This thesis aims to provide evidence on the relations between productivity, industrial structure, and labour markets for countries with different characteristics from 1965 to 1999. In order to do so, we first examine manufacturing industry production and trade with respect to both technology orientation and intensity, the impact of structural change on productivity growth, and the existence of convergence in industrial structures. Second, this study investigates the impact of labour market and industrial structures on aggregate productivity in manufacturing. While descriptive analysis of manufacturing industry with regard to technological orientation and intensity shows changing industrial structures in favour of relatively more technology intensive production and exports especially in fast growing countries, decomposition analysis suggests that the impact of structural change on productivity growth is negligible for most of the countries. The factor analysis revealed that although a general structural convergence tendency among countries is not observed, fast growing countries have converged their industrial structure towards those of industrialised countries. Finally, econometric estimation results also showed that while wage flexibility is detrimental to productivity in manufacturing, regulations in labour markets may foster productivity growth.

This study deals with direct foreign investment (DFI) in Turkish manufacturing industry with two main objectives: First, the reasons of the failure of Turkish economy in attracting sufficiently high levels of DFI is analysed as compared to the experiences other developing countries that have been successful on this count. Second, the impact of DFI in Turkish manufacturing industry is analysed in terms of export, employment, and technology contribution as well as the comparative behaviour of domestic and DFI firms. In addition to various data sets, the study utilized the results collected from two separate surveys that were implemented to domestic and DFI firms operating in Turkish manufacturing industry. Firstly, it turned out that the failure of Turkish economy in attracting high inflows of DFI cannot be attributed to investment climate problems, as the experiences of other developing countries have shown. Secondly, there does not seem to be a significant difference between the performances of domestic and DFI firms. While DFI seemed to contribute positively to exports, insufficient contribution of DFI on employment and negative balance of payments effects as well as the lack of its contribution in terms of research and development and innovative activities were also notable. Then, the study argues that rather than focusing solely on improvements in investment climate and liberalizing eagerly the development regime, it seems more appropriate to have a broad development strategy, in which both domestic investment and DFI are handled in an integrated approach, within the framework of appropriate industrial, trade and technology policies.

This study investigates the indicators of the number of ATMs (automated teller machines) in the provinces of Turkey by examining two banks: T.C. Ziraat Bankasi and T. iS Bankasi. The study depends on annual panel data from 1990 to 2004 for seventy-three provinces of Turkey. The information about the number of ATMs of the two banks is gathered after a study in the archives of the banks. In this study it is concluded that the number of ATMs of T. iS Bankasi and T. C. Ziraat Bankasi in the previous year and the total number of branches of the banks in Turkey are the indicators of ATM adoption for both of the banks concerned. However, population has a negative sign for T. C. Ziraat Bankasi which is a state bank whereas it has a positive sign for T. iS Bankasi which is a quasi-private bank. The findings also indicate that the ATM number of T. iS Bankasi is more sensitive to the number of total bank branches.

In this study, a demand oriented simultaneous equation macroeconometric model with a dynamic perspective is constructed in order to investigate the impact of workers&rsquo / remittances on output growth via their effects on key macro variables such as private consumption, investment and imports for Turkey. The study covers the period of 1964-2003 on an annual basis. Results of the analysis suggest that workers&rsquo / remittances affect output growth in a positive manner through the multiplier process. It is found that the highest induced growth rate by remittances to output growth belongs to the early 1970s especially the year of 1973, which corresponds to the date of first oil shock and also the end of labour migration to Europe. Thus, it is concluded that although workers&rsquo / remittances have been mostly used for consumption and imports as mentioned in most of the studies both for Turkey and other countries, remittances contributed to economic growth of Turkey positively through the multiplier process especially in the early 1970s.

This thesis investigates the relationship between economic ideas and practices in reference to Japanese development experience. To achieve this, it first examines the impact of economic ideas and economists on the Japanese development. Then it examines the characteristics of the Japanese development. Lastly, the study attempts to give an account of the direct impact of Japanese experience. It also tries to elucidate the indirect influence on the Japanese development economics which occurred through its impact on East Asian model. It has three main assertions. Firstly, it argues that Japanese economic thought and economists that were under the influence of heterodox economic schools such as the German Historical School, Marxism and the Schumpeterian and Keynesian schools, played a crucial role in shaping the Japanese development. Secondly, at least partly for this reason, Japanese development which can be considered as a piece-wise continuous accelerated growth phenomena, demonstrated heterodox characteristics. Thirdly, Japanese successful industrialization directly and indirectly, through influencing East Asian development model, deeply affected different economic approaches in development economics such as the developmental state, flying geese model and the Confucian ethic thesis. The broader implication of this thesis is that the economic ideas and economic practices have a circular relationship as Japanese experience has demonstrated.

This thesis analyzes the efficiency structure of Turkish agriculture in farm household level by using various models of stochastic frontier analysis. A household level survey conducted in 2002 and 2004 is used in the analysis. Firstly, an efficient production frontier is estimated by a panel data models. By using these estimates, relative importance of production factors and their interaction with various farm specific factors are inspected. The parameters of production frontier show that agricultural production is crucially dependant on land and there is an excessive employment of labor in Turkish agriculture. Secondly, the efficiency scores are estimated at farm household level. The results are reported according to NUTS-II regional classification and many other farm specific characteristics. The western parts of the country are found to be relatively more efficient and there is a high deviation in mean efficiencies of different regions. There is an increase in mean efficiencies of all regions from 2002 to 2004. Besides, crop patterns, farm size, education level of household chief and irrigation are found to be effective on efficiency.

H νουκλεολίνη είναι μια πρωτεΐνη μοριακού βάρους 110 kDa και απαντάται στον πυρήνα, το κυτταρόπλασμα αλλά και στην επιφάνεια των κυττάρων, ενώ υπερεκφράζεται σε καρκινικά κύτταρα και σε ενεργά ενδοθηλιακά κύτταρα. Πρόσφατες έρευνες υποδεικνύουν την συμμετοχή της στις διαδικασίες ανάπτυξης καρκινικών όγκων και στην αγγειογένεση. Στην επιφάνεια του κυττάρου δρα ως υποδοχέας χαμηλής συγγένειας αυξητικών παραγόντων, μορίων κυτταρικής προσκόλλησης (ιντεγκρίνες και σελεκτίνες) λιποπρωτεϊνών και ορισμένων ιών (HIV-1 και coxsackie B). Παρουσιάζει πλήθος λειτουργιών, αλληλεπιδρώντας τόσο με πρωτεΐνες, όσο και με νουκλεϊνικά οξέα. Το HB-19 και το Ν6L είναι συνθετικά πεπτίδια που προσδένονται στην νουκλεολίνη της κυτταρικής επιφάνειας και καταστέλλουν τόσο την ανάπτυξη καρκίνου όσο και την αγγειογένεση. Στη συγκεκριμένη εργασία μελετήσαμε την βιολογική δράση των πεπτιδίων αυτών και βρέθηκε ότι αναστέλλουν τον in vitro πολλαπλασιασμό και την in vitro προσκόλληση των κυττάρων HUVEC. Τα πεπτίδια αυτά παρουσιάζουν in vivo ογκοκατασταλτική δράση και βρέθηκε να αναστέλλουν την αγγειογένεση στο σύστημα της χοριοαλλαντοϊδικής μεμβράνης εμβρύου όρνιθας. Επίσης αναστέλλουν τη μετανάστευση των κυττάρων HUVEC στο in vitro σύστημα μελέτης της μετανάστευσης Boyden chamber. Το πεπτίδιο HB-19 αναστέλλει την έκφραση διαφόρων αγγειογενετικών αυξητικών παραγόντων όπως ο FGF, VEGF και των υποδοχέων τους σε επίπεδο mRNA. Το HB-19, όπως και το Ν6L επηρεάζουν την έκφραση της μεταλλοπρωτεϊνάσης MMP-2 τόσο σε επίπεδο πρωτεΐνης όσο και σε επίπεδο έκφρασης γονιδίου. Επιπλέον, κανένα από τα δύο πεπτίδια δεν προκαλεί απόπτωση in vitro στα κύτταρα HUVEC. Τα πεπτίδια HB-19 και Ν6L δεσμεύονται στη νουκλεολίνη της επιφάνειας του κυττάρου και φαίνεται ότι για την άσκηση των βιολογικών τους δράσεων διαμεσολαβούν οι κινάσες SRC, ERK1/2, AKT και FAK καθώς αναστέλλουν την ενεργοποίησή τους σε κύτταρα HUVEC. Τέλος, μείωση της έκφρασης της νουκλεολίνης με χρήση siRNA επιβεβαίωσε τον ρόλο της νουκλεολίνης στην βιολογική δράση των πεπτιδίων HB-19 και N6L. Συνοψίζοντας τα παραπάνω αποτελέσματα, φαίνεται ότι τόσο το HB-19 όσο και το Ν6L εμφανίζουν βιολογικές δράσεις που τα καθιστούν υποψήφια μόρια για αντινεοπλασματική χρήση. / Nucleolin is a 110 kDa protein, located in the nucleus and the cytoplasm while it is over expressed on the surface of tumor and endothelial cells. Recent studies have demonstrated the involvement of nucleolin in tumor growth and angiogenesis. Thus, this cell surface molecule serves as a receptor for various ligands implicated in pathophysiological processes such as growth factors, cell adhesion molecules (integrins and selectins), laminin-1, lipoproteins and viruses (HIV and coxsackie B). HB-19 and N6L are synthetic peptides that bind cell surface expressed nucleolin and inhibit both tumor growth and angiogenesis. In the present work, we investigated the biological actions of peptides HB-19 and N6L. Our results show that both peptides inhibit the in vivo angiogenesis on the chicken embryo CAM assay and inhibit the in vitro adhesion, proliferation, migration and motility of HUVEC cells. HB-19 peptide inhibits the expression of growth factors FGF and VEGF mRNA as well as the expression of their receptors FGFR1 and FLT-1 respectively. We also found that both enzyme activity and expression of MMP-2 was inhibited by HB-19 and N6L. Furthermore, we found that HB-19 and N6L treatment shows no toxicity in HUVEC cells in vitro. The above biological actions seem to be regulated by SRC, ERK1/2, AKT and FAK kinases as we found that HB-19, as well as N6L, inhibit their activation in HUVEC cells. Finally, down regulation of nucleolin using siRNA confirmed the implication of nucleolin in the biological actions of these peptides. Taken all the above results into account, it is indicated that HB-19 and N6L could constitute an interesting tool for tumor therapy strategy targeting nucleolin.

The topic of aggregate fluctuations in the economic activity is a long-standing question in the study of business cycles, not only the identification of sources of volatility is necessary to forecast the future pace of the economy, but also to understand how the variance of aggregate activity could be reduced. Regarding economic policy, the analysis of economics stability has taken more relevance in the aftermath of the recent financial crisis. The crisis highlighted the need to think of the economy as a complex network where an idiosyncratic shock may precede aggregate consequences, such as the recent problem in arising from the financial sector and its effect on the economy. Chapter 1 introduces a two-period multi-sector economy with Input-Output linkages and a banking sector. This model is useful to assess the relevance of the economic structure on aggregate volatility. The main finding is that single financial shocks to banks do not average out and could lead to aggregate fluctuations. In particular, aggregate volatility does not go in a single direction when we increase the number of links bank-to-sector (concentration), enhance the number of links shared by two or more banks (integration) or redistribute the links (diversification). In Chapter 2, I use a detailed benchmark data of the U.K. input-output accounts spanning from 1997 to 2010, I apply the model of intersectoral linkages by Acemoglu et al. (2012) to identify if the U.K. network structure is prone to the propagation of shocks. In Chapter 3, I present a model of a multi-sector input-output economy based on Long and Plosser (1983) and Acemoglu et al. (2012) to analyse the effects of capital risk sharing between firms, productivity shocks correlations between firms of the same ownership organisations, and collateral restrictions between firms of separate groups, on aggregate fluctuations.

This thesis provides an original contribution to understanding of stakeholder capitalism and applications of stakeholder capitalism to labour governance in globalised clothing production networks. Specifically, this thesis draws on primary qualitative and ethnographic field-data collected in Dhaka, Bangladesh to provide new insight to the challenge of poor working conditions and workers’ rights in the global garment industry. The research presented here questions the potential of retail-led stakeholder capitalism to contribute positive development outcomes to the lives of workers employed in cut and stitch garment manufacture. Adopting the Global Production Network’s (GPN) framework, the thesis argues that the ability of stakeholder capitalism to engage and advance the voice of workers in clothing and retail GPNs is influenced by the nature of the relationship and strategic coupling between transnational retailers and their localised factory suppliers. It argues that civil society demands for labour standards have generated a compliance-based response to stakeholder capitalism whereby expectations and acceptance of labour standards are negotiated between retailers and their suppliers. While these negotiations appear discursive, the voices of workers in these negotiations appear largely absent. Thus, it makes an original contribution to understanding relational processes in clothing production systems, moving away from top-down, buyer-driven linear approaches,to conceive power relations in retail production networks as dynamic, subjective and negotiated. This thesis argues that how these power relationships are negotiated and the impacts and interactions of these relations needs to be understood and accounted for if stakeholder capitalism is going to have a serious impact on improving the lives of workers in globalised production systems.

From this study, we find that the momentum premia are universally positive and statistically significant across 16 different momentum trading strategies in the Chinese Class A share market. By defining the time periods following UP and DOWN market states according to prior 12 or 24-month average Chinese Class A share market returns, we show that the momentum premia of different momentum strategies over time periods following UP market state eclipse those found over time periods following DOWN market state in the Chinese Class A share market for the whole sample period from January 1996 to December 2008. Furthermore, by employing 7 different factors—firm size, firm age, analysts’ coverage, return volatility, dispersion in analysts’ earnings forecast, trading volume, the quality/strength of corporate governance (free float ratio)—to gauge the degree of firm-level information uncertainty, we evidence that the information uncertainty has an amplifying effect over the momentum premium, and the amplifying effect is more pronounced over time periods following DOWN market state. The results from the sub-period analysis revolving the inception of two Chinese financial market regulatory reforms—1) July 1st, 1999 the implementation of the new P.R.C. security law; 2) July 3rd, 2003 the opening of the Chinese Class A share market to qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) dismiss the doubt that our findings could be sample time periodspecific. Compared with the tradition FF3F model, the Wang & Xu (2004)’s version of the FF3F model, with the value effect factor of the traditional FF3F model supplanted by residual free float ratio (proxy for the quality/strength of firm-specific corporate governance), exhibits more explanatory power over the momentum premia yet still fails to fully rationalize the momentum premia found in this study. This research fills the gap in the literature and expands the understanding of the momentum premium by offering empirical evidence of the dynamics of the momentum premia amid market swings, the impact of information uncertainty over momentum premia as well as the impact of information uncertainty over momentum premia amid market swings in the context of the Chinese stock market. The results from this study can potentially provide an important reference point for international and domestic investors in adjusting investment strategies and portfolio positions, or fishing for investment diversification opportunities in a financial market with volatile market condition such as the Chinese stock market.