The analytical focus of this thesis is the economic development policies of Newfoundland governments. Specifically, the thesis builds upon the disciplines of political economy and sociology in an analysis of policy responses to underdevelopment and dependency. The "contrary agendas" of the title refer to internal contradictions within policy approaches. This thesis attempts to characterise these contradictions, which reflect competing and contradictory ideas as to which development trajectory is most appropriate to Newfoundland society. A comprehensive overview and analysis of the manner in which the themes of underdevelopment and dependency have been approached in Canadian scholarship is provided. Environmentalism, another tradition that is significant to developmental issues, is incorporated into the theoretical framework. Newfoundland and federal policy approaches to economic development are reviewed and analysed. Reference is made to developments in Newfoundland politics in the early twentieth century, but emphasis is on more recent shifts in the agendas for economic development. The two periods of 1971-72 and 1986-90 receive particular attention. Although the importance of structural impediments to successful development strategies is acknowledged, this thesis reaffirms the relevance of political choices and policy making to Newfoundland's recent past, current situation, and future prospects.

As Zambia entered the 1980s with its economy continuing to weaken further at every turn, it eventually dawned on policy makers and implementers that the buoyant copper years of the previous decade and half may never come back. Although the country had stand-by-agreements (SBAs) with the IMF from as far back as 1973, there was still hope in the decade that followed that the copper-led problems were transitory. By 1983 these hopes could no longer be sustained, as the country's growth engine -copper - assumed impossible-to-ignore sputtering levels. In came the structural adjustment programme (SAP), whose inevitability and necessity this study completely identifies with. Among the major objectives of Zambia's SAP have been and continue to be: diversification away from copper by promoting non-copper, non-traditional exports; reduction or elimination of balance of payments (BOP) deficits; switching production from non-tradables to tradables and, ultimately, resumption of higher rates of economic performance. Reduction in the level of inflation, reduction in government budget deficits, and reduction in the level of unemployment have also occupied the front rank in the country's recovery efforts. This study - from a Business Policy background by a management scholar - has looked at the impact of Zambia's 1983-93 SAP on manufacturing sector business strategy. It uses as its main contribution, results of an empirical study of the impact of SAP on 43 manufacturing firms in Zambia. At the macro-level, the fundamental causes of Zambia's structural crisis are found to be quite diverse and complex. Some causes are rooted in history, some in nature, some in the external environment, and yet others in wrong domestic policies. Structural rigidities in the economy are found to be largely un-altered despite a 10-year attempt at adjustment. The economy is also plagued by what we have called here the 4-D Syndrome - that is Debt, Drought, Dependence on primary exports and imported raw materials, and Disease.

This thesis is situated within recent debates concerning the nature of, and prospects for, alternative 'socialist' development strategies in the countries of the so-called Third World, and within the Latin American context specifically. It traces the experiences of the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN) in their attempts to instigate such a strategy in Nicaragua between 1979 and 1990. The study is primarily concerned with the economic dimension to those experiences and it explores in detail the factors which underlay the descent into economic crisis which characterised the revolutionary years in Nicaragua. Whilst taking into account the disruptive and costly (in both human and financial terms) effects of the Contra War and the incidence of the international economic crisis of the period, the study focuses on an evaluation of the evolution of the FSLN's economic strategies and policy decisions and the various changes in direction which occurred during the course of the 1980s, as the regime responded to the intensifying military conflict and the deepening economic crisis. More specifically, the study provides a detailed analysis of the rationale and performance of the economic and agrarian policies of the FSLN toward the all-important traditional agro-export sector of the economy. The study is placed in its historical and regional context through a detailed tracing of the origins of the dependence of the Nicaraguan economy upon the export sector, and the social relations which sustained the model of accumulation instigated, and the placing of the Nicaraguan experience within the economic and political crisis which beset the Central American region at the end of the 1970s from which it largely still has to emerge nearly fifteen years later.

This study attempts to examine the development process in which social security provisions have been established, and to expose factors related to the rise and development of social security programmes in developing countries. The dynamics involved in the evolution of social security programmes in developing countries are not merely pale reflections of the processes promoting such developments in hegemonic centres. Rather, they were deliberately adopted according to their needs and according to the circumstances of the countries. In this analysis, therefore, we explore some of the factors affecting social security policy development which play particularly important roles in policy-making in developing countries in order to establish the most suitable pattern of the social security policy. As the major social security programmes in Korea, the National Pension programme provides the focal point of analysis, from its enactment in 1973 to its much postponed implementation in 1988. In order to ascertain how the programme was adopted and what directed its development, four theories of social security policy development have been considered. The first focuses on the role of socio-economic developments in providing the impetus for and constraints on social security policy development. The second centres on the role of pressure groups in urging the development of these programmes. The third interpretation emphasises the impact of an authoritarian political elite, which act in an entrepreneurial fashion to promote certain state interests and preserve system stability. Finally, the impact of international policy diffusion from hegemonic centres to periphery nations and among geographically contiguous nations, is considered.

This thesis is developed from a real life application of performance evaluation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. The thesis presents two main methodological developments on evaluation of dichotomous environment variable impacts on technical efficiency. Taking into account the selection bias the thesis proposes a revised frontier separation approach for the seminal Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model which was developed by Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (1981). The revised frontier separation approach is based on a nearest neighbour propensity score matching pairing treated SMEs with their counterfactuals on the propensity score. The thesis develops order-m frontier conditioning on propensity score from the conditional order-m approach proposed by Cazals, Florens, and Simar (2002), advocated by Daraio and Simar (2005). By this development, the thesis allows the application of the conditional order-m approach with a dichotomous environment variable taking into account the existence of the self-selection problem of impact evaluation. Monte Carlo style simulations have been built to examine the effectiveness of the aforementioned developments. Methodological developments of the thesis are applied in empirical studies to evaluate the impact of training programmes on the performance of food processing SMEs and the impact of exporting on technical efficiency of textile and garment SMEs of Vietnam. The analysis shows that training programmes have no significant impact on the technical efficiency of food processing SMEs. Moreover, the analysis confirms the conclusion of the export literature that exporters are self selected into the sector. The thesis finds no significant impact from exporting activities on technical efficiency of textile and garment SMEs. However, large bias has been eliminated by the proposed approach. Results of empirical studies contribute to the understanding of the impact of different environmental variables on the performance of SMEs. It helps policy makers to design proper policy supporting the development of Vietnamese SMEs.

This research dealt with considerations which have underlain the determination of earnings in post-socialist Hungary, as well as policy-makers' opinions on criteria which ought to influence the pay distribution. The focus was thereby on the value positions adopted, and on their likely consequences for gender inequality in pay. The main method used to elicit these norms was interviews with management and trade union representatives of the 'light' and the 'heavy' industry. The interview schedule and data analysis were informed by various theoretical approaches to earnings disparities. Theoretical propositions commonly advanced in economic and sociological literature dealing with gender inequalities in employment were covered; and principles which may influence decisions on a particular distribution of earnings were identified and included. The data collected on this basis required some insight into the nature of industrial relations in Hungary's past and present. This facilitated a better understanding of the particular views advanced by trade unionists and management. The study revealed that few signs existed of any overt and systematic devaluation of women's skills and qualifications. However, the wish to adhere to 'traditional arrangements' in the distribution of jobs and earnings proved a central theme. This coincided with an explicit or implicit approval of the (male) breadwinner model; with the proposed ideal of a primarily domestic role for women; and with particular ways in which job aspects often found in men's and women's work were evaluated, and compensated for. Inferences from our data were made for some aspects of the identified principles of earnings determination: in the light of the data, the specific experiences of women due to their different working conditions and their double-role were found to have been neglected by these principles, which claim to provide generally applicable grounds for the determination of earnings levels. Suggestions were made about the issues which the principles would have to incorporate in order to remove their gender bias.

This study reviews the theoretical frameworks of the traditional models of the land development process with reference to land supply constraints. Using an institutional economics analysis framework (North, 1996), the study identifies the causes of land supply constraints and the ways in which they affect agents' decisions to supply land for development in the case study areas. The empirical work takes the form of a case study on the Malay Agriculture Settlement Reserve (MAS) areas in Kuala Lumpur. The research devises a contextual practical approach of the institutional land supply constraints with regard to formal and informal institutions (North, 1996; van der Krabben, 1995) and the way these restrict the supply of indigenous lands for developmental purposes in the case study areas. The research reveals the existence of the formal rules of restriction in interest of indigenous land rights, valuation principles for compensation to landowners, lengthy planning and development requirements and, informal agents' collective attitudes such as landowners' expectation of higher land price in the future, multiple landownership, preservation of land rights and own occupation restrict the transfer of indigenous lands in MAS areas for development purposes. Moreover, the way agents respond to formal and informal rules is through the exercise of their agency relations which determine and, hence, restrict the supply of land for redevelopment in MAS areas. The research revealed the difficulty to separate policy from agents' attitudes and agency relations. Landowners' attitudes, for example, are the direct consequences of formal land policy which form informal constraints affecting the release of land for development. However, the research shows that institutional economics analysis provides insights into the nature of various formal and informal constraints which affect the supply of land for development in the case study areas. Therefore, redevelopment of MAS areas requires a range of possible institutional solutions and should be implemented in an integrated way.

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The aim of this thesis is to estimate the cost-effectiveness of intermittent preventive treatment of pregnant women (IPTp) with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) to prevent Low Birth Weight (LBW) and anaemia due to malaria in pregnancy in Gambian multigravidae, including an examination of indirect costs. The study was piggy-backed on a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) of the effectiveness of IPTp conducted in the rural area of the country from July 2002 to February 2004. The specific objectives are to: 1. Examine the cost-effectiveness of introducing SP as IPTp for malaria into normal antenatal care for multigravidae women in rural Gambia; ii. Explore various methods of valuing indirect costs and assess the extent to which they affect the cost-effectiveness ratio; and iii. Make policy recommendations as to whether to introduce SP as IPTp on. cost-effectiveness grounds. The rationale for the study is that both national and international policy makers need precise information to determine which intervention strategies are best for prevention and control of malaria in pregnancy, and which strategies represent good investment. They also need to know how the cost-effectiveness of such interventions compared to other public health interventions. Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is a recognised tool for advising policy makers on the value of an intervention. However, in practice, there are few CEA studies of malaria in general and. malaria in pregnancy in particular in developing countries. Previous CEA studies of IPTp in developing countries have been limited to primigravidae and secundagravidae. Moreover, most of them were conducted from the perspective of the provider without incorporating indirect or productivity costs. This could partly be due to lack of consensus on the issue of whether or not to include indirect costs. The data required for the study was collected through several methods. For IPTp intervention costs to the health-care provider, antenatal clinic users and their families, a sample of 884 multigraviade were randomly selected from the main IPTp effectiveness trial sample of 2,688 recruited multigravidae. In addition, several sub-studies such as health facility studies for the IPTp intervention, a hospital study for treatment of LBW and anaemia, a time-use study and collection of secondary data were used to estimate costs. Time-use and employment surveys were used to measure the time and alternative values for unpaid work. The costs data were combined with the effectiveness data from the trial to estimate incremental costs and consequences for Base case I (trial sample) and Base case II (non-users of bednets in trial sample). The study results showed that the net costs of IPTp with SP for multigravidae with and without indirect costs were D1,221,771 and D1,887,607 respectively for Base case I. The inclusion of indirect costs led to a 68% increase in net costs in Base case I. The corresponding figures for Base case II were D315,933 and D453,620. The indirect costs in Base case II constituted a 44% increase in net costs. In terms of effectiveness, the DALY s averted in Base cases I and II were -125.8 and -0.13 respectively so the intervention created resource losses. Sensitivity analysis conducted by varying key costs and effectiveness parameters showed the introduction of a haemo lobin test led to over 400% increase in net costs for both cases and reduction in number of doses led to around a 40% reduction in net costs. Except for the use of the opportunity cost method of valuing indirect costs in Base case I that led to a 12% decrease in net costs, the use of all other human capital wage rates led to a less than 10% change in net costs for both base cases. Sensitivity analysis of giving IPTp to all pregnant women (primigravidae, secundigravidae and multigravidae) found that IPTp dominated the control for the two base cases. The domination remained regardless of whether indirect costs were included or not. However, the magnitude depended on the wage rate used in estimating indirect costs. The inclusion of indirect costs led to resource savings in the range of 9%-20% for Base case I and 10%-23% for Base case II. The general conclusion is that giving IPTp with SP to multigravidae alone is not cost-effective. However, some improvements in health outcomes were observed for those women who do not sleep under bednets. If IPTp were to be given to all pregnant women without regard to gravidae, IPTp was dominant with and without indirect costs. The resource savings varied according to the wage rate used. Howeve there may be a policy dilemma associated with giving IPTp to all women knowing that the trial showed it confer no benefits, and even might carry some risks.