This paper presents two applications of empirical microeconomics based on choice theoretic optimization principles. The first topic explores the determinants of subsistence time allocation in a utility theoretic model of household production. The second topic examines firm pricing behavior in a deregulated, but concentrated industry setting. The first part of this applied microeconomic analysis estimates the subsistence time versus wage labor time allocations of Alaska's North Slope inhabitants using ordered probit based on a household production model. The explanatory variables measure labor supply, demographic, and cultural influences. The major findings are as follows. First parameter estimates differ statistically and substantially between Inupiat versus non-Inupiat residents, implying that optimal natural resource management decisions may vary with the ethnicity of the resource owners. Second, marital status, age, gender, and participation in generalized gift giving and receiving are important determinants of subsistence time allocations. Third, time spent in wage labor appears to be exogenous to the subsistence time allocation decision, indicating that the time allocation process is recursive. Fourth, we find an inverse relationship between wage labor time and subsistence participation. This means that reductions in wage employment opportunities lead to increased subsistence activity. For the North Slope, this implies that Prudhoe oil depletion will result in an increase in the use of subsistence natural resources. The second part of this study turns from the individual behavior to firm behavior. During the 1980's, researchers have noted a trend towards increased concentration in the general freight, less-than-truckload (LTL) portion of the U.S. motor carrier industry. The purpose of this study is to employ new empirical industrial organization (NEIO) techniques to determine whether the more concentrated post-1980, LTL motor carrier industry is exerting anti-competitive monopoly pricing behavior. The NEIO approach is used to formulate the relationship between market price and marginal cost in what is referred to as the representative firm's 'supply relation.' The firm's supply relation is estimated jointly with the cost function and the factor share equations under the assumption that cross equation disturbance terms are correlated (SUR). An instrumental variables procedure is used to test and control for correlation between output (on the right hand side) and the disturbance terms in the cost and supply equations. The results indicate that the trend toward increased industry concentration does not imply anti-competitive performance in the sense of rising price-cost margins. / Graduation date: 1994

Economic data concerning the costs and benefits of Inuit subsistence in the Igloolik region of Nunavut were collected during the summer of 1992. The purpose of the research was to develop a method of valuation to showcase the high "profit", in economic terms, that harvested country food provides. / Wildlife harvesting in Inuit communities represents a traditional way of life which is threatened by the increasing expansion of wage employment, industrial development and the availability of store bought food. However, rather than having a marginalizing effect, these changes make subsistence hunting an essential economic activity. / This thesis develops a method to measure the harvest of country food through a dollar value standard thus quantifying the real economic benefits of Inuit subsistence. The value of harvested food can then be compared economically to store bought food. This comparison shows that subsistence hunting provides Inuit with a relatively inexpensive food source, equivalent to $6 million of income ``in kind'' per community in the Baffin Region. In this era of store bought food and wage employment, Inuit communities remain economically and socially integrated through subsistence hunting. Without harvesting, northern communities would be culturally and nutritionally poorer than at any time in the past.

Ce mémoire consiste en une analyse zooarchéologique d’un assemblage faunique provenant d’un site Dorsétien des Îles Nuvuk dans l’Arctique canadien. Les données fauniques ont été analysées statistiquement en appliquant des indices d’utilité économique et des indices de densité des os. Une étude concernant le niveau de conservation de l’assemblage a révélé peu d’évidence de modification taphonomique des spécimens. Les analyses fauniques ont permis d’identifier une stratégie de subsistance de type généraliste et basée sur l’exploitation de mammifères marins, surtout des phoques annelés, pratiquée par les occupants du site de KcFs-2. Une prédominance d’individus immatures (phoques annelés) dans l’assemblage indique une abondance de ressources marines dans les régions du nord de la Baie d’Hudson et du détroit d’Hudson au moment de l’occupation, ce qui est aussi manifeste dans des études antérieures concernant les économies des peuples du Paléoesquimau tardif pour la période donnée. L’occupation du site de KcFs-2 s’est produite durant la période du Dorsétien récent au Nunavik (1500-800 B.P.), et la séquence est définie comme ayant été multi-saisonnière (de l’hiver à l’été). L’analyse des produits de l’industrie osseuse (têtes de harpons et sculptures en ivoire) a permis de confirmer l’affiliation culturelle des occupants. / This thesis presents a zooarchaeological analysis of a faunal assemblage from a Dorset site (KcFs-2) on the Nuvuk Islands in the Canadian Arctic. The faunal data was analyzed through the application of bone density and economic utility indices and bivariate statistical tests. A brief taphonomic study was also undertaken, showing that the assemblage was not heavily affected taphonomically. The faunal analysis revealed a generalized subsistence strategy with an intensified focus on marine mammal exploitation, specifically ringed seals. The predominance of immature ringed seals exposed through the study indicates an abundance of marine resources in the northern Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait regions during the period under study, which correlates well with existing studies concerning Late Palaeoeskimo economy. Occupation of the KcFs-2 site occurred in the Late Dorset period of Nunavik (1500-800 B.P.) and is defined on a multi-seasonal level, from late winter through summer. Analyses of the organic artefact assemblage (harpoon heads and sculpted objects) served to confirm the relative dating of the site and aided in the definition of the cultural affiliation of the inhabitants of the KcFs-2 site.

No description available.

Nossa pesquisa investiga a criança - escrava, ingênua ou livre, com idade inferior a 15 anos - inserida como mão-de-obra nos domicílios de Mariana, Minas Gerais, durante a segunda metade do século XIX. Esta localidade, desde o declínio da mineração, passou a ter a produção de alimentos como atividade econômica principal. O período contemplado foi de transição do sistema escravista para o sistema livre de trabalho. A cessação do tráfico internacional de escravos, a liberdade concedida a crianças nascidas de mães escravas e a escravos com mais de 60 anos foram partes de um processo de transição gradual, cujo corolário foi a abolição da escravatura. De 1850 a 1871, os senhores tinham no tráfico interno e na reprodução natural a esperança de perpetuação do regime, mas, depois da Lei Rio Branco, a segunda possibilidade foi eliminada pelo ventre livre. Tal lei, entretanto, permitia aos escravistas a utilização da mão-de-obra dos ingênuos até que estes completassem 21 anos. O senhor que desejasse manter a utilização da mão-de-obra coercitiva teria algumas dificuldades (a maior delas, talvez, fosse a elevação dos preços dos cativos). Nesse contexto, muitos projetos buscaram contornar a ausência do escravo. Entre eles, alguns idealizavam o uso da mão-de-obra nacional, especialmente de livres pobres, libertos e ingênuos. Dentro dessa alternativa, a criança, que poderia ser educada desde cedo para o trabalho, tinha papel relevante. Nossa pesquisa demonstra que entre os fatores pelos quais a criança se inseria no mundo do trabalho, estavam o cativeiro, a orfandade, a ilegitimidade e a pobreza. Os pequenos trabalhadores executavam tarefas ligadas à roça, ao pastoreio e aos serviços domésticos. A documentação revelou poucas crianças com idade inferior a 7 anos inseridas na labuta, mas o número de trabalhadores aumentava progressivamente nas faixas etárias seguintes. Percebe-se que dos 12 aos 14 anos, os menores já têm suas profissões descritas nos documentos. Investigamos uma extensa gama de fontes primárias. Foram inventários post-mortem, matrículas de escravos e de ingênuos, registros de compra e venda de escravos, processos judiciais, cartas de alforria, mapas de população, listas de habitantes, o Recenseamento Geral do Império de 1872 e os relatórios de presidente da província. Tais documentos, cartoriais ou oficiais, possibilitaram-nos vislumbrar as características do trabalho infantil na Mariana oitocentista. / This research studies the children (slave, \"ingênuo\" or free; under 15 years old) inserted as laborers in Mariana (Minas Gerais) households during the second half of the 19th century. Since the decline of mining, that locality consolidated the subsistence economy as its main activity. The focused period constitutes a transition from slavery to a free labor system. The interruption of international slave traffic and the emancipation of children born of slave mothers and of slaves over 60 years old were events of a gradual transition process, culminating in the abolition of slavery. From 1850 to 1871, the internal traffic and natural reproduction were the only ways to perpetuate slave labour, but the latter possibility was excluded by Lei Rio Branco. However, that law authorized the slaveholders to use \"ingênuos\'s\" labor up to the age of 21. The slaveholder who wanted to keep forced labour would have some kind of difficulties (the worst of them, maybe, was a rise in the cost of the slaves). In these circumstances, many projects tried to compensate for the absence of slave labour. Among them, there were those which focused on the use of native workers, particularly poor free men, freedmen and \"ingênuos\". By this conception, the children, who could be early educated for work, had a considerable role. Some of the reasons why children began to work were the captivity, orphanhood, illegitimacy and poorness. The young workers did tasks as farmhand, shepherds and domestic servants. The documentation contained few working children under 7 years old, but the number of working children increased progressively in the following age groups. From 12 to 14 years old, the children already had their occupations described in the documents. We examined a vast set of register office sources - post-mortem inventories, slave and \"ingênuos\" registrations, records of slave purchases and sales, judicial suits, letters of emancipation - and official sources - population maps, inhabitant lists, 1872 census, provincial presidential reports -,which gave us an idea of the children\'s labour in Mariana in the 19th century.

No description available.

More than a decade after the World Bank was forced out of the dam-building industry due to the social and environmental consequences of the projects they helped to finance, World Bank support for the development of the Nam Theun 2 (NT2) Hydroelectric Project, located atop the bio-diverse Nakai Plateau in central Laos, signals the re-emergence of the Bank’s involvement in large-scale dam construction initiatives. The NT2 project is the Bank’s response to its international critics. The project is a ‘test case’ for a new model of hydropower development that seeks to counteract any negative consequences to the surrounding environment and populations through the enactment of a new set of environmental and social safeguards that the Bank had spent over a decade developing. As the optimal consequence, if NT2 achieves the goal of safeguarding the bio-diverse environment of the Nakai region through the creation and implementation of long-term ‘socially and environmentally sustainable’ livelihood activities capable of raising the living standards and income levels of Nakai villagers beyond the national poverty line, then the NT2 model of development will be validated and its use in other World Bank supported hydroelectric initiatives all but assured. The alternative result is that the new safeguard mechanisms fail to achieve these goals, significantly contributing to the destabilization of one of the of the most environmentally and culturally unique regions in the world. This thesis analyzes the effectiveness of NT2 social and environmental safeguards in order to determine to what extent this new model of development is achieving the objectives it set prior to construction. Using a range of data, it analyzes outcomes produced from the core safeguards program of the project: the resettlement livelihoods’ programmes. Analysis of villagers’ livelihoods after resettlement clearly indicates that the NT2 model was never able to overcome challenges posed by reduced access to forest and agricultural lands for re-establishing villagers’ core land-based livelihood activities. As a result, many villagers have abandoned the livelihoods programmes at resettlement villages across the Plateau. In the short term, these villagers have, nevertheless, significantly increased their incomes through intensified commercial fishing and export-oriented rare timber and endangered wildlife extraction activities. The problem for NT2 developers such as the World Bank is that this form of economic activity is neither socially nor environmentally sustainable, placing the regional environment, local populations and the NT2 project in jeopardy. / Graduate

This dissertation is an exploratory study of the ideas put forward by theorists of post-Development. This current of thought emerged as a radical critique of the Development discourse, proclaiming that no reformulation could change the essential character of it, that being the "Westernisation" of the world. As post-Development's definitions rely on their opposition to what Development represents, from a theoretical point of view as well as in the myriad of behaviours resulting from it, the starting point of the thesis is an analytical account of Development discourse through the various theories that have shaped it during the second half of the 20th century. Other theories that can be considered outside mainstream Development are also analysed as well as those conventionally classified as alternative Development. A whole chapter is then dedicated to thoroughly review the historical unfolding of the Development discourse. The following chapter deals with the ideas put forward by post-Development. It relies on a series of publications identified with this current of thought as well as with information provided by one of its most prominent authors, Dr. Wolfgang Sachs, in an interview conducted by the author of this thesis. It also uses an unpublished manuscript given to the author by Gustavo Esteva, also prominent in the constitution and dissemination of the ideas of post-Development. In an effort to identify whether post-Development has remained at the level of theoretical formulation or if it has informed practices on the ground, research about the activities and underlying beliefs of the Global Barter Network (in Uruguay and in Argentina) and the World Social Forum was undertaken. The field-study, which is presented in the 4th chapter of the thesis, aimed at researching these particular initiatives and draw conclusions with respect to the existence of coincidences with the ideas of post-Development. The dissertation concludes then with an analysis of post-Development's major contributions to the Development debate, of its relationship with already existing practices, of its distinctiveness from alternative Development. It analyses the originality of the post-Development discourse and makes proposals for further research. / Development Studies / D.Litt. et Phil.

Thesis (MScFor (Forest and Wood Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Like in many developing countries, forest and woodland resources contribute significantly to ensure the sustainability of livelihoods of rural people of Eritrea. However, the contribution made by forest and woodland resources has been masked due to the inability of the traditional economic valuation methods to reveal the hidden values of forest resources. As a result they do not reflect in GDP accounting, development planning and conservation policymaking. The underestimation of the importance of forest and woodland resources to the rural subsistence economy results in both market and policy failures. These in turn lead to escalated forest degradation, livelihood insecurity, value conflicts and ineffective conservation programmes. The forest and woodlands of administrative sub-zone Dighe were selected as a case study as they comprise trees, shrubs and other non-woody plants of outstanding importance both in terms of socio-economics and biodiversity richness. However, these resources are being rapidly depleted as a result of clearing for commercial agriculture and are under growing pressure due to resettlement of returnees and needs of other social actors. The study was carried out in three representative administrative areas of the sub-zone. A literature survey was carried out to identify the best of traditional neo-classical economic valuation methods to use in this study. Complementary methods from various streams of economics, ethnobotany, ecological anthropology and rural sociology were reviewed. The sub-set of selected marketable items were quantified and monetised based on market-based valuation approaches; and compared with non-marketable roles to indicate the magnitude of full values of the forest and woodland resources. Values that could not be quantified were described qualitatively. A production-consumption analysis of dom palm scrub leaf harvesting for household utensils was carried out. Forest health was investigated based on observation, semi-structured interviews and secondary information. The study revealed that local forests and woodlands provide essential goods and services for subsistence use, to generate income and to reduce vulnerability during times of hardships. Riverine forests, acacia woodlands and scattered trees and shrubs of grassland are the three vegetation types found in the study area. The riverine forest, dominated by dom palm, is a most valuable resource as it provides for multiple uses. Among the many marketable and non-marketable benefits, forests and woodlands provide wild food, construction material, livestock feed, household utensils, firewood, traditional medicine, shade, climate amelioration, erosion control, cultural heritages and scenic values. All members of rural households regardless of age, gender and wealth extract forest products, which minor variation between households and administrative areas. Variability of consumptive use values between households and between administrative areas and other non-marketable values are determined by relative wealth status, seasonality, resource availability and distribution, market outlets and local institutions. The study revealed that the riverine forests and woodland values of the Dighe administrative sub-zone alone have contributed economical values many times greater than US $ 1.43 million per annum for selected quantifiable items only. This would be higher if the other non-marketable forest values were monetised including the livestock grazing and access to watering points. Beyond any doubt, the high local values of forest and woodlands and consequently the contribution to the national economy justify the conservation of the remaining forest. Moreover, the production-consumption analyses showed that the present level of dom scrub leaf harvesting is sustainable. Forest health situation analysis indicates, however, that the entire forest is under immense pressure. Moreover, the findings of this study suggest that conserving forest resource for local values is compatible with the millennium global development agendas.

This dissertation is an exploratory study of the ideas put forward by theorists of post-Development. This current of thought emerged as a radical critique of the Development discourse, proclaiming that no reformulation could change the essential character of it, that being the "Westernisation" of the world. As post-Development's definitions rely on their opposition to what Development represents, from a theoretical point of view as well as in the myriad of behaviours resulting from it, the starting point of the thesis is an analytical account of Development discourse through the various theories that have shaped it during the second half of the 20th century. Other theories that can be considered outside mainstream Development are also analysed as well as those conventionally classified as alternative Development. A whole chapter is then dedicated to thoroughly review the historical unfolding of the Development discourse. The following chapter deals with the ideas put forward by post-Development. It relies on a series of publications identified with this current of thought as well as with information provided by one of its most prominent authors, Dr. Wolfgang Sachs, in an interview conducted by the author of this thesis. It also uses an unpublished manuscript given to the author by Gustavo Esteva, also prominent in the constitution and dissemination of the ideas of post-Development. In an effort to identify whether post-Development has remained at the level of theoretical formulation or if it has informed practices on the ground, research about the activities and underlying beliefs of the Global Barter Network (in Uruguay and in Argentina) and the World Social Forum was undertaken. The field-study, which is presented in the 4th chapter of the thesis, aimed at researching these particular initiatives and draw conclusions with respect to the existence of coincidences with the ideas of post-Development. The dissertation concludes then with an analysis of post-Development's major contributions to the Development debate, of its relationship with already existing practices, of its distinctiveness from alternative Development. It analyses the originality of the post-Development discourse and makes proposals for further research. / Development Studies / D.Litt. et Phil.