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Latest studies have not only acknowledged the gendered and classed ‘nature’ of the latest economic recession and government austerity, but also their uneven impacts across the UK population. Accordingly, lone mothers have been identified as one of the groups most adversely affected. It is essential then to extend the research base on lone mothers as they already experience multiple disadvantages as a result of being the sole earner/carer of their family unit. It is also important to explore the uneven effects of these wider socioeconomic processes using an encompassing theoretical framework which grapples with how the intersections of multiple social categories can be examined simultaneously to shed light on differential outcomes. Thus, this thesis explores lone mothers using an overarching critical realist intersectional framework to acknowledge their locations in multiple structural inequalities, and also their agential strategies when facing wider socioeconomic pressures. Using a mixed-methods design, three sub-groups of lone mothers differentiated by distinctive multiple categories of social division are identified. Based on these three sub-groups, paid employment, welfare entitlement and agential responses to recession and austerity are examined. The findings drawn by this exploration elucidate the uneven effects of the institutionalisation of neoliberalism in the economy, the labour market and the welfare state. Those differentiated effects are explained not only by experiencing lone motherhood, but also by their particular multiple intersectional positioning. Thus, this thesis offers a valuable and original contribution to knowledge in the following three aspects: in extending the current research base on the differential impact of the economic recession and austerity on lone mothers, in intersectional theory by designing and applying an innovative critical realist intersectional framework and in mixed-methods research by employing an original longitudinal exploratory mixed-methods design.

Turkey has recently developed a comprehensive legislation and domestic institutions with a view to aligning its asylum policies with international norms of the refugee regime. This incipient development represents the outcome of a complex process of policy-making that consists of a transformation from a traditional security-oriented approach towards refugees to a human rights-oriented policy while Turkey is becoming a host country to the largest number of refugees in the world. The aim of this study is to determine an explanation for the emergence of this new asylum policy in Turkey. Existing studies tended to explain the external driving power of the EU to explore this process by focusing on conditionality and socialisation mechanisms. Arguing that the new policy is a result of the interplay between international and domestic actors, this thesis questions the role of existing actors and mechanisms and seeks to explore alternative explanations of UNHCR, IOM, CoE and domestic actors. To this end, this research investigates the implications of the interactions between these international and domestic actors on the evolution of asylum policies in Turkey. In this context, the main focus is on the transnational influencing mechanisms of these actors. Seeking to find evidence to explain the asylum policy-making process, this thesis employed a systematic and comprehensive analytical framework and conducted a process-tracing analysis by drawing on the qualitative interview data and document research. The findings showed that initial reform- and strategy-building processes of the early 2000s were strongly induced by the EU's coercive bargaining mechanism, while the reform-implementing process of 2009-2013 was shaped by a lesson-drawing mechanism spearheaded by domestic bureaucrats. A combination of state-level factors such as institutional settings and individual-level factors such as strategic entrepreneurship of the bureaucrats significantly affected the degree and the way in which domestic outcomes in asylum policy have been shaped by international sources. External organisations' influence in the asylum area can be mobilised by domestic factors through vertical-policy making, which in turn can empower domestic actors' position in policy-making. The interaction dynamics between these two levels allow the creation of a transnational advocacy network that would exert influence in both the outside-in and inside-out directions.

This thesis develops theoretical tools for the stylised facts of multivariate volatility processes and stock returns in financial markets. The first essay of this thesis contributes to the literature of fractionally cointegrated processes. Threshold adjustment is allowed in the error correction of bivariate fractionally cointegrated systems. Hypothesis testing for the presence of threshold and simulation evidence are provided to support the need of threshold specification in the adjustment dynamics of fractionally cointegrated processes. Empirical application considers the cointegrating relation and adjustment dynamics of S&P500 option implied volatility index spot and futures. Empirical finding shows that investors tend to hedge against volatility by using volatility-tracking products during market turbulence. The next two essays investigate some econometric issues that arise from the use of asynchronous data on modelling the joint dynamics of stock returns. The return correlation is inaccurate if asynchronicity is not taken into consideration. As a result, portfolio risk management can be highly distorted. Aiming to develop an accurate estimation on the return correlation dynamics, several econometric techniques are introduced to tackle this asynchronicity problem that allow financial practitioners to adequately adjust the asynchronous stock return series. This research also attempts to analyse asynchronicity problem as a measurement error problem, parameter estimates from the conventional vector autoregressive models are inconsistent if the vector of multivariate stock returns contains asynchronous returns. A good proxy of measurement error can effectively correct the asynchronous return vector and hence yield consistent parameter estimates.

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This research project assesses the bureaucratic policy capacity of the Turkish Ministry of the Interior (MoI) to understand and describe the complex capacity of the one of the most important public Turkish departments. It explores the coherence, interrelationships and integration of the three competences (i.e. the analytical, administrative, and political) in terms of three resource levels of capacity (i.e. individual, organisational and systemic). After two decades of implementing the New Public Management (NPM) model, perceptions of the government’s ability to develop, implement, and evaluate policies are critical. The country’s policy capacity is limited because of the general incapacity of the Turkish public sector. These criticisms have triggered persistent reforms by the country’s Justice and Development Party's government since it came into power in 2002. Nevertheless, it is important to note that previous assessments of bureaucratic capacity remain vague, biased, and not based on empirical research, especially fieldwork. The existing Turkish literature suggested some of the elements of policy capacity; the need was identified, however, for a more in-depth, holistic research focusing more on (bureaucratic) policy capacity of one Turkish public department in particular. For this purpose, after conducting this literature review, I have determined two main research questions: 1. Does bureaucracy give the minister the advice needed to reach a decision? 2. How has the bureaucratic policy capacity of the Turkish Ministry of the Interior changed during the reform years, 2002-2016? In order to answer these research questions, I chose the ethnographic qualitative, single case study, research design because such a research describes the political-administrator elites’ world from their own standpoints. Ethnographic fieldwork also enabled me to use my insider role and to see everyday life of the political administrators. Thus, I can better understand bureaucratic policy capacity of the MoI. Such a vast understanding would not have been possible without the use of an ethnographic qualitative research design. The research adopts data triangulation – the use of diverse data sources, including pattern of practice, talk, and considered writings. The accounts of senior politicians and prefects of the Mol are the most important data used in my research. The key findings of this thesis could be listed under five interactive and interdependent main themes for observing the dynamic, interactive, interdependent and often overlapping facets of all sub-policy capacities of the MoI. To respond all research questions, the Turkish bureaucratic (administrative) tradition forms the mainstay of the themes due to its dominant role and interaction with the different elements of policy capacity. Therefore, in the denoting the themes, this tradition was placed in the central position. Dominance of Turkish administrative tradition; Dominance of ministers’ political and administrative leadership roles over policy capacity of MoI; Triumph of the Turkish administrative tradition over reform pressure; The impacts of the dynamic external political environment; Specific limits to policy capacity. The importance and contributions of this thesis are:  Understanding and describing MoI’s policy capacity provides valuable information on its political administrators and external actors. This research redesigns the existing models of policy capacity and provides a framework for analysing bureaucratic policy capacity of less developed countries. It pioneers ethnographic research methods for assessing the policy capacities of other Turkish ministries. This research studied impact of ministerial role on the policy capacity of MoI. These issues have been understudied in the literature.