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This thesis studies the evolution of the aircraft industry as it emerged from the Second World War and its relationship with the State, running through to the re-evaluation of this State-industry relationship from the late 1950s and into the 1960s. It takes, for this purpose, major formative events which, it is argued, had a defining influence on the shape of industry and its relationship with government, beginning with the reconstruction plans for the huge war-time industry, formulated within the Ministry of Aircraft Production with a powerful input from Sir Stafford Cripps. Thus considerable attention is given to the development of the Whittle jet engine and its effect on British aviation. A new assessment stresses the importance of the jet to hopes in Britain for the capability of the industry, but also discusses and uncovers the reasons for the strains in the war-time relationship between Whittle and the MAP which nearly proved fatal to the project. The role of the government research at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, which was crucial to the industry during the competitive contest of Cold War aeronautical development, is also examined. Detailed case studies of the progress of civil and military engine and aircraft programmes are used in this period to examine the nature of the government/industry relationship and its changing pattern over time. This study takes the position that the progress of the British aircraft industry in the post-war period must be explained not only in terms of evolving national defence objectives and technological developments, but also in terms of day-today institutionalised government policy and episodic major political shifts. This analysis therefore represents the intersection of a history of technology with a socio-cultural and political account.

The use by the Post Office of riders and carts for mail conveyance on main post routes was by c170 proving deficient as a means of distributing intelligence for an economy about to undergo sustained and rapid economic developments. The appearance of fast light stage-coaches on certain roads at this time however, provided the inspiration for John Palmer to advance his plan for a system of mail-coaches. Despite opposition, Palmer had in a period of less than two years established a network of mail-coach services which provided an economical and safe means of mail transit coupled with a premier form of public passenger conveyance. The speed and expansion of routes and facilities resulted initially in a rapid increase in the volume of letters, but this declined as postage rates increased to assist war financiers, and from 1812 stagnation set in. The number of mail-coaches was never large and at the height of the system in the mid 1830s only 300 vehicles were used in Great Britain and another 75 in Ireland, but their success stimulated coaching in general. By the min 1830s mail-coaching produced demand factors in the economy amounting to about £700,000 per annum in Great Britain and £120,000 in Ireland of which the agricultural sector received 70% of the benefit. Mail-coaches represented 9.5% of the public long distance coaching traffic at this period. The development of the railway network saw a rapid collapse of mail-coaching on the lines out of London from the late 1830s. Rail transit of mail increased costs at a time when revenue was reduced by the adoption in 1840 of uniform penny postage. Increased speed of transit, improved frequency of delivery and low rates of postage provided however an inestimable benefit to a society in the throes of an accelerating industrialisation which was to bring Britain to the pinnacle of economic power and world dominance in the late nineteenth century.

The thesis investigates how political actors remade key aspects of Europe’s economic landscape after World Wars I and II. The first and the second case deal with the borders of the Polish state; the third case investigates German reparations after World War I; the fourth case looks at the internal processes of the American administration in dealing with Germany’s reconstruction after World War II. The thesis argues that actors remade Europe’s economy by using cognitive artefacts, such as cartographic maps, statistical tables or accounting procedures. Because cognitive artefacts are explicit where written and spoken statements are vague, they complement and expand the textual and verbal record. One of the consequences is that we gain a different perspective of the performance of political actors, which leads to a re-evaluation of diplomacy after World War I. It has received a largely negative appraisal so far. That seems rather disproportionate if due consideration is given to cognitive artefacts. Moreover, the analysis of cognitive artefacts shows that the results actors achieved, were not solely outcomes of rationality or policy discourse. Actors used maps, statistical tables etc to develop jointly ad hoc ways of reasoning that were synthetic, open-ended and considerably nuanced. Therefore, the thesis proposes cognitive artefacts as an analytical framework for political agency. By producing, circulating, rejecting and modifying them in an iterative process, actors identify and structure their individual and their joint agency. As actors go through this process, their cooperation as well their noncooperation take shape. In using cognitive artefacts, actors are at the same time aligning and legitimising their agency. That involves persuasion, coercion and deceit, but not necessarily shared views.

A measurement of technical innovation efficiency reflects the competitiveness of the high-tech industry for a region or a country. The high-tech industry, which appears at the forefront of technology and scientific research, provides a country with a certain competitive advantage. Many developed countries such as the USA, UK, Germany and France, have used the high-tech industry as a means to emerge on the technological frontier. Many developing countries such as China and India have developed high-tech industries, and are home to many leading product manufacturers. However, innovation efficiency is important, since it explains the efficiency of the high-tech industry in consuming resources and providing outputs. This dissertation examines the innovation efficiency of the high-tech industry in China. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method was used to study and analyse panel data. The study focused on 28 high-tech provinces of China (DMUs, DMU: Decision Making Unit), during the years 2005-2011, along with 5 industry categories and 17 industries. Different datasets were obtained to measure the input and output indices. Variables included in the inputs index included the number of full time R&D (Research and Development) personnel, internal expenditure on R&D, expenditure on new product development, and investment in fixed assets. The output index included the number of patent applications, the output value of new products, and sales revenue for new products. The Malmquist index was calculated using static data analysis cases using Deap2 software in both cases. Several tests were employed in the analysis of the data, including the KS Test (Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test), T test (Student's t test), integral analysis, SE efficiency analysis, project analysis, total factor productivity and others. The findings indicate that the M index is unstable across the 29 provinces, and 17 industries. The Malmquist index of each DMU changes in different degrees during the 7 years. In addition, the changes have no pattern, they go from descending to rising and then declining again, or from rising to descending and then rising again. The reasons for the unstable M index were evaluated, and it becomes evident that several factors such as a total factor productivity variation, EC, TC degradation, excessive man power resources that increased the input costs. Another factor that makes the M index unstable is that many of the inputs for China were obtained from western regions, with little original research. The study also examined the STP (Science and Technology Policy) policy of the developed western countries, BRIC nations, and China, and the areas for improvement were identified. The study has made several recommendations to improve the STP policy, and for the high-tech industry to increase the innovation efficiency.

This thesis is concerned with developing a framework for the sustainable manufacturing of technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on Ghana, for local industry. The interest here is on manufacturing and production technologies. Drawing on the work of Clemens and Dalrymple (2005), a three step approach emerged as an overarching methodology leading to the construction of the Ghana manufacturing of technology model (GMTM). The work of Sagasti (1992) provided the framework for its construction. The aim here is to investigate to understand what factors account for the state of technology drawback in Ghana, so as to be able to explain them. A multidisciplinary approach was therefore required and employed. Owing to the human and cultural understanding required here, a mixed-research approach involving ethnography, grounded theory and case-study was found to be most suitable. This involved data from two rural communities, expanding to the urban areas where government officials, policy makers and heads of institutions were interviewed. The corpus of data was analysed using grounded theory and a case study of the shea butter industry provided further insights. The findings, among other things, suggest that Ghana has no focused framework for technology manufacturing for local industry. The study noted that the cultural and ethnic division in traditional Ghana, inhibits knowledge and cultural exchange, hence, affecting the deployment and advancement of traditional technologies in the "closed" societies. This division is reflected in the formal Ghanaian sector, which side-lines the traditional sector from development and industrialisation decision making. Government Officials and policy makers were found to be vague on technology development for local industry, but were focused on developing high-techs, like nano-technologies and science parks. The study sees this as misplaced priority. The technology drive will require a business model, which falls outside the scope here, hence left for future work. A new concept of development engineering emerges from the study.

This thesis explores the role of social networks in determining adolescents’ outcomes in schools. The thesis consists of three papers that seek to empirically test how characteristic of friendship networks and peers affect adolescents’ choices and performance in education. The main goal of the first paper is to estimate the effects of ego’s friends age diversity on academic performance. The findings provide evidence that having an age diversified friendship network results in significantly worse academic outcomes. Contrary to the previous research, no evidence is found that having a best friend of a different age, or a group of friends of average age that differs from an individual’s age is associated with worse outcomes in education. This paper addresses concerns about self-selection into networks and unobserved school level differences by using within-school variation and instrumental variable methods. The findings remain robust after the sample is limited to students with no criminal background and those that are in the expected grade for their given age. In the second paper a hypothesis that more interconnected networks (those with high density of friendships) positively impact on adolescents’ school performance due to more scope for norms and sanctions, is tested. The findings provide evidence that for an individual having a close network during high school results in significantly better academic outcomes. Individuals with friends that know each other are found to be more likely to go to college. This examination addresses concerns about self-selection into networks and unobserved school level differences. Instrumental variable approach is used to investigate the effects of closure on college attendance. The effects of closure on years of schooling are found to persist for both low and high quality networks. The findings remain robust for samples consisting of non-white and white individuals. The last paper takes a closer look at participation in extracurricular activities, a factor that is likely to influence network formation. In this chapter, the role of community composition in determining participation outcomes is examined. This investigation provides evidence suggesting that racial composition of communities affects adolescents’ participation in school extracurricular activities. The main contribution of this chapter is that problems related to sorting within communities and selection into schools, are carefully addressed.

This thesis explores the networks of British private trade based in the Arabian Seas, between c.1680 and c.1760, with a focus on the period between 1700 and 1740. It draws from the extensive records of the East India Company and numerous collections of private papers to look at how this mercantile trade was shaped, organised and constrained by the particular circumstances of the western Indian Ocean region. The unusual constellation of economic and political factors within the world of the Arabian Seas affected British private trade in significant ways during the pre-colonial period: political turmoil, piracy and commercial competition placed constraints on the successful operation of commerce. Shifting regional dynamics also underpinned the growth and greater success of private trade in the second half of the period under review. The thesis is therefore concerned with how British merchants conducted trade as part of a global commercial empire, whilst remaining embedded in specific local economic and political settings. Challenging and moving beyond existing work that has concentrated on the Bay of Bengal and Coromandel Coast regions, this study emphasises the regional specificity and unevenness of the British private trade system across maritime Asia. It makes use of, and builds upon, a number of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches from recent work on maritime trade and early modern merchant networks in both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds.

Following the global oil crisis of October 1973 the UK government funded and administered a range of R&D programmes in renewable energy. Despite the discoveries of large deposits of oil and gas in the North Sea during the late 1960s and continuing faith in nuclear energy the government was keen to explore the potential of renewable energy as what it described as an ‘insurance technology’. This thesis examines the creation and evolution of the UK renewable energy programme from 1974 until its demise prior to the privatisation of the UK’s nationalised energy industries in the late 1980s. The thesis shows the important role that social movements - in this case, the new environmentalism - played in the promotion of renewable energy in the UK. This will suggest that the programme can be seen in some senses as a tokenistic gesture by the government acting within the uncertain political, social, and economic landscape of the 1970s. This thesis shows that government decisions on renewable energy were continually driven by socio-political factors which overwhelmed the unreliable economic case for renewables at that time. This is achieved by a close historical account of the two key elements of the wider programme: the Wave Energy Programme and the Wind Energy Programme. Using a mix of the existing literature, historical archive and interviews this thesis builds a historical account of renewable energy R&D in the UK between 1974 and 1988.

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