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This thesis consists of three self-contained chapters. Chapter 1 develops a two-sector, bivariate matching model, in which each sector uses a different dimension of skill in the production process. I show there exists a unique assignment of agents to sectors and derive comparative statics. The main result is that if jobs are scarce, both an increase in sector one skills' spread and a technological improvement increase the supply of talent in sector one, but decrease it in sector two. In sector two, this raises wages and wage inequality. In sector one, the effects are ambiguous in general, but wages increase for the most and decrease for the least talented agents. Chapter 2 studies the impact of social status on occupational sorting in a two-sector matching framework. Talent is two-dimensional and thus status is not a zero-sum game; it depends both on occupational prestige and within-sector rank (local status). I show that the weights with which these two components enter - the structure of status - crucially influence the way in which agents self-select into sectors and argue that it is likely that these weights differ across occupations. The more important are the individual components of status in a sector, or the less important the collective component, the better the agents who join that industry, which has important implications for total payoffs, wage levels and inequality, and profits. I also show that the stable assignment is typically inefficient, which is driven by the distortion of relative status rewards, not status concerns per se. Chapter 3 investigates whether directors of companies should have limited liability. I develop a three-player model in which: (a) debtholders and equityholders are defined by their control rights and (b) the project is run by the directors. The main result is that increased liability for directors forces them to internalise more of the downside risk of the project and hence reduces their risk-taking. This is optimal if over-investment was a problem initially. I show that the extent to which over-investment is a problem depends on how well debtholders are protected compared to equityholders. If debtholders are strong, increased liability can cause under-investment.

This thesis consists of a short introduction and three self-contained chapters. Chapter 1 develops a model of intra-household specialization and human capital formation for couples, taking into account of assortative sorting on income potentials in the marriage market. I assume people are matching on potential wage growth rates which differ across individuals and are realized through actual work experiences. The model is estimated by a simulated minimum distance estimator with PSID data from 1968 to 2011. I find there is strong positive assortative matching on wage growth rates, which helps explain the correlated wage growth residuals of married couples. If matching is switched to random, there will be more variation in household specialization arrangements and higher observed wage growth rates. The estimated elasticity of substitution between market goods and home production is approximately 0.37. Husband's time and wife's time turn out to be complements in the home production function. Chapter 2 studies a marriage market with two-sided information asymmetry in which the gains from marriage are stochastic. Contracts specify divisions of ex-post realized marital surplus. I first study a game in which one side of the matching market offers contracts, and then study a social planner's problem, finding necessary and sufficient conditions for a truthful direct revelation mechanism to achieve matching efficiency. These conditions become more stringent as the number of agents in the matching market increases. Chapter 3 examines the relationship between women's preference towards marriage and her marital outcomes. I propose using the mother's marital status as a proxy for her daughter's ex-ante preference towards marriage. Using 1980 and 2008 U.S. Census data, I estimate the impact of women's preference towards marriage and their educational attainments on their probability of getting married, and with Heckman correction, the impact on their husbands' earnings conditional on being married.

The objective of the research was to ascertain whether, when compared to a system'of standards, the theoretical promise that economic incentives offered as a low cost solution to the abatement problem, would hold in practice. This was done by applying environmental economic theory to the practical problem of controlling the effluent generated by firms in the South African leather industry. It was found that in this instance the theory did indeed hold in practice. Furthermore, it was found that of the incentives discussed by the theory, marketable permits were the most economically efficient. It was however shown that a charge - not discussed in the ., theory - based on a central treatment agency's (CTA) cost of treatment offered the least cost solution to the abatement problem when the CTA could do at least some of the effluent treatment at a lower cost than the firms. - In addition a formula was developed to show the net benefits accruing to an individual firm if it undertook to treat its effluent. It was shown that in order to maximise the total benefits of treatment, a firm should treat until its net benefits of treatment were zero. A number of problem however were found to exist when the theory was applied to a practical situation. The most important was the "stepped" nature of the firms marginal abatement cost curves which meant that the setting of a charge based on a trial and error method would prove to be more difficult than the theory envisaged. Furthermore, it meant that no matter what method of pollution control was used, it would prove i~possible to reduce effluent to an optimal level. It was recommended that greater use be made of economic incentives to control all industrial effluent. It would nonetheless be necessary to do more research in this field as the theory was not tailor made for all practical situations. Further evidence of the viability of economic incentives could however encourage wider use by policy makers.

In South Africa, the performing arts have contributed to enhancing national identity and distinctiveness despite coming up against weak legislation, policy and infrastructure to support their growth and proliferation (Fredericks, 2005: 9). Coupled with a decline in both government and consumer support and the contradictory disparity between valuing the arts and the funding of the arts, theatre companies can no longer rely on the comfort of external subsidies and financial support. In order to be economically viable and sustainable to ensure their survival, there is an increasing demand for theatre companies to look to novel ways of increasing audience demand for theatre and improving audience attendance. However, instead of risking artistic integrity and the performance product to satisfy the market, this research suggests that promotion and development of theatre at arts festivals provides a platform to access a wider theatre-going public, which therefore facilitates a change in the market focus toward appreciation of the product (production). It explores leading arguments pertaining to the attendance of arts and cultural events, namely, Peterson and Simkus (1992), later updated by Peterson‟s (2005)„omnivore-univore‟ argument. The argument purports cultural consumption as binary in nature: either significant and diverse or limited, if not absent altogether. Supported by a number of case-studies, including Chan and Goldthorpe (2005) and Montgomery and Robinson (2008) and Snowball et al. (2009), the investigation challenges Bourdieu‟s (1984) theory on cultural distinction as well as the homology and individualisation argument. In determining the factors that influence cultural taste and consumer behaviour, including motivators and inhibitors of attendance and a predominant emphasis on audience risk and information asymmetry, the research was placed in a local context, providing an overview of the socio-economic theatre environment in South Africa. It investigated the nature, structure and impact of local festivals (as events) in changing audience demand and theatre attendance. With specific reference to the South African National Arts Festival (NAF) the research notes the effects of Hauptfleisch‟s „eventification‟ phenomenon on univore attenders and therefore expands the omnivore-univore theory to include a new breed of attender: the “Festivore”. A case study explored the “Festivore” hypothesis through empirical research, surveys and face-to-face qualitative interviews and on-seat questionnaire responses by festival attenders. Personal interviews and communication was also carried out with leading experts in the field. The data was then analysed using SPSS 13 electronic statistical analysis programme to determine the socio-demographics and the factors that affect theatre attendance of existing, as well as potential target, theatre audiences at the National Arts Festival The study concluded that South African theatre attenders are generally omnivorous consumers and that, more importantly, there seems to be a shift towards „festivorous‟ consumption. Furthermore, evidence supports the development and proliferation of festivals as a means not only to support and promote the arts in South Africa but, more importantly, to generate new theatre audiences and entrench theatre attendance into South African culture.

This study first explored the rate of forest deforestation in Shamva resettlement areas. It then identified and estimated the extent to which these resettled farmers depend on forest for their livelihoods. Evaluation of farmer perceptions on management issues and willingness to participate in indigenous forest conservation and the socio-economic and institutional factors which affect their willingness to participate were also done. Finally the study sought to identify incentives for forests conservation. The study was conducted in Shamva district in Mashonaland Central province. And the respondents were stratified into three groups: A1, A2 and Old resettlement models. The three models differ on how they were implemented and supported which might render them to have different deforestation rates, livelihood strategies and forest dependency. A total of 247 respondents were surveyed, consisting of 98 A1 farmers, 50 A2 farmers and 99 Old resettled farmers. The data was collected using GIS and remote sensing, structured questionnaire interviews and direct observation. The data was analysed using descriptive analysis, KAP analytic framework and binary logistic regression analysis. The land cover/changes results revealed that both deforestation and afforestation are taking place in Shamva resettlement. Woodland and bushland were decreasing, croplands were also decreasing. However woodland dense and grasslands were increasing. Deforestation was found to be as a result of the resettled farmers’ livelihood strategies which were found to be diverse and agriculture being dominant in all models. All the farmers depended on the forest but at varying levels of 19 percent for Old and 14 percent forA1 and 0.02 percent for A2 resettle farmers. 84 percent of the interviewed farmers however, indicated that they are willing to conserve forest with A1 farmers being the highest followed by A2 86 percent and lastly Old resettled farmers at 76.8 percent. Results of the binary regression model revealed that the significant factors which explain willingness to participate in indigenous forest conservation are age, marital status, education, gender, institution, culture and belief, employment and household size. The highest preferred incentive was the provision of free seedlings and the lowest was out grower scheme. The study recommends that GIS and remote sensing should be used to monitor deforestation, off farm projects be encouraged, exotic and indigenous trees be promoted and forest conservation education be promoted in resettlement areas.

This study was aimed at investigating the perceptions, knowledge and understanding of desertification and its causes among decision makers in northern Namibia. The focus of investigation was on desertification and its major causes as identified in the general literature, viz. deforestation, overgrazing and overcultivation. Particular attention was given to the socioeconomic and cultural factors which are behind these perceived 'ecological' causes of desertification. Furthermore, the respondents were also engaged in the generation of solutions to the problem of desertification and its causes. Data collection was based on semi-structured interviews with the regional governors, councillors and chief headmen from the four northern regions. A qualitative approach was adopted for the research and findings are essentially descriptive and qualitative. It is anticipated that the study will make an important contribution to the current debate on desertification in Namibia, specifically with regard to the perceptions, knowledge and understanding of desertification and its causes among the decision makers in northern Namibia.

This study is concerned with assessing the impact of the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement (CSA) on sugar production and exports in the major exporting countries of the Commonwealth by concentrating on a detailed analysis of one of the principal exporting members of the Agreement as a case study - Mauritius. Since the Agreement expired in 1974 after 24 years of operation, a detailed examination of the CSA can be expected to shed light on the general question of the usefulness and desirability of commodity agreements in general, and on the more specific question of the response of producers to given price and market incentives. The general approach adopted in this study is aimed at a comprehensive examination of the various factors relevant to the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement; apart from assessing the development of the CSA itself, it was found useful to conduct an economic analysis of the world sugar economy as a whole in order to place the CSA in a more global context. The next obvious step was to assess critically the economic theory underlying international commodity agreements in general, and to examine the justification for their application. Since commodity agreements represent, in an important sense, a man-made barrier to free international trade, we examine the implications of various agricultural policies on international trade in primary commodities as well as in sugar. In an attempt to obtain quantitative measurements of the effects of the CSA on sugar production in Mauritius, we devise a simultaneous-equation model to explain a number of important variables in the Mauritian sugar industry. Since agricultural models usually involve lagged variables being used as explanatory variables, we critically examine the literature on distributed lag models and a number of studies using such results, as well as the (usual) econometric problems that these models invariably involve. We finally present our model and the results obtained from applying the two-stage least-squares method of estimation to most of the equations of the model. The main conclusion to emerge from the study is that producers tended to respond significantly to the prices they received, which were more closely related to the stable and high prices offered by the United Kingdom under the CSA than to the volatile prices prevailing on the world free market, even when International Sugar Agreements were operative. The implications for the future concern the pricing and quota policies to be implemented under the Lomé Convention between the EEC and the 46 (now 52) AGP countries; if the objective of the Convention is to promote the sugar industry in the exporting countries, then stable prices and guaranteed markets would appear to be an effective method.

Australian immigration policy has traditionally been justified as a means to ensure national security and promote economic development. Neither of these rationales retains much contemporary force. A larger population is no longer regarded as critical to Australia's defensive capacity, and the quest for economic development, synonymous with aggregate growth, has been superseded by a concern about per capita growth performance. While humanitarian and cultural justifications for immigration have been advanced, they are either restricted in scope or contentious. Currently, the programme is operating on a large scale without a clear rationale. The purpose of this work is to investigate the economic consequences of immigration, and so consider whether the economic rationale may be recast in an alternative form. In this chapter, the existing literature is reviewed and a strategy for carrying the analysis further is outlined.