and the state, and labour movement cohesion in this period.

The English and Welsh water and sewerage industry was privatised in 1989 and is characterised by a series of regional monopolies. The majority of consumers currently have no choice in their supplier. The industry is regulated by Ofwat to guarantee the best value for customers whilst enabling the companies to undertake their activities. The motivation of this thesis is to examine the effectiveness of regulation. The aim is to examine five research questions. Firstly, has regulation encouraged convergence amongst the efficiency scores? Secondly, have the 1999 and 2004 price reviews been effective in improving efficiency? Thirdly, is there a capex bias in the industry? The final two aims come from a methodological perspective: firstly, to allow for the incorporation of environmental variables within the measurement of efficiency and secondly, to incorporate the long asset life of capital by incorporating capital as an intertemporal factor of production. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is employed to measure efficiency which is a non-parametric technique that creates a linear frontier over the data. Convergence is examined by drawing from the growth literature to examine -and -convergence. A three-stage DEA model is applied to examine the influence of environmental variables and to obtain an environmental adjusted DEA efficiencey score. Finally, the intertemporal nature of capitala is incorporated through a dynamic DEA model. This thesis reports that whilst regulation has produced limited improvements in the average efficiency, regulation has been effective in encouraging the least efficient firms to catch up with the frontier companies. Ofwat's tightening of the price review in 1999 has produced significant improvements in efficiency, whereas the 2004 price review was relatively lax and had no significant influence. Finally, the thesis highlights that the current regulatory framework induces a preference towards capital expenditure which can have implications on the consumer's bill.

This thesis focuses on women's group organising (WG) in British unions. WGs are broadly defined as collective organising by women that responds to their concerns and need for access to empowering (social) positions. As a 'radical' form, WGs contrast with the formal liberal democratic principles underpinning much union organisation. The need for their examination is stressed by the continued feminisation of the workplace and many union memberships; growing realisation of the need for unions to connect their revitalisation to being responsive to women; and women's on-going experience of inequities in various settings. While existing works provide insights into why women collectivise in union and other contexts, a review of the related literature in industrial relations, women's studies, political studies, sociology and social psychology revealed the absence of an integrated body of work on union WGs. Consequently, the main objective of this study is to provide an empirical and conceptual contribution by addressing the following major questions: • What union factors influence the number and overall 'shape' ofWGs?; • What aims do WGs pursue, how do they address them and what equality ideas inform them?; and • What impacts do WGs make on gender equality in their union? A study of two major British unions, MSF and USDA W, examining seven of their WGs was undertaken from a constructivist-feminist standpoint. Analyses of interview, observational and documentary evidence were guided by two frameworks: i) the dimensions of Hyman's (1994) model of union organisation which were extended by this study's iterative data collection-analysis process, and ii) an independently-derived typology of gender equality ideas which could inform WGs' pursuit of their substantive aims. Criteria for assessing WGs' impact on women's situation in the union setting were developed from existing literature and the data sources. The findings illuminated hitherto unchartered aspects of union operations, and specifically, how WGs influence, and are influenced, by them. Four main conclusions emerge from the findings. First, particular features of the union setting have a key, if not often exclusive, influence on WG arrangements. Second, different WG types emphasise different aims but there is also some overlap in their aims and the equality ideas which inform them. This stresses the complex character and relations between the studied phenomena, and their location within a wider women's structure. Third, WGs pursue a wider range of aims, via uncoordinated equality approaches, than is formally recognised. Their impacts are more extensive than is officially reported, relating to union structure and democracy, agendas, interest representation, power, and social processes and modes of operating. This emphasises how the under-exposure of women's activism can act to under-estimate their efforts and effects for women in the union. Furthermore, each WG aim is usually underpinned by a mixture of unarticulated and dynamic conceptions of gender equality though a slow shift by WGs toward more ambitious ideas about equality is identified. Fourth, while WGs pursue and achieve more than was previously realised for union women, their current operations still seem unlikely to achieve the fundamental union transformation that is needed to achieve 'long' equality (see Cockburn 1989). Equal power sharing by male and female unionists will require the centring of WGs in union strategies that question the basis of union organisation. WGs also need to pursue considered, if multidimensional, approaches to gender equality. This may necessitate that WGs and unions undertake more innovative measures than is currently the case (e.g. more extensive links with community and social movements, WG organisation outside the union).

This work is a study of power and control in industry, and focusses upon the possibility of radical democratic innovations in control. In particular the problems of producer co-operatives in market systems are examined. Volume I presents a detailed analysis of the Scottish Daily News workers' Co-operative, and seeks to isolate the reasons for the abrupt failure of the enterprise. Volume II examines the political economy of the press, and the difficulties to be encountered by any attempt to launch a noncommercial newspaper committed to radical politics. Volume III presents a review of the historical development of producer co-operatives, case studies of the two other co-operatives launched with the assistance of Department of Industry funds in 1975, KME and Triumph Meriden, discusses contemporary co-operative theory, and considers the extent of current co-operative development.

This thesis presents an analysis of the character and significance of strikes in post- Soviet Russia on the basis of a series of case studies of strikes in the coal-mining industry. The central argument of the thesis is that the patterns of strike activity have been conditioned by the forms of management and financing of the coal-mining industry and by the strategy of the mining industry trade unions. Following a review of the sociological and industrial relations literature on strikes, the thesis opens with a detailed study of the 1989 miners' strike in Kuzbass. Here it is shown that the original demands of the miners were taken up and generalised by the structures of branch and local administrative power, and the strike was thereby assimilated into the traditional structures of branch and regional lobbying for resources in Moscow. This set the pattern for the subsequent organisation of strikes in the state and state-subsidised sectors of the economy. The coincidence of interests of miners with the branch and regional authorities in 1989 was determined by the centralised management and financing of the coal-mining industry. The system of subsidies to the industry reproduced this structure even after the `transition to a market economy', although the financial and political weakening of the state amid intensified competition for resources made it increasingly difficult for the state to meet all the demands put on it. An analysis of the 1993 miners' strike in Ukrainian Donbass shows how these constraints meant that the miners were used by the directors to achieve their own ends. This is followed by an account of the relationship between the lobbying activity of the coal-mining industry, conflicts within the government apparatus, changing forms of financing of the industry and the organisation of nation-wide miners' actions, centred on the 1995 and 1996 miners' strikes. The changes in the system of management and financing of the coal-mining industry meant that the trade unions sought to contain conflict within the enterprise in the attempt to concentrate their efforts on regional and national campaigns in collaboration with management. The final three substantive chapters of the thesis explore the implications of the increasing isolation and fragmentation of the miners through a series of case studies of strikes in Kuzbass and Rostov over the period 1997-9. The final chapter draws together the general themes addressed in the thesis.

The cross-sectional study looks at how firms develop superior performance using their internal resources. It is a study based on the resource-based view of the firm. The study looks at firms in the Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Industry in UK. It was initially planned as a comparative study with firms in the same industry in Zimbabwe. The study argues that for resources to be potential sources of superior performance, managers have to comprehend the strategic concepts that are concerned with these resources. The study further hypothesises that Comprehension itself is affected by Experience and Functional Expertise/Training & Development The data was analysed using SPSS programme (Version 8). The main methods of analyses were factor analysis, correlational analysis, moderated regression & subgroup analyses, and regression analysis. The results suggest that Comprehension, defined as either Knowledge, or Applicability of intangible resources, or Applicability of capabilities, contributes to developing superior performance. The results also show that Experience, and Training & Development contribute to developing superior performance The results however, did not support the hypothesis that managers with more experience had better comprehension of strategic concepts. The results seem to suggest that Experience has a negative effect on Comprehension. A possible explanation to this negative relationship could be that those managers who had been in the managerial position for many years were not familiar with the RBV concepts, which are relatively new concepts. The results did not also support the hypothesis that managers who attended more training and development programmes had better comprehension of strategic concepts. Instead, the results show that Training & Development has a negative effect on Comprehension. These results suggest that although many managers have on-going management training and development programmes, these programmes do not seem to improve their comprehension of strategic concepts.

This thesis is concerned with brewery workers in England between 1870 and 1914. It deals with most aspects of labour management and workers' experiences, including their recruitment, training, promotion, working conditions, benefits and retirement. Besides being written in a way which mirrors most labourers' working lives, this study is concerned with these institutions during a dynamic period in a particular industry at a specific midland firm. Primarily, it examines working conditions and business practices at Flower & Sons Brewery in Stratford-upon-Avon and the way in which these evolved in relation to certain scientific and technological developments specific to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although considering economic and political conditions in their national scope, this study also emphasises the local context of employment and business during this period. Most recent histories of the English brewing industry have examined the state of the trade at the turn of the century, as well as developments in science and technology as they related to the trade. Few, however, have had anything to say about the industry's workers, whether employed in manual or clerical capacities. Consequently, this study is an attempt to fill a noticeable gap in the existing literature. However, unlike past histories of labour, this study considers the experiences of the trade's employees within a business-history framework, while always employing the broadest possible definition of what constitutes a worker. It is through tracing a particular firm's financial and administrative past, together with workers' experiences, roles and duties, that makes this study a social history of a midland business.