This thesis is comprised of three distinct chapters, each of which is concerned in some way with the measurement of poverty. The first chapter provides social preference conditions which are both necessary and sufficient for a poverty line to arise endogenously. In so doing, it turns out that the apparently independent 'identification' and 'aggregation' problems in poverty measurement are subtly intertwined. Necessary and sufficient conditions are provided for the existence of both relative and absolute poverty lines. In each case, one of the conditions is a familiar weak monotonicity property. The other conditions are simple consistency requirements.In the second chapter, we propose classes of intertemporal poverty measures which take into account both the debilitating impact of prolonged spells in poverty and the mitigating effect of periods of affluence on subsequent poverty. The weight assigned to the level of poverty in each time period depends on the length of the preceding spell of poverty or of non-poverty. The proposed classes of intertemporal poverty measures are quite general and allow for a range of possible judgements as to the overall impact on a poor period of preceding spells of poverty or affluence. We discuss the properties of the proposed classes of measures and axiomatically characterize them.The third chapter is an empirical application of the intertemporal poverty measures proposed in the second chapter. The new measures, together with an existing intertemporal poverty measure from the literature, are used to analyse intertemporal poverty in Great Britain during the period 1991-2005, using data from the British Household Panel Survey. Previous studies on poverty using this data-set have employed static measures of poverty. We illustrate how the use of intertemporal poverty measures makes it possible to analyse aspects of poverty which cannot be captured by static, annual, measures of poverty. We then model the determinants of intertemporal poverty, conditional upon being poor, using a Heckman two-step selection model.

This thesis, motivated by the paucity of previous research in this subject area, describes an attempt to better understand the extent of poverty in rural Scotland and how the factors associated with that poverty may differ in the rest of the country. By identifying factors showing association uniquely with rural as opposed to urban poverty so policy decisions on targeted rural poverty alleviation could be made. Few such factors appear to have been tested formally for their association with poverty in rural Scotland. Using data from British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) datasets I create an income-based measure to compare levels of poverty across the rurality domain for the general population and several sub-populations. I also test the levels of association that factors found in the literature exhibit with households being in poverty, entering poverty and exiting poverty in both rural and non-rural Scotland. In so doing I highlight some of the data limitations within BHPS, particularly in the number of households in the remote and rural categories of the Scottish Government rural classification system. Under the current Scottish Government rural classification system it is evident that poverty in rural Scotland is lower than in the rest of the country. However, in-work poverty and fuel poverty are significantly higher in rural Scotland, where fluctuations in household fuel prices also appear to have a much quicker impact on poverty levels and levels of workless households than in the rest of the country. This thesis identifies evidence that the current definition of rural Scotland excludes parts of Scotland typically described as rural, with the result that the high levels of poverty in these areas goes unreported in most rural poverty analysis. Areas for further research are suggested, as is an alternative regional typology that may better reflect differences in poverty related factors across Scotland.

The Arctic Region is currently experiencing an amplified warming if compared to the rest of the world. The soils in this region store approximately half of the global soil organic carbon (OC), mainly locked in the permanently-frozen ground (permafrost). This carbon sink is sensitive to global warming meaning that the predicted warming will likely increase the thaw-release of this ‘old’ carbon. However, what happens to this remobilized OC once it is transported to the Arctic Ocean, including the potential conversion to greenhouse gasses causing a positive feedback to climate warming, remains unclear. In this work, we further investigate the fate of terrestrial derived OC (terrOC) in the Eurasian Arctic Region. The key findings of this work are: • Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) and bacteriohopanepolyols (BHPs) are present in marine sediments of the Eurasian Arctic Region and the associated Branched and Isoprenoidal tetraether (BIT) and Rsoil indices can be used to trace terrOC in marine realm. However, a slight modification in the Rsoil index is suggested (R’soil). • Analyses indicate that the behaviour of BIT is largely controlled by a marine GDGT contribution while the R’soil index is mainly controlled by the removal of soil marker BHPs. Although both indices suggest a non-conservative behavior for the terrOC, this leads to differences in the estimations for the percentage terrOC present. A multi-proxy approach is essential since the use of a single-proxy approach can lead to over/under estimation.• Comparison of BIT and 13Csoc indices across the East Siberian Shelf indicates that the BIT index is possibly reflecting a predominantly fluvial input while 13Csoc represents a mixed fluvial and coastal erosion input.• The macromolecular terrOC composition varies along a west-east Eurasian Arctic climosequence and is mainly controlled by the river runoff of surface derived terrOC and wetland coverage (sphagnum vs. higher plants) but is not affected by the presence/absence of continuous permafrost. • The phenols/(phenols+pyridines) ratio was suggested as a proxy to trace terrOC at the macromolecular level along the Kolyma River-East Siberian Sea transect. The results indicate a non-conservative behavior of the macromolecular terrOC comparable to the bulk of the terrOC.All molecular analyses/based proxies used showed that the remobilized terrOC in the Eurasian Arctic region behaves non-conservatively potentially causing a positive feedback to global climate change.

Esta tesis contribuye a la literatura analizando los efectos causales que el estado de salud tiene sobre la participación laboral en la población en edad de trabajar. De este modo, analiza los efectos que un deterioro en el estado de salud tiene sobre la participación laboral del individuo, así como los efectos de proveer cuidados informales sobre la participación laboral femenina. El primer capítulo utiliza una aproximación empírica homogénea en nueve países europeos, lo que hace posible relacionar las diferencias encontradas con diferencias en el contexto institucional. El segundo capítulo analiza el papel que juega el estado de salud en las transiciones hacia y fuera del empleo. Los resultados muestran que el estado de salud general afecta simétricamente las entradas y salidas del empleo, mientras que cambios en el estado de salud mental sólo influyen el riesgo de abandonar el empleo. El tercer capítulo examina los efectos de varios tipos de cuidados informales en el comportamiento laboral femenino. Los resultados sugieren que los costes de oportunidad laborales aparecen en aquellas mujeres que conviven con la persona dependiente, al mismo tiempo que los efectos negativos surgen cuando se proveen cuidados informales por un período superior al año. / This thesis aims to contribute to the literature with an attempt to identify the causal effects of health on labour market outcomes in the working-age population. I analyse the effects of the onset of a health shock on the individuals' labour market outcomes, and also the effects of caregiving on female labour participation. The first chapter uses a homogeneous empirical framework to estimate the first set of effects on nine European countries, which allows me to relate the empirical estimates to differences in social security arrangements across these countries. The second chapter analyses the role of health in exits out of and entries into employment and the results show that general health affects symmetrically entries into and exits out of employment, but changes in mental health status influence only the hazard of non-employment for the stock sample of workers. The third chapter examines the effects of various types of informal care on female labour behaviour and the results suggest the existence of labour opportunity costs for those women who live with the dependent person they care for, and the negative effects appear when caregiving for more than a year.