This research examines the role played by Open Access entry as a strategy for promoting competition in UK rail freight markets. The theoretical basis for such an investigation is that associated with contestable markets in Economics and more specifically in the promotion of competition in related markets. The overall aims of the research are to first understand the contestability of the UK rail freight market against the background of its underlying market conditions. Secondly, the research compares the experience of Open Access rail freight operators in an international context in order to confirm or reject the explanatory relevance of key variables, as postulated by economists. The research aims have been satisfied in each case through the attainment of a number of specific objectives. These objectives include gaining a wider understanding of the theory of contestable markets, identifying and evaluating a range of barriers to entry faced by Open Access operators (and the strategies they have employed to overcome them), and an appreciation of the factors and processes that determine Open Access activity. The qualitative line of enquiry adopted by the research has produced a review of relevant literature sources and a series of preliminary interviews with industry experts. The former facilitated an in - depth understanding of the characteristics of UK rail freight markets and of the theory of contestability, with a priori reasoning being employed to highlight key issues and controversies. The interviews with key industry experts formed the basis for a subsequent questionnaire survey of members of the Rail Freight Group and other rail industry members. Although most respondents believed that a significant number of barriers to entry existed (with EW&S' first choice over traction being regarded as the most important both in terms of citations and barrier height), 68% of those surveyed thought that there would be some Open Access entry in the first eighteen months after the privatisation of British Rail's trainload freight 1 operations. Sub - contracting of rail haulage was regarded as the most likely modus operandi for new market entrants. This survey was followed up by case studies of the first two instances of Open Access entry (National Power and BNFL), which had both shown considerable interest in the issues raised by the earlier industry survey. These case studies resulted in the identification of a range of similarities and contrasts in barriers encountered and entry strategies, and provided valuable information about the rail freight operations of the two companies. Further analysis has compared entry in an international context and identified strategies that could complement existing practice in the UK. For this purpose, an analytical framework based on a number of themes of Open Access is adopted. Perceptions of regulatory effectiveness in promoting contestable outcomes are also established through a series of in - depth interviews with key industry players. The research project has generated a number of successful outcomes relating to its aims. Markets are not contestable and contestability should not be regarded as an appropriate framework for analysing industry behaviour. This outcome is the result of an awareness of those factors representing barriers to entry and of those structural complexities accounting for a lack of Open Access entry. An understanding of the relative significance of entry barriers and of strategies adopted by operators has also been achieved, along with awareness of those factors and strategies regarded by them as important. The extent to which certain Open Access variables retain their explanatory power in a global context and the scope for utilising entry strategies used elsewhere (such as short - lines) has also been established, along with an awareness of the opinions of key industry players as to the effectiveness of regulatory intervention in the promotion of greater contestability. 11 Overall, this research project has provided valuable insight into the likelihood of Open Access competition in rail freight markets. In addition, it has led to a recognition of the considerable opportunities that now exist for further work on Open Access entry in rail freight markets, both domestically and internationally.

yes / The ideology of the liberal peace has propelled the political economies of war-torn societies into a scheme of global convergence towards ¿market liberalisation¿. This orthodoxy was an uncontestable assumption underlying external economic assistance. However, the project faltered under its inherent contradictions and because it ignored the socio-economic problems confronting war-torn societies, even aggravating them by increasing the vulnerability of populations to poverty and shadow economic activity. Although revisionists have embarked on a mission to boost the UN¿s peacebuilding capacity and also rescue the Millennium Development Goals, the basic assumptions of the liberal peace are not challenged and potential alternatives are overlooked.

No / The study of interest representation is well established in the context of the European Union1 (EU). For more than five decades, scholars have debated the role played by interest groups (particularly business interests) in comparison to other policy actors in the 'bottom-up' process of European integration. Recently, scholarship about the EU as a political system has shifted to focus on the 'top-down' impact of the EU on national and sub-national actors, a process referred to as Europeanization. This article addresses lacunae in that literature and brings fresh evidence to light by exploring the EU effect on UK and French business interest representation. Drawing on a combination of political and management studies concepts and tools, this article compares and contrasts UK and French firms located in two industrial sectors directly affected by the EU's single market programme, namely the telecommunications and energy sectors. The research, an extensive qualitative study based on more than 50 elite semi-structured interviews, elicits the firms' and other actors' perceptions, understandings and impressions of each other and the political processes at work. Some important similarities and differences between the UK and French firms emerge from the data. Most significantly, some narrowing in the dissimilarities is apparent, which may, in part, be attributed to the process of Europeanization itself.

This dissertation examines the role of government policies in attracting the foreign direct investment (FDI) to SADC countries. To achieve this, the study uses econometric, statistical, and thematic methods within a panel data context and explores means through which SADC countries can attract the FDI. The study covered a panel of 15 SADC countries over the period 1980–2018. FDI is associated with several benefits, particularly in the less developed countries for their investment purposes. However, these less developed countries – including SADC member countries – encounter challenges of attracting FDI despite having abundant natural resources and proposing various regulatory reforms to liberalise their economies. The empirical approach suggested several ways through which a country can attract FDI. The study found that FDI in SADC is not entirely driven by the presence of natural resources but by other determining factors such as the infrastructure development and economic growth, which proved to be paramount in attracting FDI. Therefore, the study recommends that SADC should not only adopt structural policy reforms that potentially improve trade openness, but also adopt strategic infrastructure development. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

Since long the energy policy has been escaping the concept of the common European policies or has been only partially influenced through the harmonisation of other common policies. If energy sector was considered an exclusive competence of every State Member (or as a part of its national security), nowadays, it has made a big step forward. At present, we talk about the establishment of a competitive internal energy market. The energy policy became part of the Community law only after the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty when the sector was granted a separate chapter and henceforth decided upon through a co-decisional procedure. The energy markets were subsequently given a new liberalisation impetus by the approval of the 3rd energy package (July 2009). My thesis focuses entirely on the natural gas sector and its crucial amendment to the network sector regulations. The core subject of the Directive 2009/73/EC concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas is the ownership unbundling regime which stipulates the separation of production and sale operations from their transmission networks. This separation from the former vertically integrated utilities is supposed to guarantee an equal and non-discriminatory access to the transmission networks. Even though the ownership unbundling regime...

Jusqu’ici en situation monopolistique et fonctionnant sur un mode politico-administratif, Gaz de Bordeaux est une industrie de réseau s’inscrivant désormais dans un marché concurrentiel. Cette étude de cas a cherché à cerner la nature et à mesurer les effets de la modernisation de ce service public local, aussi bien sur les systèmes de régulation sociale et les identités professionnelles, que sur les capacités d’action et les formes d’appropriation/résistance développées par les différentes catégories d’acteurs. D’un point de vue méthodologique, elle a combiné approches qualitative et quantitative et a cherché à articuler l’analyse du travail en train de se faire avec celle de l’action collective. Au moment où le travail gagne en intensité, au double sens de pression productive, mais aussi d’intérêt, l’entreprise apparaît trop irrespectueuse de la qualité du travail possible et des capacités mobilisables par les individus que le management moderne a précisément contribué à développer. Face à cette réorganisation du travail, les syndicats peinent de leur côté à saisir les enjeux contenus dans la relation de travail moderne et à traduire les plaintes individuelles renouvelées en revendications collectives. Parce que le développement de comportements individuels de retrait n’empêche pas les collectifs de travail de se recomposer sur de nouvelles bases, nous reconsidérons l’origine de la souffrance au travail et mettons en évidence un des problèmes majeurs lié à ses transformations contemporaines : celui qui se joue autour de ce que les salariés nomment « le travail bien fait » au moment même où le discours managérial affiche la qualité au centre de ses préoccupations. / Formerly in a monopolistic situation and running on a politico-administrative mode, Gaz de Bordeaux is a network industry now part of a competitive market. The present case study of this local public utility is meant to identify the nature of its modernisation and to measure its effects as well on the system of social regulations and professional identities, as on the capacities of action and forms of appropriation/resistance developed by the various categories of actors within the company. From a methodological point of view, we pledged ourselves with a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, aiming at articulating analysis of the work being done with that of collective action, both considered as linked realities. As work gains in intensity, in both senses of productive pressure (do more in less time and with fewer staff) and interest (given the need expressed by every person to come true by the reality of its work), the company appears as disrespectful of the quality of work possible and the capacities mobilized by individuals that modern management precisely contributed to develop. Faced with this reorganisation of work, labor unions struggle to grasp the issues at stake in modern employment relationships and translate individual complaints in renewed collective claims. Despite increasing individual withdrawal behaviours, working collectives recompose on new bases. We therefore revisit the origin of suffering at work; from its contemporary mutations, we present evidence for what we believe is one of its current major problems: the one at stake around what employees call a "well done work", at the very moment when management is concerned with quality.