Active labour market programmes are an important component of government labour market policy internationally and in New Zealand. The growth in unemployment, and in particular male and long term unemployment, since the mid 1980's in New Zealand have contributed to the enhanced role of active labour market programmes in government policy. In the early 1990's the New Zealand government introduced a menu of interventions including subsidy, work experience and training programmes. Concomitant with this development has been increased pressure from political, business and social groups to assess the effectiveness of this approach in lowering unemployment. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the effect of active labour market policy utilised in New Zealand from 1989 to 1997. Whether or not these active labour market interventions were beneficial to those males who participated in them, the effect of treatment upon the treated, is the parameter estimated. The range of programmes makes it possible to analyse a number of programme evaluation issues. These include the overall question of the impact of subsidy, work experience and training programmes in general, but also other specific research questions. In particular the range of subsidy programmes makes it possible to identify that subsidies to private sector firms are more effective than those to public sector organisations. The effectiveness of start-up subsidies for the unemployed are also evaluated and found to be beneficial. The effects of participation upon selected education and ethnic groups are also estimated. Since there is no one estimation approach that works in all circumstances, both regression and matching estimators are used. In order to achieve this it is necessary to create two estimation datasets as the data requirements vary for each technique. The main findings from the research are that participation in active labour market programmes is beneficial in reducing the length of time that participants are registered as unemployed. Work experience programmes have the largest impact, followed by subsidies. The effect of training programmes is smallest. The major beneficial effect occurs in the year following participation and then reduces in subsequent years. There are also some important methodological findings, including the sensitivity of results to the time frame, to the datasets chosen, and to the estimation techniques used.

This thesis analyses three sets of issues that arise in the field of network economics. The first chapter following the introduction is concerned with modeling partial consumer participation in the context of two-way interconnection in telecommunications. Partial consumer participation is introduced into the model of competition between telecommunications networks developed by Armstrong (1998), Carter and Wright (1999) and Laffont et al (1998a). It is shown that the result that firms are indifferent over the access charge under two-part tariffs no longer holds when there is partial consumer participation. Under some additional simplifying assumptions, it is shown that firms prefer that the access charge is set equal to the marginal cost of termination. Without these additional assumptions the model is analytically complex and numerical simulation results are presented which shown that firms prefer the access charge to be less than marginal cost, while the socially optimal access charge is above cost. The next chapter considers competition between two-sided networks. Firms with two-sided networks facilitate connections or transactions between two distinct populations of consumers. This chapter analyses the behaviour of such firms where there are no intrinsic benefits to consumers other than the network effects, examples of which include employment agencies, real estate agents and videogame platforms. The modelling framework encompasses both matching service and platform business models and allows for subscription or per-transaction pricing. Three different market structures are considered: monopoly, and duopoly with and without compatibility. Comparisons of prices, profits, consumer surplus, and welfare are made between the three regimes. It is shown that one side of the market generally pays a lower price than the other, and the conditions under which one side of the market is charged a zero price are derived. It is also shown that duopoly with compatibility is socially preferable to the other regimes, while monopoly is socially preferable to duopoly without compatibility. The final chapter examines the reputation systems that are increasingly accompanying network businesses. This chapter explores the trade-off between the short-term benefits of false quality advertisements by sellers in a market with asymmetric information against the longer term costs of reputation damage. A directed search model is constructed in which submarkets are created by the advertisements and reputations of sellers. A reputation system links misleading advertisements in the present period to a lower reputation in the next period. It is shown that a reputation system always increases the prices of high quality products and directs search more accurately towards the sellers with such products. It is also shown that buyers are hurt by a reputation system if the market is thin - has few sellers – because the equilibrium increase in prices is greater than the equilibrium increase in the quality of trade. On the other hand, it is shown that submarket creation by a reputation system always increases total welfare because buyers' search is directed more accurately and the number of quality adjusted matches increases. Finally, it is shown that a reputation system which screens for honesty increases social welfare by making sellers more truthful, however, a reputation for honesty is not always highly valued and an alternative reputation system which screens for type can be more effective.

This thesis analyses producer response to technical change using agricultural aid projects on Atiu, Cook Islands, as an example. Part One is a case study of the island, its economic activities, social organisation and cultural attitudes. Part Two presents a theoretical model of grower response to new technical opportunities, looking at the implications of new risky decision over time in a particular community; it also considers the role of the community and the administration in encouraging change. Part three concludes with policy implications of designing, administering and evaluating aid projects with variable labour response.

This study analyses the economic aspects of housing tenure choice in New Zealand, 1960-80. The analysis proceeds by way of the building, refining and estimation of a model of household tenure choice, using a considerable body of micro-level data and aggregate time series. It is argued that the household faces a wealth constraint, a dual budget constraint, and minimum dwelling standard constraints, and that the household's tenure choice depends on the interaction of these constraints and its preference set. The budget constraint is a dual constraint because the true economic price of buying relative to that of renting generally differs from the 'outlay' price of buying relative to that of renting. The outlay prices of housing services are important for households with limited current income available for housing unless the household's wealth constraint is unusually loose. Considerable emphasis is placed on the modelling of the prices of housing services. A sub-model of landlord behaviour and the examination of the operation of the private rental housing market are directed at explaining the path over time of urban New Zealand rents. Sources of data are as follows. In considering prices and the various constraints on tenure choice I employ my own survey data, collected in Auckland, and time-series data from the New Zealand Department of Statistics (NZDS) and the New Zealand Valuation Department, together with crosstabulation data from various sources. I make use for the first time (for these purposes) of a body of data collected by the NZDS - their Household Sample Survey data - to estimate a cross-sectional tenure choice function. For the examination of national tenure choice trends I had to construct my own estimates of the private sector home-ownership rate. The chief conclusion of this study is that lack of wealth constrains the large majority of 'unwilling' private tenants (who are about three-quarters of all private tenants) to rent. Both interview evidence and cross-sectional econometric work support this conclusion. A second major finding is that the impact of the budget constraint on household tenure choice has varied considerably over time but in terms of economic prices, buying has been consistently (over the last two decades) cheaper than renting for the typical tenure-choosing household with a moderate marginal rate of time preference and a moderate planning period. In times of rapid dwelling appreciation the economic price of buying relative to that of renting is particularly low. In contrast, the outlay price of buying (comprising costs in the current period) has been considerably greater than the outlay price of renting, especially when nominal interest rates have been high, and this fact has undoubtedly deterred a significant a significant proportion of households from buying. Finally, the decline in the private sector home-ownership rate between 1961 and 1976 was found to be largely due to changes in the 'age:marital status:household size' structure of the population of households. These changes outweighed the net effect of economic factors which worked to raise the home-ownership rate until 1976.

This thesis analyses producer response to technical change using agricultural aid projects on Atiu, Cook Islands, as an example. Part One is a case study of the island, its economic activities, social organisation and cultural attitudes. Part Two presents a theoretical model of grower response to new technical opportunities, looking at the implications of new risky decision over time in a particular community; it also considers the role of the community and the administration in encouraging change. Part three concludes with policy implications of designing, administering and evaluating aid projects with variable labour response.

Active labour market programmes are an important component of government labour market policy internationally and in New Zealand. The growth in unemployment, and in particular male and long term unemployment, since the mid 1980's in New Zealand have contributed to the enhanced role of active labour market programmes in government policy. In the early 1990's the New Zealand government introduced a menu of interventions including subsidy, work experience and training programmes. Concomitant with this development has been increased pressure from political, business and social groups to assess the effectiveness of this approach in lowering unemployment. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the effect of active labour market policy utilised in New Zealand from 1989 to 1997. Whether or not these active labour market interventions were beneficial to those males who participated in them, the effect of treatment upon the treated, is the parameter estimated. The range of programmes makes it possible to analyse a number of programme evaluation issues. These include the overall question of the impact of subsidy, work experience and training programmes in general, but also other specific research questions. In particular the range of subsidy programmes makes it possible to identify that subsidies to private sector firms are more effective than those to public sector organisations. The effectiveness of start-up subsidies for the unemployed are also evaluated and found to be beneficial. The effects of participation upon selected education and ethnic groups are also estimated. Since there is no one estimation approach that works in all circumstances, both regression and matching estimators are used. In order to achieve this it is necessary to create two estimation datasets as the data requirements vary for each technique. The main findings from the research are that participation in active labour market programmes is beneficial in reducing the length of time that participants are registered as unemployed. Work experience programmes have the largest impact, followed by subsidies. The effect of training programmes is smallest. The major beneficial effect occurs in the year following participation and then reduces in subsequent years. There are also some important methodological findings, including the sensitivity of results to the time frame, to the datasets chosen, and to the estimation techniques used.

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the adoption of ABC by firms based in Thailand and the Thai economic crisis (1997) through theoretical models of organisational learning and the relationship between the implementation of ABC and the philosophy of organisational learning. The research model in this study is developed from Hurst's (1995) and Argyris' (1999) theoretical models of organisational learning. A mail questionnaire survey was considered an appropriate method for this study. The sample was selected from firms listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) that operate in the Bangkok region (292 firms). 101 questionnaires were returned, generating a 34.59% response rate. Furthermore, the structured interviews with a selfselecting sub-sample were conducted to supplement the survey data. Out of 101 questionnaire respondents, 12 agreed to be interviewed. The quantitative data were processed using a SPSS program and the qualitative data gathered from the interviews were analysed using content analysis. The results show that the economic crisis was a significant variable forcing Thai firms to build organisational learning, in terms of the reorganisation or the adoption of innovations, including ABC, for their survival. Due to the changed environment, such as increased competition or growing costs, and the inability of the traditional cost systems to provide information in the new environment, several Thai firms had adopted and implemented ABC in response to the changed environment. This finding also revealed that the adoption of ABC promoted Thai firms' organisational learning in the double-loop mode, which enables an organisation to survive in the rapidly changed environment. In addition, it was found that the development and implementation of ABC were involved with an organisation's learning and the success of ABC was partly contingent on the level of organisational learning. This study also confirmed that behavioural and organisational variables played crucial roles in helping an organisation to create learning about ABC and leading an organisation to achieve the implementation of ABC. Especially, the clarity of the objectives of ABC was an important variable affecting significant variation in the degree of ABC success. Last, the findings suggest that an expansion of coverage of surveys and an extension of study to the government sector would be beneficial. Future researchers can also extend the investigation to other innovations and other variables associated with the implementation of ABC, such as contextual variables.

In the context of established international economic theory, it is well known that international trade of commodities is effectively trading factors of production such as labour and capital. It follows that if factors of production can be moved internationally, then the need for commodity trade is eased, and trade of commodities and movements of factors of production can be substituted for each other. From this, the conclusion can be reached that factor movement is a substitute for commodity trade. Allowing people to migrate from one country to another country involves migration of labour – the movement of a factor of production. The conclusion that factor flows are a substitute for commodity-trade can be re-stated as international immigration is a substitute for international trade. However, this conclusion does not explain the real world in which both international trade and international immigration have increased over time. Thus, established theory of immigration and trade may not be a reliable policy guide for formulating immigration and/or trade policy. It is the purpose of this thesis to formulate an alternative theory, which more effectively explains the relationship between immigration and trade. For the purpose of distinguishing the impact of immigrants on trade from the impact of other factors on trade, this thesis employs a two-step approach. The first step lays down the theoretical foundations by arguing that immigrants contribute to the economy of the immigrant receiving country in two areas: Firstly, immigrants supply labour to the immigrant receiving country and increase demand for goods and services, hence increase the size of the economy in the immigrant receiving country. Secondly, immigrants bring in intangible social capital and human capital with them (in addition to any tangible capital they bring with them). Both contributions have impacts on international trade. The increasing labour supply could reduce trade, but increasing the market size, and bringing in social capital, in the form of foreign market information, could facilitate trade. The second step employs the latest econometric techniques to test empirically the theory that is developed in the first step, using real world data. The main empirical technique employed in this thesis to analyse the effect of immigration on trade is the gravity model that is estimated using cross-section and time series (panel) data. The case of Australia’s immigration and trade with ten major Asian trade partner countries is selected for the study. The panel cointegration test is conducted to investigate the possible long run equilibrium relation between immigration and trade. The short-run relation between immigration and trade is also examined. This thesis successfully distinguishes between the impact of immigrants on trade and the impact of other influential factors on trade. A strong long run relation between immigration and exports is established. Within a certain range of immigrant intakes, immigrants have positive and significant impact on Australia’s exports to the immigrant home countries. The long run impact is found to be double the strength of the short run impact. However, a long run relation between immigration and imports cannot be clearly established by the panel cointegration test, and the impact of immigrant intake on imports is not strong. Since the long run relation between migrant intake and exports can be established, it is possible that an underlining causation exists. Therefore, a panel causality test on immigration and exports is conducted. The results show that migrant intake “Granger causes” exports, but exports do not Granger cause immigration. This thesis demonstrates that international labour immigration, unlike the movement of other factors of production, is not necessarily a substitute for international trade in the manner described by established international economic theory. In the case of Australia’s immigration and trade with Asian immigrant home countries, immigrants have long run and short run positive impacts on exports, although immigrants do not have a strong impact on Australia’s imports from Asian migrant home countries. Moreover, migrant intake 'causes' exports. The main policy implication of these findings is that Australia can use immigration as a long-term strategy to promote exports to Asian countries.

Measures of progress serve as a crucial link between the economy and the nation’s policymaking establishment. Given that the idea of efficient allocation of resources is such a powerful influence in economics, a progress measure needs to account for most aspects of progress so it can serve as a basis for decisions to improve resource allocation. The use of the term progress encompasses notions of economic and social progress. However, the conceptualisation of progress is fraught with difficulties, misconceptions and contradictions. Primarily, the contested nature of the concept leads to a general lack of agreement on a number of issues, such as adopting an appropriate conceptual framework and methodological approach. Over time, the term progress has adapted to reflect needs. So has its measurement. Recently, the desirability of a narrowly defined economic growth as the panacea for achieving progress has been questioned. Despite containing conceptual limitations, GDP’s use of money and production for its evaluation and demarcation purposes has given it an ease of comparability and desirability that many economists and policymakers yearn for. These limitations however have led researchers to develop alternative progress measures, which although are more difficult to build, possess greater intuitive appeal. Hence, a review is conducted here on the current main progress measurements. The review sets out to identify aspects of income and non-income generating activity as well as to omit factors that generate income but do not contribute to the progress of a nation. Consequently, the relationship between market-based growth and progress is questioned in this thesis; a relationship, which the present research asserts, fails to consider a number of important costs. These costs incorporate social, economic and environmental aspects. However, these costs can be included in progress measures through the abandonment of a single standardised system of accounts and the adoption of a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach. Subsequently, the present research proposes a framework that integrates conceptually distinct theories comprising resources and capabilities, social and institutional arrangements, environmental systems and intellectual capital. This approach is appropriate for measuring multiple and different dimensions of progress. Additionally, the proposed progress index will incorporate the strengths while rectifying the limitations of the reviewed approaches. The progress index is designed to not only incorporate empirical applications, but to detect the meaningful underlying dimensions contributing to national progress to provide guidance in articulating policies for optimal use of resources. Furthermore, the measure is a non-monetary one. The use of market prices to capture aspects of progress tends to inaccurately reflect the real costs and benefits they provide, and ensures that the concerns in question (human, environmental, social, etc.) become part of a narrow debate where the economic bottom line is paramount, and where major impacts are omitted. Additionally, it has the capacity to ignore indirect costs that would lead to undesirable policy initiatives. Challenges such as climate change, health and wellbeing have brought to the fore the growing chasm between the concerns of public policy and those of its citizens. Hence, a need arises for a progress measure to reflect society’s core values. Consequently, the proposed non-monetary progress index employs a weighting technique based on public opinion. That is because market-based evaluations of progress components are inefficient since it is incapable of, amongst other things, accurately reflecting public concern. Hence, the use of a public opinion poll was justified. The proposed index is assessed on two levels: from a single summary point of view and from a multiple dimension view. The aggregation method used to arrive at the single summary statistic is via the Condorcet method, while the dimensional assessment is evaluated via a z-score standardisation technique. Both approaches are appropriate and justifiable. The progress index is applied to three countries that are representative of different clusters. They are Australia (mid-industrialised nation), Mexico (emerging economy), and the US (highly industrialised nation). These selected countries provide an opportunity to highlight any divergences that may exist in their perceived economic strength. The results showed Australia as consistently having the highest levels of progress, closely followed by Mexico. Interestingly, the comparative results of the US and Mexico illustrated that it is possible to achieve high levels of progress without an excessive reliance on high levels of production and income. A sensitivity analysis was then conducted which exposed the progress index to a number of “what-if” scenarios. The main variables were selected under three different approaches: dynamic changes (coefficient of variation), empirical (literature review) and policy based. The sensitivity analysis resulted in altering some of the initial rankings.

Across the extensive body of literature on the subject of developing countries in the most recent period of globalised economic activity three main arguments are evident, firstly, that globalisation has had a positive impact on these countries, secondly, that globalisation has had a negative impact on these countries, and thirdly, that these countries have been by-passed by the most recent period of globalisation. This research seeks to understand what the impact has been on two of the world’s poorest developing countries, Bangladesh and Tanzania. Within the research globalisation is measured by openness, specifically changes in trade and investment flows. Impact is measured through change in development, and in order to do this, a modified Human Development Index is created. Through analysing each of the two countries during the globalisation period and comparing and contrasting the experience with the period prior to globalisation utilising common econometric techniques, this research reaches the conclusion that neither country has been excluded from the most recent period of globalisation. Further, it is concluded that the net impact of globalisation on development in both countries has been neither positive nor negative, thereby suggesting that both positive and negative forces have counterbalanced one another