When President Sebastián Piñera entered office in 2010 the Mapuche indigenous people were receiving two contrasting messages from the Chilean State. On the one hand, the government ratified ILO Convention 169, pledging to protect the indigenous right to prior consultation in programs that affect their communities. On the other hand, the government was involved in the oppression of Mapuche communities in the region of the Araucanía through militarisation and the application of the Anti-Terrorist Law to punish radical Mapuche activists that protest corporate encroachment on their land. While Piñera had the opportunity to legitimize the Mapuche demand for self-determination by implementing ILO Convention 169 according to international standards and putting an end to the “Mapuche Conflict,” instead the situation of the Mapuche political movement worsened under his leadership. The Piñera administration used indigenous rights policy and a discourse of terrorism as a strategy to delegitimize the Mapuche demand for self-determination in order to protect corporate profitability, a key factor in the Chilean neoliberal economic project.

A substantial amount of prior research has focused on the relation between Central Bank Independence (CBI) and inflation control. However, this research is mainly theoretical or conducted using cross-country statistical regressions and correlations in the developed world. Little attention has been given to understanding this relation in emerging nations or the influence of interest groups on CBI and inflation in a specific context. This thesis addresses both gaps by conducting an in-depth observation and analysis of this relation in a single country (Lebanon) and the influence of the banking sector on both CBI and inflation during a period of high inflation. This empirical evidence in the case of Lebanon shows that Central Bank Independence from the government – even though abundant and complete – was not enough to control inflation. The influence of the banking sector on both CBI and inflation was more important. This work makes a contribution to knowledge through highlighting the importance of national contexts when evaluating the CBI-inflation relation. Furthermore, this research extends our understanding of the literature and its gaps, and presents a new way to conduct in-depth studies in the field. Finally, it provides practical insights that are of importance to central bankers, especially in emerging nations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the causes of welfare state expansion, specifically the causes of welfare state expenditure of active labor market policy (ALMP). ALMP aims at reducing unemployment and increasing participation in the labor market. The field of political economy has long asked the question of why certain welfare states are characterized by generous social policy, while others are not. Several theories have been presented over the years, each providing new perspectives. The two theories that could be considered to be the most prominent are the Power Resource Theory, which centers on the importance of power resources of major classes, and the Varieties of Capitalism, which is more focused on the different needs of capitalists.The specific interest of this paper is the varying orientations of ALMP. It is argued that ALMP should not be understood as a homogenous concept, but instead as a category of policy which consists of a range of tools from which a government can choose. Analyzing the expenditure of these tools separately is thus of great importance for the development of a deeper understanding of the welfare state.Using regression analysis, I analyze which of the theories mentioned above is most strongly correlated to increased expenditure of ALMP. I use a total expenditure of ALMP, as is customary within the field, but I also include two other measures for specific tools of ALMP; incentive reinforcement programs and training programs.The results indicate that when looking at the total expenditure of ALMP the VoC approach appears to better explain the cause of welfare state expenditure. However, when including the measures for the specific tools of ALMP, the classic notion of VoC is confirmed only regarding incentive reinforcement programs, and contradicted regarding training programs. Moreover, the classic notion of PRT is confirmed regarding the expenditure of training programs, albeit with quite limited evidence. Also, the classic notion within PRT finds little support in the analysis of total expenditure of ALMP and the expenditure of incentive reinforcement programs. Only making a distinction between large and small welfare states is thus argued to be a simplification. Welfare states with similar levels of social expenditure might in fact differ significantly regarding actual policy preference.It is concluded that the continued disaggregation of ALMP is necessary in order to further the research field. Acknowledging the highly heterogeneous nature of ALMP is essential when understanding its expenditure.

摘要 所得稅是我國內地稅最主要的稅源，而政府對所得稅所採行的各項租稅減免，除了考慮政策誘因的目的性外，而背後亦隱含著租稅公平、經濟發展、財政收入等不同的政策意涵，近年來隨著政府財政赤字不斷攀升，但許多租稅優惠措施仍不斷通過，究竟是那些因素所造成，除了外在制度環境的改變，國家發展的自主性是否有所改變。隨著我國政治體制的轉變，逐步邁向民主化，使得政府對所得稅租稅優惠政策主導性逐漸降低，甚至造成稅基受到嚴重侵蝕，因此租稅優惠措施之實施或取消，已不能單純從財政與經濟理論解釋，更重要的是政治論點。 以往研究所得稅租稅減免之文獻大多從經濟或財政等單一面向加以探討，少見從歷史結構及政經制度變遷因素探索者，而本文選定我國五十餘年來重要或具爭議之租稅減免議題作為研究對象，如促進產業升級條例(獎勵投資條例)、軍教薪資所得免稅、證券交易所得免稅議題等減免措施及歷次賦稅改革涉及租稅優惠者，並採用宏觀、整體、動態、歷史結構的分析方式，來觀察解釋我國租稅減免事實的演變過程與真實的意涵。並按政治體制的轉變區分為三個時期（威權時期：1949-1986；民主轉型時期：1986-1996；民主時期：1996-2002 ），分別就不同政治時期的所採行的租稅惠措施，依當時國家受到政治力、社會力的影響，及所面對之制度環境：如財政狀況、經濟發展、國際競爭及公平正義等因素，來解釋政策背後深層意義。而研究方式跳脫過去僅從經濟、財政或租稅理論等面向探討所得稅租稅減免理論，並嘗試建立一個可解釋租稅優惠減免政策分析架構。且界定所得稅租稅優惠理論不單純是經濟或財稅議題，更是政治議題。 本研究發現，政府對所得稅租稅減免的自主性隨著政治民主化後降低，租稅優惠政策受到外在社會力影響的因素愈來愈大，這可以解釋近年來政府的財政狀況不佳，但所得稅租稅優惠措施仍不斷擴大，而賦稅改革建議的採行只擷取減稅的部分。另長期以來租稅優惠一直是國家用來攏絡資本家或選民，以求經濟持續發展，確保繼續執政重要工具之一，在選舉不斷下，均難以取消。而全球化下，資金快速流動，國家為促進經濟發展，以往所得稅所強調公平性已不符時代的潮流，租稅公平的涵義已有所改變，且民主化以後，執政者在面臨租稅公平與選票考量時，通常以選票作為優先考量，使租稅公平不再受到重視，加上租稅優惠的政策特性使然，使政策易通過但難取消。由於以上種種因素，在民主化以後，政府欲對具爭議的租稅減免政策加以改革，顯的困難重重。 但民主化趨勢已是無可避免的潮流，因此建議政府應重視行政與立法互動關係，強調財經決策的效率與公平性，注重政策行銷，且在進行租稅優惠措施改革時應慎選策略，使政策的改革順利推動。另為避免稅基不斷的受到侵蝕，政府應設計阻擋減稅的機制，訂定減稅的底限，提高租稅減免決策門檻，將租稅優惠成本透明化，並將人民力量導入，使稅制不再惡化。

United States legislations have allowed U.S. companies to integrate with the economies of other countries allowing U.S. companies to outsource manufacturing and services abroad and take advantage of lower input cost because of cheap and skilled labor - an opportunity cost choice. In the global economy employment in the United States seems to be influenced simultaneously by variables such as outsourcing, international trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) and immigration. The shift in our economic and labor structure due to outsourcing will impact many different groups of people, mainly the next generation entering the labor market. The goal of this thesis is to examine the effects of outsourcing, Foreign Direct Investment, and International Trade on the U.S. labor market. It reveals that as an effect of outsourcing jobs have shifted to the emerging markets for cost and capability sourcing, but in response to the uproar on U.S. jobs being lost as businesses move abroad there seems more of job complementarily than substitution between parent and foreign affiliates. Also, companies are integrating vertically and that outsourcing is integral to a company’s success in the global economy. Furthermore FDI in the U.S. is not growing as rapidly as it is in Asia and many other parts of the world, when FDI is shown to positively affect a country’s economy. The U.S. because of the imbalance in international trade runs a huge trade deficit, which again takes a toll on the U.S. economy and employment. As the U.S. parent companies account for large shares of the overall U.S. economy, and foreign affiliates are also significant contributors to the U.S. economy there should be legislations that support multinationals to remain competitive in the global market as they contribute to strengthen the U.S. economy.

For the European Union (EU), the field of trade policy is a main field in which the EU can assert its actorness and build its identity as an international actor. This "superpower" potential arises out of the EU's extensive resource equipment in trade policy and is driven forward by the EU's significant economic interests. To what extent, however, the EU has been able to use its resources to shape the rules of the international trade regime according to its own preferences has remained questionable. This thesis investigates the question of the EU's impact on and power utilisation in the international trade regime by analysing the EU's changing involvement in World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations. Drawing from the theoretical concepts of the "international regime" and "power", the thesis proposes an approach centred on the possession, mobilisation and impact of actors' power in international regimes. In particular, the thesis proposes a framework centred on five key elements: specification of the regime, its qualities and focus; the resources or 'underlying power' that actors bring to the regime; the resources derived by actors from the operation of the regime itself, or 'organisationally dependent capabilities'; the manifestation or deployment of resources and strategies by actors in negotiations; and outcomes defined in terms of actors' power over the regime itself. After an examination of the broad context of the WTO's development and the EU's involvement in the international trade regime, this framework is then explored through a detailed study of the EU's involvement in the negotiations over trade in services that took place in the WTO between 1995 and 2005, using evidence from a wide range of documentary sources and from interviews. On the basis of this exploration of trade in services, the thesis finds that despite the EU's outstanding resources, the WTO negotiations have become too complex for the EU to decisively influence them due to a power shift in the international trade regime. The special nature of the trade in services negotiations makes these particularly unmanageable and they do not seem to present the EU with a setting for achieving its preferences. A lack of cooperation among the WTO members in favour of the negotiations has made progress in the negotiations very hard to realise for the EU. At the same time, the erosion of the EU's resources by the shifting attitude in civil society towards trade policy, and an apparent Jack of business support, has increased the challenge for the EU of managing the international trade regime. Questions are therefore raised about the extent to which the EU has responded to change, mobilised its resources effectively and had a consistent impact on the international trade regime since the mid-1990s.

How has the Indian state changed with economic liberalization? While many scholars have explored the altered party politics and class basis of the liberalization-era state, few have studied its transforming internal organizational forms and functioning. This thesis aims to provide an empirically grounded answer to this question. To do this it uses the lens of electricity: the sector lies at the heart of contemporary capital accumulation, state power, and distributive politics, and has witnessed almost a quarter-century of institutional reforms since 1991. In the sector, new or reworked organizational forms—such as imported regulatory agencies, corporatized state-owned enterprises, and public-private partnerships—have been grafted onto the older statist system in a process of institutional layering. Favouring state-business collaboration and prioritizing rapid economic growth, this mode of state operation is distinct both from a liberal, market-oriented state and from India’s older state-led mode. It combines state intervention and selective adoption of parts of the Washington Consensus template to produce a reinvented mode of power governance that I term state capitalism 2.0. India’s new state-market hybrid is not a functional alternative to the older models, however. The layered process through which it has emerged means that it is distinctively dysfunctional. Organizations have emerged in an ad hoc fashion, each shaped and reshaped by multiple collective interests, while existing organizations are rarely destroyed. The resulting layered amalgam institutionalizes contradictory state strategies, co-optation by competing interest groups, and a dualistic system of services and subsidies. Consequently the sector’s performance remains poor. As a result, developments in the Indian power sector suggest that the state's 'pro-business' transition has been painful and incomplete. At least in this sector, the Indian state remains simultaneously more indispensable, more ambivalently pro-business, and more chaotic than much theory might suggest.

This project approaches ongoing debates over the impact of increased Chinese engagement in African countries through the lens of production and industrialisation. Emerging market FDI into Africa is growing rapidly, and an increasing proportion of this investment is into manufacturing and productive sectors. This trend is led by the commercial expansion of private Chinese manufacturing firms across the continent. The goal of this project is to examine the differentiated impacts on African industrialisation attempts of this phenomenon. It takes as its case study industrial zone development projects in Nigeria, namely, the two official economic and trade cooperation zones being developed as large-scale FDI projects by Chinese firms, with Chinese and Nigerian government support, in Lagos and Ogun states. Analytically, four dimensions of this process are identified for study: the home country context, the host country context, the zone structures and institutions, and the firms themselves. Special attention is paid to the interface between foreign actors and the particular political economy of Nigerian manufacturing, as well as the at times substantial gaps between policy and practice in terms of industrial planning, investment and production. The thesis argues that SEZ projects in general, including the Chinese ETCZs, are industrial policy tools that operate on particular assumptions regarding the organisation of global production. As such, they incentivise the insertion of export-oriented firms into established global networks supplying international markets. However, a closer examination of industrial policy in China, the production environment in Nigeria and the behaviour of internationalising firms reveals that these assumptions are not always accurate. Thus, the SEZ institution as it is currently conceived in Nigeria is ill-suited to lend support to the trend towards Chinese relocation of producer firms, as well as to the reality of Nigerian production—both of which are predicated on domestic and regional markets as the primary driver of African industrialisation and productive sector growth.

This paper uses Federal Funds Futures and the industry returns to analyze the Federal Reserve Policy's influence on Wall Street firms. According to the results, Wall Street produces high returns in response to the monetary policy when compared to other industries. While this positive response is consistent to both interest hikes and cuts, there exists significant cross-firm and cross-period variation. Besides, the result is robust to the alternative measure of event days and employment release.

This thesis seeks to explain Poland’s energy security policies towards Russia in the period from 1990-2007. It is inspired by the puzzle that Poland’s commitments to reduce its dependence on imported oil and gas from Russia have varied considerably during this period. Numerous large-scale projects to enhance energy security have been proposed, abandoned and revisited, all in the absence of a significant change to Poland’s level of dependence on Russia or its exposure to supply risks. This puzzle poses a challenge to conventional approaches to energy security, which tend to explain policies as a function of ‘material’ shifts in the price, supply or demand for fossil fuels. Though these factors are undoubtedly important it is argued that, in the case of Poland, energy security is more affected by domestic decision-making processes than by such material shifts. In particular, the degree and form of intervention in the energy sector by the political executive in Poland is highlighted as a key factor explaining energy security policy output. These interventions in Poland are classified and distinguished according to three types of ‘policy network’ – statist, corporatist and liberal, each of which represented a different outlook on the optimal means for ensuring energy security. These policy networks were embedded within different governments, and their preferences fashioned Poland’s responses to energy security challenges occurring under similar material conditions.