Since the mid-1980s, trade liberalisation has encouraged the growth of Australia’s international trade. The Australian wine industry has been successful in the world wine market, achieving a significant growth in production and export sales since the 1990s. In this context, this thesis attempts to provide a comprehensive analysis of the patterns and determinants of Australia’s international trade in wines for the period 1980-2004. The general aim of this thesis is to analyse the Australian wine industry based on the economic theories of inter-industry trade and intra-industry trade and to model wine export and import relationships. Indicators of Australia’s trade performance in wines in terms of trade specialisation index, export propensity, import penetration, and the ratio of exports to imports indicate that Australia has become a net-exporter and has experienced a specialisation in wine trade since 1987. This signifies a high degree of international trade competitiveness in Australia’s wines. The results of Balassa’s revealed comparative advantage index and Vollrath’s revealed competitive advantage indexes suggest that, among the wine producing countries, Australia has a comparative advantage and competitive advantage in wines. The significant year was 1987 when Australia first experienced comparative and competitive advantage. The important explanation for this turning point is Australia’s trade liberalisation policy in the mid-1980s. Based on econometric concepts of unit root and cointegration, the unrestricted error correction model is applied to analyse the determinants of Australia’s wine exports and imports separately in the models of export supply, export demand, and import demand. The results suggest that the relative price of wine exports and the long-run production capacity have had a positive influence on the supply of wine exports. However, Australia’s wine exports are not very responsive to changes in export price. Although the trade liberalisation shows a positive impact on the supply of wine exports, it is not statistically significant. Foreign demand for Australia’s wine exports has had a significant negative response to changes in the relative price of exports and a significant positive response to the depreciation of the Australian dollar in both the short run and long run. A low value of the price elasticity of foreign demand may reveal that Australia has some market power in relation to its exports of differentiated or unique wines to the world market. The demand for wine imports by Australia is inelastic with respect to the relative price of wine imports but more elastic to Australia’s income. The standard Grubel-Lloyd index is used to examine the extent of intra-industry trade of Australia and major world-wine trading countries. The index is also applied to Australia’s bilateral intra-industry trade in wines with its major trading countries. To measure the growth of intra-industry trade for Australia’s wines, the concept of marginal intra-industry trade is applied, together with Menon-Dixon’s approach. The results indicate that the world wine industry is more likely to be characterised by inter-industry trade which is based on the significance of comparative advantage and factor endowments rather than intra-industry trade. Australia has a relatively small intra-industry trade in wines. This is due to the fact that the values of Australia’s wine exports are very much higher than those of its imports. The extent of bilateral intra-industry trade in wines between Australia and its major trading partners is also small. However, the levels of bilateral intra-industry trade between Australia and New Zealand are relatively high. The growth of intra-industry trade in wines between Australia and most of the major wine-producing countries is due to the contributions of export growth to the growth in intra-industry trade, which imply that Australia is a net importer of wines from these countries. On the other hand, the percentage growth of intra-industry trade in wines between Australia and Germany, the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand, Canada, and Japan is due to the contributions of import growth to the growth in intra-industry trade, which imply that Australia is a net exporter of wines to these countries. The extent of Australia’s intra-industry trade with the rest of the world will be higher when the industry gains more scale economies. Contrary to the theoretical suggestions, product differentiations, degree of trade openness, and exchange rate have had negative relationships with Australia’s intra-industry trade in wines. With regard to Australia’s bilateral intra-industry trade with its nine major wine trading partners (France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the U.S., South Africa, New Zealand, the U.K. and Japan), the intensity of intra-industry trade in wines is statistically and positively related to the ratio of capital to labour, trade openness, common culture, and the regional trade arrangements. The policy implications of the analysis of the determinants of Australia’s intra-industry trade in wines are that the government policy should be oriented towards increases in the production capacity of the Australian wine industry in order to achieve higher economies of scale. In addition, the Australian government should promote regional economic integration and trade liberalisation involving wine trade between close and economically similar economies.

In the face of escalating health care expenditure, OECD countries are turning to a variety of cost-containment strategies. This thesis analyses three such mechanisms. In Part I, I consider the use of coinsurance to limit the demand for health care. Because coinsurance reduces the elasticity of demand with respect to the price of health care, consumers facing low coinsurance rates may be charged a higher price by doctors. Such discriminatory pricing enables the doctor to extract surplus created in the insurance market, and therefore reduces the effectiveness of coinsurance. I show that in equilibrium, some consumers remain uninsured. I also show how this problem is solved if the doctor and insurer enter into managed care style arrangements. Such arrangements improve insurer and doctor profitability, and restore complete insurance market coverage. In Part II, I consider the design of fundholding schemes which encourage doctors to restrict expensive treatment to severely ill patients. I show that such schemes may be undermined by a patient-doctor side contract. In the face of such patient-doctor collusion, the fundholding scheme may be made collusion-proof by increasing its "power". I show that the optimal collusion-proof scheme may pay the doctor more than his reservation wage. An alternative solution to patient-doctor collusion is to use a partial fundholding scheme that requires some additional co-payment from the patient. Part III analyses New Zealand's internal market reforms. Introduced in 1993, the reforms involved the separation of funding and provision of health care, and were intended to simulate a competitive market environment, thereby improving the incentives of government owned health care providers to be efficient. On the supply side, I look at the internal restructuring of hospitals into private-sector clones. I argue that this commercialisation failed to take account of informational issues within the hospital. On the demand-side, I examine the suitability of internal markets for eliciting optimal innovation from the hospital sector. Again, I find that a standard argument, namely that increased competition leads to innovation, is questionable in the context of the internal market. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

In the face of escalating health care expenditure, OECD countries are turning to a variety of cost-containment strategies. This thesis analyses three such mechanisms. In Part I, I consider the use of coinsurance to limit the demand for health care. Because coinsurance reduces the elasticity of demand with respect to the price of health care, consumers facing low coinsurance rates may be charged a higher price by doctors. Such discriminatory pricing enables the doctor to extract surplus created in the insurance market, and therefore reduces the effectiveness of coinsurance. I show that in equilibrium, some consumers remain uninsured. I also show how this problem is solved if the doctor and insurer enter into managed care style arrangements. Such arrangements improve insurer and doctor profitability, and restore complete insurance market coverage. In Part II, I consider the design of fundholding schemes which encourage doctors to restrict expensive treatment to severely ill patients. I show that such schemes may be undermined by a patient-doctor side contract. In the face of such patient-doctor collusion, the fundholding scheme may be made collusion-proof by increasing its "power". I show that the optimal collusion-proof scheme may pay the doctor more than his reservation wage. An alternative solution to patient-doctor collusion is to use a partial fundholding scheme that requires some additional co-payment from the patient. Part III analyses New Zealand's internal market reforms. Introduced in 1993, the reforms involved the separation of funding and provision of health care, and were intended to simulate a competitive market environment, thereby improving the incentives of government owned health care providers to be efficient. On the supply side, I look at the internal restructuring of hospitals into private-sector clones. I argue that this commercialisation failed to take account of informational issues within the hospital. On the demand-side, I examine the suitability of internal markets for eliciting optimal innovation from the hospital sector. Again, I find that a standard argument, namely that increased competition leads to innovation, is questionable in the context of the internal market. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

In the face of escalating health care expenditure, OECD countries are turning to a variety of cost-containment strategies. This thesis analyses three such mechanisms. In Part I, I consider the use of coinsurance to limit the demand for health care. Because coinsurance reduces the elasticity of demand with respect to the price of health care, consumers facing low coinsurance rates may be charged a higher price by doctors. Such discriminatory pricing enables the doctor to extract surplus created in the insurance market, and therefore reduces the effectiveness of coinsurance. I show that in equilibrium, some consumers remain uninsured. I also show how this problem is solved if the doctor and insurer enter into managed care style arrangements. Such arrangements improve insurer and doctor profitability, and restore complete insurance market coverage. In Part II, I consider the design of fundholding schemes which encourage doctors to restrict expensive treatment to severely ill patients. I show that such schemes may be undermined by a patient-doctor side contract. In the face of such patient-doctor collusion, the fundholding scheme may be made collusion-proof by increasing its "power". I show that the optimal collusion-proof scheme may pay the doctor more than his reservation wage. An alternative solution to patient-doctor collusion is to use a partial fundholding scheme that requires some additional co-payment from the patient. Part III analyses New Zealand's internal market reforms. Introduced in 1993, the reforms involved the separation of funding and provision of health care, and were intended to simulate a competitive market environment, thereby improving the incentives of government owned health care providers to be efficient. On the supply side, I look at the internal restructuring of hospitals into private-sector clones. I argue that this commercialisation failed to take account of informational issues within the hospital. On the demand-side, I examine the suitability of internal markets for eliciting optimal innovation from the hospital sector. Again, I find that a standard argument, namely that increased competition leads to innovation, is questionable in the context of the internal market. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

In the face of escalating health care expenditure, OECD countries are turning to a variety of cost-containment strategies. This thesis analyses three such mechanisms. In Part I, I consider the use of coinsurance to limit the demand for health care. Because coinsurance reduces the elasticity of demand with respect to the price of health care, consumers facing low coinsurance rates may be charged a higher price by doctors. Such discriminatory pricing enables the doctor to extract surplus created in the insurance market, and therefore reduces the effectiveness of coinsurance. I show that in equilibrium, some consumers remain uninsured. I also show how this problem is solved if the doctor and insurer enter into managed care style arrangements. Such arrangements improve insurer and doctor profitability, and restore complete insurance market coverage. In Part II, I consider the design of fundholding schemes which encourage doctors to restrict expensive treatment to severely ill patients. I show that such schemes may be undermined by a patient-doctor side contract. In the face of such patient-doctor collusion, the fundholding scheme may be made collusion-proof by increasing its "power". I show that the optimal collusion-proof scheme may pay the doctor more than his reservation wage. An alternative solution to patient-doctor collusion is to use a partial fundholding scheme that requires some additional co-payment from the patient. Part III analyses New Zealand's internal market reforms. Introduced in 1993, the reforms involved the separation of funding and provision of health care, and were intended to simulate a competitive market environment, thereby improving the incentives of government owned health care providers to be efficient. On the supply side, I look at the internal restructuring of hospitals into private-sector clones. I argue that this commercialisation failed to take account of informational issues within the hospital. On the demand-side, I examine the suitability of internal markets for eliciting optimal innovation from the hospital sector. Again, I find that a standard argument, namely that increased competition leads to innovation, is questionable in the context of the internal market. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

In the face of escalating health care expenditure, OECD countries are turning to a variety of cost-containment strategies. This thesis analyses three such mechanisms. In Part I, I consider the use of coinsurance to limit the demand for health care. Because coinsurance reduces the elasticity of demand with respect to the price of health care, consumers facing low coinsurance rates may be charged a higher price by doctors. Such discriminatory pricing enables the doctor to extract surplus created in the insurance market, and therefore reduces the effectiveness of coinsurance. I show that in equilibrium, some consumers remain uninsured. I also show how this problem is solved if the doctor and insurer enter into managed care style arrangements. Such arrangements improve insurer and doctor profitability, and restore complete insurance market coverage. In Part II, I consider the design of fundholding schemes which encourage doctors to restrict expensive treatment to severely ill patients. I show that such schemes may be undermined by a patient-doctor side contract. In the face of such patient-doctor collusion, the fundholding scheme may be made collusion-proof by increasing its "power". I show that the optimal collusion-proof scheme may pay the doctor more than his reservation wage. An alternative solution to patient-doctor collusion is to use a partial fundholding scheme that requires some additional co-payment from the patient. Part III analyses New Zealand's internal market reforms. Introduced in 1993, the reforms involved the separation of funding and provision of health care, and were intended to simulate a competitive market environment, thereby improving the incentives of government owned health care providers to be efficient. On the supply side, I look at the internal restructuring of hospitals into private-sector clones. I argue that this commercialisation failed to take account of informational issues within the hospital. On the demand-side, I examine the suitability of internal markets for eliciting optimal innovation from the hospital sector. Again, I find that a standard argument, namely that increased competition leads to innovation, is questionable in the context of the internal market. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

Chapter 1. In the 1970s, competition policy in the United States banking sector changed from exempting competition to liberalization and deregulation. Competition not only plays an important role in allocational efficiency but it is also essential for long-term economic growth. This chapter develops a model of banking contributions to evaluate to what extent banks affect the level of competition in the banking sector, and tests the model's predictions using a novel detailed dataset which includes all contributions made by banks from 1993 to 2010 in the United States. Controlling for banks' characteristics, the results are consistent with the model's predictions and show show that a higher level of contributions increases the Lerner index (as a measure of competition) or in the other words, decreases the level of competition. Chapter 2. This chapter provides the first empirical evidence that market structure affects the electoral power of firms as special interest groups. Firms not only affect the election outcomes by making contributions to their preferred candidates, they also enforce social norms among their members by encouraging them to vote for the candidate with the most closely-aligned interests. This chapter uses a linear probability model to analyze 574 open-seat races for the House of Representatives in the United States between 1990 and 2014. The results show that, even when controlling for the total value of contributions made to a candidate, political donations made by firms with high market power have a positive effect on the candidates' probability of winning. The findings are consistent with the idea from collective action theory that concentrated industries are more likely to behave as an organized interest group to advance their interests. Chapter 3. Ethnic heterogeneity is an important factor in the formation of human sexual network and the prevalence of STDs. Racial and ethnic ties create closed social networks with rigid in-group boundaries and hampers the intra-group dissemination of information. Slow information flow among groups facilitates the spread of STDs by encouraging individuals to ethnically diversify their sexual partners in order to lower the chance of getting caught cheating. Analyzing a cross-province sample of 39,830 sexually active adults driven from the 2013-2014 Canadian Community Health Survey, we find that individuals who live in a highly ethnically diversified neighbourhood are more susceptible to STDs compared to ones who live in a ethnically homogenous neighbourhood. Evidence from several robustness checks suggests that the relationship is causal.

Alfalfa is the fourth largest commodity grown in the Western U.S., representing 20% of the crop acreage over the past twenty years. In the last five years alfalfa hay price has doubled from what it was previously, indicating a possible structural change in the market. This research project was completed to test for this structural change using econometric analysis of the important demand components of alfalfa price. In addition to this, simulations of an average Utah dairy were completed to examine which ratio of forage crops provided the highest economic return to the operation. To analyze the structural change of the alfalfa hay market milk price, feeder price, commodity price, dairy inventory, alfalfa ending stocks, alfalfa exports, a structural shift dummy variable, and two proxy variables representing costs and quality were regressed, explaining 76% of the variation in alfalfa hay price. A Chow-test of the divided data set provided evidence that a structural change occurred in the alfalfa hay market circa 1994. Percent changes in the independent variables and corresponding changes in alfalfa price were calculated, showing that milk price has the largest influence over alfalfa price. An in-sample forecast showed that the regression was able to predict alfalfa hay price to within an average of $14 of the actual price over the time frame included in the analysis. The simulation of an average Utah dairy was done at three levels of production: 18,300 lbs, 22,500 lbs., and 26,700 lbs. production. Within each level of production the alfalfa to corn silage ratio was varied to represent 25/75, 50/50, and 75/25%, respectively, of the dry matter forage requirement. It was found that return to management was the greatest when alfalfa was 25% of the ration and at the lowest when alfalfa was 75% of the ration at all levels of production.

This dissertation is centered on applying `nonlinearity' across various fields, a decision informed by the understanding that linear models frequently fail to capture the full extent of real-world complexities. This approach is driven by the distinct insights that nonlinearity offers, insights crucial for a more profound and precise understanding of diverse phenomena. In this regard, I have explored a variety of empirical methodologies and theoretical frameworks, each chosen for its effectiveness in unraveling and accurately depicting the complexity inherent in different subjects. The first paper, "Warming Temperatures and Potential Adaptation through Breeding: Evidence from U.S. Soft Winter Wheat," examines the impact of climate change on wheat production. Given wheat's role as a major staple for much of the global population, its susceptibility to rising temperatures presents significant challenges to food security. Despite its importance, comprehensive production data for wheat considering extensive U.S. regions is relatively scarce. To address this, I compiled a unique dataset on wheat production comprising 35,000 observations over 50 years from USDA-ARS hard-copy publications. Findings obtained through the mixed-effects model reveal significant variations in the influence of nonlinearly specified temperature on wheat production. This analysis identifies a decline not only in wheat yield across various U.S. farming sites but also in wheat quality, an aspect often neglected in similar studies. The issue is further compounded by simulations I conducted, which predict worrying decreases in both yield and quality due to rising temperatures. Despite these challenges, my analysis of varietal improvements indicates modest yet significant progress in countering the effects of warming, offering viable strategies for agricultural adaptation. In the second chapter, "Semiparametric Analysis of Out-farm Migration in China," I explore the nonlinear relationship between sectoral migration and the income gap within China. This work builds on my co-authored publication, "Intersectoral Labor Migration and Agriculture in the United States and Japan," published in Agricultural Economics. While the earlier study employed discrete thresholds and kink approaches to explore migration patterns in developed countries such as Japan and the United States, it did not reveal significant nonlinear relationships. This led me to investigate whether the results were influenced by the economic development status of the countries in question. Focusing on China, a developing country with distinct labor dynamics, I employ semiparametric methodologies to assess migration patterns, diverging from the linear assumptions common in existing literature. By using nationally representative data, it suggests a potential nonlinear relationship between farmers' sectoral migration and the income gap, providing new insights into labor migration in developing contexts. The last chapter, "Enhanced Salience of Nonlinear Pricing and Energy Conservation," explores the energy consumption of residents of Hanoi in Vietnam, using a large-scale randomized control trial. I study whether enhancing salience of information with respect to the nonlinear pricing can help energy conservation. The novelty of the project lies in its experimental design and the utilization of digital tools such as smart meters and mobile apps, adopting technologies with the potential to alter consumer behavior. Currently, we are in the post-intervention data collection phase. Supported by the International Growth Centre (IGC), the project aims to bridge the research gap in energy consumption behavior in developing countries, thereby contributing to policymaking in energy management and development in these regions. Through these diverse yet interconnected chapters, I attempt to use the varied applications of nonlinearity in studying economic and environmental issues. The main objective is to contribute to both academic knowledge and practical policymaking in these fields, addressing complexities that are often oversimplified. This approach aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the intricate dynamics in these areas. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation focuses on the application of `nonlinearity' across various fields, acknowledging that linear models often fail to fully capture the complexities of real-world scenarios. This approach yields essential insights for a more precise understanding of diverse phenomena, incorporating a range of empirical methods and theoretical models, each selected for their efficacy in accurately depicting complexities in various subjects. The first part of my dissertation examines the agricultural sector, specifically the impact of weather on crop yields. Instead of traditional methods that use basic temperature data like minimum, maximum, or average values, I use a nonlinear approach that aligns with the specific growth stages of crops. In the area of labor economics, the dissertation explores migration patterns in China. It questions the traditional linear relationship between migration and income disparities, suggesting a more complex model that better represents the dynamics of a developing economy. The final chapter addresses the field of energy policy, examining consumer responses to nonlinear electricity pricing models in practice. This section explores the challenges faced by individuals in understanding such policies and assesses the impact of providing real-time information about nonlinear pricing on promoting energy conservation.

In recent years the creative industries have become a focus of policy and academic discussion across the world. However, much of the existing literature has concentrated on national perspectives or on social and economic regeneration strategies in large cultural cities while data and understanding at the local level is more limited. This thesis aims to help redress this imbalance by focussing on the smaller and less established context of Urban South Hampshire on the central south coast of England. Longitudinal case studies are used to explore two key research questions, firstly, what are the needs, motivations and experiences of people hoping to develop careers and businesses in the sector; and secondly, how can local initiatives and public sector interventions support creative industries development. While some guidance is available to assist local and regional decision-makers there are few studies which follow the evolution of specific interventions over time to evaluate their effectiveness and inform future sectoral strategies. Although the urban bias of the creative industries is well documented this thesis argues that under the right conditions and with the right policies and initiatives towns and smaller cities can offer a more welcoming, affordable and socially cohesive creative milieu in contrast to the highly competitive environments of major cities. Demand for specialist initiatives with a dual focus on nurturing creative practice as well as promoting enterprise and business skills is also highlighted. This is especially relevant at the cultural-end of the sector which is becoming increasingly exposed to market pressures in part due to recent cuts in public sector spending. The thesis also argues that creative individuals are seeking new spaces to exist within the sector which allow them a level of creative autonomy over their practice while also enabling them to develop sustainable careers and successful businesses.