This thesis considers symmetric functions and algebraic combinatorics via the polynomial representation theory of GL(N,C). In particular, we utilise the theory of Jacobi-Trudi determinants to prove some new results pertaining to the Littlewood-Richardson coefficients. Our results imply, under some hypotheses on the strictness of the partition an equality between Littlewood-Richardson coefficients and Kostka numbers. For the case that a suitable partition has two rows, an explicit formula is then obtained for the Littlewood-Richardson coefficient using the Hook Length formula. All these results are then applied to compute branching laws for GL(m+n,C) restricting to GL(m,C) x GL(n,C). The technique also implies the well-known Racah formula.