L’objet de cette thèse est de déterminer la présence d’avantages concurrentiels dans les marchés des communications électroniques d’Amérique du Sud. Les principaux opérateurs présents dans la région, dont Telefónica et América Móvil, sont entrés dans des conditions favorables au moment de la privatisation de l’industrie au cours des années 1990. A partir du début des années 2010, des changements dans la régulation tendent à rendre les marchés plus concurrentiels. L’évolution des performances dans ce contexte offre l’opportunité d’observer quels sont les opérateurs qui possèdent un avantage concurrentiel, et ceux dont la position découle de conditions d’entrée favorables. Cette thèse est articulée en cinq chapitres. Les deux premiers présentent le contexte institutionnel et l’évolution des marchés des télécommunications dans les trois pays cités. Dans le troisième chapitre, nous établissons que la concurrence dans les trois pays se fait par les infrastructures et s’accompagne d’une différenciation qualitative entre les opérateurs. Afin de déterminer si cette différenciation conduit à des avantages concurrentiels, nous analysons la présence de liens dans l’évolution des marges opérationnelles, et dans la volatilité des retours des actions des opérateurs (quatrième et cinquième chapitres). Nos résultats indiquent qu’il existe des liens à court terme dans l’évolution des marges opérationnelles entre opérateurs présents dans un même pays, ce qui indique une différenciation insuffisante pour s’affranchir des pressions concurrentielles. De plus la volatilité des retours des actions des opérateurs nationaux est nettement supérieure à celle des opérateurs multinationaux. / The purpose of this thesis is to determine the presence of competitive advantages in Latin American Telecommunications markets. Most of major operators present in the region, including Telefónica and América Móvil, entered the market in favorable conditions when the industry was privatized in the early 1990s. In the past ten years markets have become more competitive due to changes inregulation. The analysis of the evolution of operators’ performances in this context allows to distinguish between those having actual competitive advantages and those having a strong market position thanks to their entry strategy. This thesis consists of five chapters. In chapters one and two we analyze the institutional context and the evolution of the telecommunications markets of each country. In chapter three, we determine that competition is characterized by facility-based entry in the three countries, which leads to disparities in terms of quality of service between operators. To determine if these disparities lead to competitive advantages, we test the presence of short and long-term relationships in the evolution of operators’ operating margins, and on stock market returns volatility. Our results indicate the presence of short term relationships in the evolution of operating margins, which suggests that differentiation is not strong enough to escape from competitive pressure. However, stock return volatility is higher among local operators than among multinational operators.

Les émissions de polluants atmosphériques ont tendance à diminuer dans l'ensemble des industrialisés. Néanmoins, l'exposition actuelle à la pollution atmosphérique engendre encore des effets néfastes sur la santé. Dans ce contexte, l'impact de la pollution environnementale sur la santé est priorité croissante de santé publique. Mon projet de thèse consiste donc à étudier les impacts sanitaires liés à la dégradation de l’environnement et d'analyser leurs conséquences macroéconomiques. Le premier objectif de cette thèse est de rassembler deux pans de la littérature en se focalisant sur les liens existant entre pollution et risques sanitaires et SI inégalités sociales d'exposition aux risques environnementaux. Par le biais d'études économétriques, étudions d'une part les taux de mortalité associés à la pollution atmosphérique selon le statut socioéconomique de la population des départements français et, d'autre part, les liens entre poil atmosphérique et santé des enfants à la naissance au sein des communes françaises en utilisant l’expérience naturelle. Par ailleurs, la dernière partie de cette thèse s'attache à mettre en regard la méthode des prix hédoniques, évaluation des références reposant sur une perception subjective des effets 1 pollution, avec la fonction de dommage, méthode de valorisation objective des coûts de la santé. / Many pollutants are declining throughout the industrialized world. However, exposure to air pollution, even at the levels commonly achieved nowadays in European countries, still leads to adverse health effects. In this context, there has been increasing global concern over the public health impacts attributed to environmental pollution. The thesis aims to examine health impacts linked to environmental pollution by sheding light on their macroeconomic consequences. The first objective of the thesis is to explore empirically the relations between socio-economic status, environmental exposures and health outcomes. Through econometric analysis, we study the total mortality rate in relation to socioeconomic status and air pollution for the French department, and the effect of energy production on new born health using a recent strike that affected oil refineries in France as a natural experiment. Finally, the last part of the thesis tries to draw inferences about individuals' valuations of risk by combining estimates of the effect of air pollution on bath property values and hospital respiratory admissions for respiratory causes.

<p dir="ltr">Author: Carrillo Siller, Karen Ivanna. MS</p><p dir="ltr">Institution: Purdue University</p><p dir="ltr">Degree Received: August 2024</p><p dir="ltr">Title: Unveiling Discrepancies- An Analysis of Women’s Current and Preferred Workplace</p><p dir="ltr">Committee Co-Chairs: Maria I. Marshall & Roberto Gallardo</p><p dir="ltr">This study investigates current and preferred workplace mismatches in the North Central Region, particularly the degree of mismatch in the female population. We hypothesize that asymmetric unemployment threats boosted by the COVID-19 economic shutdown, and caregiving or household increased burdens forced vulnerable groups (including women) of the workforce to work in locations that unequaled their real workplace preference. To test this hypothesis, we apply two multinomial logistic (MNL) regressions using secondary survey data to obtain likelihood and percentage point effects of individual attributes. We estimate that despite showing a 68% probability of working at the office, there exists only an 48% probability that individuals prefer such work location. Furthermore, we find that women have 3.3 percentage points (pp) higher probability of currently working remotely than men and show the greatest preference for this work arrangement; despite gender having no effect in current work site, women have 11.8pp lower probability of preferring in-person work than men, where younger women have no observed preference between work arrangements. Additionally, control variables showed that other greatly mismatched populations include rural residents, and low remote potential occupation workers. Main attributes such as gender and adult caregiving accessibility shape preferences, whereas educational attainment, household income, and occupation define current worksite. These results highlight the importance of flexible work arrangements in the American economy and their ever-greater inclination between members of the workforce, despite lack of greater opportunities, policies, and regulations.</p>

This thesis set out to explore the forces that determine the rise and fall of industrial leadership. It attempted to do this by applying an industry life cycle model to the shipping industry. The industrial life cycle was posited on the basis of existing literature, particularly the growth of knowledge, evolutionary and institutional literature, which lend themselves to patterns of industrial growth and entrapment. On this basis, this thesis set out to examine whether industrial leadership can be explained by a four-staged process of imitation, catch up, advance and entrapment. However, this thesis has exposed something more complicated. Processes of imitation, catch up advance and entrapment were shown to be at work in the shipping industry, but they were tempered by the effects of military and political forces that may not be exogenous, and the trend from regionalism to globalisation. The original model did not encompass early indigenous developments that are not based on imitation that do not immediately lead to a position of advanced leadership. In this light, a better description of the first stage would be capability building.

Neo-liberalism has become the dominant approach to economic development since the 1980s. Based on the economic principle of “efficiency”, the Washington Consensus and its supporters have avidly promoted the neoliberal orthodoxy as the ideal blueprint for the economic development of all countries in every region. However, as this thesis has discovered, the efficiency of public policy is weighed not by its conformity to an ideology but on how effective it responds to the economic and social problems of the population in question. In recent years Tonga has endured severe economic shocks which have pushed its low growth economy to the brink of economic crisis. In response to this crisis, the Government has chosen greater economic liberalisation and private sector – led growth to lead the economy to recovery. The Washington Consensus and its international supporters claim that this is the best policy response for Tonga due to the belief that greater liberalisation leads to greater efficiency. This thesis however believes that at the current dire state of the economy, it is not enough for Tongan public policy to just conform to international views on efficient economic development but to ensure that its economic development policies address the economic and social needs of the general Tongan population. With this in mind, this thesis investigated the role of agriculture in economic development. It identified that for an agriculture-based country such as Tonga, at low levels of growth, agricultural development is fundamental to long term economic growth. This research also revealed that agricultural growth is maximised through trade hence suggesting increased focus on agricultural export development. Based on these findings, this research project set out to verify the efficiency of Government agricultural policies by identifying the views of agricultural exporters and comparing these with Government approaches to agricultural export development in Tonga.

According to Porter (1990), there are certain characteristics of a country that allow its industries to create and sustain competitive advantage, or prevent them from doing so. The objective of this study was to identify and compare the sources of competitive advantage or disadvantage for the Uruguayan and New Zealand beef industries. To accomplish these objectives, Porter’s Diamond Framework was selected as the theoretical framework to assess the competitive advantage of nations. Two case studies “the Beef Industry in Uruguay” and “the Beef Industry in New Zealand” were carried out. The information was obtained from secondary sources and open-ended interviews to key informants in both countries. Uruguay and New Zealand possess observable similarities, such as size, population, similar farmland area, and an economy based on agriculture with low levels of subsidies and trade regulations. In addition, the industries in both countries target the international market. Considering beef production, these countries produce beef based on pastures; hence, they have similar seasonal fluctuations in slaughter and in the product offered into the market. These similarities make these countries interesting to compare. On the other hand, Uruguay and New Zealand have differences. They are in different stages of economic development, and have cultural, sociological and educational differences. The beef industry is the most important economic activity in Uruguay, as can be illustrated by the resources allocated in this sector and in the volume and value of exported beef. In New Zealand, the beef industry is less important; however, it constitutes an excellent complementary activity for sheep and dairy productions. Both beef industries also have differences in their levels of productivity, stock compositions, stock categories, age of slaughtered animals, sanitary status, and locations in relation to markets. This suggests different sources of competitive advantage. The results show that the Uruguayan beef industry has a weaker diamond than its New Zealand counterpart does. However, the industry in Uruguay has been increasing the use of resources in comparison to other pastoral activities such as dairy and sheep. In contrast, the New Zealand beef industry, despite having a stronger diamond than the Uruguayan beef industry, has a secondary role behind the sheep and dairy industry. There are two clear limitations for the Uruguayan beef industry. First, the performance of the primary sector is poor. Second, the Uruguayan exported beef receives a lower price than the New Zealand product, and has difficulties for gaining access to certain markets. These two characteristics were identified as the most dissimilar for both industries. The selected research design and theoretical framework were adequate to accomplish the objectives. Although most of Porter’s findings were not supported in this study, using the framework allowed the development of an exhaustive analysis of the possible factors affecting the sources of competitive advantage in both industries. Comparing diamonds in different countries has not been done before; therefore, this research provides empirical evidence of the advantages and disadvantages of using this framework for international comparisons. Finally, the information presented in this research did not intend to suggest possible strategies or policies to increase the competitiveness of both industries. However, the results are likely to provide useful information for further studies in these industries.

This paper relates openness to the decline in inflation by using panel data for six OECD (the USA, Japan, Canada, Portugal, Finland, and Australia) countries over the period from 1980 to 2006. I obtain industrial level data for twenty industries in each of the six countries in the timeframe and estimate the effects of increases in openness, through its effect on productivity and markups on inflation. The methods used to construct the variables in this paper follow methods introduced in Chen, Imbs and Scott (2004), and the estimations follow Chen, Imbs and Scott (2007). The results suggest openness reduces the rate of inflation in the short run. Furthermore, it also reduces short run productivity and markups. The long run results are ambiguous, however. The evidence that openness leads to anti-competitive effects in the long run is weak. JEL Classification: E31, F12, F14, F15, L16 Keywords: Openness, Prices, Productivity, Markups

This dissertation is concerned with enhancing the utility of social capital by developing and testing a comprehensive and measurable framework as a tool for researchers, policy-makers, and development theorists and practitioners. A framework was developed for measuring the degree to which different forms of social capital reside in a community and for distinguishing community-to community variations. The Framework was also designed to identify the accumulation of social capital in relation to structural characteristics within a community, and to identify what advantages might be associated with variants of social capital. The pursuit of the understanding of social capital has been convened within narrow disciplinary fields and has reduced the notion in definition, purpose, and utility. Much of the literature and past research has focused on approximations to identify social capital that are field-specific and representative of, at best, markers of social capital, rather than social capital itself. For this reason, this dissertation is concerned with developing a robust framework that has the potential to embrace the nature and extent of social capital across these disciplinary fields, while providing insight into the forms, influences, and trajectories of social capital. The utility of the Social Capital Framework that was developed for this dissertation was examined by transforming the Framework into a survey tool for administering in two communities to identify applicability and sensitivity for identifying the degree to which variants of social capital reside. The results showed that the Framework was able to distinguish the degree to which different forms of social capital existed, and how the social capital accumulates in relations to structural variables, in particular, gender. The Framework’s utility was not universal across all forms of social capital and showed that further enhancements are required, particularly, if it is to enable social capital to be attributed to forms of advantage. The results also identified areas where future research would be of value, particularly, in examining the trajectory of people’s forms of social capital.

This thesis explores claims that organic agriculture may be an empowering development strategy by investigating the impacts of conversion to organic farming systems on the lives of small-scale farmers in Cambodia. The thesis interrogates the diverse uses and abuses of the term =empowerment‘ in development rhetoric and argues for an empowerment model that is derived from farmers‘ self-defined concepts of development. This model was used to conduct a qualitative case study involving semistructured interviews and focus groups with members of organics initiatives in seven diverse Cambodian communities. Results indicate that many farmers in all communities felt that their most important objective was not only to achieve food security, but to be able to grow sufficient rice to feed their family. Farmers joined the organics initiatives primarily to improve their health and reduce the cost of farming inputs. As a result of joining the initiatives, all farmers (including both certified and non-certified organic farmers) felt they had improved their health and food security. Most farmers also increased incomes, created stronger family and community ties and felt they had more control over their livelihoods. These benefits were not, however, distributed equally amongst individuals or communities. Very poor and isolated farmers could not generally access benefits. The three main factors that determined the impact of the organics initiatives on farmer empowerment were identified as: the individual‘s level of resources, the strength of the farmer group, and the policies and values of the supporting organisation. The implications for future initiatives are, firstly, the tremendous potential for farmers and wider rural communities to benefit from organic agriculture as a development strategy. However, this study also shows that if organics is to be viable for low-resource people, it may be necessary to promote both resources and techniques in organics initiatives. Also, a focus on building strong relationships both within the farmers group and linkages with local and wider stakeholders may enhance long-term sustainability of organics initiatives.

As economies develop, novel products are created and markets for these products arise. Genetically modified food (GMF) is an example of such a novel product and provides economists with the opportunity to investigate an infant market. Of particular interest with GMF is the impact of consumer reactions on the market. The response of consumers to GMF and their willingness to pay for it has emerged as an important factor in the development of this technology. This research investigates these consumer responses. Prior research suggests that two aspects of consumer behaviour may be relevant for the GMF market. First, consumers may react differently to different types of GMF, so that some products are potentially more economically viable. Secondly, some consumers appear to prefer not having GMF at all. Consumer behaviour is often framed according to neoclassical economic theory. Consumer preferences over goods and the attributes of those goods are generally held to have certain properties. The aspects of consumers' reactions to GMF noted above, however, may be in conflict with two properties of preferences in neoclassical theory. First, preferences over food attributes are not separable, but may interact with each other. Secondly, some consumers may have preferences regarding GMF that are not continuous. As a result, aggregate impacts of introducing GMF may be difficult to measure, which raises a third issue for investigation, aggregation. Finally, an alternative model of consumer behaviour is bounded rationality, which theorises that choices may be discontinuous as a result of specific protocols. It also suggests that consumers seek to make good-enough choices, rather than attempting to maximise their satisfaction. Thus, optimisation or maximisation is the fourth issue considered in this thesis. In order to investigate these properties of consumers' preferences, a choice experiment survey was developed. The strength of a choice experiment for examining these issues is its focus on the impact of each product attribute on a respondent's choices. Thus, it may be possible to identify potentially discontinuous choice patterns and to identify choices affected by interactions between GM technology and other food attributes. Results from a neoclassical analysis of the survey data suggest that some consumers consider the type of benefit created with GM technology in making their choices. In addition, one-quarter to one-half of respondents may have had discontinuous preferences with respect to GMF. Reactions to GMF appear related to respondents' attitudes, but not to socio-economic or demographic descriptors. As a result, aggregate measures of the impact of GMF may not fully account for consumers' responses. A boundedly rational model also has reasonable goodness of fit, and may provide a different perspective on consumer behaviour. It is hoped that the results of this research provide a better understanding of consumer behaviour regarding GMF and, by extension, of the process of consumer adoption of novel products. It is further hoped that this attempt to incorporate choice protocols into discrete choice analysis will provide a useful example for further research.