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This thesis investigated the links between public transport use and sociodemographic and land use factors. A dataset of address information about regular bus smartcard users was sourced. These addresses were geocoded using Geographical Information Systems, and the address points derived through this process were used to calculate the percentage of regular bus users in Census meshblock spatial areas. This percentage was then compared to a number of different factors, including deprivation levels (a measure of sociodemographic status), average distance to the nearest bus stop and bus route, and a number of variables from the New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings, using a number of forms of analysis. The number of cardholders in different residential zonings was assessed, along with the average number of trips taken per day by cardholders. Results indicate that there was a relationship between the regular Metrocard users and deprivation, and regular Metrocard users and land use, however the statistical validity of these relationships was low. Principal component analysis and regression analysis were carried out to assess what variables best explained the proportion of bus use. It was found that the presence of International Students in an area accounted for the biggest variation in the levels of bus use, along with people who were Unemployed and of Maori or Pacific ethnicity, and people who have limited access to vehicles. However, the statistical validity of these results was again low.

This study charts the development of statutory minimum wage policy between 1906-1939. Unlike other works touching upon the minimum wage theme, this study makes extensive use of trade union and employers' organisation records. Indeed, the fate of official minimum wage policy can only be understood by giving full consideration to the views of the two sides of industry, especially with regard to the inter-war period. The sensitivities of employers' organisations and the TUC played a crucial role in influencing the character of government policy in this field. Trade boards, representative of employers and workers within a strictly defined low-paying sector, were a 'lowest common denominator' minimum wage policy that suited the interests of representative organisations on both sides of industry. The TUC, never wholly comfortable with the notion of government 'interference' in the unions' sphere of wage-rate determination, recognised that in sectors where organisation was difficult to foster, a legal minimum rate could help safeguard the wage standards of all workers, including the higher-skilled. Likewise, employers may have been wary of 'red tape'; but those suffering from undercutting by non-federated rivals appreciated a basic legal 'floor' to wages. Thus, in those sectors where voluntary collective bargaining could not ensure minimum standards, both sides of industry could embrace trade boards as a substitute. Thus, in seeking to account for the absence of a uniform national minimum wage until 1998, the attitudes of both sides of industry, and the TUC in particular, should be borne in mind as much as inertia on the part of government. Chapters One to Three provide a chronological analysis of the development of minimum wage policy between 1906-1918. Chapters Four and Five cover the inter-war period, dealing with the vicissitudes of trade boards and the unsuccessful fate of 'universal' minimum wage policies, respectively.

In this thesis, forecasting models for the UK pigmeat sector are built using various methodologies with particular interest being paid to the relative forecasting ability of time series models compared with the performance of biological and econometric methodologies. The main determinant of the supply of pigmeat in the UK is the size of the breeding herd, the quantity of meat itself being directly attributable to the number of fat pigs slaughtered and to a lesser extent cullings of older sows and boars from the breeding herd. These three key variables are the ones modelled in this thesis. Prior to building forecasting models an explanation is given of the system underpinning the pig sector, in terms of the biology of the breeding herd pig, the mechanism of how supply responds to prices, and consideration of the well documented 'pig cycle'. Thus, the workings of the biological and economic mechanisms are described in the context of an equilibrium framework before the relevant models are built. Having built the various models, their relative forecasting performance is measured by consideration of the size of the forecast errors and the ability of the models to forecast the directional movements of the actual series in a specified out-of-sample period. In the concluding chapter, suggestions are made as to how the models might be developed further and how the various approaches might be combined into a single forecasting model. The availability of data has an important influence on much of the model building methodology and forecasting analysis. Consideration is given at various points in the thesis to circumventing these restrictions.