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Mainstream approaches usually follow standard economic principles which have been developed in order to better understand the behaviour of modern western consumers in a capitalist context. In time, we have come to understand that these same principles are profoundly inadequate in explaining third world consumption and even more inappropriate when attempting to expound its qualitative effects on living standards, family relations, community dynamics and cultural changes in developing regions. To make sense of this problematic, the problem will be outlined in broad terms and the present research's objectives clarified, along with its theoretical inclination, analytical framework and methodology. Then, to better understand the need for such a project, popular discourses on consumption in economics, development, globalization processes and cultural change will be reviewed. Then, a brief explanation as to why Peru was chosen as the site for this project's case studies will be presented, as well as a critique of Peruvian and Andean politico-economics. Finally, research findings and conclusions will be presented and discussed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Max Weber argued that traditional values impede the development of capitalism in Confucian societies. Korea is an economic success, yet is also known as the most Confucian of East Asian countries. This thesis seeks to explain the marriage between a thriving consumer-based economy and a traditional Confucian value system. Broadly, it was found that Koreans are committed to uniquely adapted values that while faithful to their Confucian origins, are also products of contemporary Korean history. What results are core values that appear to be staid in traditional terms, but are in effect driving forces for economic growth and national unity. Within these findings, it is revealed that (1) Confucian ideals of family relationships, rank and essential virtues are at the forefront of the Korean imaginary; (2) it is possible to harmonize the terms modern and traditional, (3) that capitalism is culturally constructed and therefore not fully subject to Weberian limitations.

Drawing upon the wealth of literature previously written about the Masan Free Export Zone (MAFEZ), this thesis will disentangle the conflicting information and hypotheses about the some of the zone's 'welfare benefits.' That is, the thesis will examine production linkages and technology spillover from the export processing zone (EPZ) itself to the greater economy. The vast literature already written on this subject is divergent, to say the least, and much of it is inconsistent with simple facts available in archival materials and exhaustively compiled statistical evidence. Therefore, this thesis will examine the extant literature on the zone and compare this with archival material gathered in South Korea to reinterpret the facts through a more holistic and interdisciplinary lens. This thesis will demonstrate that the establishment of MAFEZ was successful in creating such welfare benefits to the domestic Korean economy outside of the zone, and that such success was mostly policy-induced. Chapter One will introduce some of the divergent ideas and academic controversies about EPZs in general and MAFEZ in particular. Chapter Two will give a brief history of Korea's export-oriented industrialization drive, and how Korean Industrial Estates (IEs) and EPZs figured in this drive. It will also delineate important political and economic differences between Korean IEs and EPZs. Chapter Three will examine in detail production linkages from MAFEZ. Chapter Four will study technology spillover from the zone and the impact of such spillover. This thesis will conclude with an overview of the argument and an explication of some of the problems that MAFEZ, as a development tool, faced during its evolution and expansion.

This dissertation studies technology spillovers between countries. The dissertation consists of three chapters. The first chapter is a theoretical model that studies the impact of tarifs in the presence of R&D spillovers. The second chapter is an empirical model on the impact of spillovers through trade on productivity. The third chapter is also an empirical model on the determinants of foreign patents in a country. In the first chapter, we study the impact of tarifs on R&D expenditures when there are R&D spillovers between firms. The firms are located in the home and foreign countries and compete in the home country's market. We consider a three-stage game, where the government determines the amount of the tariff in the first stage, firms choose their R&D expenditures in the second stage, and outputs are determined in the third stage based on Cournot competition. We show that if the foreign government gives an R&D subsidy to the foreign firm, foreign R&D will increase and the domestic firm's profit and domestic welfare will decrease. However, domestic consumer surplus will increase. The home country can recover this profit and welfare loss, partially or totally, if it uses two policy instruments simultaneously: a tariff and an R&D subsidy. The second chapter studies the impacts of domestic and international technology spillovers on the growth rate of Canadian manufacturing industries. In this chapter, we examine whether different types of industries have different technology spillover rates. To test these hypotheses, Canadian industries are categorized into three groups based on their characteristics as low-tech, medium-tech, and high-tech. According to the empirical results, only foreign R&D has a positive and significant impact on productivity. Domestic R&D is not significant under any of the specifications; however, it helps industries absorb foreign R&D. The third chapter estimates the diffusion rate of foreign technology into Canadian industries at the industry level by using patent data. The results of this chapter suggest that the patent activity of foreign countries is the most important factor for receiving foreign patents in Canada. Moreover, imports and foreign direct investments are important vehicles for technology transfer. The distance between countries has a negative impact on receiving foreign patents. The impacts of R&D intensity and human capital on receiving foreign patents are mixed and insignificant, but industries with a higher R&D intensity may be better recipients of foreign patents.