This dissertation consists of three essays. In the first chapter, I investigate the effect of long-term income shocks that affect only one side of the marriage market in India. The asymmetric shock is due to two factors - (1) a jobs-based affirmative action program that affects the occupations and wages of a group of castes that were historically against, with a strict upper age limit on eligibility and, (2) a social norm that determines which member works outside the household. The program results in a differential positive income shock for young men in the treated group. The income shock is found to affect the marriage market in several ways. First, there is no effect on the marriage rate of treated men. However, conditional on marriage, treated men pair up with spouses that have higher educational attainment, are taller, and have a higher BMI. They are also more likely to marry outside their own community. Second, treated women are overall less likely to marry, and their choice of spouse is unaffected conditional on marriage. Finally, controlling for observables, treated husbands are found to have greater decision making power within the households that are formed. There is no significant effect for treated wives. A structural model of the marriage market based on Choo and Siow (2006) is used to investigate the aggregate marital welfare effects of the policy. The estimates find that up to 80% of the benefit of the affirmative action policy accrues to men within the treated group. These findings suggest that (1) a larger share of the welfare gains from affirmative action policies accrue to the household member that actually receives them, and (2) that the marriage market is one mechanism through which the distribution operates, in addition to the intra-household bargaining process that is standard in the literature. In the second chapter (joint with Ashna Arora, Rakesh Banerjee and Siddharth Hari), we study the political economy of public service delivery. Local governments in developing countries play a crucial role in the provision of local public goods and the functioning of social welfare programs. This chapter investigates the relationship between the size of elected local government councils and public service delivery. We use a natural experiment from India, where the number of politicians at the village level is an increasing, discontinuous function of village population. We set up a regression discontinuity design to study the impact of a larger elected council on the targeting of welfare schemes as well as the allocation of private benefits by politicians to themselves. We find that larger councils improve access to a large scale workfare program, especially for traditionally disadvantaged communities. We also find that increasing the number of council members increases appropriation of private benefits by the council head but not by ordinary members. These results have implications for policy design. In the third chapter (joint with Ritam Chaurey), we investigate the relative effects of manager supervision on different types of labor. Across a large cross section of firms, we find that managers spend more time in supervisory roles when a larger share of contract labor is employed. This finding is then established causally using a differencein- differences approach, exploiting variations in labor regulations across Indian states and rainfall-driven demand shocks. Using the causal approach, we find that (i) there is no significant change in total management input in response to short run demand shocks, suggesting that the institutional factors of the market for managers has larger search/firing costs than that for industrial workers. However, (ii) managers are observed to spend more time in supervisory roles when relatively more contract labor is employed in response to demand shocks. Contrary to the literature, we also find that (iii) there is no productivity change when there is an influx of contract labor. These findings suggest that there are complementarities between manager supervision and contract labor input, even relative to other types of labor, and that the manner of deployment of management capital within a firm is endogenous, conditional on the total amount.These findings could account for one of the features that is widely observed in empirical studies - firms in regions with strong employee protections have lower steady state productivities.

Xiao, Yao. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 32-33). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.Page 5 / Chapter 2. --- Literature Review --- p.Page 8 / Chapter 3. --- Model --- p.Page 12 / Chapter 4. --- Data --- p.Page 15 / Chapter 5. --- Regression results and comparisons --- p.Page 19 / Chapter 6. --- Sub-group tests --- p.Page 26 / Chapter 7. --- Conclusion --- p.Page 30 / Chapter 8. --- References --- p.Page 32 / Chapter 9. --- Appendix --- p.Page 34

Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / Current literature has produced mixed findings on the relationship between economic growth and employment. Given the priority accorded to job creation in contemporary South Africa, this study has become necessary. Although this phenomenon has been studied in the past, but current research that extend the phenomenon up to 2014 is missing in the literature, hence this dissertation set out to extend the literature to 2014 with a view to offering an advice to policy makers based on current findings. The study was done in South Africa and it covers the period from 1994 to 2014. The study used number of econometrics techniques or test to analyse the relationship between employment and economic growth. The Johansen co-integration test was used to determine the long run equilibrium relationship. The Granger causality test was used to determine the causal relationship or direction of causality between economic growth and employment. The co-integration test shows that there is a long run equilibrium relationship between employment and economic growth in South Africa. In both long run and short run, there is a positive relationship between employment and economic growth. This shows that there is certainty that economic growth would necessarily lead to job creation in the long run in South Africa, therefore the policy implication is that the government has to be active to plan ahead for a long run job creation mechanism. The research recommends amongst others that the government should design policies to encourage foreign direct investment inflow to South Africa as this will create more job in the long run.

Thesis (M.Dev.)) --University of Limpopo, 2011 / Local Economic Development has been a focal point for the African National Congressled government since the mid-nineties. It has been one of the ways to redress the injustices of the apartheid regime and to make it possible for the historically disadvantaged individuals to be incorporated into the formal economy and to engage in poverty alleviation programmes which focus on them. The government has already spent millions of rands in funding Local Economic Development projects whose primary goal is poverty alleviation. The purpose of this study was to determine the sustainability of Local Economy Development projects in Thulamela Municipality with the main aim being to determine those factors that enhance the sustainability of a project vis-a-vis those factors that hinder the sustainability of a project. The study took place in Thulamela Municipality of Vhembe District in Limpopo Province, South Africa. A qualitative study was conducted with thirteen (14) participants that included 6 LED projects managers (Brick-Laying Project A has 2 Managers), 6 Community Development Practitioners, a local LED Manager and an LED Officer from the Department of Agriculture. Data was collected with the use of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The findings of the study largely confirm what other researchers have already discovered, such as: the role played by the educational level of the beneficiaries of these projects on the success of their projects. The managers of the two best performing projects have post-matric qualifications while the managers of the least performing projects have only grade 12. The two top performing projects also keep proper accounting records and both use the services of an independent auditor to conduct their audits, while the least performing projects (Brick-Laying Project A, Poultry Project C and Poultry Project B) use ad-hoc accounting records and do not carry out financial audits. The majority of the members of these projects, as in most rural areas, are women. However, interestingly, the best performing projects have male managers. One noteworthy finding is that all but one project (Cooperative Project E) had a large number of members leaving the project since their establishment, with Cooperative Project D and Brick-laying Project A being the worst affected. The researcher sees this as an indication that most beneficiaries do not have the patience to persevere. They see LED projects as ‘get-rich quick’ schemes where they expect to earn a lot of money. When they realize that they will not be earning as much as they had hoped for most beneficiaries become de-motivated and leave. The researcher therefore suggests that further in-depth research be conducted on the factors that lead to LED projects losing members as opposed to employing more people. A research study could also be conducted to determine the role of keeping proper accounting records in the sustainability of LED projects. Furthermore, the fact that the least performing projects were those that are headed by women, further research needs to be conducted to determine whether gender plays a role in the success of projects.

The relationship between stock market development and economic growth has been an important issue of debate. A well functioning stock market can affect economic growth through the channelling of more saving to investment and the improvement of capital productivity with efficient allocation of resources. This contrasts with the view that stock market development has little relevance, or is even unimportant, to real economic activity. In this respect, the majority of the empirical studies are concerned with advanced markets and developed emerging markets, and none exist for Arab markets. The argument of this study is that economic growth is a function of stock market development and economic reform indicators, with the main determinants of growth as the control variables set. The study considered a comprehensive theoretical framework that linked stock market development to economic growth. It presented a comparative assessment on macroeconomic level and stock market development indicators for the Arab countries with the East Asia-Pacific countries and the G-7 economies. The most important finding indicated that Arab stock markets have no significant effect on economic growth due to the lack of transparency and illiquidity that limit the effectiveness of these markets in the economy. In contrast, the results from the East Asia-Pacific countries and the G-7 economies suggested that stock market development has a significant effect on, and is positively correlated with, economic growth. / Doctor of Philosophy (Economics and Finance) (PhD)

Transportation planners, engineers, and administrators face the difficult tasks of prioritizing and justifying proposed investments in transportation infrastructure, particularly as government budgets tighten and alternative investments compete for public funding. One means by which professionals can prioritize and justify large transportation investments is by describing how a proposed project will impact an area’s economy in terms of creating new jobs, raising aggregate income, and increasing business revenues. The report begins by examining the general impact of transportation investments on economic development. Then it surveys various methods and tools that have been proposed for estimating economic impacts. Among these, the TREDIS economic impact model is selected and used to estimate the economic impacts of a current interstate highway project in Texas. / text

After the Great Depression of 1929--1933, the relative isolation of Mexico's economy led to the adoption of Import Substitution Industrialization. The use of this model as a development strategy meant specializing in manufactured goods under a regime of state interventionism and a closed economy. However, after many years of inward-looking policies, ISI collapsed. Moreover, with excessive public expenditures and fiscal mismanagements, Mexico's economic stability started to erode. The result was Mexico's first economic crisis, the effects of which could only be alleviated through loans from International Financial Institutions that were contingent on the implementation of defined policies. Thus, Mexico adopted the neoliberal development model as its strategy for economic growth and recovery. Under this model, trade liberalization, outward-looking policies, and state non-interventionism promised economic growth as a necessary precondition for social justice and development. Mexico's implementation of neoliberal policies, on one hand, has aided its integration into a market-oriented economy in which competitiveness, foreign investment, and technology transfers are considered as paths to economic growth and, on the other hand, has widened the gap between the rich and the poor, and has impeded sustainable development.

This study examines the nature of the state in Bangladesh and its role in the economic development of the country until President Ziaur Rahman's assassination in 1981. Two basic questions have been of central importance: who controlled the apparatus of the state? and was the state "relatively autonomous" or simply an instrument of the dominant class(es)? The study argues that the state in post-colonial Bangladesh has not, contrary to Hamza Alavi's position, followed a single uniform direction. Initially, nationalist political leaders, mostly belonging to the intermediate class, controlled the state apparatus, which can therefore be described as an "intermediate state." However, subsequently, both "overdevelopment of the bureaucracy" and "socio-political dynamics" enabled the civil-military bureaucracy to assert dominance over the state apparatus, which can consequently be characterized as an "administrative state." Since the nature of the state has varied, it has played a changing role--autonomous or instrumental--in the economic development of Bangladesh, with the "intermediate state" working as an instrument of the dominant intermediate class and the "administrative state" playing a "relatively autonomous" role.

This thesis presents a survey of the development of economic growth theory, including the latest developments in the relationship between international economic integration through international flows of goods and/or knowledge and endogenous economic growth. Based on the following literature review, a new and more reasonable model for the research and development (i.e., the R&D) sector--a sector which is considered the source of long-run growth--is offered in order to develop and improve the framework built by Rivera-Batiz and Rome (1991), i.e. the RBR model. This new model will make the RBR framework more complete and rational. In this new model, it is proved that any form of economic integration will increase the long-run rate of growth, and these results are compared with those of the RBR. Moreover, Devereux and Lapham's efforts to find some dynamic analysis along the transitional path under two different situations: knowledge flows only, and both goods and knowledge flows, are continued in the same model. It is found that when only knowledge is allowed to flow across borders, economic integration generates corner solutions for the production of the R&D sector, while this does not happen when complete goods and knowledge flows exist. However, the real balanced growth rates in these diverse situations are higher than they are in autarky.

Even a well planned marketing strategy may fail if a country or region goes through a rapid business decline. As consumers' income drops, they must shift their spending patterns. They may have to simply do without some products. By carefully studying the environment, marketers can adapt their strategies to meet market place challenges and opportunities. This generally means adapting the marketing mix and/or changing the target markets. However, the response of marketing managers to recession depends on how they perceive its meaning and impact on their businesses. The purpose of the study was identified to be the determination of managements' perception of and response to economic recession by measuring (1) the meaning of the economic recession to marketing managers; (2) the impact of this recession on marketing decisions; and (3) the resultant adjustments in marketing strategy and action. Primary and secondary data was gathered through literature review and empirical research, respectfully. Data collection consisted of a structured questionnaire to serve as guideline for the follow-up interviews. A total of ten marketing managers participated in the qualitative interviews. These managers were selected by means of a non-probability sample. The recent recession has seen South Africa's real GDP growth slowing to 3% with unemployment rate increasing slightly to 23.6%, manufacturing production falling by contraction of 17.2% whilst the year-on-year CPI inflation rate was 8.1% in January 2009. These foregoing show how severe the recession has been. All interviewed respondents reported price competition to have been fierce during the recent economic recession. In their quest to minimise the effects of the economic downturn, companies adjusted their sales volumes and improvised their marketing spent by using more of company websites and e-mail marketing to keep customer informed of the product or service offerings available. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.