The purpose of this study was to: Examine the potential for employment growth and output in the informal sector in the Central Region of Ghana; and to: outline a strategy for the development of the enterprises in the sector in the region; and to discuss the implications of the strategy for the Regional Planning Organization and the implementation of a growth centre strategy in the region. The study was limited to the informal sector industrial or artisanal activities, and the petty trading (and services) enterprises in nine selected centres in the region. The main source of data for the study was a field survey carried out by the author in the central region. A review of the literature of studies of the informal sector and their conclusions and the objectives of this study guided the setting up of research hypotheses for this study. These hypotheses were related to : The capacity of the enterprises in the sector for both short and long term employment generation; The relationship between the size range of centres and employment growth in the informal sector enterprises; linkages between the informal sector enterprises and other sectors of the economy; and Constraints facing the enterprises in the sector. The potential for employment generation in the enterprises was 'measured' in terms of the size of the initial and present employment in each enterprise; their work cycle and turnover. It also included a discussion of the perceptions of the entrepreneurs of the past performances of their enterprises and their likely future growth patterns. Employment and output in the enterprises were found to be influenced by a complex combination of factors some of which cannot be quantified in any form. It appeared that constraints to the activities of the enterprises had a substantial influence on the entrepreneurs' decisions with respect to output and size of labour force in their enterprises at the present time and in the future. Solutions to these problems required proposals for a planning strategy for the informal sector enterprises in the central region. This strategy envisaged a combination of economic policy and physical planning approaches. Proposals were made for implementing these proposals. They have implications for the Central Regional Planning Organization and the growth centre strategy they have adopted as a strategy for regional development.

In recent years there has been a concerted effort by feminist historians to retrieve women from historical obscurity and reinsert them into the historical landscape. Early research concentrated on this task of reclamation and produced a number of self-contained monographs and studies of women's lives. However, the emphasis has shifted towards viewing the sexual divison of labour as a central object of study and as a tool of analysis and evaluating its impact on the historical process. It is argued that in this way feminist history can transform our knowledge of the past and contribute to a greater understanding of the process of historical change. The present study seeks to contribute to this project by examining the lives of working women in Scotland between 1850 and 1914. It takes issue with standard accounts which assume that women's paid labour and women's organisation at the point of production will take male forms and argues that gender ideologies had a significant impact on women's experience of work. The pattern of women's employment 1S examined and it is illustrated that because work has been defined according to the male norm of full-time permanent work, outside the home, the extent of women's paid labour has been seriously underestimated. It is also argued that in order to account for the characteristics of female employment it is necessary to take ideological factors into consideration and that notions of what constitutes women's 'proper' role in society had a pattern of women's employment. important role played by trade powerful influence on the The study identifies the unions in maintaining occupational segregation and confirming women's work as unskilled and low paid. It is also suggested that the model of labour organisations was influenced inter-alia by an ideology of gender which limited its ability to relate to the experience of women workers. It is argued that women's experience of work was mediated by their subordination as a gender and that this generated particular forms of resistance and organisation which did not necessarily conform to the standard male forms. The study concludes that we have to reappraise the received view of women workers as apathetic and difficult to organise and suggests that alternative forms of labour organisations which do not reflect but challenge gender divisions are required.

The study treats Latin American countries as one regional economy by aggregating data of individual countries. Principles of aggregating data of individual countries for different types of variables are laid out and the generated data is laid out in terms of an accounting framework. Data series are also projected up to 2000 to provide a long track of 29 years for simulations which follow later. Original econometric work consists in estimating equations for export volume and prices, which is very much in the tradition of global modelling, and modelling aggregate investment for the region. A prototype full macro model is assembled for the Latin American region by using own work and also adopting econometric contributions from others. First, partial model simulations are performed to understand the underlying structural features. Aggregate demand block is simulated to reveal the size, plausibility and time pattern of Keynesian multipliers. This reveals a multiplier of 1.6 and a 11 year cycle generated by the multiplier-accelerator process. Aggregate supply bloc is simulated to exhibit the nature of supply response which shows that supply elasticity with respect to real exchange rate is about .2 and it is unkeynesian in the sense that there is little scope for action by inflationary surprises. Trade bloc is simulated to check whether Marshall-Lerner conditions are satisfied. Current account balance does improve upon devaluation with an elasticity of 2, but once prices and output are endogenized very soon the improvements are lost. Then, full model simulations are conducted in open loop mode to study the response of the regional economy to both external and internal shocks. These simulations show sensible and stable outcomes. Finally the Latin American model is simulated in `closed loop mode' to illustrate the use of the model built for policy analysis. Fiscal and exchange rate policy choices in the face of a negative external shock are investigated. The policy seeks to correct external imbalance. A qualified conclusion is drawn that expenditure cutting works as desired but exchange rate policy sets up severe cycle in current account balance.

No description available.

The objective of the thesis is to study, through a critical constructivist analysis, the conception and practice of security by humanitarian international aid agencies (IAAs), with particular reference to their relation with private military and security companies (PMSCs). The research provides a qualitative analysis of humanitarian security, which is defined as the practice of safely accessing vulnerable populations for humanitarian purposes. Its methodology relies on semi-structured interviews, including in Afghanistan and Haiti; participant observation; and a literature review. The thesis‘ critical constructivist approach implies studying the co-constitution of aid organizations‘ identity and interests. It argues that IAAs‘ identity and approaches to security are mutually shaped. It does so by first highlighting dominant discourses framing aid agencies‘ identity and processes by which particular views are reproduced. It then identifies the dominant representations in security management and reveals how they relate to IAAs‘ identity. The thesis defines three ideal–types of IAAs (Deontological, Solidarist and Utilitarian) and of PMSCs (Guarding, Unarmed, and Weaponised). This typology allows a dissecting of IAAs‘ different conceptions and practices of security, and the conditions under which each type of IAA employs PMSCs. The research reveals that an aid agency‘s identity forms the basis of its approach to security. Identity and security, are however, not stable but dynamic and in a constant process of interaction with each other. The thesis then offers a study of these dynamic processes, with a focus on agents. The thesis delves into the implications of the research for the concept of security and reveals how humanitarian security embodies IAAs‘ distinctive baggage. It suggests that IAAs require a more comprehensive understanding of how their identity and practices affect their security. The thesis‘ original contribution is two-fold: it represents the first critical constructivist study of humanitarian security practices and is the first research to study humanitarian organizations as referent objects of security.

This study compares business culture in seventeenth and eighteenth century China and England through an examination of the ideals of the businessman. It focuses on these ideals as presented in business advice literature, the core of which are business handbooks giving advice on how businessmen were expected to behave. These handbooks have not previously been used comparatively. This study looks at three aspects of the ideal of the businessman - attitudes to the market, wealth and social relations. Business culture is an important factor in global history for explaining economic performance and the Great Divergence. In England, the rise of a bourgeoisie with commercial values and increasing status of commerce is seen as a spur to economic development. On the other hand, in China, the ideal of the Confucian merchant has been argued to be a possible hindrance. By comparing the business cultures of China and England through an analysis of business advice literature we find similarities which dispel many stereotypes, and differences, which point out factors important in the Great Divergence. Through this this study aims to shed new light on cultural debates in global economic history. This study argues that there are highly surprising similarities between the ideals of the businessmen of China and England, including thrift, charity and attitudes to the market. However, it also argues that through this comparison two key differences in attitudes are crystalized which might have been important in looking at the Great Divergence. In England the ideal of honesty was made malleable and subsumed to commerce. In China a familial emphasis was present in the ideal of the Chinese businessman to a much greater degree than for the English businessman.

This thesis provides three works which each contribute to understanding of the promising yet struggling market for rainfall index insurance in India. The first chapter contains an analysis of the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for rainfall insurance by poor farmers in Gujarat, India. It develops a theoretical model to predict individual WTP and contrasts it with emprical estimates of WTP using the Becker-DeGroot-Marshalk (BDM) mechanism. We find that BDM works well as a predictor of WTP, but that our model significantly overestimates WTP. The second chapter seeks to provide a possible explanation for demand being lower than theoretical predictions by looking at the dynamics of insurance demand. Using a panel dataset of insurance purchasers in India, it shows that people who receive an insurance payout are 9-22% more likely to purchase insurance the following year. The results are consistent with a dynamic model of insurance demand featuring loss aversion, in which receiving an insurance payout shifts the reference point such that people become more risk averse the following season. I provide evidence against other possible explanations, such as increased trust and learning about insurance, and direct effects of bad weather. The final chapter explores the possibility that combining rainfall insurance with savings may result in a more attractive financial product than insurance on its own. We conduct a laboratory experiment with Indian farmers that uses the BDM mechanism to assess the valuation of various insurance/savings combinations, which we title WISAs (Weather Insured Savings Accounts). We find that, contrary to theoretical predictions, most people prefer both pure savings and pure insurance to any combination of the two. This paper hopefully provides valuable contibutions to solving the puzzle of how to shield poor farmers from uncertain rainfall.

This thesis contains three independent chapters that are aimed towards contributing to our understanding of three questions in the literature on poverty, occupational choice and social networks. The first chapter asks whether labor contracts in a rural economy play a significant role in insuring workers against risks and if the outside options of workers determine the extent to which their labor contracts are interlinked with their insurance arrangements. As such, it provides evidence on a well-established idea in the study of rural labor markets - that of labor-tying - by showing that it is an important channel through which the poor workers smooth their income and that an exogenous improvement in their outside options induces them to exit labor-tying and switch to alternative channels of informal insurance. The second chapter provides evidence on whether transfer of capital and skills enable the poor to permanently exit poverty by entering into higher return occupations. It shows that such a transfer not only transforms the occupational choices of the targeted poor, but has significant general equilibrium effects on the local markets, and corresponding spillover effects on non- targeted households. The third chapter provides evidence on the question \do formal transfers crowd out informal transfers", exploiting the randomized roll-out of a large scale asset transfer and training program to test for its effects on the informal transfer arrangements of the poor. It shows that the informal transfers to the poor are crowded out by the program, but this effect is highly heterogenous depending on the location of the sender and the vulnerability of the targeted poor.

Gross domestic product has long been criticised as a poor indicator of economic growth. In this thesis I argue that any proposed alternative for GDP cannot effect change, because GDP is not an indicator. Instead GDP is our definition of the economy, which I argue by presenting the history of how we have measured the economy through national accounts. GDP, it turns out, is simply the most recent consensus definition of what the economy is. So this is the history of how we have defined, measured and redefined the economy since its invention in the 1620s. Using primary sources I argue that the supposedly mercantilist definition of the economy was never policy relevant in the 17th century. The 18th century saw an active empirical debate and the economy was defined by Davenant's civil service, Walpole's Treasury accounts, and eventually scholars, who displaced secular policy advisors in the 1770s. Adam Smith defined an economy that dominated Britain for a century, but he adopted Physiocratic ideas which were rejected by the French government‟s own economists. British government offices continued to do empirical work in the 19th century and produced the 'official' statistics used for policy making. Marshall and then Keynes would use these offices to redefine the economy. Keynes convinced Meade, Stone and HM Treasury to redefine the economy and his idea displaced the official American definition, despite loud protestations from Kuznets. So this is a history which tries to challenge our view of the economy, by showing how we have redefined it in the past and indicates how we could do it again.

The first part of this thesis examines the role of highly-leveraged institution in creating vulnerability in the financial system. By applying the framework of Kiyotaki and Moore (1997), Chapter 2 shows that when an asset price bubble bursts which cuts the value of land being used as collateral, the sudden fall in collateral value can create the possibility that firms’ net worth is entirely wiped out and the whole financial system collapse. This is due to the powerful feedback effects where forced selling further depresses prices, setting in motion a downward spiral of asset prices and loan recalls. We then show how wholesale financial collapse can be avoided by co-ordinated loan roll-overs in the form of a general financial freeze; and how the breathing space gained in this way can be used to arrange for loan write-downs or capital injections. In Chapter 3, the degree of corporate leverage is analysed more explicitly by introducing margin requirements into the model and two types of adverse shocks are examined numerically, an asset bubble bursting and a sudden rise in real interest rates. We find that when the economy is highly leveraged, a small shock to real interest rates can have powerful impacts on asset prices and cause widespread bankruptcy of the credit-constrained sector. To shed light on the recent debate on the role of prudential regulatory policies in mitigating the impact of a bubble bursting, we show that relaxing margin requirements can be used as a form of ‘regulatory forbearance’ for avoiding and/or reducing the knock-on effects. The second part of the thesis is a case study of Thailand. Chapter 4 provides a detailed account of Thailand economic developments from 1988 to 1998; it is argued that the nature of Thai financial crisis lied in the profound boom and burst in real estate sector which played a central role in creating tensions in the financial system and ultimately causing severe contraction of the economic activity. Chapter 5 explores some key issues relating to systemic bankruptcy of the corporate sector in aftermath of the Thai crisis.