The ability of the state versus societal groups to influence the formulation of policies has long been debated in political sociology. I suggest that historical contingency theory provides insight to resolve this debate. I evaluate the explanatory power of societycentered, state-centered and historically contingent theories of policy formation using the case of deregulation of the natural gas industry. I find that capitalists in the natural gas industry unified in response to capital accumulation crises and mobilized politically to change their institutional arrangements to restore and expand profitability. These changes, in turn, expanded state structures, creating powerful mechanisms for groups in society to leverage the state to obtain favorable policy outcomes. In the natural gas industry, the key state structure was the industry’s regulatory body. Once this structure was created, the natural gas industry used it to leverage the state to incorporate deregulation into its national agenda. Thus, instead of increasing state autonomy, the creation and expansion of state structures undermines state autonomy and provides powerful groups in society with the means to control the policy formation process.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 400-437).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Berkeley, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 305-327).

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The U.S. airline industry's experience under a regime of deregulation, as well as the potential forms of strategic interaction in a duopoly are examined in order to determine what strategies Canada's two major carriers should adopt in the deregulated Canadian airline industry. The following recommendations are made to Air Canada and to Canadian Airlines International regarding price, service, and network strategies. First, the carriers should strengthen their hub and spoke operations (i.e. by further consolidating feeder carriers, and offering a high quality of service network-wide). Second, the airlines should strive to control costs (i.e. by reducing labour and fuel costs, while capitalizing on the potential economies of scope attainable through international operations). Finally, the carriers should apply their marketing expertise (i.e. by continuing to develop their yield management systems and frequent flier programs, as well as adopting innovative, new pricing strategies). / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The issue of price deregulation in the downstream oil sector of Nigeria through gradual subsidy withdrawal has generated a heated debate in the country with the government claiming that it will guarantee long term stability in product, supply and price. This will translate into economic growth and development. Others, especially the organised labour, claim that deregulation will lead to higher product prices, higher cost of production, and cut of jobs and will bring about recession in the economy. Therefore, this thesis employs Vector Auto regression Model using Variance Decomposition, Impulse Response Function and Granger Causality tests to assess the effect of price deregulation through gradual subsidy withdrawal in the downstream oil sector of Nigeria on four macroeconomic variables which are; GDP, Inflation, Unemployment and Minimum wage. The research finds evidence that changes in oil price, as a result of subsidy withdrawal, is the major source of variation in GDP, Inflation and Unemployment, while it is not found to be a significant source of variation in minimum wages. The result also reveals that there is positive impact of oil price changes on GDP and Inflation but negative impact on Unemployment and Minimum wages at the beginning of the observation period which became positive in the later stage of the observation. Finally the Granger causality test indicates unidirectional causality running from Petroleum prices to GDP and from Inflation to Petroleum prices while there is no evidence of causality on Minimum wage and Unemployment. The result of the granger causality test is an indication that the positive effect of changes in petroleum prices on GDP is not as a result of increased economic activity but a result of increased government spending due to increased revenue available to it as a result of subsidy withdrawal. The study suggests that countries wishing to deregulate their downstream oil sectors should evolve ways that will reduce the impact of the policy on cost of production, protect jobs, control inflation and protect real wage. This will mitigate economic recession and promote growth.

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