Manufacturing output and employment losses due to underutilized equipment have been postulated as common in developing nations. This irrational use of existing capital and labour is examined with respect to Ethiopian industry. The basic hypothesis investigated is that capacity utilization is an important policy variable in its own right that can be used to manipulate (increase) output and employment levels. An, essentially, physical index of capacity utilization is derived and fitted to statistical information on output performance from the "larger" Ethiopian enterprises. The nature of the index requires separate consideration to be given to issues of profitability when a move to increased utilization is contemplated. Variations in input prices prevent the assertion that a fuller use of existing capital will automatically reduce unit costs or increase rates of return. Also, the nature of the index requires that economic factors contributing to underutilization receive detailed attention in their own right. The method of information collection, first hand visits to plants, to Industrial Corporations, and the use of a questionnaire, is described both purposefully and prospectively. Substantial underutilization is revealed. The principal causes relate to input supply deficiencies, particularly higher technical skill levels, and to aspects of demand deficiency. There is more scope for output gains than for employment gains since underutilization is often part and parcel of within production deficiencies that are not felt solely on utilization levels. More aggregate economic parameters that might be expected to influence utilization levels, such as export sales, imported material input-levels and capital intensities of production were statistically tested. The results were poor in terms of explained variation in utilization levels. The significance of the findings is better realised when viewed against a larger backcloth than normally associated with capacity utilization issues per se. Severe structural deficiencies characterise Ethiopian manufacturing and remedies proposed for underutilization cannot properly be envisaged without this larger backcloth. Generally, this requires acccunt be taken of rationalized production aims and the means to achieval. These are delineated and examined with important linkages across and within industrial groups being made. When thus considered, the importance of utilization as a policy variable, in its own right, is diminished in an Ethiopian context.

The thesis examin~ rural development in Tanzania from the precolonial period to~present time. The work is a historical study. It is shown that the pre-colonial rural economies were prosperous in crops and animals. Disruption and decline of these economies commenced towards the end of the last century. Depopulation, war and disease contributed to the decline. Colonial agricultural, trading and trades licensing policies are shown to have contributed to the process of creating rural backwardness. Rural backwardness manifests itself basically as rural poverty. Colonial marketing policies which helped to marginalize the peasant economy are analysed. A description of land alienation policies and their consequences on the rural economy is made. Measures by the authorities to stimulate rapid economic change in rural areas by bypassing the peasants are investigated. The crisis of large scale mechanized farming is outlined. Attempts by the policy makers and planners to rediscover the peasant in the transformation approach to rural planning are examined. The attempts by the peasants to organize themselves to promote rural development and the problems associated with this organization are critically explored in relationship to the policy maker~ attempts to control and patronize the peasant economy. Government policies and plans including grand plans aimed at the peasant to bring rapid economic and social development in the countryside are critically evaluated. The level of development of the peasant economy is elaborated empirically. The theory is advanced that the backwardness of the peasant economy is a result of bad policies and plans and exploitation and misunderstanding of the peasant by other agencies like the state and marketing institutions. The family farm is investigated in comparison to the large scale mechanized state farm. The superiority of the family farm in organization and capacity to survive harsh market and technical conditions and to create jobs is demonstrated. A theory on peasant farming in Tanzania is constructed and a theory on the causes of rural backwardness is tested. The nature of the Tanzanian state and its relevance to rural development are investigated. The failure by the state to formulate and execute sound policies and plans on rural development is demonstrated. The conclusion is reached that in rural development the work of actual production at the farm level should be left to the peasant himself because he can do the job best and at lower costs and that the government should only concern itself with improving rural transport and marketing.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis explores the role of English in the lives of students at Kuwait University. The study unveils a complex interplay between students’ attitudes towards learning English and their interpretations of globalization, which is something that is not usually recognized in the classroom. The study was conducted using qualitative research methodology encompassing ethnographic observations, conversations, and semi-structured interviews. The majority of the data was collected from 17 to 24 year old Kuwaiti students enrolled in the Health Sciences program at Kuwait University. In addition, conversations with five English language teachers at the same university are included to highlight the tension that exists between teacher expectations and learner performance in the classroom. The main findings of the research reveal that the students had a very pragmatic view of the use of English. As a result, their attitudes inside the classroom did not accurately reflect the importance of English in the rest of their lives. Rather, this importance emerged in how they negotiated the use of English outside of the English language classroom. It was found that the use of English was directly related to how they positioned themselves both within their local social context and in the world. Therefore, although teacher perceptions highlighted students’ resistance towards learning English, what became evident through the data analysis was that student attitudes were strongly connected to their interpretations of the sociocultural context in which they were functioning. This also reinforces the importance of adopting a critical cosmopolitan perspective to understand the complexity behind social action rather than relying on simplified and generalized cultural explanations. In addition, the disconnect between student and teacher perceptions brings attention to the continuing prevalence of problems of essentialism in the field of English language teaching and highlights the necessity of being more aware of Othering discourses as well as the relevance of considering context when trying to understand student attitudes towards language learning.

The thesis analyses the regional labour market dynamics and effectiveness of active labour market policies in Poland. The main research focus is to assess the effectiveness of the elements of ALMPs and to suggest possible explanations of the heterogeneity in their outcomes. I am interested in establishing how effective are the various components of ALMPs in alleviating the regional differences in unemployment. The objective is to arrive at recommendations regarding the appropriate mix of policy response to the unemployment problem. The lessons that relate to Poland may also be applied to other countries undergoing a process of deep structural changes. In particular, I am interested in establishing how effective are the various components of ALMPs in alleviating the regional differences in unemployment. The experiences of the Spanish labour market reforms are used to understand the likely trajectory induced by a similar liberalisation process and labour market institutional reform in Poland. I argue that the institutional reforms in Spain led to better labour market performance and the same outcome may be expected in Poland if similar reforms are implemented. In the econometric part of thesis, I investigate the persistence of unemployment in the Polish and Spanish labour markets, which demonstrate that the unemployment problem is more serious than indicated by the aggregate figures. I also measure the effectiveness of the labour market policies and draw conclusions for policy makers, arguing that the unemployment problem can be alleviated if the appropriate policy mix is applied. In particular, I have shown to what extent regional employment, unemployment and participation rate dynamics are common to all regions in Spain and Poland. The results indicate very strong regional unemployment persistence, especially in poorer regions in both countries. Both of the investigated markets reacted to shocks in a similar way. However, higher persistence in the response of unemployment to shocks has been measured in Spain than in Poland. On the other hand, Polish regional labour markets are more dissimilar than the Spanish ones, indicating more inequality in access to employment. The results on the efficiency of ALMPs also demonstrate differences between agricultural, modern and industrial regions and different patterns of impact in line with the results on the regional labour market dynamics. The agricultural regions, with higher unemployment respond to the ALMPs weaker than the other regions. These findings are in line with the results of VAR analysis of regional labour market dynamics, which show a great persistence in unemployment, especially in the poorer regions, indicating that they do not respond in the same way as the other regions. I now offer a novel explanation to this structural outcome: the existing persistence in inter-regional differences in unemployment may be (partly) resulting from the fact that the policy measures are not adjusted and are not used selectively consistent with the local economic environment. The results permit the drawing out of a tentative conclusion that ALMPs in Poland should be reassessed as for their efficiency. The policies should be carefully designed and should take into account the different types of regions, which might have different needs and requirements. A troublesome result is that the regions where policy support is most needed are also those, which are least responsive to policy tools.

The state's calculated intervention in the economy is an issue accepted by researchers. To fulfil the overall goals of the economy and to achieve its full potential, the state has to involve itself in the economics of production and distribution throughout the nation. Within this framework, the state national budget emerges as an essential method in the fiscal planning's implementation process. Thus, the economic policies' goals should comply with the goals of ûie economic plans. The Sultanate of Oman has adopted the economic planning approach since 1976, when successive five-year plans began. Since that time, a high level of investment in infrastructure and social services has been achieved. Nonetheless, by having a look at the economic indicators in the overall economy and in particular sectors, a significant conclusion can be drawn; that those indicators do not reflect the ambitious objectives outlined in the original development plans. As fiscal policies are on the top of the economic policies and methods, which some researchers hold responsible for economic success and failure, the main goal of this study is to investigate to what extent the fiscal policies in the Sultanate of Oman could play a positive role in accomplishing the developmental targets. To achieve the goals of the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods are utilized. Assessment and evaluation are used as secondary approaches and employ modem econometrics approaches as well as diagrammatic and tabular data representations. Examining the currently adopted fiscal policies in three areas, taxation, expenditure, and policies dealing with planned budgetary deficit and public debt and employing OLS, ECM methods, the most important findings show a wide gap between actual and potential tax revenues; tax rates positively relate to FDI inflows suggesting that foreign investors do not necessarily respond to tax incentives and that other determinants lie behind the deterioration of FDI inflows; government investment expenditure can be associated with lower growth; a crowding-out phenomenon exists between public investment and private investment indicating that the government investment in projects acting as a substitute for private investment; there is a negative link between foreign debt and growth; finally, the fiscal deficit is influencing the stance of the balance of payments negatively. Moreover, to inspect whether a fiscal policy aiming at rationalizing government expenditure in the Sultanate of Oman's economy may diminish the growth of output; in other words, to check whether the disaggregated government expenditures Granger-cause output or vice versa, the contemporaneous relationship between disaggregated public expenditure and GDP/GNP was examined. The study deployed the Johansen cointegration test, the standard Granger causality test and the Granger causality test in the context of an ECM, to determine the long-run relationship as well as the directions and patterns of causality between the disaggregated public expenditure and GDP/GNP. Neither the empirical results obtained sustain the Wagnerian law which states that economic growth causes the growth of government expenditure, nor was it possible to conclude in the favour of the opposing Keynesian hypothesis. Thus, the results do not support the argument that changes in government expenditure tend to accelerate or slow GDP/GNP growth" suggesting a proposition that a shrinking in government expenditure, as a strategy to control the fiscal imbalances in the Omani economy, could be adopted.

This study aims to explore the second economy of Soviet Georgia by reconstructing aspects of its social organisation and the workings of selected examples of second economy activity. Since its principal research mode is participant observation, this involved living for over a year within a community of recent migrants from Soviet Georgia to Israel. This experience offered opportunities: a) to gain access to everyday behaviour in order to establish that culture's basic values, and b) to build up detailed and cross-checkable case studies. In so doing, it aimed to exploit the resources of a living community by treating it as a data-base. Its further aim, however, is not merely to obtain details of cases and to understand these by placing them in their cultural setting. These cases, when considered against the background of a people's mores and values, provide the building blocks which allow us to understand the wider formation of which they are a part. The study then aims to engage in the secondary analysis of these cases in order to construct a model of Soviet Georgia's system of second economy production and distribution. While traditional explanations focus on Georgia's natural resources as the major reason for its flourishing Second Economy, this study looks at primary cultural patterns and daily behaviour conduct which underlie the social expressions of a people. It then identifies the Social Support Network as a focus of personalised relationships in Soviet Georgia. The Social Support Network is also the power base of Second Economy activity. The way the network operates and the shape it takes determines the scope of its operations and the ability of members to function as agents in that economy. After setting up the core values of Soviet Georgia's society and their manifestations in the Second Economy, two detailed case studies examine the structure and operation of the production and distribution of goods. These are supplemented by six accounts of crisis events which allow us a close look into the way the informal system copes with emergencies. All of this enables a reassessment of Soviet Georgia's Second Economy, the sources of its rapid expansion and unrivalled success in the Soviet system as well as possible future developments.

No description available.

No description available.