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Nicholas Bryor Massenburg, a cotton and tobacco planter in Piedmont North Carolina, operated his plantation within a network of fellow farmers, neighbors, friends, and relatives. He turned to merchants in town and to scattered individuals for goods, services, and hired labor. He also sold surplus food crops locally, meaning that a portion of his income was derived not just from the sale of cotton and tobacco. For Massenburg, managing his plantation also meant implementing agricultural reform techniques. The twenty-some slaves were organized into a system that was a hybrid of task and gang labor, with work routines varying throughout the year. Task variation peaked in spring and late fall, while during much of summer and early fall the slaves performed a limited variety of tasks. Rigid gender segregation did not characterize the working environment at the Massenburg plantation.

The role of the political party in power in mediating the relationship between the state and labour was examined. The Indian states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal--each governed by a political party representing a different ideology and class coalition--were compared in terms of conditions for workers. Other factors likely to affect the position of workers in the state, such as its industrial profile, and the strength of its labour movement prior to the period under study, were also considered. / It was found that, although the nature of the party regime did significantly influence the state-labour relationship, workers were not necessarily better off under the most sympathetic and interventionist party. The nature of industry in the state was central in determining conditions for workers. Thus, the party in power influenced conditions for workers as much through policies not aimed specifically at workers, as through intervention in industrial relations.

The account which is presented in this work constitutes, to the best of my knowledge, the first really comprehensive and reasoned history of trade union development in Jamaica. It is hoped, however, that the patient reader will find it much more than a history. Comparative studies suggest that there are certain characteristics (described in Chapter I) which are shared by nascent unionism in developing countries which enjoy at least a modicum of political democracy, notwithstanding the vast differences in their cultural, economic and political backgrounds. The unity amidst the sea of diversity centres around the leadership, ideology, politics and structure of the emergent trade unions. / fr

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Canada and the US are highly integrated economies and yet persistent productivity gaps exist between them. This raises the question whether there is a relationship in productivity between Canada and the US, and if so, what industry-specific characteristics are important. This dissertation focuses on the manufacturing sector and its component three-digit industries. The first chapter investigates the interdependence of labour productivity (LP) between the two countries. It finds no evidence of long-run convergence of US and Canadian LP. There is, however, some evidence of short-run dependence within industries. Regarding industry characteristics, only industry-specific export intensity is found to be an important channel for the long-run productivity transmission. The second chapter develops measures of total factor productivity (TFP) that are comparable across Canada and the US. The third chapter investigates the interdependence of TFP between the countries. As with LP, there is no evidence of long-run convergence. In both the short and long run, the dependence of Canadian manufacturing industries upon their US counterparts is limited and non-uniform. The fourth chapter examines industry-specific characteristics. Export, import and foreign direct investment (FDI) intensities are found to be important channels in the short run for technology diffusion from the US. Surprisingly, a higher research and development intensity reduces short-run technology diffusion. In the long run, export and FDI intensities are shown to contribute to technology diffusion. / Graduate / 0501 / berylli@uvic.ca

<p> This dissertation introduces a panel data method to estimate country-specific steady state levels of output in an augmented Solow growth model. The use of panel data permits the estimation of a country-specific effect which can explain the surprising result that many developing economies are above their steady states. These empirical results also confirm that the augmented Solow model can explain the present cross-country income <i> divergence</i> of developed and developing economies. Another application finds evidence that the post-Soviet economies began their transition toward markets with initial conditions of overcapitalization. Finally, when the results are sufficient, there is also the possibility of describing an entire period of growth and gaining insights into future periods. This is shown with the OECD economies. </p><p> In Islam (1995), panel data is first used to estimate the parameters of the Solow growth model. The following year, Cho and Graham (1996) published a small paper which illustrates a simple way to compute steady state levels of per capita income by using the results of cross-sectional convergence tests. This dissertation simply combines these two methods with the result that the interpretations are more satisfying. In sum, we find that countries can begin a period of development above or below their steady states and that countries converging from above should be considered to be overcapitalized. This implies that development through investment can only succeed when there is convergence from below the steady state. Above the steady state, total factor productivity is too low to sustain the relatively high levels of capital. </p><p> The organization of the dissertation is linear with an introduction preceding the second chapter's literature review and the development of a theoretical and empirical model in the third chapter. The applications of the method then follow. Chapter 4 uses a worldwide sample to compare the result to other work and to show that this fundamental model of growth theory can explain the observed increasing levels of international inequality. Chapter 5 takes a look at the transition economies. In addition to finding evidence of overcapitalization, this dissertation finds a positive correlation between growth and the privatization of small business under transition. Additionally, there is a negative impact of price liberalization under the conditions of repressed inflation experienced by many Soviet-era planned economies. Chapter 6 uses a sample of OECD economies to obtain a significant deterministic, technological growth rate. This is possible because the countries are similar enough to make the assumption that they have the same growth rate more realistic. This enables an understanding of steady states after the initial period and leading into the most contemporaneous period of the sample.</p><p> <b>Keywords:</b> macroeconomic analyses of economic development; institutions and growth; measurement of economic growth; cross-country output convergence; models with panel data; government policy; socialist systems and transitional economies: political economy, property rights; socialist institutions and their transitions</p>

This paper presents evidence that the majority of the high post-recession unemployment rates is the result of an increase in the natural rate, rather than cyclical deviations from it. Moreover, I discuss the likely causes of the recent increases in the natural rate. Since most of the theorized causes of increases appear transitory in nature, I expect that the natural rate will soon decline, followed closely by a decrease in actual unemployment rates.

The first essay shows the presence of discrimination in the allocation of doctoral scholarships using a unique dataset containing the 1901 recipients of 2004-2005 doctoral awards from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). I provide evidence that evaluators give higher scores to candidates in their own discipline and then proceed to distinguish between two types of discrimination: taste-based and screening. This paper is the first to find support for screening discrimination: better candidates have higher scores when they are assessed by evaluators from their discipline, while there is no significant effect for weaker candidates. Moreover, the weakest candidates, those close to the funding threshold, actually have a lower probability of receiving a large award when there is an evaluator from their discipline in their evaluation committee. The second essay models the optimal distribution of government spending when the electoral benefit accrues to the district incumbent and not to the party in power. The model shows that, under certain parameters, more money is spent in core support districts. I test this prediction using the distribution of projects undertaken in the scope of the 2009-2010 Canada Economic Action Plan. The third essay assesses the deterrence of demerit points on the behavior of drivers. To address driver heterogeneity, I use the expiration of points as quasi-exogenous variation in the number of points. I can then compare the probability of a traffic violation for drivers who had the same number of points but now have a different number of demerit points. I find that a 3-point decrease in the number of demerit points through the expiration process increases the probability of a violation in the following two months by 40 to 50 percent, but only for drivers close to the threshold. The last essay studies the impact of a non-refundable tax credit for public transit introduced in July 2006 in Canada. I find no evidence that this tax credit increased the number of trips done using public transit. There is, however, some suggestive evidence that it did induce commuters to purchase monthly passes. / Thesis (Ph.D, Economics) -- Queen's University, 2014-05-29 11:18:01.817

Canada and the US are highly integrated economies and yet persistent productivity gaps exist between them. This raises the question whether there is a relationship in productivity between Canada and the US, and if so, what industry-specific characteristics are important. This dissertation focuses on the manufacturing sector and its component three-digit industries. The first chapter investigates the interdependence of labour productivity (LP) between the two countries. It finds no evidence of long-run convergence of US and Canadian LP. There is, however, some evidence of short-run dependence within industries. Regarding industry characteristics, only industry-specific export intensity is found to be an important channel for the long-run productivity transmission. The second chapter develops measures of total factor productivity (TFP) that are comparable across Canada and the US. The third chapter investigates the interdependence of TFP between the countries. As with LP, there is no evidence of long-run convergence. In both the short and long run, the dependence of Canadian manufacturing industries upon their US counterparts is limited and non-uniform. The fourth chapter examines industry-specific characteristics. Export, import and foreign direct investment (FDI) intensities are found to be important channels in the short run for technology diffusion from the US. Surprisingly, a higher research and development intensity reduces short-run technology diffusion. In the long run, export and FDI intensities are shown to contribute to technology diffusion. / Graduate / 2015-04-17 / 0501 / berylli@uvic.ca