The aim of this study is to present four essays related to the macroeconometric modelling of specific relations within the economy of the United Kingdom for the period 1992-2012. The focal point of these essays is the link between inflation targeting monetary policy decision making and housing or financial prices. In particular, we investigate whether traditional channels of monetary policy are still in effect under the adopted monetary policy regime. At the same time, findings associated with the specific relation between both asset markets or with the various working assumptions which facilitate our investigation are also reported. The specific econometric methods employed include the development of structural vector autoregressive (SVAR), Markov regime-switching, as well as, multivariate generalised autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic (MGARCH) models. The formulation of these models is predicated upon the selection of appropriate approximations for all financial and macroeconomic indicators of interest. The main findings of the first essay suggest that under the inflation targeting monetary policy regime, innovations in the monetary policy instrument have no direct effect on the stock market as previously suggested by traditional channels of monetary policy. The said innovations though, appear to have a significant negative impact on the housing market. Furthermore, variation in the stock market can be explained by innovations in the housing market. Turning to the second essay, prominent among our results is the fact that innovations in fiscal policy have a significantly negative effect on the stock market (direct impact). In addition, the effects of monetary policy on the stock market also become negative (indirect impact). According to the third essay when both the stock and the housing market are in a highly volatile regime, then contractionary monetary policy pushes both markets to remain at that regime. Finally, the main outcome from the fourth essay is that the time-varying correlation between monetary policy and housing or financial prices becomes stronger during turbulent times. Overall, our findings suggest that within an inflation targeting monetary policy regime the effects of monetary policy decisions on the stock market strongly depend on the broader economic conditions. By contrast, traditional monetary policy channels with respect to the housing market appear to be in effect; however, broader economic conditions have a key role to play in this case as well.

Abu-Dhabi (AD) is the largest of the seven Emirates that comprise the United Arab Emirates. Abu-Dhabi, the capital of the UAE with 1,493,000 inhabitants, accounts for 86.7% of the total surface area of the state. The emirate of Abu-Dhabi, through its Policy Agenda 2007-2008, the strategic Plan 2008-2012 and the Plan Vision Abu-Dhabi 2030 has recently re-branded itself and has made a series of assertive moves in order to boost the tourism and hospitality sectors as a means to a more diversified economy. The proposed study aims to examine the scope of accommodating alternative forms of hotel developments in the Abu Dhabi Emirate. Ultimately, the goal of the study is to evaluate consumers' decision making process with respect to the emirate's effort to tap into new markets by investing in various types of accommodation establishments. A major part of my research has concentrated in the use of stated preference discrete choice modelling (SPDCM) in the area of hospitality management. This is because understanding the basic drivers of tourists' choice patterns in terms of their vacation accommodation is at the heart of consumer behaviour in the hospitality sector (Mattila 2004). In practice, the empirical investigation has revealed that price, aversion to risk and quality matters are probably the 3 most significant factors driving individual preference patterns for the hospitality sector currently. When evaluating respondents' stated preferences for future or hypothetical managerial initiatives in the hospitality sector, the analysis identified particularly strong preferences towards more integrated and holistic types of advertisement and communication. At the same time, it appears that respondents value quite significantly their privacy and security of their personal space. This piece of finding from the elicitation of their stated preferences is a way confirms earlier findings regarding aversion to hotel security risk from the analysis of respondents' revealed preferences. The analysis of respondents' stated preferences also identified very strong and positive preferences towards superior 5* hotel developments in AD. This point alone could suggest a number of things. First, this piece of evidence, similar to the case presented above, confirms respondents revealed preferences from the descriptive analysis as far as the significance of quality matters on travellers' choice patterns. Second, it rather indicates that respondents have already developed an image of top – class destination (or probably a luxury type of destination) for the Emirate as a whole. In turn, this could imply that policy makers at a destination level, as opposed to a resort or a hotel level should make sure that the Abu Dhabi Emirate does not lose this comparative advantage. Compared to neighbouring Dubai that has not been promoted as a luxury but affordable destination but where one visits mainly for shopping destination, Abu Dhabi is perceived as the luxury destination alternative that offers a 'once – in – the – lifetime' experience. Finally, further analysis also focuses on the examination of visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travellers in Abu Dhabi Emirate, as a separate case of tourism demand at the destination. The empirical results indicate that VFR travellers to Abu Dhabi illustrate considerable heterogeneity as far as their duration of stay, their gender, their age structure, their educational attainment and the income classification. The empirical results suggest that policy makers and planners should take advantage of the current scale of values (culture and religion) as well as economic reasons in order to attract more VFR visitors at the destination. This is mainly due to the large European and Asian communities currently established in Abu Dhabi.

The UK Government encourages citizens to help themselves through policy initiatives such as the ‘Big Society’. This study provides an empirical snapshot of different aspects of modern society that contributes to existing literature on social participation, social exclusion and collective action. This study uses novel interview survey data from a representative sample of 1,005 households in the UK coastal city of Portsmouth. Particular aspects of society that this study investigates includes; understanding the determinants of social engagement; through citizen’s willingness to volunteer and the intensity of their voluntary efforts. In this study, willingness to volunteer includes giving unpaid help to groups, clubs or organisations, or voluntarily participating in local decision-making groups, for example, a group making decisions on crime in the city. To contrast civic engagement, this study addresses issues of social exclusion with a focus on digital exclusion and financial exclusion. In this study, digital exclusion refers to those individuals who do not use the internet either at home, work, place of study or elsewhere. Indicators of household financial exclusion include credit refusal or the use of ‘doorstep lenders’ while indicators of financial self-exclusion include the absence of a savings account or home contents insurance. Additionally, this study examines the determinants of citizens’ concerns and perceptions of helplessness in face of the societal threat posed by climate change and flooding in Portsmouth, a city at risk of inundation from rising sea levels and the city has recent experience of flooding. A simple local and global public good framework is used to organise the understanding of reported attitudes and their determinants. As such, this high resolution data from one UK city provides an indication of the nature of society in modern Britain. Multivariate statistical analysis is used in identifying the attributes of individuals who are willing or actively involved in society, who are concerned or express perceptions of helplessness in the face of environmental threats, and also draws on the attributes of those who experience exclusion from society for whatever reason. The City of Portsmouth context provides a unique backdrop to understanding each of these issues. The main findings from the study shows that some of the most vulnerable people in society are less likely to choose to participate in local community activities, but rather they are more likely to experience social exclusion. Indeed, even within the confines of a densely populated city such as Portsmouth, locality matters, even after controlling for a range of socio-economic and demographic variables.

Since its creation in 1992, the Premier League has sold exclusive media rights for live football matches to broadcasters on behalf of member clubs. The collective selling method removes any price competition between the clubs, whom would otherwise compete against each other to sell rights to their matches (commonly seen in other European Leagues). A key issue with monopoly power is that the Premier League could distort the market for its product or abuse its dominant position in the market as the sole seller of the rights (contrary to Article 101 and 102 of the Treaty of the European Union). In defence, the Premier League argued that matches broadcast live on television can be considered as a substitute for watching at the stadium. A Competition Commission investigation concluded that the potential benefits of collective selling arrangements are for the redistribution of revenue to promote solidarity at all levels of football. After some amendments to the auction process, collective selling continues. Contributing to the applied industrial economics literature, this thesis examines the key arguments for using collective selling methods in the Premier League. Results from empirical economic analysis find firstly, that there is no evidence to suggest a negative impact on match day revenue from live broadcasting and the revenues from rights sales heavily outweigh such an impact. Secondly, that sharing revenue between clubs will only enhance solidarity (competitive balance) if the amount shared is much larger than at present, however, a greater uncertainty of match outcome reduces demand for spectating at the stadium whilst increasing demand for television viewing. Finally, the impact of investment in talent is far greater for weaker teams whilst participating in the Champions League and Europa League has no impact on domestic league performance. This thesis concludes that the Premier League should offer a greater number of rights to broadcast matches and should increase the amount of revenue shared (including revenues from European Competitions) in order to increase competitive balance. This would increase the number of television viewers for live football broadcasts but would likely reduce the numbers of fans spectating at the stadium.

In September 2011, the UN General Secretary declared his vision of making modern energy accessible to all by 2030. Unfortunately, less than 50% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa have access to modern forms of energy. This implies that Africa requires sustained investment in the energy sector. In order to provide investment guide and policy recommendations, this thesis seeks to investigate the determinants of renewable energy, energy efficiency practices and natural gas demand in oil producing African countries. The choice of these types of fuel is dictated by the fact that, renewable energy, energy efficiency and natural gas have been considered the solution to the hydra-headed problems of energy security, energy access and climate change in Africa. The thesis contributes to the energy economics literature in four main ways. First, the thesis applies spatial analysis to the issue of ‗oil curse‘ which has often been associated with oil producing African countries since investments in energy will require finance which can be provided by proceeds from oil resources. Second, the effect of natural resource depletion and energy-related carbon emissions on renewable energy consumption is examined. Third, the natural gas consumption behavior of oil producing African countries is examined. Finally, the Product Generational Dematerialisation (PGD) is applied to the energy efficiency of fossil fuels and electricity consumption in Ghana. The thesis finds among other things that both economic and technical factors affect the demand for natural gas and renewable energy. Further, the results reveal that the consumption of both fossil fuel and renewables have not been efficient. Finally, the thesis confirms the oil curse hypothesis. However, how conducive the investment climate in a particular country has positive bearings on neighbouring countries. Whilst the study seeks to recommend for more investment into energy supply and demand, attention should be given to three factors: availability, the environment and finance. Whereas, renewable energy sources, natural gas and efficiency abound in Africa and are environmentally friendly, finance may be a major hindrance to investments. Therefore, the sixth chapter of this thesis, examines how oil resources are managed so that it can help fund investments in energy. The chapters are therefore linked by the need for oil producing African countries to harness the finances to invest in available and clean sources of energy. The thesis recommends that oil producing Africa should open their economies for international trade, invest in commercial sources of renewable energy, build strong accountability institutions, channel oil revenues into productive sectors and educate the public on energy efficiency not just electricity efficiency.

Scholars have argued that well-governed firms achieve better firm performance. This study addresses the question of whether a relationship exists between corporate governance mechanisms and the performance of non-financial firms listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE). The study combines quantitative (OLS panel regression analysis) and qualitative (interviews) methods. Such triangulation will improve the understanding of the underlying process. The quantitative data produced mixed results. According to the OLS regressions, some governance mechanisms (e.g., non-executive directors, family members on boards, and dividends) positively relate to firm performance value while debt and ownership concentration (based on ROA only) negatively relate to firm performance. However, when the governance mechanisms are treated endogenously using 2SLS regression, based on both measures (Tobin's Q and ROA), several corporate governance principles, such as board size and role duality, have no relationship with firm performance whereas dividends and family directors positively impact firm performance. However, the ownership concentration, proportion of non-executive directors, and debt produced mixed results. The Hausman test provides evidence that the governance mechanisms are endogenous. In addition, if any causal relationship does exist, it would be from the governance mechanism structure to firm performance. The main findings of the qualitative data are similar. A significant change has emerged in Kuwaiti trends related to corporate governance, yet the current corporate governance principles in Kuwait are perceived as irrelevant. Ownership structure provides minority shareholders with weak rights. Meanwhile, family members on boards and role duality produce mixed views. However, other board variables such as the proportion of non-executive directors and board size are not effective. Finally, high dividends mean high firm performance while high debt leads to financial risks and problems with limited roles for Kuwaiti banks in monitoring.