Submitted in the partial fulfilment for the Degree of Master of Arts in Development Studies Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand, March 2017 / The precarious existence of Uber drivers operating within Johannesburg’s metropolitan area is the primary area of study in which this dissertation has undertaken. Driver precarity, defined in the study as the loss of labour market security in various forms, is argued to stem from Uber’s sharing economy-inspired business model. The analysis of Uber’s business model, substantively focuses on the service’s dynamic pricing model of fare price setting, the implementation of a ‘rating’ system in which to evaluate driver performance and the use of ‘independent contractor’ labour. It is argued that each of these three Uber business practices place drivers in a position of precarity in the realm of their income, employment, work and job security. The study mobilises a qualitative research methodology, enlisting the methods of unstructured interviews on eight active Uber drivers, four autoethnographical observations on real-time work behaviour and document analysis to generate data for analysis. The prevailing argument made regarding Uber’s precarity-creation, is aided through a consultation of Guy Standing’s theorisation on precarity (2011), with Harvey’s flexible Accumulation theory (1990), Foucault’s Panopticism thesis (1975) and Hochschild’s emotional labour theory (1983) broadening the scope of the analysis. / XL2018

With congestion, environmental Impact, and the price of oil becoming topics that influence businesses and individuals in a daily basis, measures need to be undertaken in order to accommodate the growing demand for freight transportation. By directing many of the trucks travelling along the National Highways Systems to the Marine Highway corridors developed by the U.S. Maritime Administrations, many of the problems can be addressed in the Short and Medium terms. In order to do so, Short Sea Shipping, through the use of Ro/Ro (Roll-on/Roll-off) Vessels, needs to be implemented. Although the environmental and congestion reducing benefits are considerable, the profitability of this transportation mode needs to be considered. A cost benefit analysis can determine the margin of profit, and attract investors and businesses. By developing a mathematical model that accounts the costs associated with transporting trucks along a particular corridor, the competitiveness of Short Sea Shipping can be determined. / by Alvaro Galletebeitia. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

by Wong Cheung-on, Li, Yun-hoi. / Title also in Chinese. / Summary in Chinese. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1980. / Bibliography: leaves 164-165.

by Wong Wai-kin. / Added t.p. in Chinese. / Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references. / abstract --- p.i / acknowledgements --- p.iv / table op contents --- p.v / list op tables --- p.viii / list of illustrations --- p.xi / chapter / Chapter I. --- statement of the problem --- p.1 / Concern with Income Size Distribution --- p.1 / Income Size Distribution and Schooling --- p.4 / The Case of Hong Kong --- p.6 / The Problem of the Study --- p.8 / Chapter II. --- review op literature --- p.10 / Schooling As a Determinant of Income size Distribution: The Theories --- p.10 / Schooling As a Determinant of income size Distribution: The Evidence --- p.20 / Empirical Approaches in Several Previous Studies --- p.24 / Chapter III. --- the study --- p.44 / The Theoretical Framework --- p.44 / Schooling and Human Capital --- p.44 / Human Capital and Income size Distribution --- p.45 / Education Expansion and Cohort Differences in Schooling --- p.48 / The Hong Kong Context --- p.50 / The Research Hypotheses --- p.58 / Empirical Specification of the Model --- p.59 / The Earnings Inequality Function --- p.59 / The Variance Form of the Schooling Model --- p.66 / Data Source and Sample --- p.69 / Measurement of Variables --- p.70 / Chapter IV. --- schooling and the distribution op earnings in hong kong --- p.72 / The Aggregate Set --- p.72 / The Aggregate set Excluding Illiterates --- p.88 / The Overtaking Set --- p.93 / Observations on Age Groups --- p.102 / Chapter V. --- summary and conclusions --- p.107 / Summary and Conclusions --- p.107 / Significance and Comparison --- p.111 / Policy Implications --- p.112 / Limitations --- p.117 / references --- p.121 / appendices / Chapter A.I. --- DETERMINANTS OF INCOME SIZE DISTRIBUTION --- p.131 / Chapter A.II. --- ESTIMATION OF THE YEARS OF SCHOOLING --- p.132 / Chapter A.III. --- "MEANS, STANDARD DEVIATIONS, CORRELATIONS AND ADDITIONAL REGRESSION ESTIMATES" --- p.133

This thesis makes contributions to provide the microeconomic evidence on the effects of electricity provision and on the feasibility of electricity provision via renewable energy in developing countries. Three selected topics are presented. First, we discuss how the impact of national electricity grid provision affects household welfare and individual labor activities in Vietnam. To overcome the endogeneity problem of infrastructure provision, the slope of the terrain is used as the instrumental variable. We present both first-difference regression and pooled regression results using household survey data and geographic datasets. The effect of electrification on female labor supply is negative, contrary to the evidence suggested in the previous literature. Second, we measure willingness to pay for solar lanterns among the poor rural households in India using the Becker-DeGrook-Marschak method. We conduct field surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of providing a trial period and postponed payment scheme to promote sales. Results show that willingness to pay for the solar product among the consumers is low. Lastly, we report patterns of awareness and interest in solar home systems (SHS) among the poor rural households in India. Results show that willingness to pay for SHS is low, even if the national subsidy is taken into account. Moreover, households that have experience using grid electricity have greater willingness to pay for SHS.

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) contribute to global warming, and must be mitigated. With GHG mitigation as an overarching goal, this research aims to study the potential for newfound and abundant sources of natural gas to play a role as part of a GHG mitigation strategy. However, recent work suggests that methane leakage in the current natural gas system may inhibit end-use natural gas as a robust mitigation strategy, but that natural gas as a feedstock for other forms of energy, such as electricity generation or liquid fuels, may support natural-gas based mitigation efforts. Flaring of uneconomic natural gas, or outright loss of natural gas to the atmosphere results in greenhouse gas emissions that could be avoided and which today are very large in aggregate. A central part of this study is to look at a new technology for converting natural gas into methanol at a unit scale that is matched to the size of individual natural gas wells. The goal is to convert stranded or otherwise flared natural gas into a commercially valuable product and thereby avoid any unnecessary emission to the atmosphere. A major part of this study is to contribute to the development of a novel approach for converting natural gas into methanol and to assess the environmental impact (for better or for worse) of this new technology. This Ph.D. research contributes to the development of such a system and provides a comprehensive techno-economic and environmental assessment of this technology. Recognizing the distributed nature of methane leakage associated with the natural gas system, this work is also intended to advance previous research at the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy that aims to show that small, modular energy systems can be made economic. This thesis contributes to and analyzes the development of a small-scale gas-to-liquids (GTL) system aimed at addressing flared natural gas from gas and oil wells. This thesis includes system engineering around a design that converts natural gas to synthesis gas (syngas) in a reciprocating internal combustion engine and then converts the syngas into methanol in a small-scale reactor. With methanol as the product, this research aims to show that such a system can not only address current and future natural gas flaring regulation, but eventually can compete economically with historically large-scale, centralized methanol production infrastructure. If successful, such systems could contribute to a shift away from large, multi-billion dollar capital cost chemical plants towards smaller systems with shorter lifetimes that may decrease the time to transition to more sustainable forms of energy and chemical conversion technologies. This research also quantifies the potential for such a system to contribute to mitigating GHG emissions, not only by addressing flared gas in the near-term, but also supporting future natural gas infrastructure ideas that may help to redefine the way the current natural gas pipeline system is used. The introduction of new, small-scale, distributed energy and chemical conversion systems located closer to the point of extraction may contribute to reducing methane leakage throughout the natural gas distribution system by reducing the reliance and risks associated with the aging natural gas pipeline infrastructure. The outcome of this thesis will result in several areas for future work. From an economic perspective, factors that contribute to overall system cost, such as operation and maintenance (O&M) and capital cost multiplier (referred to as the Lang Factor for large-scale petro-chemical plants), are not yet known for novel systems such as the technology presented here. From a technical perspective, commercialization of small-scale, distributed chemical conversion systems may create a demand for economical compression and air-separation technologies at this scale that do not currently exist. Further, new business cases may arise aimed at utilizing small, remote sources of methane, such as biogas from agricultural and municipal waste. Finally, while methanol was selected as the end-product for this thesis, future applications of this technology may consider methane conversion to hydrogen, ammonia, and ethylene for example, challenging the orthodoxy in the chemical industry that “bigger is better.”

This dissertation comprises three empirical essays in political economy. The first essay analyzes the implementation of a French social program by subnational governments following a decentralization reform. Using program implementation data, it shows that local political environments strongly influence implementation decisions after decentralization, and that decentralization results in an overall tightening of benefits. The second essay reports the results of a conjoint field experiment involving German welfare offices. Using random assignment of cues about ethnicity and other characteristics in requests to welfare offices, it is shown that putative non-German applicants receive replies at the same rate as putative Germans, but are disadvantaged in terms of the substantive quality of responses. This suggests that minority populations do experience discrimination when attempting to access social benefits. Finally, the third essay uses micro-level voter file data from Illinois to measure whether property tax limitations reduce participation in local elections. In contrast with prior research, results from panel regressions with matching adjustments suggest that tax limitations do not affect political participation negatively. Together, these essays contribute to our understanding of public finance and social policy in contexts characterized by multi-level governance.

Chow Shing Yuk. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-66). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Literature Review --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1 --- First-Generation Studies --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2 --- Second-Generation Studies --- p.5 / Chapter 2.3 --- Third-Generation Studies --- p.7 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Empirical Methodology --- p.13 / Chapter 3.1 --- Fixed Effect Estimation --- p.13 / Chapter 3.2 --- Within-twin Differencing --- p.14 / Chapter 3.3 --- Adjustment for Measurement Errors --- p.15 / Chapter 3.4 --- Value of Within-twin Differencing --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Data Descriptions --- p.29 / Chapter 4.1 --- Twins Data --- p.29 / Chapter 4.2 --- Non-twins Data --- p.32 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- Empirical Results --- p.35 / Chapter 5.1 --- Cross Sectional Results: Twins Sample --- p.35 / Chapter 5.2 --- Within-twin Differencing --- p.42 / Chapter 5.3 --- Cross Sectional Results: Non-twins Sample --- p.45 / Chapter 5.4 --- Female Results --- p.48 / Chapter Chapter 6: --- Conclusion --- p.50 / Tables --- p.52 / Appendix l: Some Other Thoughts on Marriage Premium --- p.60 / References --- p.64

"September 2004." / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 188-205). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Sin Lai-ting. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-156). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract in English --- p.i / Abstract in Chinese --- p.iii / Acknowledgements --- p.iv / Table of Contents --- p.v / List of Tables and Graphs --- p.vii / Chapter Chapter 1： --- lntroduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Literature Review and Application --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1) --- The Theory of Marriage and Family Formation --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2) --- The Theory of the Allocation of Time Between Family Members in Housework and Market Work --- p.6 / Chapter 2.3) --- Application of Becker's Theoretical Models to Different Variables --- p.12 / Chapter 2.4) --- Empirical Review on the Division of Labor between Husbands and Wives --- p.24 / Chapter 2.5) --- Decomposition of the wage differential of men and women --- p.31 / Chapter 2.6) --- Summary --- p.33 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Methodology --- p.35 / Chapter 3.1) --- Changes in the Relative Economic Contribution of Husbands and Wives to Their Families --- p.35 / Chapter 3.2) --- Stable and Unstable Mating --- p.39 / Chapter 3.3) --- Reasons for the Changes in Economic Contribution of Husbands and Wives --- p.43 / Chapter 3.4) --- Decomposition of the Economic Contribution Differential --- p.46 / Chapter 3.5) --- Definitions of Control Variables --- p.48 / Chapter 3.6) --- Summary --- p.52 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Data and Sample Description --- p.53 / Chapter 4.1) --- Data and Sample Extraction --- p.53 / Chapter 4.2) --- Variable Characteristics --- p.55 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- A First Look at the Changes in Relative Economic Contribution of Husbands and Wives --- p.58 / Chapter 5.1) --- Simple Data Analyses --- p.58 / Chapter 5.2) --- Pooled Regressions with Husband Dummy --- p.64 / Chapter 5.3) --- Summary --- p.70 / Chapter Chapter 6: --- An Analysis of Selected Characteristics between Husbands and Wives --- p.72 / Chapter 6.1 ) --- 2x2 Canonical Correlation Analyses --- p.72 / Chapter 6.2) --- 3x3 Canonical Correlation Analyses --- p.75 / Chapter 6.3) --- Summary --- p.78 / Chapter Chapter 7: --- Reasons for the Changes in Relative Economic Contribution of Husbands and Wives to Their Families --- p.79 / Chapter 7.1) --- Determinants of the Changes in Economic Contribution of Husbands and Wives to their families --- p.79 / Chapter 7.2) --- Decomposition of the Economic Contribution Differential of Husbands and Wives to their Families --- p.90 / Chapter 7.3) --- Summary --- p.93 / Chapter Chapter 8: --- Conclusion --- p.94 / Tables --- p.98 / Graphs --- p.129 / Flow Chart --- p.136 / Appendix --- p.137 / References --- p.153