This thesis focuses on the economics of child labour and child education within developing and developed countries. The first part of the thesis examines child labour and child education in developing countries. It investigates the motivations of parents to send their children to work and analyses the so-called commitment problem of child labour in a dynamic, overlapping generations game theoretical model. As a novelty, this model relaxes the requirement of an observable history of play and models the decision problem as an overlapping generations cyclic game. We show that first-best contracts may me implemented, implying optimal child education and low child labour, if a bequest sanction can be imposed by grandparents. We also discuss the special role that grandparents have within this model. The second part of the thesis analyses the economics of child education within a developed country context: the transmission of education across generations and the impact of a schooling reform on educational choice and later outcomes. In a first chapter of this second part, we examine specifically the influence of grandparents, as postulated by the model in part one, on the education of grandchildren. A unique dataset on three generations, the National Child Development Survey of the UK, is used. As a special feature, we apply recent econometric techniques to deal with censoring in a semi-parametric setting. The results indicate that it is not education but rather unobservable factors on the parent and grandparent level that affect the educational choice of grandchildren. These unobservable factors may be interpreted as innate ability or parenting skills. In a second chapter within this part, a schooling reform, the introduction of comprehensive schools in the UK and its impact on educational and labour market outcomes is evaluated. We find, using data from the National Child Development Survey and applying a new, quasi-differenced matching estimator, that bias corrected estimates of the reform suggest no effect on the means, but a sizeable effect on the variance of outcomes. We interpret this finding as indicative of a higher risk inherent to the selective education system. In summary the thesis sheds some new light on the economics of education and child labour, both in a theoretical and an empirical context, and provides a valuable reference and starting point for future research in this area.

This dissertation is a collection of three essays that share one common feature: all three of them relate to the literature on Bargaining. The first and second essay are joint work with my supervisor, Professor Andrés Carvajal. In our first essay we investigate the testable implications of the Nash bargaining solution. We develop polynomial tests of the NBS under different hypothesis about the default levels. For instance, with, and without observation from the outside econometrician of the levels of utility that the individuals would have obtained outside the negotiation. We use the Tarski-Seindenberg algorithm to characterize rationalizable data as those that satisfy a finite system of polynomial inequalities. In our second essay we introduce a new equilibrium concept for games of political competition. We model electoral competition within each party, assuming inner-party members have somewhat conflicting preferences. By using the bargaining protocol à la Baron and Ferejohn (1989) we explicitly model party members’ strategic interactions, their incentives and their decision of whom to elect. Our equilibrium concept attempts to model each member’s decision as if each player were uncertain about, (i) the faction that will eventually dominate the decision made by the other party and (ii) the faction that will dominate in the party’s nomination. In the last essay I focus on one of the classical problems in bargaining: the divide the dollar problem. In our framework we assume players’ utility functions mirror selfish and Rawlsian preferences. We derive the set of subgame perfect equilibria for different arrangements of player types and study why strategic generosity emerges under the bargaining protocol we assume.

Various models explaining micro knowledge-generating behaviour (in particular exporting and innovating) in the economics literature are underpinned by the overlapping assumption that these activities are largely determined by the resources/capabilities possessed by firms. Despite their perceived importance, there is a dearth of evidence on how these heterogeneous resources and firm-specific capabilities can be incorporated into economics models to quantify their roles in determining microeconomic behaviour. Therefore this thesis attempts to bridge this gap in the literature by integrating the resource-based view (RBV) as a new IO theory into the microeconomics literature and empirically utilising micro level data to investigate the significance of such resources/capacities in determining exporting and innovation activities, moderating their inter-relationships as well as conditioning their impacts on the firm’s performance. These heterogeneous resources have been proxied using firm size, productivity, capital intensity, intangible assets, various dimensions to absorptive capacity, the deployment of R&D sourcing strategies and so on. Using establishment-level data covering all UK market-based sectors in 2000, the findings show that all these factors have a large impact upon the propensity and/or intensity of establishments’ exporting and/or R&D activities, with an especially noticeable role in breaking down entry barriers to undertaking such activities. Given the significant impact of exports on knowledge-creating R&D activity, the thesis subsequently investigates and confirms additional learning effect of exporting as embodied in the firm-level exports-productivity relationship using a nationally representative panel dataset covering both manufacturing and services sectors in the UK, for the 1996-2004 period. Lastly, this thesis also attempts to provide an initial inspection of the contribution of innovation (proxied by R&D stock) to productivity using plant-level panel data for Northern Ireland. Based on the estimation of a ‘knowledge production function’ separately for various manufacturing industries, the overall long-run results show that R&D stock does have a positive impact upon productivity.

This thesis explores the possibility of a modern consumption distinct from discussions of the ‘consumer,’ ‘consumption,’ ‘consumerism’ and the ‘consumer society’ and rejects the possibility of a universal or ‘human’ consumption-activity rooted in use that merely varies with space and time. This is done by exploring the roots of these terms in the philosophical anthropology of economic theory, specifically the concept of homo oeconomicus. The economic inheritance within contemporary accounts of the capitalist consumption-relation is then pursued through a review of the disciplinary approaches to the topic made by historical accounts of ‘consumer culture,’ the study of patterns of use across the social sciences, from psychology, through geography to marketing and anthropology. Finally, the contemporary sociological investigation of ‘consumption’ is critiqued and its broad reliance upon a utilitarian-derived cost/benefit model adapted to incorporate ‘sign-value’ and discussions of postmodernism are rejected. This prompts the proposal of a ‘postphenomenological’ approach to the study of modern consumption and the ‘terrain’ upon which it is available to experience. The bulk of the thesis, chapters three, four and five, are taken up with a review of the contemporary commodity-form using the phenomenological categories of space, time and causality, respectively. This allows a historical perspective to be employed in the analysis of the role of material factors in the constitution of subjective experience and its role within the emergence of modern consumption. The theory of modern consumption and the sociospatial terrain upon which it unfolds is developed through the concept of ‘affordance,’ adapted from environmental psychology and a re-definition of ‘possession’ that arises from the inter-relation of being and having. This allows the rejection of the orthodox models and theories of ‘consumption’ outlined in chapter two. The thesis concludes by advocating an engagement in a ‘playful’ modern consumption that engages with the commodity-form as the medium within which contemporary ‘experience’ is transmitted and, which, consequently, forms the of the phenomenal forms of subjective experience derived from the capitalist consumption-relation.

Life science firms compete in rapidly changing environments that demand substantial resources and capabilities. Nevertheless, there are a growing number of small life science firms, and these firms are having a profound impact on innovation in the industry. However, little is known on how these firms overcome resource constraints to finance and develop R&D resources and capabilities. Consequently, the purpose of this thesis is to empirically explore how small life science firms develop R&D and financial resources and capabilities. A closely related area that this research is also fundamentally concerned with is how R&D and financial resources and capabilities affect firms‟ early growth. The central aim of this research is to unearth insights on the motivations, assets and processes that lead to the development of R&D and financial resources and capabilities. To accomplish this, the research draws on the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities. The resources-based view is interested in the resources from which firms derive competitive advantages. Whilst dynamic capabilities focus on how firms in rapidly changing environments – especially high technology environments – configure and reconfigure their assets and capabilities to develop competitive advantages. Because this research is concerned with the development of key resources and capabilities of firms in rapidly changing environments, a resource-based view influenced dynamic capabilities framework is used to isolate the development of R&D and financial resources and capabilities of life science firms. An in depth case study approach is used to examine the research questions. It draws on longitudinal data collected from six life science firms. Data has been collected from twenty interviews and over 3000 pages of secondary data. The interview data is abstracted using four techniques: 1) identifying repetitions, 2) looking for transitions, 3) identifying similarities and differences and 4) cutting and sorting notable quotes. Following Miles and Huberman (1994), the data is then analysed using a multiple step abstraction and condensing process. A unique triangulation technique is used at the end of the study where the key informants are surveyed on the results of the qualitative analysis. Results from the study indicate that a unique set of past decisions, future opportunities, assets, capabilities and routines leads to the development of R&D and financial resources and capabilities. It is evident in all of the case firms in this study that scientific breakthroughs, partnership opportunities, the founders‟ experience and the firm‟s ability to integrate resources and learn from earlier paths are vital to the development of R&D and financial resources and capabilities. The study makes several contributions to the practice and scholarship of management. It provides insights on how small life science firms develop the R&D and financial resources to compete in a highly dynamic industry. From a scholarly perspective, it extends the dynamic capabilities framework and offers empirical support to several categories of dynamic capabilities. It also offers support to R&D and financial capabilities as categories of complementary assets. This thesis identifies details of the aforementioned aspects, discusses the importance of the findings in relation to the literature, and offers future research directions.

Drawing on the Resource-Based View of the Firm (RBV) the study suggests a set of mainly knowledge-based resources, specific to high technology SMEs, at firm and individual levels, explaining why in the same industry, some firms consistently outperform others in international markets. A conceptual framework drawing on the RBV and on Transaction Costs Economics (TCE) was developed and operationalised. Empirical research proceeded in two phases. Phase one involved 12 exploratory interviews, respectively with 8 chief executives of high technology SMEs and with 4 experts and academics in the area of enquiry. The role of these exploratory interviews was to qualitatively identify and examine valuable resources to high technology SMEs emphasised or not in the extant literature and that have been included in phase two, which was concerned with a mail survey where 106 firms filled and returned the questionnaire. The data collected provided the basis upon by using multivariate statistical techniques three sets of hypotheses, were developed, tested and discussed: (i) to examine the impact that resources have on firm international performance; (ii) to examine the influence that resources have on the entry mode in the main foreign market: independent vs. contractual arrangement; (iii) to examine the relationship between the use of a contractual arrangement in the main foreign market entry mode and performance in that same market, while considering resources as moderator influences in that relationship. The study main findings suggest the great importance for high technology SME superior international performance of the human capital of the entrepreneur/chief executive as well as the need of building a stronger technology-base through a greater emphasis on R&D activities, by hiring high skilled personnel and capitalising on continuous innovations based on technologies that are new to the market.

This thesis describes how the implementation of quality management methods in local government organisations have affected the inter-related issues of the public-service labour process and collective bargaining arrangements. A series of interviews with managers and union officials, and questionnaire surveys of trade union members attitudes at four disparate local authorities pursuing quality management was conducted over two and a half years. The findings indicate that the nature and outcomes of quality management implementation are contingent upon pre-existing employment relations within the organisation - particularly relating to trade union entrenchment and activity. The implementation of quality management, however, does have a subsequent effect on the labour process and collective bargaining. While there are considerable differences between authorities, evidence of increased worker 'commitment' as a result of quality management is inconclusive, though workers do perceive net increases in work-rates. Workers also perceive a net decline in trade union influence over working practices. It is concluded that unions need to address the issue of quality management in a critical manner in order to be able to adequately protect the interests of their members and to retain the long term legitimacy in the workplace.

It is repeatedly claimed that the labour theory of value is fatally flawed. Whether as a result of this claim, or as is more likely a change in the intellectual atmosphere, there has in recent years been little debate of the merits and weaknesses of the labour theory of value. The principal objective of this thesis is to re-examine a number of the flaws more widely debated in an earlier period and to show that the claim that the labour theory of value is flawed is false. The thesis claims that the work of Marx represents thus far the single most important contribution to the development of the labour theory of value. This contribution is contrasted with that of the Classical political economists, most notably Adam Smith and David Ricardo. An examination is made of the works of Smith and Ricardo which demonstrates that the flaws within their labour theory of value are attributable to the shortcomings of their wider theoretical endeavours. In particular, they fail to identify the nature of value-creating labour; examine the role of the value-form and explain cogently the quantitative determination of value. Marx's work is then examined with each of these points as a pivot of reference. The thesis concludes by drawing the three strands of analysis together to demonstrate that, against a history of criticism, Marx's theory presents a structured coherent whole, largely immune to the criticisms made of it, both from without and within the Marxist tradition of political economy.

The 1980s and 1990s are historical periods of economic reforms in both China and the former Soviet Union. Comparative study of principal proposals of economic reform and transformation in the two countries in this period is the subject of this thesis. There are five main chapters excluding the introduction. Chapter 2 is the theoretical framework of the thesis which is based on essential concepts of Comparative Economic System. Before the main theme began, primary economic problems and difficulties in pre-reform periods in China and the former Soviet Union were discussed in Chapter 3. So was a brief review of reform efforts in the past in the two countries. In Chapter 4, major proposals of economic reform in Chinese economy from late 1978 till 1992 were studied. These included reform measures in the rural economy, the opening up policy, state-owned enterprises reform, new policy for non-state sector and comprehensive plans after 1985. Chapter 5 discussed the 1987 reform package, the 1990 reform plans including Presidential Plan and Shatalin Plan. A brief summary of the Russian reform plan in 1991 was also done in this chapter. Chapter 6 is the concluding part of the thesis. The author compared in detail the two cases and drew conclusions as the following: (a) Both Chinese and Soviet reformers designed the transformation from centralised planning control to decentralised market-oriented economy; (b) The structures of the existing economic system, i.e., decision--making, information, motivation and ownership structures, required various degrees of alteration in the two countries. Soviet reformers called for massive destatisation and privatisation of the state-owned undertakings, while China insisted on a structure with predominant state-owned enterprises; (c) The economic reforms strategies in the two countries are different.

This thesis examines the role of public capital, in particular, "core infrastructure", in private sector production in the United States. The underlying theme is the importance of the individual infrastructure stocks, in particular highways and streets, water and sewer systems and "other structures". Two different empirical approaches are used to shed light on a number of issues. In the first study in Chapter 3, two cost function models are estimated using data for the total private business sector, one using aggregate infrastructure data and the other using disaggregated infrastructure. The parameter estimates are used to calculate optimal infrastructure stocks (the optimal total infrastructure stock and the optimal individual stocks). The results reveal that, despite the fall in infrastructure investment from 1968-82, none of the infrastructure stocks was undersupplied over the sample period. The estimated output elasticities of the different infrastructure stocks are significantly lower than those obtained in previous research. In the second study in Chapter 4, use is made of recent development sin the productivity literature to construct a measure of manufacturing total factor productivity (TFP) that takes account of varying returns to scale and variable labour and capital utilisation over the cycle. The adjusted TFP measure is used to shed light on the causal relationship between infrastructure (total, core and disaggregated core) and productivity using a selection of autoregressive model-building techniques and causality testing procedures. Contrary to the stated view of many infrastructure researchers there is no evidence of "reverse causality", i.e. productivity causing infrastructure investment. There is, however, evidence that infrastructure has a small but statistically significant positive effect on TCP. Highways and other roads are the most productive types of infrastructure, followed by "other structures". When the TFP data is disaggregated, the findings is that core infrastructure affects some industries more than others, especially those that are capital intensive and have the largest motor vehicle shares.