This thesis investigates the branding and marketing practices of the iRobot Corporation, an American military firm that produces both domestic and military robots with the same brand, and emphasises its military character when advertising its civilian products. Based on the assumption that the branding strategy is counterintuitive and controversial, this thesis offers an explanation by considering the practice within the broader historical context, thus providing an insight into the changing role and place of military firms within contemporary American capitalism. The argument is that the firm has developed its brand by constructing a narrative based on certain features of common sense, a notion developed by Gramsci to refer to a set of widely established and uncritically accepted ideas, present in contemporary American society. The main elements emerging from the empirical analysis of iRobot’s narrative, carried out by focusing on the language and imagery employed on the part of the firm are: 1] a conflation of the military and civilian spheres; 2] the security-enhancing character of the firm’s warfare robots; 3] the depiction of these robots uniquely in defensive terms. The thesis shows how these three elements are consistent with ideas that are widely established at the societal level: an increasingly indistinct separation of the military and civilian spheres, a long-standing casualty aversion, and a confused understanding of the notions of defence and offence since 9/11, respectively. In turn, the consistency between the firm’s narrative and US common sense stands in the way of a critical appraisal of the ideological character of the firm’s strategy and the implications linked to it. These are the diffusion of martial ideas across American society, which has a negative impact on the functioning of democracy, and the reinforcement of militaristic approaches to foreign policy, which has repercussions at the level of the international order.

This thesis investigates the public sector wage premium in the UK over the last decade using both econometric and economic modelling methods. A comprehensive literature review is conducted to summarise the four popular types of methods adopted by the existing microeconomics studies, which are weakly derived from some labour economic theories. A common problem of the economic methods is the difficulty in dealing with selection bias when valid instruments are not available. All four types of econometric methods are then applied to estimating the public sector wage premium, resulting in an overall average of 6.5% when a relatively higher female's premium. In particular, propensity score matching method provides the most robust estimate against mis-specification. As a bridge between microdata and macrodata in the labour market, the wage premium is shown to be counter-cyclical. Indirect inference is then introduced as a new method of testing and estimating a micro-founded economic model in the microdata analysis context. All four types of econometric methods are used as auxiliary models to summarise the data features, based on which the distance between the actual data and the model-simulated data is assessed. A calibrated model passes the test only when the propensity score matching method is used as the comparison criterion. To focus on the key properties of the model, the OLS coefficients are grouped into a smaller dimension, and the estimated model can also pass the test. The selection bias can be tested in a straightforward way under indirect inference, and we find no evidence for selection in the data. A Monte Carlo experiment is designed to verify the high statistical power of indirect inference test. Finally, a normative analysis is carried out and there is no evidence of unjust factors behind the observed public sector wage premium.

In every society around the world, shelter is one of the most basic needs for every human being. Unfortunately, it is not one of the free gifts of nature. This means financing for housing is unavoidable. However, majority of the individuals are unable to achieve this without financial assistance. The recent 2007 financial crisis intervened in the pattern of housing finance which brought some changes in the market for the demand and supply of mortgage loans. This study therefore aims at investigating the extent of these changes and the resulting implications. It further explores households’ choice of mortgage provider and homeownership status. Using a longitudinal study, data was collected for periods before, during and after the financial crisis, with data ranging from 2003 to 2013. Primary and secondary method of data collection was employed in achieving the aims and objectives of the study. Primary data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaire involved 320 bank customers while the interviews was done on 43 participants. Out of these 43 participamts, 31 were from the demand side of the study while 12 were mortage advisors. The findings revealed that the three distinct periods had significant differences in their patterns of housing finance. It was also found that households preferred their mortgages to be provided by the high street banks for security reasons with 88.2% of them satisfied with their mortgage providers. Also, initial deposit and increasing house prices were the most important impediment to obtaining a mortgage. Moreover, the claim by the households that the banks were not willing to grant mortgage loan to them was true to an extent as 54.4% of them agreed to the validity of the statement. Finally, the implications of the financial crisis on households as well as homeownership status implications on tenants were generally negative.

`Low Cost Home Ownership' represents a package of policy measures which are part of government housing policy to extend home ownership. The package was outlined by the Department of the Environment in a publicity brochure entitled `A First Home' (1981) aimed at local authorities and housing associations. The different Low Cost Home Ownership measures have been pioneered and implemented at a local level as part of the government's wider strategy of privatising housing provision and consumption. This thesis is directly concerned with exploring the structure, substance and impact of Low Cost Home Ownership policy, in the context of Glasgow. The thesis is based on three levels of analysis, linked through a focus on policy and the role of the state at national and local levels. First, a preliminary level of analysis evaluates the success of Low Cost Home Owernship policy in its own terms. It is suggested, for example, that the term `low cost' home ownership is a misnomer in many cases. At a second level of analysis, the thesis examines the structure of policy, including the division between central and local levels of government, and the categorisation of policy as, for instance, housing or planning. A third level of analysis incorporates the substance of Low Cost Home Ownership policy. The underlying assumptions of the policy are analysed, particularly the tenure bias of Low Cost Home Ownership. Urban policy encompasses Low Cost Home Ownership policy measures in several cities, including Glasgow, and the thesis examines the functionalist objectives of population and socio economic stability in the city. In addition, Low Cost Home Ownership policy in Glasgow is aimed at widening tenure choice and meeting housing needs. An analysis of these policy objectives requires the conceptualisation of `choice' and `need' in housing policy and housing studies.

Rather than ponder sovereign wealth funds' (SWFs ') significance for global capital markets, this thesis takes a step back and asks the following: why do SWFs exist in such numbers across the global political economy? The SWF literature, dominated by fmancial economists and neoliberal commentators, has yet to adequately address this puzzle. This is significant given the funds embed systematically significant amounts of national wealth throughout speculative capital markets, thereby increasing their state's vulnerability to recurrent asset bubbles and crises. The thesis consequently examines the interest-based politics behind SWFs' domestic origins. It begins its analysis with the argument that SWFs are first and foremost domestic strategies of governance created to achieve specific short and medium term goals of the administrative state. This is despite their international and long-term investment orientations. In short, the funds serve to immediately stabilize state actors' governance function by reconceptualising problems of uncertainty in the quantitative and manageable terms of fmancial risk. This account of SWFs' origins thus contests that currently dominating mainstream commentary, which portrays the funds as evolutionary features of modem fmance capitalism. The domestic political interests SWFs were initially created to serve consequently remain critically unexamined. Drawing from the constructivist institutionalism literature, the thesis also seeks to demonstrate that SWFs are the institutional embodiment of a specific array of prescriptive fmancial ideas. It will be shown this framework offmancial 'knowledge' problematically constrains political actors to defer their interests to the demands of the speculative fmancial realm. In the face of recurrent crises, such constraint highlights how SWFs' immediate impact on domestic socioeconomic spheres outweighs their imagined fmancial benefits. The funds' rapid expansion since 2000 therefore poses significant implications for the nature and exercise of sovereign authority in SWF-states. These theoretical arguments are developed in Part I of the thesis, and then tested against three case studies in Part II: Norway's Government Pension Fund-Global; Alberta's Heritage Savings Trust Fund; and Ireland's National Pension Reserve Fund.

Directors’ remuneration has been subjected to continuous study by researchers in different fields such as accounting, management, human resource and psychology. Accounting scholars primarily based their research on agency theory. Recent papers focused on the affect of corporate governance on the determination of directors’ remuneration. This study aims to investigate the effect of three main variables on directors’ remuneration – corporate governance variables, human capital attributes and firm performance. The study controls the effect of firm size, type of industry, leverage, diversification and location. 417 (50%) Malaysian public listed companies were selected using stratified random sampling for three years period from 2004 to 2006. Only non-financial companies are included in the sample because financial companies are subjected to different set of regulations in Malaysia. Using multiple regression method, it is found that seven corporate governance variables are significantly related to directors’ remuneration. The study shows that board size, CEO-chairman duality role, proportion of independent directors and proportion of interlocking directors in the board are significantly related to directors’ remuneration. Proportion of non-executive directors in the board, percentage of indirect directors’ shareholding and percentage of block holders’ shareholdings are found to be negatively related to directors’ remuneration. Of the three human capital attributes studied, only executive directors’ average age and tenure are found to be significantly related to the level of directors’ remuneration. No evidence was found to conclude the role of qualification towards level of directors’ remuneration. The model used was tested for its robustness using different set of alternative measures for some of its key variables. Corrections were also made to address other common problems associated with multiple regression such as outliers, non-normality of residuals, heteroscedasticity and multicollinearity. Finally, the study extends the analysis by running fixed effect model in order to control for firm specific effects. There are few discrepancies between the pooled regression model and fixed effect model result but this may be caused by little variation over time among governance variables. Finally, the findings further supports the agency theory by showing that, among Malaysian companies, performance still plays significant role in determining rewards for its directors

Although the number of researches measuring the efficiencies of higher education institutions has grown especially for the last two decades, literature of both parametric and non-parametric research on HEIs in Turkey is relatively scant compared to the countries alike. This PhD research that fills this noticeable gap in the literature scrutinises 53 public universities in Turkey between the full academic year of 2005-2006 and 2009-2010 covering 5-year time span. In this research, albeit the slight changes in the non-parametric estimation, number of undergraduate students, postgraduate students and research funding are taken as outputs, capital and labour expenses as input prices and eventually annual expenses as total cost. Moreover, university-based features are included into the model so as to apprehend potential heterogeneities among the universities. The initial conclusions coming out of parametric estimation have certain suggestions for public HEIs in Turkey. Firstly, mean efficiency performances of Turkish public universities are fairly dispersed ranging from 70% to 90%. This would encourage a new set of policy-making decisions to lead inefficient universities to be aware of the success of their counterparts. Secondly, despite the fact that some universities have relatively poor efficiency rates, in overall analysis their efficiency scores are indicating optimistic signs relying on certain models. Lastly, developing different models do matter for efficiency analysis in the sense that dispersion of efficiency values among Turkish universities does vary from one model to another.

This thesis measures the tax effort and taxable capacity in Libya and examines an important research question: " Has the tax burden reached the level of full tax capacity in Libya?". The main motivation of the study is the need to diversify the sources of the Libyan economy. To this end the thesis presents a conceptual framework for tax burden, excess of tax burden, theory of optimal taxation, concept of taxable capacity, concept of tax effort. The framework is used to reviews the developments of the Libyan economy and the impact on tax effort. The thesis has explored several aspect of tax performance in Libya. First, it analyses the trends of public revenues, public revenues, public spending in final stances of the government. Second, it studies the tax structure and the relative importance of tax sources through the analysis of marginal propensity to tax and the income elasticity of taxes. Third, it examines the evolution of Libya's tax system particularly the income tax system. Finally, various econometrics models such OLS regression, Ordinary ridge regression, and Unbiased ridge regression are used to measure the tax performance such as tax burden, tax effort and tax capacity using time series data covering 1970 to 2000, and panel data covering 2001 to 2007. A fixed and random effect model are used to compare if the determinants of Libya’s tax efforts differs from that of a range of selected oil producing countries. These countries are: Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ecuador, Egypt, Emirates, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Kuwait, Lesotho, Libya, Mauritania, Nigeria, Oman, Peru, Saudi, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. This research consists of seven chapters: Chapter One provides a background; Chapter Two provides the literature review; Chapter Three 4 gives a brief overview of the development of the Libyan economy, while in Chapter Four there is a description of the public finances in Libya; this is followed in Chapter Five by a review of the tax system in Libya; Chapter Six presents the study’s analyses and findings; Chapter Seven provides the conclusions and recommendations. The main findings of this research are: First, in Libya, tax burden per capita is high; Second, the tax bases in Libya were narrow reflecting the government's heavy reliance on oil revenue; Third, the level of taxable capacity in Libya is also low compared to the selected oil producing countries for a variety of reasons, including: narrow tax bases, failure to diversify the tax sources, and the public sector being subject to tax. The argument is presented that the Libyan economy has reached the full utilization of its taxable capacity. In addition, the study found that the following factors have a major positive impact on Libya's taxable capacity and tax effort: the national product of the service sector, money supply, level of business freedom, level of economic freedom, currency in circulation and tax penalties. In contrast, two factors are found to be negatively affecting the taxable capacity and tax effort in Libya: non-oil exports, oil revenues. The contributions of this study to the literature are twofold: first, this is the first of its kind to provide comprehensive analyses of Libya’s tax performance; Second, it has added some new variables such as oil revenues, non-oil exports, currency in circulation, money supply(M1), and tax penalties in testing the determinants of tax effort into the model built by previous researchers. Finally, the research results shed lights on how Libya government may diversify the Libyan economy and encourage growth in the non-oil private sector through proper taxation mechanisms.

This thesis studies the provision of public pension system through three different approaches. Part one focuses on demographic change and pension system reforms in China. It reviews the historical reforms and the problems and suggestions associated with the current system. More importantly, by applying a calibrated overlapping generations general equilibrium simulation model, it investigates the impact of the demographic changes and the choice of pension system to the individual choices and macroeconomic variables in the future. As with all social insurance programs, the provision a public pension system involves a trade-off between protection and distortion. The second part is a theoretical study about the optimal level of public pension system. It derives the optimal pension benefit level by considering the welfare loss imposed by the saving and labour supply distortion. The third part of the thesis, is an empirical study investigating the reasons for different choices in pension systems. There are three types of public pension systems popular throughout the world: Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG), Funded and Mixed. The latter two have grown up largely since 1980s, after Chile successfully built its Funded system. By applying logistic regression tests, we examine the likely social and economic variables which have been affecting the choices.

This thesis presents three empirical analyses of the macroeconomic effects and sustainability of fiscal policy. Three key issues are examined: the transmission mechanism for fiscal policy shocks in Korea, the sustainability of government debt in three selected countries (Korea, the UK, and the US), and the effects of fiscal consolidation on macroeconomic activity. The main findings are as follows. First, government spending has a positive effect on the economy. Capital spending is likely to boost the economy more effectively than current spending. Second, there is a cointegrating relationship between the variables in Korea and the US, but not in the UK. That means fiscal policy in Korea and the US is sustainable, while fiscal policy in the UK is not. Third, fiscal consolidation is not likely to be expansionary in terms of GDP growth. The results also show that fiscal consolidation in time of high debt-to-GDP ratios, the spending-base, or high sovereign risk has fewer negative effects on economic growth than fiscal consolidation in time of low debt-to-GDP ratios, the tax-base, or low sovereign risk. The economic growth rate, government spending-based fiscal consolidation, low long-term interest rates, and higher sovereign risk have significant effects on reducing debt-to-GDP ratio.