Yes

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Since the end of the cold war and the transition from a centrally-planned to market-oriented economic system, the Russian economy has undergone a staggering and incomplete economic transformation. International financial and technical assistance played a significant role in the evolution of the Russian economy. As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) took a central role in the Russian transition process through the provision of technical and, more importantly, financial assistance, it was able to attach significant conditions to the use of its funds. These conditions ranged from the reform of markets, government revenues and expenditures, to the role of the public sector in the emerging market economy. An unanswered and increasingly important question is whether IMF conditionality has promoted or hindered economic reform and more importantly economic performance. This thesis argues that IMF conditionality combined with mistakes by the Russian government created the 1998 financial crisis. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

This thesis focuses on political and economic development during the peronist governments. This does not mean just the periods of Perón's rule, but also the governments in the nineties and early in the new millennium. The thesis is divided into three chapters, which are further divided into various subsections. The first part deals with peronist movement and economic and political characteristics of the three J. D. Peron's governments. The second chapter focuses on the Carlos Menem's rule, especially on his neo-liberal reforms. Final section analyzes the causes of economic crisis in Argentina and then describes the course as well. Attention is also paid to postcrises development in both economic and political area.

The core of this thesis comprises three previous published reports ‐ Profiling the Profession: a survey of archaeological jobs in the UK (Aitchison 1999), Archaeology Labour Market Intelligence: Profiling the Profession 200203 (Aitchison & Edwards 2003) and Archaeology Labour Market Intelligence: Profiling the Profession 200708 (Aitchison & Edwards 2008). These volumes are the only comprehensive reviews of the labour market within the archaeological sector in the UK, examining who works in all sectors of archaeology, what qualifications they hold, how they are rewarded and how they are trained. These three surveys have established a corpus of time-series datasets which demonstrate how archaeological practice and employment have evolved in the UK over the decade to 2008 and the onset of the global economic crisis in that year. The thesis contextualises these data‐rich reports with a historical and analytical account of how employment in archaeology grew from the late nineteenth century until 1990, and then examines the drivers of demand for services that lead to archaeological employment in the United Kingdom over the 20 years from 1990‐2010, and how this demand was met. Until 1990, archaeology was primarily a state‐provided or state‐sponsored activity. The sector's funding base transformed in the 1990s to become primarily reliant on private sector monies and the effects upon employment within the sector have been of the sectoral reaction to adopt an enterprise‐focussed model for delivery have been considerable. The number of people employed in archaeology grew very rapidly over this period (by approximately 4.5% per annum), with the expansion of applied, commercial archaeology representing the majority of this growth. These individuals are very highly academically qualified, but not very well rewarded financially. In order to fully explore the central issues, historical patterns and precedents are examined, focussing on particular strands of activity in detail, using case studies of organisations and particular archaeological projects.

Extensive research has previously been conducted in the field of corporate strategies during economic crisis, analyzing different contexts and countries. Nevertheless, the main focus has always been on small and medium enterprises without considering the importance that micro enterprises have in the European business tradition. The research gap for this study has been identified concerning Italian micro and small enterprises which, despite the importance of these kinds of companies in the national scenario, have not been considered yet. A literature review on this area highlighted the status of the research within the field, identifying the research gap and the purpose of this dissertation. The purpose is to contribute the research by understanding which is the relationship between strategies and performance with special attention on micro and small enterprises, aiming to formulate a guideline that may be followed by other enterprises dealing with such situation. The study was performed through a qualitative investigation based on semi-structured interviews with twenty companies which are part of a ceramic district in the north-east of Italy. More in detail, fourteen of the respondents are owners or CEOs of companies that survived the crisis while six interviews have been held with former owners of enterprises that did not survive. The research strategy used is a multiple case study with inductive approach. The data shows how firms adopted different strategies to survive the crisis, highlighting a considerable difference between the enterprises that survived and the ones that did not. Moreover, a further difference can be identified between the companies that survived but have been able to grow during the economic crisis and the ones that experienced a stable performance or a fall. The findings of the study shows how a combination between product innovation, marketing, internationalization and an open flexible approach is what is needed in order to reach superior performance during a crisis, transforming a threat into opportunity. The role of the leader seems to be the boost of every enterprise defining the success of the business. However, it is still not clear how the personality of the entrepreneur is related to company’s performance, thus this area needs to be developed through further research.

This study examines the risks of first, second and third birth in Kazakhstan since the collapse of the Soviet Union through general and ethnic-specific perspectives. Special attention is paid to the economic recovery time after 2000. The most remarkable finding is the similarity of the paces of first, second and third birth risks among the major ethnicities of Kazakhstan across the time periods. In particular, continued declines of first birth risks and slight increases of second birth risks occurred in tandem for all ethnic groups during the economic recovery period after the turn of the century.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis discusses the triangular relationship of aid, state and development since Lesotho's independence. It builds on three key hypotheses. First, during the preadj ustment period aid entrenched bureaucratic state power, but this changed with the adoption of the adjustment programme which only facilitates state survival. Secondly, hemmed in by external developemts and internal political and economic crisis, the state is caught between survival and shrinking resources. Thirdly, given the above, development has remained elusive inspite of the infusion of aid at highly preferential terms. Since the Cold War, aid issues have undergone three phases. Until the 1960s, donor concerns focussed primarily on economic growth. Growth with redistribution or the basic needs approach dominated aid disbursement up to the late 1970s. Since the 1980s, aid has been influenced predominantly by the IMF/World Bank orthodoxy of adjustment. Much of the debate on aid to Africa generally and to Lesotho specifically has revolved around whether aid develops or underdevelops recipient countries. The view that aid bolsters state power is not new. This study argues, however, that this may not be the case under adjustment conditions. Aid facilitates state survival in the context whereby donors mount a systematic offensive agianst dirigisme and economic nationalism. As they do that, the locus of economic production and interaction is shifted to private agents and autonomous social movements and the role of the state is cut back. Donor confidence, therefore; shifts from states to markets. The implications of these processes for the Lesotho state and prospects for development form the central thrust of this study. Non-probability purposive sampling was used for data collection. This approach rests on qualitative research methodology. Respondents were chosen on the basis of their position and influence on decion-making processes that impinge on the interface amongst aid, state and development. Primary data sources are clustered into three categories: Government; Donor agencies and embassies; and Non-governmental Organisations.

No

Portugal has experienced various structural changes in recent history which have greatly contributed to the country having a sizeable and varied immigrant population at present. The Global Economic Crisis of 2008 has severely impacted numerous countries in the European Union including Portugal. Conditions in Portugal had been gradually worsening, largely as a result of a stagnating national economy, where unemployment steadily increased in the years leading up to 2008. In the wake of the crisis, Portugal has experienced dramatic reductions in GDP, soaring unemployment rates and in particular regarding youth unemployment, social unrest and political instability. Further, the most vulnerable socioeconomic groups in Portugal have been worst affected, where social inequality, poverty and a whole array of other social issues have been exacerbated by the crisis and the austerity policies that were implemented in the wake of the economic crash. This thesis attempted to discover if attitudes towards immigrants have changed in light of worsening economic conditions in Portugal during three different time periods 2002-2006-2012, with a primary focus on the most recent period where conditions were most austere. Moreover, this research also sought to establish the determinants which influence attitudes towards immigrants over the same time period. Data was used from three rounds of the European Social Survey and in particular, round 1 (2002/2003), round 3 (2006/2007) and round 6 (2012/2013). Descriptive statistics and ordered logistic regressions were used in order to answer the research questions and realistic group conflict theory was utilised as a theoretical framework when analysing and explaining the findings. It was evident that attitudes towards immigrants have become more negative over the given time period and were indeed most pronounced in light of the recent economic crisis. It was also apparent that natives who were in greater competition with immigrants possessed the most pronounced levels of prejudice.

<p>The purpose of this thesis was to from a Swedish perspective investigate the fantastic growth rates of Estonia and Latvia and why it became such a massive collapse when the world economy was slowing down.</p><p>To build a theoretical foundation for the investigation several international macroeconomic theories such as the Mundell-Flemming model, the fundamental national income equilibrium, and international parity relations were used.</p><p>The empirical section shows that Estonia and Latvia have based much of their growth on imports from their Baltic and especially their Nordic neighbours. At the same time they have been highly dependent on continuously growing Nordic stock markets and high risk appetite from investors to be able to keep the fabulous growth figures.</p><p>The conclusions drawn are that it has been possible for Estonia and Latvia to grow at fast rates, by running large current accounts deficits, as long as the world was in a boom. But when the world economy is slowing down they are now forced into the very painful process of re-establishing a more balanced current account.</p>