In the first essay of this thesis I test long-run monetary neutrality (LRMN) using the longhorizon approach of Fisher and Seater [18]. Using United States' data on M 2 and Net National Product they reject LRMN for the sample 1869-1975. However, I show that this result is not robust to the use of the monetary base instead of M2. Nor is it robust to the use of United Kingdom data instead of United States data. These results are consistent with the interpretation that Fisher and Seater's result is a consequence of the financial crisis of the 1930s causing inside money and output to move together. Using a Monte Carlo study I show that Fisher and Seater's rejection of LRMN can also be accounted for by size distortion in their test statistic. This study also shows that at longer horizons, power is very low. In the second essay I consider the financial crisis of the 1930s in the United States as change in regime. Using a bivariate version of Hamilton's [24] Markov switching model I estimate the probability that the underlying regime was one of financial crisis at each point in time. I argue that there was a shift to the financial crisis regime following the first banking crisis of 1930. The crucial reform in ending the financial crisis appears to have been the introduction of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in January 1934.1 also find that the time series of probabilities over the state of the financial sector contain marginal explanatory power for output fluctuations in the inter-war period. A problem when testing the null hypothesis of a linear model against the alternative of the Markov switching model is the presence of nuisance parameters. Consequently, the likelihood ratio test statistic does not possess the standard chi-squared distribution. In my third essay I perform a Monte Carlo experiment to explore the small sample properties of the pseudo likelihood ratio test statistic under the non-standard conditions. I find no evidence of size distortion. However, I do find that size adjusted power is very poor in small samples.

Closed depressions, low elevation features in a landscape with no outlet point, play an important role in both surface and subsurface hydrology. These depressions, which are common in hummocky morainal landscapes, pool incoming surface flow, promoting infiltration and facilitating leaching of surface pollutants into vital groundwater resources. Due to the cost of ground based identification in large areas and difficulties with the identification of irregular depressions, remote identification using digital elevation models (DEMs) stands as a practical and effective tool for the mapping of these closed depressions. A modified stochastic depression identification algorithm was used in this study to characterize depressions in the Waterloo and Paris-Galt-Guelph moraines of Southwestern Ontario. The simulation output was a map of depressions in the study area. Depressions were corroborated using GRCA Wetlands data, Google Street View imagery, SWOOP 2006 orthophotos and field validation. Depression corroboration showed that the algorithm was able to accurately identify the location of closed depressions containing wetlands and closed depressions that are dry (largely due to wetland draining) in the hummocky topography of the study site. This research has implications for depression mapping in the field of digital terrain analysis as it enables the identification of real depressions in large study areas with a moderate resolution DEM. Providing a means of efficiently mapping closed depressions is important because of the role closed depressions play in the recharge of important groundwater stores. / Natural Resources Canada

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In Canada, the depression of the 1930's forced existing private and public charities to adjust to the overwhelming financial pressures of the decade. Canada's largest urban centre, Montreal, was markedly different from every other major Canadian city because of the municipality's failure to accept any degree of responsibility for the poor and unemployed prior to 1930. Montreal was dominated by a complex private charity network that was divided by religion and language. This thesis examines how one large private charity organization, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies reacted and adjusted to the depression of the 1930's. Because the Montreal Council of Social Agencies was English and Protestant, it borrowed its methods and ideas from England, the United States and other provinces rather than from the largely French Catholic province of Quebec. During the depression, conceptions of charity were radically altered. The Montreal Council of Social Agencies tried to compel municipal, provincial and federal governments to play larger roles in welfare work and supported the professionalization of social work. Most significant, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies was guided through the 1930's by its own charity philosophy which was retained and reinforced rather than weakened by this crisis.

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