Modern energy services are a foundation for sustainable development. As recently acknowledged by the multilaterally supported UNDP’s ‘energy access for all’ objective, it is a missing cog for the socio-economic, empowerment, livelihood enhancement and sustainability of more than 2 billion people in developing and less developed countries. Efforts to provide modern energy services, however, face pervasive challenges reflective of wider development efforts, establishing the imperative for greater understanding of their underlying dimensions as a basis for enhancing sustainable development pathways. The thesis pursues this through ethnographic studies of innovative and contrasting energy access pathways in remote areas of Nepal. These were supported by preliminary site visits, semi-structured interviews, participant observation and observant participation with a range of key development actors, led by a reflexive, multi-sited research approach. The research reveals that the challenges and opportunities of effective energy access and sustainable development are embedded in under-recognised social routines and contexts that subsume essential dimensions of daily life. These are dynamic, multi-actor and interconnected through routinised codes, performances and institutions for which social emotions, meanings and relations are integral. Interventions, technologies and impacts interdepend on these mundane interactions and structures, signifying the vital role of social agency and conventions in everyday life. ‘Access’ is a constant (re)negotiation of these within a socio-technical context. The findings demonstrate the value of integrating these dimensions into development approaches through being attentive to, and co-produced by, the plurality of actors, settings and routines. A practice theory informed approach supported the analysis to signify further distinctive policy, research and pathway implications. The thesis thus demonstrates the potential of a social practice approach for enabling a more sensitive and effective framework for enabling energy access for sustainable development.

This thesis consists of three essays concerning money supply growth, one of the main objectives in monetary policy, and economic growth. The aim of this work is to investigate the role of money in monetary policy and how money supply and seigniorage impact on output growth. The findings are derived from theoretical models and modern econometric techniques. First of all, I shall evaluate the role of money in the conduct of monetary policy in South Korea. This research analyses the effect of monetary aggregates on prices and output and examines its transmission mechanism using recursive and non-recursive vector autoregressive models. The expansionary monetary policy shocks have substantial effects on output. Specific channels of the transmission operate through the effects which monetary aggregates have on banking lending, stock prices, exchange rates and investment, export, and government consumption. Then, a cash-in-advanced model and human capital based endogenous growth model is developed. Through employing Bayesian maximum likelihood estimation, a positive money shock is created leading to an increase in seigniorage, which also has a positive impact on output growth. This is because there is a growth-enhancing effect from human capital production since seigniorage is spent by a government on public education. I shall show that money within the model also generates a connection between seigniorage and inflation. However, in the long run, the theoretical model also captures the adverse effect of seigniorage due to inflation so that I shall examine the existence of threshold effects between seigniorage and growth in developing countries using Hansen (1999)’s panel threshold methodology. The threshold level of seigniorage above which seigniorage significantly slows output growth is set at 2.27%. This thesis confirms that money supply and seigniorage have a substantial impact on output so that money is an important factor to be considered in the architecture of macroeconomic policy.

Electoral systems are rules trough which votes translate into seats in parliament. The political economy literature tells us that alternative electoral systems can generate different distributions of power among different social groups in the legislature and therefore lead to dissimilar equilibrium economic policies~ On the other hand, we know from the endogenous economic growth literature that economic policy can affect growth. vVhat the literature is lacking is a clear link between electoral systems and economic growth. The main objective of this thesis is to establish a connection between them. Once this link is constructed we move our focus to a more primitive question: what are the factors that determine which electoral system is chosen over another? Providing an answer to this question is the second objective of the thesis. We build a dynastic model with heterogeneous agents where one of the engines of growth is public capital. In our model there are three social classes with different levels of wealth and productivity. The source of conflict among these social classes is the level of public capital. Alternative electoral systems can generate different distributions of power in parliament and different equilibrium levels of public capital. Different patterns of capital accumulation lead to different economic growth equilibrium. Social classes who are' aware that alternative electoral systems imply different public policy and welfare choose an electoral system following a simple process of bargaining. A precise ranking of electoral systems in terms of economic growth requires the knowledge of the social structure of the country. Alternative social structures can lead to different rankings. Under complete enfranchisement, equal and not polarized societies choose majoritarian electoral systems, while equal but polarized societies generate proportional representation systems. Only highly unequal societies can lead to anarchy. The empirical evidence supports some of the propositions of the thesis.

This thesis examines the roles played by Indian and South African actors in the G20 networks. It explores the mechanisms, internal dynamics and evolution of the networks and also how Indian and South African actors contribute to G20 outcome formulation and consensus dissemination. The study adopts a process-focussed approach in order to examine the diverse logics of interaction which shape G20 outcomes. The study provides the most significant empirical study of the evolution of Indian and South African participation in the G20 to date. It also provides a comprehensive account of the G20's evolving roles in steering IMF governance reforms, in crisis management and response and in global development governance. The thesis details how IMF governance reforms have been G20 led since 2006 and how G20 deputy deliberations have incrementally overcome seemingly intractable conflicts outside of the more formal confines of the IMF executive board. With regards crisis management and response, the G20 has twice played a crucial overseeing role. The thesis illustrates in particular how Indian perspectives on G20 post crisis management have carried more weight since 2008. With regards global development governance, the G20 has undergone a partial and contested developmental turn since the creation of the leaders' level networks. South African G20 participants, as representatives of the only African G20 member, have adopted a niche leadership role in this developmental turn. Overall South Africa is positioned as an engaged middle power in the G20, whose G20 representatives draw upon honest brokerage and leverage their African leadership role as key sources of G20 influence. Meanwhile, Indian G20 participants are positioned as representatives of an increasingly engaged rising power, who nevertheless primarily focus their G20 efforts on endeavours to prevent the G20 from overly encroaching on Indian policy space.

The first essay discusses the effects of fiscal decentralisation on economic growth in Pakistan, where the resource distribution formula was based on single-criterion (i.e. population only). Following the cointegration approach, this is the first ever study to disentangle the short run effects of fiscal decentralisation from its long run implications on the economic growth in Pakistan. The automated general-to-specific (Gets) modelling technique was adopted to find a representative parsimonious model, for a relatively short time series dataset. The study identified that in Pakistan, the focus mainly remained on partial fiscal decentralisation, where the provinces remained dependent upon federal transfers. Evidence suggests a long run cointegrating relationship between fiscal decentralisation and economic growth, making us aware of the immediate consequences of a resource shift policy, in addition to its long-run effects. Analysis suggests that in order to stimulate economic growth, emphasis should be shifted towards entrusting provinces with higher taxation powers. In addition, the diversification of the resource distribution formula, with the inclusion of efficiency enhancing measures, might also help in achieving higher economic efficiency. Education and health sectors are known to have massive impact on the quality of human life. In this context, health sector is discussed in the second essay to analyse the impact of fiscal decentralisation on various health sector indicators in Pakistan. Two datasets were used for the separate analysis of the national (1974-2009) and provincial (1980-2001) health indicators. It was learnt that health sector remained neglected both at the national and provincial level. To a surprise, negative long run cointegrating relationship was found for the effects of federal transfers on health expenditures at the national level. The provincial analysis however suggests that federal transfers improved hospital beds availability in the economically active provinces, which were presumably more efficient. Provincial autonomy failed to play a role in the improvement of the health sector. The analysis highlights the social implications of federal transfers. Differences in results for economically distinct provinces hint towards the efficiency aspect of resource utilisation.

This thesis proposes solutions to assist agencies in optimising their contribution to regional development. It develops a technique of project appraisal that is both theoretically sound and of practical use. The objective is to help policy makers and practitioners to appraise, monitor and evaluate regional policy projects. A review of theory and practice examines how various schools of economic thought assess the case for regional economic policy. The thesis argues that the context for evaluation has grown more complex and demanding, as regional policy moves away from simple job creation and tackles a greater variety of goals and objectives.

This thesis presents a theoretical analysis of industrialization. Two kinds of models are developed. The first type incorporates the following features: 1) Oligopohstic behaviour and strategic interaction. 2) Endogenous technological capability and market structure. 3) A general equilibrium framework. 4) A dualistic structure (characteristic of many developing countries). 5) Asymmetries in initial conditions. In part I, chapter 2 develops the benchmark model in autarky. Chapter 3 opens the economy. Under symmetry, trade is welfare improving. Asymmetric initial conditions imply that a backward nation may not benefit from trade with an advanced country, while the advanced nation will always benefit from trade with the backward nation. Subsidizing technological capability allows the backward economy to catch-up with the advanced economy's wage. The subsidy is welfare improving if funded with a lump-sum tax. In part II we extend the models from part I to variable intensity of competition. Chapter 4 does this for autarky, chapter 5 for the open economy. We encompass intensities of competition ranging from individual to joint profit maximization. In the open economy, intensities of competition lower than individual profit maximization generate a separating surface for the wage rate. Below the surface, trade yields a higher wage rate than autarky (the reverse holds above the surface). The separating surface provides a positive basis for differential trade policy between industries. The second type of model (chapter 6) is a Big-Push framework with multiple equilibria, and industrialization refers to the transition between these. A Cournot (upstream) industry features endogenous technological capability and vertical linkages to a competitive (downstream) industry. The wage rate depends on whether the economy can fit through a 'window of opportunity' whilst on the transition path. One of the central results is that if the wage rate grows too steeply, the window will be missed and the economy may end up in a lower (post transition) level of development.

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