This study analyzes the Bangladesh Crisis by building upon previous works that have applied microeconomic theory to international relations. One of the most innovative lines of inquiry from the realist school is to study international relations through analogy with microeconomic theory. Although used to analyze conflict, war, and the workings of the international system, a strict application of microeconomic theory to interstate crises is rare. This thesis will endeavour to contribute to this linkage.

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This dissertation is based on two years of field research in Sudan, in Khartoum; the three capitals of Darfur; and Bentiu, Unity State, at the border between North and South Sudan. Building on a now substantial literature in critical humanitarian studies, my work focuses on the emergence of new economic forms, circuits, and entitlements that accompany humanitarian aid. These include the influx of ration cards, trade routes that deliberately shadow humanitarian convoys and draw in aid recipients, and entitlements based on kinship ties to injured or displaced victims of conflict. For well over a decade anthropologists have studied the social and political work humanitarianism does in excess of its stated intention to relieve the suffering of civilians in regions of national and political disasters. As numerous scholars have shown, humanitarian discourses and practices intentionally and unintentionally transform local and regional political values and institutions by altering the social relations that subtend them. I pursue how these transformations intervene into core categories of how people understand themselves to have status in a social world. The manuscript focuses on the one ways in which people and events are evaluated as having status within humanitarian logics. It explores the nexus between this logics and the creation of novel economic subjects, values, and institutions that are neither foreign nor local, neither neoliberal nor traditional. They are, rather, a glimpse of something the manuscript refers to as humanitarian economies, with all dimensions of the economic intended. These include new forms of dependency and altered structures of political authority. But they also include new strategies of local speculation based on humanitarian rubrics of recognizing need. For instance, I track the circulation and resale of objects of material necessity, such as grain, cooking oil, or work tools distributed by aid agencies. I demonstrate the ways in which such objects begin to function as general equivalents; they become a form of currency, and a vehicle for the storage, accumulation and transmission of wealth. But on the other hand, the manuscript is just as focused on the circulation of universal values of protection, and their transformation as local actors pick them up and deploy them in their social worlds. In other words, as local actors come to understand how humanitarian actors assess crisis, they produce a second order assessment of where aid is likely to go and thus what would be a profitable investment. They also produce second order deployments of how injury and livelihood is evaluated. Such practices transform basic dynamics of social entitlement. And they also change how people think of themselves and their neighbors as economic and political subjects. Meanwhile, critical infrastructures - from irrigation channels to pharmacy supply routes to radio transmitters - become the objects of heightened ethical scrutiny. Infrastructure comes to stand in for good governance, stability, and sustainable political relationships. What we witness is the emergence of what I call a speculative investment in crisis that binds crisis, livelihood, and life-value into a troubling knot.

M.A. (Politics). / This is a study in political philosophy. It defends the following thesis: where there is poverty there is a lack of power and thus a lack of freedom. It does not follow from this that a life of wealth is a life of freedom and a life of poverty is a life of complete unfreedom. This is because full freedom also involves other components such as political freedom, economic freedom and so on. The thesis defended here is simply the negative one that humans remain unfree as long as they live in conditions of poverty. Thus poverty should be construed as lack of freedom in the sense of constraints or fetters it casts upon people collectively. For example, the harsh effects of segregation in the United States and apartheid in South Africa are that people continue to live in separate communities somewhat along the colour line. The worse effect of this is that those who live in poorly resourced communities are Black. They in this manner remain without freedom here construed as power to tum their situation around. This thesis criticises the liberal account of Berlin and others of similar persuasions and offer a distinct account of freedom that locates it in an individual's capacity to carry out desired actions. It will then argue that poverty constrains freedom in this sense. Thus if you are poor, you are unfree and without power to generate the requisite necessaries of life. This thesis also aims to show how the two concepts of liberty or the liberal perspective of freedom as such do not take into account the important social problems confronting us in the world today, for example poverty which in this project is taken as an exemplar of lack of freedom. Poverty is characterized best as being without the necessities to meet basic human needs such as shelter, food and recreation. More importantly, any alternative to address poverty must take into account the fundamental significance of participation in politics.

本研究發現一個地區的經濟發展水平與當地居民對中央政府的信任程度負相關。 / 本研究包括定量和定性兩個部份。定量部份，普通最小二乘線性回歸(OLS)分析和雙層回歸分析的結果顯示：區域經濟發展水平與人們對中央政府的信任存在顯著的負相關關係。控制了個人因素變量，上述相關關係仍然顯著。定性分析部份討論了傳統文化與信息流通在發達地區和欠發達地區如何影響政府信任。這部份分析發現文化因素和信息因素是導致某一地區的民眾比另一地區民眾更不相信中央政府的重要因素，但必須與經濟發展因素相結合才能發揮顯著作用。文化與信息受當地的經濟發展水平影響：一個地區的經濟發展水平越高，傳統文化的影響力越弱，信息化程度越高；反之，經濟發展水平越低，傳統文化的影響力越強，信息化程度越低。定量分析與定性分析都支持研究假設。 / 把上述靜態觀察納入動態視角，從長遠看，區域經濟發展將削弱公眾對中央政府的信任。具體來說，假定目前的局勢延續，隨著中國越來越多的地區經濟得到發展，當地民眾對中央政府的信任會相應降低。據此推測，中國人的政府信任可能會經歷一個由“中央高、地方低再變為“中央低、地方更低的過程。 / This research shows that the level of economic development in a region has a negative correlation with local residents’ trust in the central government. / This study draws on both quantitative and qualitative analyses. In the quantitative section, both OLS regression and hierarchical linear modeling show that the level of regional economic development has a significant negative correlation with public trust in the central government, controlling for individual factors. Qualitative analysis suggests that traditional culture and the flow of political information affect people’s trust in government when they interact with economic development. In places where economy is underdeveloped, traditional culture has a larger impact and the flow of political information is less free. By contrast, in places where economy is more developed, traditional culture has a weaker effect and the flow of political information is freer. / Putting the finding of the cross-sectional analysis into a dynamic perspective, it is suggested that the development of local economy may in the long run weaken local residents’ trust in the central government. More specifically, assuming that the present situation continues, as more and more regions experience economic growth, local residents may develop weaker confidence in the central government. The pattern of trust in government may then evolve from the current “high trust in the central government and lower trust in local government into “low trust in the central government and even lower trust in local government. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 呂書鵬. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-173). / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Lü Shupeng. / 內容摘要 --- p.i / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / 致謝 --- p.iii / Chapter 第1章 --- 概論 --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- 問題的提出 --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- 相關概念 --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- 研究方法 --- p.7 / Chapter 1.4 --- 研究框架 --- p.8 / Chapter 1.5 --- 研究局限 --- p.10 / Chapter 第2章 --- 文獻綜述 --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1 --- 政府信任 --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- 政府信任的重要性 --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- 政府信任的特點 --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2 --- 政府信任的影響因素 --- p.25 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- 經濟因素 --- p.27 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- 社會文化因素 --- p.28 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- 政治因素 --- p.29 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- 政府因素 --- p.33 / Chapter 2.2.5 --- 信息因素 --- p.34 / Chapter 2.3 --- 中國政府信任研究現狀 --- p.37 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- 中國傳統文化與政府信任 --- p.37 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- 規則意識與權利意識 --- p.39 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- 差序政府信任 --- p.40 / Chapter 2.3.4 --- 政府信任與政治參與 --- p.41 / Chapter 2.4 --- 本章小結 --- p.45 / Chapter 第3章 --- 數據描述 --- p.46 / Chapter 3.1 --- 數據介紹 --- p.46 / Chapter 3.2 --- 描述性分析 --- p.47 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- 政府信任在地區間的差異 --- p.47 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- 政府信任在地區間的分佈特點 --- p.52 / Chapter 3.3 --- 本章小結 --- p.54 / Chapter 第4章 --- 回歸模型分析 --- p.56 / Chapter 4.1 --- 單層線性回歸模型 --- p.56 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- 變量 --- p.56 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- 回歸分析 --- p.59 / Chapter 4.2 --- 雙層線性回歸模型 --- p.67 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- 個體層次變量 --- p.70 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- 分層次線性模型的構建 --- p.77 / Chapter 4.3 --- 本章小結 --- p.89 / Chapter 第5章 --- 討論 --- p.91 / Chapter 5.1 --- 政府信任影響因素在區域間的變異 --- p.91 / Chapter 5.2 --- 發達地區居民不相信政府的啟示 --- p.106 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- 傳統政治信任體系將難以為繼 --- p.106 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- 差序政府信任的產生和消亡 --- p.109 / Chapter 5.3 --- 作為自變量的政府信任 --- p.126 / Chapter 5.4 --- 本章小結 --- p.137 / Chapter 第6章 --- 結論 --- p.140 / Chapter 附錄一： --- 訪談對象列表 --- p.143 / Chapter 附錄二： --- 本研究所涉及的2008年China Survey的問題 --- p.147 / Chapter 附錄三： --- 73個縣/區以地方政府信任為自變量的截距和斜率 --- p.150 / Chapter 附錄四： --- 與論文相關的非學術性文檔列表 --- p.152 / 參考文獻 --- p.157

Since the 1970s, a curious phenomenon has emerged, suggesting that resource rich countries are "cursed" by their resources. Over the last couple of decades, researchers have argued that rentier countries are more likely to have educational underachievement, the Dutch disease, corruption, slower democratization, and conflict. Although current research has proven helpful and productive, some aspects still remain contested in both theoretical and empirical terms. This dissertation aims to fill certain lacunae in this literature. My dissertation examines how ordinary citizens turn into dissidents and then to rebels in rentier states. I build and test an innovative theoretical argument, which focuses on individuals' daily lives, and explains how policies by rentier governments discourage merit-based employment. This, in turn, yields a high level of grievance among segments of the population. I also develop a comprehensive theory that combines macro-level and micro-level explanations of conflict onset in rentier states. Finally, I analyze an important, but previously neglected aspect of civil wars in rentier states: conflict outcomes. I suggest that the existence of abundant natural resources would have a significant impact on conflict outcomes. Accordingly, government victory would be more likely, and negotiated settlement would be less likely in rentier countries compared to non-rentier countries.

This study explores the relationship between economic development, social mobility, elites, and regime formation. I argue that the genesis of regime formation, in general, and of democratic regimes, in particular, is determined by the type of economic structure a society possesses, on the one hand, and on the degree the to which demands from disfranchised groups do or do not pose a substantial threat to the interests of elites who occupy the upper strata of the social and economic status hierarchy. Second I demonstrate that the dynamics of transition to wider political participation, as the core element of a democratic system of governance, and the survival of such change are different. In what follows I illustrate that some factors that have been found to dampen the chances for wider participation or have been found to be unrelated to onset of a democratic system of governance have considerable impacts on the durability of the democratic regimes. In a nutshell, the analysis points to the positive effects of mineral wealth and income inequality on the prospects of a democratic survival. Using a cross-national time series data set for all countries for the period between 1960 and 1999 I put the hypotheses to the test. I use binary logit, ordered logit, and ordinary least squares (OLS) to delineate the link between socioeconomic changes and the transition to wider participation. Survival analyses are employed to test for what factors account for the durability of a democratic regime.

This dissertation consists of three essays in applied microeconomics on the economics of science. The first chapter contribute to the understanding of fairness and recognition in innovation systems. The second and third chapters study the effect of government policies and university relocation on science and education outcomes respectively. The first paper, coauthored with Zihao Li, studies gender difference in innovation recognition using patent citations. We propose a method to quantify under-citation, by constructing a “should-cite” list for each of over 1.5 million patents based on textual similarity, using state-of-the-art natural language processing technique. We find that female-authored patents are approximately 12% more likely to be under-cited than male-authored patents. Additionally, male inventors are far more likely to under-cite patents written by female inventors. Our findings are consistent with the testable implications of taste-based discrimination but not statistical discrimination. Welfare analysis shows that past under-citations negatively impact future patenting activities, especially for female inventors. The second paper, coauthored with Elliott Ash, Mirko Draca and David Cai studies the impact of a large-scale scientist recruitment program – China’s Junior Thousand Talents Plan – on the productivity of recruited scholars and their local peers in Chinese host universities. Using a comprehensive dataset of published scientific articles, we estimate effects on quantity and quality in a matched difference-in-differences framework. We observe neutral direct productivity effects for participants over a 6-year post-period: an initial drop is followed by a fully offsetting recovery. However, the program participants collaborate at higher rates with more junior China-based co-authors at their host institutions. Looking to peers in the hosting department, we observe positive and rising productivity impacts for peer scholars, equivalent to approximately 0.6 of a publication per peer scholar in the long run. Heterogeneity analysis and the absence of correlated resource effects point to the peer effect being rooted in a knowledge spillover mechanism. The third paper studies the long run effect on local education outcomes of the temporary exodus of Chinese universities in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). During the war, over 80% of China’s universities, along with the top tiers of China’s educated talents were forced to relocate to inland underdeveloped areas during the war. We find that the large inflow of educated elite intellectuals and universities increased local supply of secondary schools by 6.6% during and after the war period, indicating the effect cascades to lower tiers of education. However, such trend does not persist into the People’s Republic of China (PRC) era and we find limited effect on local education outcomes in the long run. We discuss the salience of locational fundamentals and education policies in explaining the absence of persistence.

This dissertation argues that we need to reconceive our notions of economic freedom to be bothmore inclusive and worker-centric. The status quo of economic freedom is dominated by the libertarian perspective, which envisions economic freedom as a matter of individuals being unrestricted in the exercise of their sovereign capacities, especially with regards to the state. Such a view of economic freedom does not account for how individual capacities are made possible, neglecting that in modern economic life, it is only through non-sovereign dependencies on others that makes individual economic capacities substantive. Additionally, outcry against injustices in American economic life is primarily framed through the lens of inequality, which too quickly concedes freedom to the libertarian perspective. Chapter one articulates a critique of three libertarian perspectives, arguing that each in its own way is too closely tied to a sovereigntist view of individual capacity, and as such is incapable of offering a more inclusive conception of economic freedom. Chapter two examines the recent neo-republican resurgence, arguing that Philip Pettit’s revival of freedom as non-domination neglects to account for its own logical and practical assumption on a polity that is bounded and stable, making it less credible as a politics of inclusion. The chapter also extends this critique to Alex Gourevitch’s labor republicanism, arguing that casting freedom as non-domination in a more working class mold is insufficient to eliminate its reliance on exclusionary boundaries. Chapter three draws from recent care theory to argue that we should conceive of economic freedom as the enabling conditions of economic agency, which are made possible only through dependencies on others. But even if such dependencies are universally necessary, they are not experienced in an equitable way. The more privileged tend to be in a position to enjoy access to such enabling conditions, which the work of the less privileged makes possible. Transforming economic freedom into a more inclusive value means properly recognizing such contributions. Chapter four examines two case studies from American labor history: garment workers in the early twentieth century, and the more contemporary Los Deliveristas Unidos, who represent delivery cyclists in New York City.