Economic theory traditionally explains choice under risk through the preferences of the individual, yet many important economic decisions are made by groups. To increase our understanding of the implications of group decisions and enrich our theories accordingly, we need empirical and experimental evidence on groups. Although economists have conducted controlled laboratory experiments on individual choice for many decades, only recently have researchers begun to use the experimental method to study group decisions under risk. This thesis contributes to the study of group decision making under risk by providing a cross-disciplinary review of the growing literature on this topic, followed by three experiments on risk-taking by groups. The first experiment investigates the role of communication and peer effects, the second experiment investigates group composition, and the final experiment focuses on information sharing in groups.

This Project builds upon Lucien Seve's time-based (biographical) approach to personality development. The personality is, he contends, composed of three core elements-need; activity; and capacity. In contemporary social conditions, needs are complex and subordinated to the structure of acts and the growth of capacities. The Hypotheses that flow from this prioritisation are critically appraised here, while the theory in toto is put to the ultimate test of historical inquiry and verification. This historical investigation seeks to explore the development of capacities and the structure of activity (use-time) in the Advanced Capitalist Countries since the mid-19th Century. Contra the deskilling perspective, the interpretation of that history proposed here is a contradictory one: a long term trend to reduced worktimes coupled with secular densification of tasks; a mechanical integration of the collective labourer combining with overt moves to deepen worker segregation; a concomitant polarisation of skills and continuing inequity in access to a growing biographical time fund. The ultimate indifference of the capitalist mode of production to the biographical interests of its supporting individuals prompts, finally, an evaluation of options for a human-centred path of social change for the future (an exploration of concrete Utopias), In this humanist reappropriation of history, the communist vision has been correctly typed as under-defined in crucial ways, including in the field of development of what Marx termed rich individuality. The overall assessment of the Marxian project remains, however, a positive one.

This thesis concerns itself with optimal learning through experimentation by microeconomic agents. The first part presents a model of a search process for the best outcome of many multi-stage projects. The branching structure of the search environment is such that the pay-offs to various actions are correlated; nevertheless, it is shown that the optimal strategy is given by a simple reservation price rule. A simple model of R&D is provided as an example. These general results are then applied in a model of job search and occupational choice in which jobs are grouped into occupations in a natural way. Before getting a job, the agent must first become qualified in the chosen occupation, at which point his general aptitude for jobs in this occupation is revealed. The search environment is such that the returns of jobs are correlated within a given occupation, but the optimal strategy is given by the above reservation value rule. One implication of this is that young inexperienced workers prefer to try riskier jobs/occupations first. Issues of job turnover and expected returns are addressed. The second part studies optimal experimentation by a monopolist who faces an unknown demand curve subject to random changes, and who maximises profits over an infinite horizon in continuous time. Two qualitatively very different regimes emerge, determined by the discount rate and the intensities of demand curve switching, and the dependence of the optimal policy on these parameters is discontinuous. One regime is characterised by extreme experimentation and good tracking of the prevailing demand curve, the other by moderate experimentation and poor tracking. Moreover, in the latter regime the agent eventually becomes ‘trapped’ into taking actions in a strict subset of the feasible set.

This dissertation effects a complete re-orientation of economic theory. It shows how the economic cannot be analysed separately from the political and the social, and lays the foundation for an integrated political economy. The work examines the philosophical difficulties faced by economists, and re-draws the history of economic thought as a response to methodological dilemmas. The traditional History of Economics textbooks re-write the history in terms of the contemporary paradigm. This dissertation, by contrast, shows how the philosophical debates have shaped the trajectory of economics, and how the orientations of the schools undergo major changes so as to attempt to deal with the fundamental dilemmas of a 'policy science’. It brings out the 'hidden history’ of economics, and shows both how laissez-faire can only be defended by dropping any notion of economic 'science', and how economic theory has an implied political theory. It then considers the debate over political economic theory and the consequences for economic organisation and for environmental disruption.

Spatial disparities in economic performance are amongst the most pervasive and persistent characteristics of modern economies. In the UK and across the EU, minimising regional inequalities is an objective of government policy. Yet analysis of how local differences in unemployment, earnings and industrial structure affect individual agents is not straightforward. Individual heterogeneity and sorting behaviour make separating the effects of agent attributes and regional characteristics difficult – a problem which is only compounded by the potential impact of unobserved individual heterogeneity. This thesis seeks to disentangle the effects of agent attributes – both observed and unobserved – from the effects of local labour markets in three individual level decisions made by graduates in the UK. The chapters examine (a) how agents choose which degree subject to study at university, (b) the determinants of postgraduate participation and (c) the likelihood of a graduate finding employment after completion. In this way, this thesis examines micro-level choices which affect the aggregate supply of skilled labour in the UK. The methodology I adopt permits conclusions to be drawn about how individual behaviour varies across observably different groups and offers insights into how local economic performance can shape the supply of skilled labour. I conclude that while agent attributes – including gender, ethnicity and prior academic attainment – are the most important determinants of an individual’s academic choices, economic circumstances have a significant, if smaller role to play. The results have several public policy implications, ranging from the impact of educational inequalities to the funding arrangements for postgraduate study in the UK.

One of the tenets of personalisation was that people using services could achieve greater citizenship and help to design better supports if they were able to direct innovation in services. Implicit in this was an assumption that people using services would be able to utilise their social capital (resources based on social networks), an asset which was not prioritised by previous approaches to service delivery. This thesis sought to identify if social capital was present and if it was being accessed to support the personalisation of services, comparing and contrasting the situation in services for older people and for people with learning disabilities. Whilst an initial hypothesis was that service providers for these different groups charged different rates due to different levels of social capital, no difference in social capital was established between these two groups. People did have social capital, but it was not mobilised by individuals or state actors responsible for commissioning support. This led to a consideration of street-level bureaucracy and the environment shaped by austerity and the Care Act. The study concludes that the implementation of personalisation has frustrated the use of social capital, such that it has not contributed to the transformation of care.

The present work addresses the notions of poverty and poverty relief in Buddhist social and economic ethics, comparing them to current approaches to conceptualizing poverty used in the development community. Given the Buddhist preoccupation with ceasing suffering and removing its causes, and the key Buddhist principle of Right Livelihood that is found in the Ennobling Eightfold Path to enlightenment taught by the Buddha, economic ethics appear to be central to the Buddhist path and a concern for the suffering caused by extreme poverty therefore ought to be a key point of concern in Buddhist ethics. Buddhist ethics has developed into a field of study all its own over the last few decades, addressing issues in applied ethics from bioethics to human rights and environmental concerns, but little has been written by virtually any standard on the important topic of poverty relief. The present work makes a step toward filling that gap by examining relevant passages in the Pāli Canon as well as popular and influential Mahāyāna sūtras to demonstrate that a concern for deprivation or non-voluntary impoverishment is evident in key Buddhist doctrines and teachings from the earliest recorded history of the Buddhist tradition. The thesis further discusses the duties to relieve poverty outlined in Buddhist social ethics as well as the development of Buddhist economics and its critique of dominant mainstream economics. It also offers a comparison of Buddhist conceptions of poverty with contemporary notions of poverty, such as the capabilities approach to poverty developed by Amartya Sen and currently in use by the UNDP. In both of these cases poverty is portrayed in a comprehensive and multi-dimmensional manner which views income as only one aspect of poverty. Additionally, this dissertation examines the contemporary Socially Engaged Buddhist movement and identifies historical and contemporary examples of Buddhist poverty relief efforts.