This dissertation makes three different contributions to the literature on financial development. Firstly, it examines the role of institutions in the relationship between finance and growth, using data from 72 countries during 1978 - 2001. The relationship between finance, institutions and growth is further analysed at four different stages of economic development. Secondly, it investigates empirically the hypothesis recently purposed by Rajan and Zingales (2003) that openness to trade and financial flows is one of the key determinants of financial development, using data from 43 developing countries during 1980 - 2000. Third, the dissertation examines the impact of financial market liberalisation on stock market volatility in the five East Asian emerging economies during pre- and post-financial liberalisation eras.;The empirical results indicate that both financial development and institutional quality have a positive significant impact on economic growth. Financial development has larger effects on growth when the financial system is embedded within a sound institutional framework. Both variables have the strongest positive impact on economic growth primarily in the upper middle-income economies. In the high-income and lower middle-income economies, financial development has a positive but smaller effect on growth compared to the upper middle-income economies, whereas institutions have a much more powerful impact on growth in the low-income economies.;With respect to the determinants of financial development, the empirical findings suggest that the combination of open product and capital markets promote greater financial development, even after controlling for real GDP per capita, real interest rate and institutional quality. This finding supports the Rajan and Zingales (2003) hypothesis -when the country's borders are open to both capital flows and trades, then it will deliver benefit to financial markets. The findings relate to all the indicators of financial development employed (both banking and capital market) and are robust to alternative measures of capital flows and trade openness, as well as estimation method and sample period.;Finally, the empirical evidence presented in this study suggests that stock market volatility has declined after financial liberalisation in the sample of East Asia emerging markets, but not in the case of Thailand. The endogenous structural break dates of stock market volatility, which are identified correspond closely to dates of official financial liberalisation reforms in these markets. The stock market volatility of these markets, however, becomes much higher during the 1997-98 East Asian financial crisis period.

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In recent years, it has become apparent that in order to achieve many policy objectives, it is often necessary to stimulate behaviour change on the part of the population. Concurrently, the role of local authorities in tackling unsustainability and reducing carbon emissions has become more prominent. This thesis describes research undertaken in London, UK, to understand how local authorities have worked to tackle unsustainability and encourage pro-environmental behaviour change through sustainability programmes, and what the environmental impact of such programmes is. Overall, this thesis provides a clear picture of how local environmental programmes which require individual behaviour change, can be monitored and evaluated. To commence, a series of interviews with local authority sustainability officers found that the extent of their sustainability work was broad but there was a lack of robust monitoring and evaluation. To understand the potential contribution that sustainability programmes could make towards reducing carbon emissions, two programmes were monitored and evaluated. The first programme evaluated was a home energy visit programme, known as RE:NEW, which intended to encourage reductions in household carbon emissions. The second programme evaluated was a Camden Green Zone, which provided secure and accessible cycle parking to residents to encourage cycling rates. The environmental impact of both programmes was estimated in terms of carbon emissions abated. Evaluation found that for RE:NEW, the impact of the visits on the installation of significant energy efficiency measures and behaviour change was negligible. For Green Zones, the intervention had no significant impact on the frequency or distance with which the sample group cycled, nor did it cause a significant modal shift in transport use. Given this significant finding, that the interventions did not result in detectable behaviour change, a number of recommendations to increase the efficacy of such programmes are provided, as are recommendations for undertaking effective evaluation.

The following thesis gives an historical account ot a process that has been designed in order to allow the intervention of the economic development agencies of the appropriate local and national Government bodies in Design and Creativity. The process was originated and developed in Glasgow, UK and has been transported to three other locations, 2 in the UK and one in Brazil, In all instances the programmes applying the process have recorded successes by surpassing all targets while also developing interesting new products. This thesis highlights the relative performances across national and international boundaries, indicates the expected outcomes and describes the key project management issues that arise during such undertakings.

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This thesis concerns the role of the state in industrial development and structural transformation, in the context of multilateral restrictions on trade and investment policy space. More specifically, it examines the elimination of local content requirements (LCRs) in the automotive sector by 16 developing countries, as required by the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures. My focus is on the complex, dynamic causal processes that govern the economic geography of production, trade and investment, and the implications of the elimination of LCRs on those processes. In order to explore this issue, I employ a mixed method approach to empirical impact evaluation. I examine how the elimination of LCRs has impacted a number of key variables relating to production, trade and investment, using two methodological tools: ‘difference-in-difference’ panel regression, and comparative case studies. Possibilities for empirical research emerged from a ‘natural experiment’ – in which a number of countries were exogenously compelled to remove LCRs – coupled with the passing of sufficient time to allow long term impacts to be realised. This mixed approach entails progression from a simple panel regression model aimed at identifying and quantifying the ‘global’ impacts of the policy restriction on the 16 countries subject to the elimination of LCRs, to a more expansive treatment of the complex factors that determine case-specific outcomes, and the mechanisms through which they operate, through historical institutionalist, comparative case studies. The key finding is that contrary to the more pessimistic expectations, liberalising countries appear, on balance, to have exhibited significantly improved industrial performance outcomes: controlling for relevant covariates, output levels have not fallen while exports have increased dramatically. However, the cases examined here had a number of strong advantages going into liberalisation, suggesting that positive outcomes may not be broadly generalisable. The benefits of integration into global networks are unevenly distributed across structurally diverse countries, while across the cases examined here, countries continue to pursue alternative means through which to promote domestic production, the effects of which are difficult to separate from wider processes of liberalisation and developments in the structure of global value chains.

Ecovillages, Timebanks and a Local Exchange Trading Schemes are part of global social movements as well as offering innovative approaches to local sustainability. The current study looks at these three community-economic initiatives as a means of addressing the connected social, economic and environmental challenges of local sustainable development. Investigating these collective practices builds on current approaches to studying pro-environmental behaviour change in the social sciences. Two research questions structured this investigation. These focussed on i) how members understand their experiences within the selected groups and ii) processes leading to the formation, maintenance and contraction of the initiatives. Five individuals were interviewed from each group and interviews were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Secondary data sources also contributed to a broad analysis of group processes and contexts. Diverging from traditional approaches, this multi-level, interdisciplinary account is able to capture more of the complex reality of these organisations than would be possible within a single discipline or through focussing on a single element of group membership. Indeed this comprehensive approach to studying community-based models for sustainability is the unique contribution of this study, moving forward methodological debates in this field. Findings that emerged from this study emphasise group members’ motivation to enhance their personal resilience. Participation provided members with a sense of agency and community connection, as well as being a means to express alternative cultural identities. Informal reciprocal exchange was also preferred to more formal exchange practices, with implications for the understanding and development of community exchange systems. This study widens the focus of environmental psychology to include socio-economic practices, and contributes towards the growing interdisciplinary field of complementary currencies and grassroots innovation. Finally, it provides a template for the evaluation of sustainable community-economic initiatives more generally. The thesis concludes that these initiatives and their wider movements are a promising avenue for research and development in sustainability.