My thesis consists of two relatively independent topics. In the first topic I empirically inves- tigate the factors that determine the presence of the independent coffee shops in the market of Central London. In the second topic I present a theory of cartel detection. The common feature of these topics is that I investigate the demand side effects on market structure and its impact on competition. To be more specific, in the first topic I build a simple theoretical model of product differentiation in adjacent markets, based on Mazzeo (2002). For the empirical estimation I have constructed a unique dataset of coffee shops in Central London. I further manage to identify differences on demand characteristics across markets by utilizing data on people’s mo- bility from the tube stations and provide evidence for the existence of product differentiation. It is found that residential areas with high employment, areas with small business density and leisure areas increase the profitability of the independent coffee shops. A counterfactual analysis is also presented. In the second topic I investigate the cartel’s strategies and likelihood of collusion when the buyers of the cartel are able to report its existence to the anti-trust authority. I char- acterize the cartel’s optimal behavior when the buyers are actively monitoring the cartel’s members and are able to report a cartel to an anti-trust authority1. I present a simple static model and I show that the likelihood of collusion increases as the willingness of the buyers to report increases (cost of reporting decreases). Furthermore, it is shown that it is optimal for an anti-trust authority to decrease the cost of reporting (a trade-off between price reductions in existing cartels and increased likelihood of cartel formation is identified). Finally, alterna- tive cartel strategies are also explored in this topic. As for the last point, I show that the threat of exclusion (foreclosure) and price discrimination are robust strategies that prevent buyers from reporting.

Haemoglobin concentration is becoming a widely popular parameter to use to assess physiological condition within a broad range of species. Assessments of large populations would preferable be done in field to receive quick results and avoid confounding factors associated with transport of blood. A validation study is here performed to see how well the point-of-care device HemoCue Hb 201 + can assess haemoglobin concentration on avian blood. Nucleated erythrocytes have previously been pointed out as something that makes it problematic to apply HemoCue Hb 201 +, designed for human blood, on avian blood. Here it is shown that HemoCue Hb 201 + accurately can estimate haemoglobin concentration for chicken-, tinamou-, and ostrich blood. However, manipulation of ostrich cells, to yield a larger mean corspuscular volume, results in HemoCue Hb 201 + overestimating haemoglobin concentration. A large mean corpuscular volume could therefore be something that impair accuracy in values retrieved with HemoCue Hb 201 +. This study shows that HemoCue Hb 201 + seems possible to apply on avian blood to some extent, but highlights the importance of validation studies when applying this device on new species.

Marine Parks are established to protect an area of the sea zoned as a sanctuary for the protection of its marine eco-systems, especially coral reefs and its associated fauna and flora, like sea grass beds, mangroves and the sea shores. In Malaysia, there are 6 marine parks to-date. Ironically, the establishment of marine parks also attracts more tourists to the areas. For example, the number of visitors to Payar Marine Park increased tremendously from 3,668 visitors in 1990 to 133,775 visitors in 2002. Environmentalists and scientists have voiced concern that too many tourists have adverse effects on the coral reefs. This study estimates how much visitors are willing to pay for two separate issues; first, to reduce the damages due to crowding effect and second, to reduce the damages due to inland development, of three marine parks in Malaysia; Payar, Redang and Tioman Marine Park. The willingness-to-pay estimates were obtained from the respondents using the Contingent Valuation Method. A total of 650 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents. Then, half of the total respondents were asked to answer the crowding effect issue, and the other half was asked the inland development issue. For the crowding effect issue the respondents were presented with a hypothetical situation in which the park authority wanted to reduce the damage to the corals by limiting the number of visitors to half the number who came in 2000. The reduction in the total number of visitors is to be achieved by imposing an increased entrance fee. For the inland development issue, an increase in the entrance fee is intended for the authority to hire more people to monitor and enforce rules, to treat sewage and to implement coastal zone management and planning. Estimation was done using the double-bounded dichotomous choice method. The willingness to pay (WTP) per person per visit to moderate the environmental impact of inland development is RM23.79, which is lower than the WTP to reduce crowding, RM31.59. In addition, when both data were combined to estimate the differences between the WTP of foreign and local visitors, we found that the WTP of foreign visitors was much higher than the WTP of locals at RM39.11 and RM19.52, respectively. Analyses using the Individual Travel Cost Method gave quite poor results since two thirds of the visitors were first-timers. Therefore, consumer surplus cannot be obtained due to the insignificant result of the respondent’s total spending on the number of trips. However, using the Zonal Travel Cost Method (ZTCM), the average consumer surplus was found to be the same, RM1,000 for each park. The ZTCM was also used to calculate the elasticity of demand. The results for the three marine parks were found not to vary much, ranging between 1.07 and 1.36.

This dissertation addresses the rhetoric of deficiency that frames Latina/o students as lacking with regard to education. This dissertation begins by examining the cultural deficit model entrenched in colonial narratives of history that justify unequal access to resources in the US. I argue that the reimagining of the pejorative trope of 'pocho' by reconnecting it with its etymological root pochteca provides a trope of resistance to deficiency rhetoric, and a trope that embodies rhetorical strategies for Latina/o students navigating academic institutions. Additionally, this dissertation furthers the advocacy of culturally relevant reading and writing assignments and practices, while at the same time arguing that the discursive productions responding to culturally relevant writing demonstrate rhetorical strategies. The analysis of a student publication that responds to and integrates dichos provides a site of analysis where students identify rhetorical strategies that help them navigate obstacles related to education. The use of Twitter by a predominantly Latina/o summer bridge program provides an additional site of analysis where the writing of students in digital spaces allows them to perform latinidad, and create support networks that help them succeed in school. The pedagogical chapter of this dissertation analyzes the Arizona House Bill 2281 and the rhetoric that frames the Tucson Unified School District's Mexican American Studies program as racist and anti-American; following this analysis come suggestions for incorporating culturally relevant aspects of the TUSD MAS curriculum into rhetoric and composition curriculum.

This thesis addresses three questions using the same tool of microeconomic modelling. In the first chapter (joint with Emily Farchy), I examine the role of individual’s decision to acquire broad versus specialist knowledge. I show that a worker can afford to become more specialized on a narrower set of skills by relying on other workers for missing skills. This yields a new explanation of the urban wage premium, and in particular of why workers tend to be more productive in bigger cities, where the existence of better networks of workers provides more incentives to acquire specialized skills. This conclusion matches well established empirical findings on workers’ productivity in the literature. In the second chapter, I look at the dynamics of human capital acquisition over time and show the possibility of what I term a social poverty trap. Namely, parents who do not instil in their offspring the culture of social cooperation (modeled as a higher discount rate) deny them the possibility of future good outcomes; in turn, this new generation will be unable to invest resources in the socialization of their offspring, and so on. This creates a poverty trap where some dynasties are stuck in a bad equilibrium. In the last chapter, I model political parties campaigning on different issues to voters with limited attention. I assume that the relative salience of the different issues depend on how much time parties devote to each issue. In this setting, I show that campaigning might result in excessive focus on divisive issues (for political differentiation) to the detriment of Pareto-improving ones.

This project considers contemporary theoretical and practical approaches to the restructuring of work relations by engaging with dominant traditions within micro-economic analysis. It is proposed that a full understanding of the contemporary debates can only be achieved by locating the various contributions within the history of social thought, specifically in terms of the different conceptions of value within economics which underscore different approaches to the world of capitalist work relations. The first section, Chapters Two and Three, considers the theoretical premises of orthodox economics and modern sociology. On the basis of this analysis we offer a critique of the popular 'Transaction Costs' approach to capitalist work organisation. The second section, Chapters Four, Five and Six, considers the dimensions of Marxist social theory. Chapter Four studies the Marxist approach to economic relations and the sphere of production. in Chapter Five we unify certain developments within Marxist economics and sociology in terms of an abstract understanding of capitalist production through a specific analysis of value theory and the method by which it informs an analysis of how the social relations of production endogenously determine the forces of production. in Chapter Six we use this method to offer a critique of 'Labour Process' theory in terms of its theoretical. understanding of the sphere of production, in the concluding Chapters Seven and Eight we return to the notion of restructuring and contemporary industrial relations analysis and offer a critique of contemporary debate determined by our understanding of the status of value within economics and social theory in general.

In this thesis, I use a political economy of trade policy approach to analyze the issues of strategic lobbying and taxation choice. The thesis contains 4 papers together with an introduction, literature review and conclusion. In Chapter 3, a lobbying-influence model is presented to discuss how the outcomes of trade policy is influenced by lobbying activities during the policymaking process. A comparison of the welfare-maximizing model and the lobbying-influence model under a game theory framework is undertaken. Chapter 4 provides a new explanation on the issue of asymmetric lobbying from the view point of the impact of external environment. Since the incentive of the domestic firm to engage in lobbying activities varies with its marginal costs, the outcomes of lobbying performance are different. This argument holds for both complete and incomplete information settings. Chapter 5 considers whether there is a positive role for lobbying activities in an incomplete information setting when the foreign entry is incorporated. The results suggest that the social welfare under the pooling equilibrium is higher than that under the separating equilibrium. As a result, there is no positive role for lobbying activities in this two-period model. Chapter 6 provides a political economy model to explain why trade taxes rather than more efficient income taxes might be adopted and what links the taxation choice and the economic development. In general, people prefers to pay less tax to the government. In a democratic society, a policy, which yields a higher utility to the majority of voters, is supported through majority voting. Therefore, the choice of taxation instruments depends on the tax payments, which are determined by the tax method, the income level, and the movement of income distribution over time.

The solution of mathematical problems by numerical analysis is a large, intricate subject in its own right, and the substance-of many Ph. D. theses in mathematics. The advancement of numerical analysis and computer technology are clearly not mutually exclusive. Moreover this combination through the growth in computer software facilities is' easily within reach of a researcher with no expertise in either numerical analysis or computer programming. In particular the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) based in Oxford provides a library of subroutines for incorporation into source programmes across a broad spectrum of mathematics. The relevance of this development for the economist lies with the considerable scope for providing quantitative evaluations of microeconomic models outside of traditional statistical methods. To justify such a claim the thesis develops a number of applications from microeconomic theory: imperfect information in a non-sequential search framework; optimum tax with endogenous wages; a two sector general equilibrium model of union and non-union wage rate determination; Chamberlin's welfare ideal; and a quantity setting duopoly analysis of the structure conduct performance paradigm. It is hoped that the insights gained from such diverse topics will convince the reader as to the appropriateness of applying numerical computing to microeconomic questions in general, and the usefulness of the NAG software in particular.

In recent years major structural changes have been taking place within the UK economy. One of the major factors responsible for this is the oil developments in the North Sea, which have seen since 1980 the achievement of self sufficiency in oil for the UK. At the same time as this Development has been taking place, there has been a major change in economic policy towards the control of inflation through monetary and fiscal restraint as outlined in the Medium Term Financial Strategy. Economic policy was now to be framed within a medium term context, rather than in the context of short term stabilisation. Demand management policies were to be downgraded, and more emphasis was to be placed upon improving the supply side of the economy. This thesis is directed towards analysing the above developments but in particular the effects of an oil discovery, oil price increases and tight money upon the structure of the economy as well as the dynamic processes of adjustment involved. The evolution and final outcome of the adjustment process obviously also depends crucially upon the policies adopted by the Government, in terms of its attitude towards such developments. Hence our analysis would be incomplete without a discussion of present Governmental attitudes as well as its appropriateness. This ultimately involves deciding whether market forces should determine the reallocation of resources, or whether greater involvement by the Government is required.

In this thesis the Spanish accounting regulatory framework is considered as a research case study. The main objective is to illustrate the issues faced by accounting systems in European economies in transition. Many Eastern European countries undergoing an economic transition have applied for European Union membership. The emergence of new accounting systems in these economies will be strongly influenced by the obligation to comply with European Union legislation and the Spanish case may offer some useful lessons. Spain, as a case study, illustrates a European country that has undergone an economic transition in the last twenty-five years. The Spanish accounting regulatory framework has successfully undergone several changes in order to comply with European legislation and fit into a global market economy. The research case study comprises five sub-units of study. Firstly, the activities of the Spanish government with regard to new accounting requirements as well as the changes experienced by the accounting standards-setting bodies exemplifies the important role of the government's response to European Union legislation. Secondly, the evolution of accounting and professional bodies represents a society responding to the issues arising from the changes occurring at a national legislative level. Thirdly, the unique interaction between the Spanish public and professional accounting bodies is an example of joint effort in times when rapid change is required and the amount of professional expertise may be limited. The fourth sub-unit of study explores the role of the Spanish academic community which emerges as a full participant during the accounting reforms. Its influence in the new accounting regulatory framework is strongly felt through the increase in academic publications and with direct participation in the accounting standards -setting process. Finally, the fifth sub-unit of study looks at the 'true and fair view' requirement which was adopted by the European Union's Fourth Directive in 1978 as the ultimate objective of financial reporting. The origins and history of 'true and fair view' have given rise to a considerable amount of academic debate on the issues stemming from its implementation by European national legislators. The Spanish decision to adopt this Directive in full shows the high degree of commitment to compliance with the European Union. The response of the Spanish government and the profession to a requirement alien to the Spanish accounting tradition and philosophy has been dramatic. It is concluded that the changes in the accounting regulatory framework have not only been successful, but Spain has also embraced the European Directives in its national legislation to a greater extent than other European countries. The Spanish experience may therefore becorne a model to be looked to by Eastern European countries with an interest in becoming European Union members.