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This thesis examines the record of development and the prospects for national ascent in the anglophone Caribbean. It argues that a transformative dialectic is operating through the restructuring of political-economic relations in the Americas. NAFTA and its expansion open up possibilities for business linkages, joint venture arrangements, and investment and trade creation opportunities for participating countries. This is a structural development opportunity that Caribbean state managers can least ignore. Indeed, a record of missed or squandered opportunities extends backwards into the region's colonial past. Since the independence period, developmentalist projects have been stultified by populist-statism and the circulationism of merchant capital in the individual countries. In spite of this, the national option appeared a secure one. Economic viability rested on the sale of one or two cash crop exports; the securing of non-reciprocal trading arrangements in the international arena; the promotion of the individual countries as cheap labour platforms for foreign manufacturing; a dependence on incomes from tourism and offshore services; and easy access to international loan capital. Today, the shifting competitive dynamics of the international system have yery far reaching implications for the nature of the Caribbean political economy. Economies of scope and scale are increasingly being favoured. The region has been caught napping because capital accumulation remains rooted in distribution infrastructures and not production ones. Indeed, the hegemony of circulation over production in the Caribbean points to the special circumstances that attended the new political class at the time of independence in the 1960s. The stability goal took paramount importance. State managers and the old commercial oligarchy became united by a lowest commondenominator interest, i.e. to reap and extend the benefits of the status quo. The nature of this postcolonial arrangement meant that state managers would fail to deepen the process of capital accumulation and industrialise. This thesis suggests that in light of the present balance of global socio-political forces, and the region's economic malaise, the Caribbean will be on better ground to pursue economic recovery through a deeper form of regionalism. It argues that export-orientated development is a social transformation venture that goes beyond new fiscal measures and market reforms. Hence the need to engender the rise of a new economic class of industrial entrepreneurs. Accordingly, this thesis concludes that a regionalised developmental state in the Caribbean will be vital for altering the region's status in the international system and the hemisphere, and for pursuing a 'nurture industrial capitalism' project.

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The first chapter of this dissertation uses a three-sector intertemporal general equilibrium model to examine the effects of various taxes and favorable depreciation rules on capital accumulation and the depletion of natural resources. We find that in a world of infinitely lived firms and households, under certain conditions, taxation causes the steady-state level of capital to be lower than the no-tax level. This divergence, however is reduced by lower capital gains tax rates and favorable depreciation rules. We also find that taxation causes the extraction rate of natural resources to be faster than the social optimum. Although this difference is lessened by lower capital gains tax rates, it is exacerbated by a generous depreciation system. These results challenge the "conventional wisdom" that depreciation rules should be the same for all sectors. / Although the first chapter highlights the importance of a general equilibrium analysis of a multi-sector economy with intertemporally optimizing firms and consumers, there are a number of issues that it neglects. Among these are the adjustment costs associated with investments, and the fact that consumers might plan only for a finite horizon. The second and third chapters of this dissertation take up these issues. / The second chapter, which also uses an intertemporal model, determines theoretically how various taxes and adjustment costs affect the growth paths of domestic corporations and foreign subsidiaries of American multinationals. We find that the effects of capital gains taxation and adjustment costs on the growth paths of domestic corporations and foreign subsidiaries of American multinationals are likely to be unfavorable. / Finally, the third chapter uses a three period overlapping generations model to examine the effects of the capital income tax, the labour income tax, and favorable depreciation rules on human and physical capital accumulation. We find that, under certain conditions, the capital income tax has a negative impact on steady-state levels of physical and human capital, and the steady-state physical capital to human capital ratio. Moreover favorable depreciation rules are shown to reduce the impact of the capital income tax.

While resource based theory (RBT) addresses the importance of both possessing and orchestrating resources that have the potential of creating competitive advantage, it suggests little about the effects of unintentionally losing such resources. Further, RBT is silent about the manners in which firms replace after such losses by acquiring external resources. Attending to these gaps, this study considers the loss of professional human capital (PHC) in a panel data set of the largest U.S. based law firms, the contingencies of loss that effect subsequent firm performance, and the manner in which firms replace with new PHC. Results suggest that losing PHC with less firm specificity and PHC that has greater redundancy in geographic locations weakens the negative effects of loss. Additionally, organizational strain is theorized to cause replacement of PHC with external PHC hires similar to those already in the firm. Results show that this is the case for greater volumes of PHC loss and greater geographic diversification, but the opposite is true of prior performance and the manager-subordinate ratio. Implications for RBT, the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) model, and strategic human capital theory are discussed.

<p>Social capital is a concept discussed in recent years in many debates, particularly in the development context. The objective of the study is to investigate empirically whether social capital as part of networks could promote political participation of interest groups in the policy formulation process. This thesis includes a theoretical perspective which is based on an assessment and selection of theoretical material as well as fieldwork.</p>

Social capital refers to the relationships between people that are productive: it can provide people with access to resources, ease transactions, and facilitate social and economic development at the community level. It has been conceptualized as both associations between people and attitudes of trust and cooperation that enable ties to be productive. Within communities, these attitudes underlie social cohesion, which can be defined as social integration and a propensity to cooperate and contribute to the community. Moreover, it is interaction and social engagement that develops social capital by creating and maintaining relationships and fostering social cohesion. This thesis presents an analysis of the development of social capital in coastal British Columbia by considering how the social participation of community members generates socially cohesive attitudes. Moreover, I empirically consider how this relationship varies for different people in different places and across two different types of participation. Formal participation refers to engagement in structured and organized group activities, such as rotary clubs or sports teams, while informal activities are casual irregular and often spontaneous, such as visiting with friends. Using a series of multiple linear regressions on survey data from rural coastal communities in British Columbia, I test how the relationship between these two types of participation and social cohesion varies according to people’s socio-demographic characteristics or the communities in which they live. Not only does this research consider who develops social capital in this way, but also whether the relationship between participation and social cohesion differ along these social lines. The results show that processes of social capital development reflect the characteristics and social environments of community members in coastal British Columbia. The variability shows that social capital development is embedded within particular contexts in ways can lead to inequalities in social capital.

Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2004.