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Core executive decision-making in economic policy in the UK is dominated by a Prime Minister-Chancellor axis and a set of constraints defined by vast flows of capital around foreign exchange markets. This thesis examines policy-making during the Thatcher governments in relation to the debate about ERM membership from 1979 to 1990. The analysis reconstructs the choices which faced the Thatcher governments given their economic and European policy interests and capital accumulation priorities, and investigates core executive actors' activity against this background. From the first Thatcher administration onwards, the core executive was seriously divided on ERM membership and the government was unable to pursue a coherent policy on the issue. As a result of both a power struggle between the Prime Minister and successive Chancellors and the retention of empirically untenable policy positions by core executive actors, economic policy-making failed as a judgement about effective means to ends. In this sense, decision-making became non-rational. Having renounced the potential benefits of ERM membership for most of the 1980s, the Prime Minister and Chancellor decided to enter ERM in autumn 1990 at a central rate of DM2.95 which served neither their own interests nor those of UK producers. The failure of the Conservative government to pursue an effective policy on ERM membership represented a failure to cope with or understand the implications for successful economic management of vast capital flows around foreign exchange markets.

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The backwardness of developing countries is of concern to all students of economic development, particularly to those concerned with formulating programs for correcting regional inbalances within these countries. To this end, a lot of theories have been put forward by economists and by regional geographers.In this thesis an examination is trade of the growth pole theory and its applicability to solving the problems of regional inbalances in developing countries. First, the theory is examined in the light of other development theories. Second, an evaluation is made of the success of growth pole policies and programs in Latin America where a large variety of such programs have been studied. Last, on the basis of knowledge and experiences in Latin America, a theoretical growth pole model is made for Rhodesia. This model employs urban systems on a regional basis do correct inbalances caused by "line-of rail" development, a situation typical of developing countries.

The purpose of this study was to find out whether there was a shift in emphasis from agriculture to mining in the Nigerian economic development between 1958-1980. This shift in emphasis led .to a lower Gross Development Product (GDP), higher unemployment, decreases in food and agricultural production and reductions in both tax and export revenues.The data used in this thesis were extracted from secondary sources which include: First, Second and Third Federal Government of Nigeria National Development Plans, documents published by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Other sources include publications by organizations, both private and public, and textbooks. The above were the sources through which statistics for this study were compiled.The two most important economic indicators in Nigeria's economy are the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (output), and the expenditures (input), which were used for the analysis.In the analysis of the data, both the absolute and the percentage values for the GDP (output) and expenditure (input) were plotted for various sectors of the economy, ranging from agriculture, mining, manufacturing, electricity, building, distribution, transportation, and education to health were graphically expressed. The various values of each of the sectors were compared to that of agriculture. To substantiate the findings of the absolute values of the expenditure, the percentage values of the expenditure were also graphically expressed.The results of the statistical analysis used indicate the following:1) That agriculture is highly and positively correlated with the other sectors of the Nigerian economy;2) Manufacuring and transportation indicate a shift in emphasis from agriculture to these two sectors;3) There was no shift in emphasis from agriculture to the mining sector of the economy;4) There were also no shifts in emphasis from agriculture to the following sectors of the economy - education, health and electricity;5) Three other sectors - government, building and distribution expenditures - could not be expressed graphically because of the difficulty in aggregating data for these three sectors;6) The mining sector of the Nigerian economy was not a force before 1975 but, since 1975, it has grown at a faster rate than any other sector;7) While the mining and agriculture sectors indicate growth and they grew more than the amount invested in them, the other sectors - manufacturing, transportation, electricity, health and education - took more money in their expenditures than they put out in their GDP's.As a result of the above findings, there may have been other factors responsible for the decline of agriculture in Nigeria's economic development planning. These factors might include: lack of mechanization of farming techniques, bribery and corruption, land tenure system, lack of adequate manpower, the problem of inadequate overall planning and coordination, and the diversification in the Nigerian economy which resulted from the attempt to improve Nigeria's economy. / Department of Urban Planning

Recent research observed in a number of countries with developed capital markets, including the US and the UK, have produced inconclusive evidence on the presence of gains to acquiring company shareholders and indeed to the existing of net wealth gains. Thus, the current study aims to contribute to the debate on takeover activity by examining whether operational gains arise, using operating cash flow to measure operating performance of Malaysian companies involved in takeover activity between the period 1988-1992. Rather than investigating the distribution of shareholder wealth changes, however, the focus is whether takeover in Malaysia lead to an improvement in corporate performance. Consistent with the characteristics of private acquisitions in the sample of 97 quoted acquiring and 117 target companies (comprising of 113 private, 3 public listed and 1 non-public listed), acquisitions in Malaysia appear to be non-disciplinary. Despite the non-disciplinary motives, the overall results reported in the current study suggest that acquisitions in Malaysia during the period 1988-1992 lead to operating cash flow improvements in the long run. The improvement in performance results from both increases in return on sales (operating cash flow per dollar of sales) and in asset turnover (sales per dollar of assets). These improvements are not achieved at the expense of the long-term viability of the combined firms nor does it appear to be driven by cost-cutting strategies. In addition, empirical evidence in the thesis indicates that the major source of operating gains is the acquisition of companies with a high overlap of product market relatedness. In addition acquisitions that are financed by equity produce higher operating gains. Acquirers who make no immediate change to the management team of the target company following the acquisition also achieve a greater increase in post acquisition performance, reinforcing the likelihood that this sample does not consist of disciplinary acquisitions. Further, the significant positive correlation between the share price market revaluation of acquiring firms around the bid period, the change in post acquisition operating performance and the premium paid for the target indicate that managers who anticipate post acquisition operating cash flow improvements will pay a premium to acquire the targets. The findings can also be viewed as evidence that cash flow data and market value data can capture real economic phenomena which explain a substantial proportion of the market's reaction to takeovers around the announcement period. The results demonstrate that Malaysian acquisitions do lead to improvements in operating performance that provide potential for benefits to both the economy as a whole and bidding company shareholders. However, as the majority of target companies in the current study were previously privately owned businesses, researchers and policy makers should be wary before generalising from these results.

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This paper analyzes the liberalization of Venezuela's foreign direct investment (FDI) laws. In the past, Venezuela placed tough restrictions upon the entry and operation of foreign investment. These restrictions were made possible as long as petroleum prices remained high and the country had access to cheap international bank loans. The debt crisis in the 1980s, a drop in commodity prices, and a decrease in international bank loans once again made FDI an attractive source of foreign capital. In order to attract greater FDI inflows, Venezuela began to liberalize its foreign investment laws in the mid-1980s. Despite these changes, FDI inflows into Venezuela have been erratic. This paper then discusses some of the adjustments Venezuela will have to make in order to attract greater foreign investment inflows, and ends with an examination of how the country can maximize FDI's contribution to its economic development.

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