To promote economic recovery and create jobs, Oregon has developed a collaborative approach to economic development and turned its attention to stimulating the growth of competitive industry (Porterian) clusters. The electric vehicle (EV) cluster is one of the state's 21 priorities. With federal funding for electric vehicle infrastructure and The Electrification of Transportation initiatives, momentum is building. The Oregon University System, a number of state agencies and a coalescing group of EV entrepreneurs are pushing Oregon forward as a major player in the global marketplace. This thesis reviews an Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium study to determine whether the institutions of the Oregon University System and the state government are meeting the needs of EV entrepreneurs in this effort. The review concludes that Oregon's institutions need to further develop their collaborative networks with entrepreneurs for Oregon to be a competitor.

We explore certain structural elements of venture capital investment, focusing on the role of venture capital as an asset class dedicated to technology investment. The structural role of technology as contributing to the total factor productivity is captured through the use of endogenous growth mechanisms as found in Romer (1990) and Rivera-Batiz and Romer (1991). In the first chapter, we explain certain elements of the two recessions in the first decade of the 21st century by combining these endogenous growth mechanisms with a financial accelerator in the market for production capital to capture the financial elements associated with decreased leverage after a financial crisis. In the second chapter, we assess the impact of policies in the late 1970s which largely created venture capital by encouraging technology investment to occur through debt contracts rather than equity contracts. We explain a set of stylized facts by contrasting a debt mechanism and an equity mechanism for an asset that derives its value from returns to technology goods in a stochastic endogenous growth model. Our final chapter deals with the disposition of venture capitalists towards Knightian uncertainty. We show that an uncertainty-loving behavior of venture capitalists leads to a Pareto improvement in the economy. However, the magnitude of the effect of changes in disposition towards uncertainty is small, implying that bubbles in the venture capital market caused by this type of uncertainty-loving behavior should not be a great concern for investors and policy makers.

O desenvolvimento econômico é um fenômeno complexo e multidimensional, podendo ser melhor compreendido a partir de abordagens que levem em conta o papel das instituições. A presente tese, a partir da inadequação da teoria neoclássica para análise do desenvolvimento econômico por conta de sua incapacidade de incorporar elementos do mundo real decorrente de suas bases teóricas, metodológicas e epistemológicas, busca compor um conjunto de abordagens institucionalistas e heterodoxas que permitam compreensão mais ampla, adequada e realista do processo de desenvolvimento econômico. Para atingir este objetivo, será realizada uma revisão teórica a respeito do desenvolvimento econômico, iniciando com o processo histórico concreto após a Revolução Industrial. As interpretações dos economistas clássicos e, posteriormente, de Schumpeter, inspiradas por este processo, serão mencionadas. A seguir, será feito o resgate da economia do desenvolvimento, apresentando as contribuições dos pioneiros deste ramo, antes da economia neoclássica tornar-se dominante. Conclui-se que a abordagem institucionalista é compreendida como mais adequada para o estudo do desenvolvimento, desde que sejam aprofundadas as complementaridades entre o institucionalismo e outras abordagens heterodoxas que privilegiem as especificidades históricas, necessárias para preencher algumas lacunas e superar algumas limitações. Neste sentido, a convergência de correntes teóricas institucionalistas (Economia Institucionalista Original, Nova Economia Institucional e Economia Política Institucionalista) somadas às abordagens evolucionária e pós-keynesiana, bem como o papel do Estado, da tecnologia e da incerteza, configuram-se como determinantes para a compreensão do desenvolvimento econômico. / Economic development is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon, which can be better understood from approaches that take into account the role of institutions. The present thesis departs from the inadequacy of neoclassical theory to the analysis of economic development because of its inability to incorporate real-world elements due to their theoretical, methodological and epistemological foundations. It seeks to compose a set of institutionalist and heterodox approaches that would enable a more broad, adequate and realistic comprehension of the economic development process. To achieve this goal, a theoretical review will be held regarding economic development, starting with the concrete historical process after the Industrial Revolution. The interpretations of the classical economists and Schumpeter, were inspired by this process, will be mentioned. Then, development economics will be reviewed featuring the contributions of the pioneers of this field, before neoclassical economics become dominant. The study concludes that the institutionalist approach is more suitable for the study of development, as long as the complementarities between institutionalism and other heterodox approaches that emphasize historical specificities are detailed in order to complete some gaps and overcome some limitations. In this sense, the convergence of institutionalist theoretical perspectives (Original Institutional Economics, New Institutional Economics and Institutionalist Political Economy) in addition to evolutionary and post-Keynesian approaches, and the role of the State, technology and uncertainty constitute as determinants for the understanding of economic development.

Master of Arts / Department of Geography / Max Lu / Over the past century, the mechanization of agriculture, the rise of the automobile, youth out-migration, and a variety of other factors have led to the population and economic decline of once-booming small towns across rural America, and especially the Great Plains. As a result, schools, churches, and services have been forced to close or consolidate; in many cases, entire towns have vanished. A variety of state and federal mitigation practices have been put forward, often to no avail or limited success. This has caused some communities to take matters into their own hands, including the initiation of land giveaways — programs in which an applicant receives a residential lot on which they are required to build a house to designated specifications and live in it for a given number of years. In Kansas alone, 27 communities have employed such a program, and in most other Great Plains states and provinces, at least one community has done the same. The programs were initially a media curiosity, and major news outlets, including USA Today, made small towns across Kansas famous by featuring them on the front page of their publications. Some of the most recent scholarly literature, published in 2007, pointed to “impressive” results in reversing a century-old trend. That was over a decade ago, however, and more recent news publications have been more pessimistic. This research is based on interviews and conversations with five program directors and local decisionmakers, four new residents, and a newspaper editor in the communities of Marquette, Ellsworth, Mankato, and Lincoln, Kansas, to determine what has changed in these communities, what makes some programs more successful than others, what challenges the programs have faced, and whether locals think the programs are a success. These programs have not reversed the 100-year-old trend of rural decline, but, in some communities, they have caused small population and construction booms bringing new money into the community and have delayed the closing or downsizing of community institutions. In short, the programs have proven to be a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

Submitted by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-04-13T20:45:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Carvalho, Simone Maria Lima de.pdf: 2012849 bytes, checksum: 2652d33380f2284dcb1657e6c63537e0 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Patricia Barroso (pbarroso@ufba.br) on 2015-05-05T14:16:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Carvalho, Simone Maria Lima de.pdf: 2012849 bytes, checksum: 2652d33380f2284dcb1657e6c63537e0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-05T14:16:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carvalho, Simone Maria Lima de.pdf: 2012849 bytes, checksum: 2652d33380f2284dcb1657e6c63537e0 (MD5) / O trabalho tem como objetivo discutir o desenvolvimento econômico no estado da Bahia, buscando compreender o que caracterizam as propostas e as ações estratégicas do governo estadual no âmbito do desenvolvimento econômico (em sua dimensão territorial) no período de 2007 a 2013 e o seu rebatimento no desenvolvimento (social). Para tal, realizou-se uma pesquisa qualitativa descritiva, por meio de análise de documentos oficiais, entrevistas semiestruturadas com representantes do setor público, setor privado e sociedade civi organizada, bem como de recursos de pesquisa bibliográfica. Verificou-se que o perfil do desenvolvimento econômico baiano não sofreu alterações significativas, identificando-se intenções e perspectivas de mudanças. Existem alguns planos setoriais e ações principalmente na área de infraestrutura e o despontar de algumas atividades econômicas em áreas antes consideradas não atrativas que poderão modificar o perfil econômico do estado, diversificando a sua estrutura produtiva e incluindo a parcela da população que ainda não se beneficiou dos frutos do desenvolvimento. Iniciativas na modernização da gestão como a adoção da abordagem territorial no planejamento e a abertura de canais de participação da sociedade nas discussões sobre as políticas públicas contribuíram para uma ativação da sociedade civil organizada, embora a sua participação esteja restrita a um papel consultivo. A articulação desses elementos através de um projeto de desenvolvimento constitui-se uma lacuna a ser resolvida, tendo em vista um desenvolvimento equilibrado social, econômico e ambientalmente. As principais referências teóricas utilizadas foram: Rául Prebisch, Celso Furtado, Bresser Pereira, André Singer, Tânia Bacelar Araújo, Clélio Campolina Diniz e Luiz Ricardo Cavalcante. This paper aims to discuss the economic development in the state of Bahia, in order to understand what characterizes both, strategical proposals and actions of the state government concerning to its economic development (in its territorial dimension) in the period of 2007 to 2013 and its impact on social development. For that purpose, a descriptive qualitative research was performed through the analysis of official documents, semi-structured interviews with representatives of both public and private sectors and also civil society, as well as resources of bibliographic research. It was found that the profile of Bahia's economic development has not change significantly, identifying intentions and prospects for change. There are some sectional plans and actions mainly in the infrastructure, as well as the emergence of some economical activities in areas previously considered unattractive that could change the economic profile of the state, diversifying its productive structure and including a portion of the population that has not yet benefited from the results of economic development. Initiatives on the management modernization such as the adoption of a territorial approach of the planning and the opening of means of participation for the general society on the discussions about public policies had contributed to an activation of the civil society, even though its participation is strictly advisory. The articulation of these elements through a development project constitutes a gap to be addressed in order to establish a balanced development in the social, economic and environmental spheres. The main theoretical references used on this paper were: Prebisch, Celso Furtado, Bresser Pereira, André Singer, Tania Bacelar Araújo, Clélio Campolina Diniz and Ricardo Luiz Cavalcante.

Rapid economic growth has always been one of the goals of the South African government after 1994. Despite the contradicting views of the theorists, the country considered the global market as one of the gateways to accelerated economic growth. In the early 1990s South Africa opened up to foreign markets by removing trade barriers. However, the results of such actions were not entirely as expected. Different economists suggest other barriers that may be the reason behind lower levels of national output. This study examined the causal relationship between exports and economic growth in South Africa using annual data from 1970 to 2014. However, in order to achieve the main objective of this study, it was necessary to include other variables in the model as suggested by both theoretical and empirical literature. The choice of these variables was informed by an extensive review of literature on both exports and economic growth. The VECM and Granger Wild test has been utilised to capture the short run and long run dynamics of the model. The results from those tests do not approve of the Export-Led growth hypothesis and did not approve any sort relationship between exports and GDP in the short run. In the long run however, using the VECM, the study proved that exports have a positive impact on GDP. The results further suggested a negative long run relationship between consumption and economic growth. Furthermore; the results suggested that government expenditure can be detrimental to the economy in the long run. With regards to private investments, the results of this study suggest a positive relationship between investments and economic growth. Therefore, if South African government seeks to increase economic growth it needs to dedicate a considerable amount of resources in promoting local markets to expand South African exports, cut on government expenditure and attracting investment into the county.

abstract: The city of Shanghai is set to become an international financial center (IFC) by 2020. To achieve this goal, it is imperative to clearly define the key characteristics of an IFC. In this study I draw from recent research on the ranking of IFCs to develop an index of these key characteristics that can be used to assess a city’s standings as an IFC. Based on a review of prior research, I first put together a comprehensive list of the indicators that have been used to evaluate IFCs, which includes six first-level indicators and 34 second-level indicators. I then collect information on all these indicators from public sources for the following eight cities each year from 2011 to 2013: London, New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai. Next, I conduct a principal component analysis (PCA) on my data, and obtain four primary factors that contain most information of the original 34 indicators. The first factor covers 18 of the original indicators and reflects a city’s level of development in general business environment. The second factor covers 10 of the original indicators and reflects a city’s level of development in financial markets. The third factor covers three of the original indicators and reflects a city’s level of economic vitality. The fourth factor covers three of the original indicators and reflects a city’s level of the costs of living. I further calculate the composite scores for the above eight cities along these four factors, and find that these eight cities can be classified into three tiers on the basis of their scores. The first tier consists of New York and London; the second tier consists of Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris and Tokyo; and the third tier consists of Shanghai and Beijing. I also find that Shanghai has been making progress in its scores along these four factors over the last three years, especially regarding financial market development, economic vitality, and cost of living. What Shanghai needs to focus on next is to improve its business environment so that it can move up to the second tier in IFC status. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2015

Orientador: Francisco Luiz Corsi / Banca: Agnaldo dos Santos / Banca: Carlos Eduardo Ferreira de Carvalho / Banca: José Marangoni Camargo / Banca: Ivan Filipe de Almeida Lopes Fernandes / Resumo: O objetivo central deste trabalho é analisar a relevância do Nafta no processo de transformação do paradigma de desenvolvimento mexicano, assim como as suas novas estratégias de inserção à economia internacional, amparadas em políticas liberalizantes, na desregulamentação financeira e na promoção da industrialização voltada às exportações. A emergência em 1982 da crise da dívida externa marcou o fim de uma etapa histórica do México e o início de uma longa transição. Deste momento em diante, teve início o debate mais aprofundado acerca do esgotamento do modelo nacional desenvolvimentista, baseado na industrialização via substituição de importações, e, por conseguinte, a emergência de um novo paradigma de desenvolvimento econômico. Por meio de revisão bibliográfica e a análise de dados macroeconômicos, compreendemos que o Nafta converteu-se no eixo principal desta transição que concretizou o modelo de desenvolvimento neoliberal na década de 1990. A relevância do Nafta como processo que envolveu uma série de negociações e a sua própria consolidação, ao longo de três governos, vai muito além de um acordo comercial entre o Canadá, os Estados Unidos e o México. / Abstract: The main goal of this work is to analyze the importance of NAFTA on the transformation process of the Mexican development paradigm with its new strategies of insertion into the international economy, which was supported by liberalizing policies, financial deregulation and the promotion of industrialized exportation. The external debt crisis of 1982 set the end of a historic stage in Mexico and the beginning of a long transition. After this moment, a deep debate took discussing the national development model based on industrialization via substitution of imports, and, consequently, about the emergence of a new paradigm of economic development. Through an exhaustive bibliographical review and collected macroeconomic data, it is possible to understand that NAFTA became the main axis of this transition, which completed the model of neoliberal development of the 1990s. The importance of NAFTA as a complex process, which involved its negotiations and its consolidation throughout three governments, takes far beyond a trade agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico. / Resumen: El objetivo central de este trabajo es analizar la relevancia del TLCAN en el proceso de transformación del paradigma de desarrollo mexicano y en sus nuevas estrategias de inserción a la economía internacional, amparadas en políticas liberalizadoras, en la desregulación financiera y en la promoción de la industrialización direccionada a las exportaciones. La emergencia en 1982 de la crisis de la deuda externa marcó el fin de una etapa histórica de México y el inicio de una larga transición. En este momento, se inició el debate más profundo sobre el agotamiento del modelo nacional desarrollista, basado en la industrialización a través de la sustitución de importaciones, y, por consiguiente, la emergencia de un nuevo paradigma de desarrollo económico. A través de la revisión bibliográfica y del análisis de datos macroeconómicos, comprendemos que el TLCAN se ha convertido en el eje principal de esta transición que concretizó el modelo de desarrollo neoliberal en la década de 1990. La importancia del TLCAN, en un proceso que involucró sus negociaciones y su consolidación a lo largo de tres gobiernos, va mucho más allá de un acuerdo comercial entre Canadá, Estados Unidos y México. / Doutor

It is widely recognised that the construction industry has a positive role to accelerate the wheel of economic growth in any country. This research is concerned with the Libyan construction industry (LCI). Libya is a developing country which suffered from a big loss in its infrastructures and its unemployment rate increased to 30% in the middle of 2013. Regarding the importance of the construction industry through the role it has in providing infrastructure and creating employment and the poor economic condition of Libya, the rationale of this research follows the example of other nations such as Turkey, Singapore, Malaysia , and Middle East countries where the construction industry was evolved with a target to further boost up the process of economic development. The case of Libya in this regard is valid for the financial stability in the country given its oil reserves and the capacity of the country to absorb migrated skilled labour. This situation is expected to follow the fall of Gaddafi’s regime. The approach of selecting construction as providing input to economic growth follows the strong evidence of the significant role that the construction industry plays in economic growth of the country. The construction industry contributes to economic growth from the demand side and in the traditional Keynesian economy, sustainable short-run economic growth is dependent on the increased demand. For example, in the UK, construction’s 2.5% growth in the third quarter of 2013 helped the overall economy grow by 0.8% over the same period. In comparison with the other industries that contribute to the economic growth of developing countries, the construction industry is more labour-intensive while the developing countries are mostly labour-abundant. The main aim of this research is to investigate the contribution of the construction industry to economic development in order to establish a comprehensive list of recommendations and a guideline for achieving an efficient construction industry to accelerate the process of economic growth. For this aim, the first objective is to examine the causal relationship between the construction industry and gross domestic product (GDP) as a measure of the economic growth and between the construction industry and other economic sectors. To achieve the aim of this research, Granger causality tests have been conducted. The financial data about the expenditure on the construction industry in Libya and its share in the GDP of the country and the share of the other economic sectors in the GDP during 1986-2009 was provided by an authority from the Libyan construction industry. First, The Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) and the Philip Perron (PP) unit root tests were conducted to confirm that the tested time series are stationary. After that, to determine the existence of the long-run causal relationship between the CI and GDP, Engle-Granger co-integration test was used and, finally, vector error correction (VER) model was employed to detect the direction of the causal relationship between the two variables. The study found that in Libya, like in other countries, the relationship between the construction industry and GDP is bi-directional: GDP produces a short-term impact on the investment in the construction industry while investment in the construction industry produces a long-term impact on GDP. However, except for trade, no economic sector was found to have a causal relationship with the construction industry. According to these findings, another objective was established in this research: to identify safety and total quality management (TQM) which can play an important role in growing the efficiency of the Libyan construction industry. To achieve this objective, telephone conversations were conducted with the officials of the largest construction company in the city of Benghazi. The findings indicated that the TQM does not exist in the construction company and, although the safety department does exist, it works via strict procedures. Thus, opportunity to increase the performance of the CI in order to increase its contribution to economic growth does exist through implementation of the safety and TQM implementation in Licccbyan construction companies. The previous studies used the causal relationship just to prove specific hypotheses. The novelty of this research is to obtain benefits from the existence of the causal relationship from the CI to GDP in the long term through suggesting major issues as safety and TQM implementation to raise the performance of the CI in the current period in order to increase its contribution to the economic growth in the future.

A análise de contabilidade do crescimento aplicada ao Brasil, no período de 1950 a 2007, indica que o crescimento brasileiro não é explicado de forma satisfatória pelas teorias que tratam o progresso técnico como exógeno. Usando o modelo neo-schumpeteriano, explorou-se o papel da competição de mercado no crescimento da produtividade e do esforço inovativo das firmas usando as bases de dados da PAEP/SEADE e da PIA/IBGE. A importância do tamanho da firma nessas análises estimulou a investigação da relação entre o tamanho da firma e sua taxa de crescimento, explorada usando a base de dados da RAIS elaborada pelo IPEA, e o papel das grandes empresas internacionalizadas e do investimento direto estrangeiro, na perspectiva macro e micro, para o crescimento econômico brasileiro. Os principais resultados são a presença de uma correlação entre o crescimento da produtividade e uma medida de competição na forma de parábola côncava e que a ameaça de entrada não foi um fator significativo na segunda metade da década de 1990 para o crescimento da produtividade; apesar da evidência de correlação positiva entre a probabilidade de inovar e o crescimento da produtividade com tamanho, o crescimento do pessoal ocupado pelas firmas industriais brasileiras tendeu a ser maior nas firmas menores no curto prazo, ainda que no longo prazo exista uma convergência para a Lei do Crescimento Proporcional. Apresentaram-se indicações de que o aumento da poupança doméstica e da ameaça de entrada podem tornar o investimento direto estrangeiro um catalisador do crescimento da produtividade e levar o Brasil a crescer mais e com menor risco de volatilidade externa. A transição para um processo de crescimento voltado para a inovação pode ser estimulada por políticas que fomentem a competição nos setores mais próximos a fronteira tecnológica e o ingresso de investimento direto estrangeiro nos setores mais distantes. O desenvolvimento de ativos proprietários pelas empresas Brasileiras indica ser um fator crucial para assegurar um maior potencial de crescimento econômico. / The growth accounting analysis applied to Brazil in the period from 1950 to 2007 indicates that the Brazilian growth is not satisfactorily explained by the theories that deal with technical progress as exogenous. Using the neo-schumpeterian model, it was explored the role of market competition on productivity growth and firms innovative effort using the PAEP/SEADE and PIA/IBGE data bases. The importance of firm size has stimulated analyses on the relationship between the size of the firm and its growth rate, using the RAIS data base prepared by IPEA, and the role of large internationalized enterprises and the foreign direct investment, in its macro and micro perspectives, for the Brazilian economic growth. The main findings are the presence of a correlation between productivity growth and a measure of competition in the form of a concave parable and that the threat of entry is not a significant factor in the second half of the 1990s for productivity growth; despite evidence of positive correlation between the probability of innovation and productivity growth with size, growth of personnel occupied by Brazilian industrial firms tended to be higher in smaller firms in the short term, even though in the long run there is a convergence to the Law of Proportional Growth; we present indications that increased domestic savings and the threat of entry can make foreign direct investment a catalyst for productivity growth and lead Brazil to grow at higher levels and with less risk of external volatility and the transition to a growth process toward innovation can be stimulated by policies that promote competition in sectors closer the technological frontier and the inflow of foreign direct investment in the most distant. The development of proprietary assets by Brazilian firms seems to be critical to ensure a greater potential of economic growth.