This thesis seeks to examine contemporary factors that prevent an orderly resolution to a sovereign debt crisis. It comprises of five chapters. The first chapter introduces the research and highlights its main contributions. The second chapter narrates the background and motivation for the study. The third chapter studies a related paper on holdouts in sovereign debt restructuring and finds that, under a discrete time version with two creditors, asymmetric pure strategy Nash equilibria exists. This result, overlooked by the original paper, implies immediate agreement as the time between successive periods tends to zero. The fourth chapter investigates the impact of heterogeneous beliefs on delays in sovereign debt restructuring and finds that parties inefficiently delay settlement when their combined beliefs of court-outcomes are sufficiently heterogeneous. The chapter also explores other model expositions and establishes delay conditions. The fifth chapter studies the implied duty on the debtor to act in good faith in sovereign debt restructuring and is divided into two parts. The first part theoretically examines the efficiency and distributional impacts from enforcing a good faith duty on the debtor when bargaining with heterogeneous creditors. Here, good faith is defined as the non-violation of the court interpretation of the pari passu clause. The second part identifies judicial attempts made to enforce the good faith debtor duty to negotiate and proposes a doctrinal threshold that restricts judicial intervention to situations in which there is clear evidence of a failure, on the part of the debtor, to negotiate in good faith.

In this thesis, I use a political economy of trade policy approach to analyze the issues of strategic lobbying and taxation choice. The thesis contains 4 papers together with an introduction, literature review and conclusion. In Chapter 3, a lobbying-influence model is presented to discuss how the outcomes of trade policy is influenced by lobbying activities during the policymaking process. A comparison of the welfare-maximizing model and the lobbying-influence model under a game theory framework is undertaken. Chapter 4 provides a new explanation on the issue of asymmetric lobbying from the view point of the impact of external environment. Since the incentive of the domestic firm to engage in lobbying activities varies with its marginal costs, the outcomes of lobbying performance are different. This argument holds for both complete and incomplete information settings. Chapter 5 considers whether there is a positive role for lobbying activities in an incomplete information setting when the foreign entry is incorporated. The results suggest that the social welfare under the pooling equilibrium is higher than that under the separating equilibrium. As a result, there is no positive role for lobbying activities in this two-period model. Chapter 6 provides a political economy model to explain why trade taxes rather than more efficient income taxes might be adopted and what links the taxation choice and the economic development. In general, people prefers to pay less tax to the government. In a democratic society, a policy, which yields a higher utility to the majority of voters, is supported through majority voting. Therefore, the choice of taxation instruments depends on the tax payments, which are determined by the tax method, the income level, and the movement of income distribution over time.

This PhD thesis uses survey data and involves the application of latent factor structural equation methods to the study of the economics of disability and disability policy in later life, a topic which is currently very high on the policy agenda. It comprises four studies. The first chapter investigates the presence of health-related sample attrition (the drop-out of eligible sample members over time) in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). The second chapter examines whether different indic ators of disability, collected in three widely-used household surveys, are consistent with a common set of findings relating to the targeting of disability benefits. In the third chapter we estimate the additional per sonal costs experienced by disabled older people to achieve the same material standard of living as similar people living without disability. Chapter 4 assesses the presence of socio-economic disparities in birth-cohort trends in later life physical and cognitive disability and in the receipt of non-means-tested cash disability benefits.

O objetivo fundamental deste trabalho é identificar os impactos dos incentivos fiscais federais concedidos pelo Governo brasileiro com a publicação da Lei do Bem, sobre os investimentos privados em P&D. A partir de estudo de campo realizado emgrandes empresas estabelecidas em habitats de inovação, especialmente em PqTgerido por universidade, foi analisado como a Lei do Bem auxilia a disseminação da cultura de inovação e aumenta a competitividade empresarial. Especificamente, o estudo tem o intuito de mostrar a importância da inclusão de forma mais abrangente dos gastos com infraestrutura de P&D, no rol das atividades passíveis de recebimento de incentivos fiscais por empresas localizadas em países notadamente carentes neste aspecto, tal qual o Brasil. Ademais, analisar comparativamente os mecanismos de incentivos fiscais utilizados por outros países com a intenção de propor adequações na estrutura da Lei do Bem que minimizem a sua não utilização em virtude da falta de clareza na sua aplicação e consequente adoção de postura conservadora pelas empresas. A metodologia consistiu de um estudo exploratório e qualitativo e revisão bibliográfica onde foram analisados os conceitos teóricos relacionados à inovação, sistemas nacionais, regionais e setoriais de inovação, hélice tríplice, habitats de inovação e políticas públicas, além da coleta de dados realizada por meio de consulta aos relatórios elaborados por entes governamentais, bem como por entrevistas realizadas junto às empresas que instalaram seus centros de P&D no PqT UFRJ, Consultorias especializadas e à ANPEI. Os resultados doestudoforam obtidos a partir da compilação dos dados destas entrevistas e relatórios. Além de outras conclusões, as informações permitiram afirmar que os incentivos fiscais, especialmente aqueles relacionados à redução do Imposto de Renda da Pessoa Jurídica, são importantes na medida em que permitem às grandes empresas, que já realizam atividades de P,D&I, a destinação de um montante maior a essas atividades. Apesar disso, essa política pública carece de aperfeiçoamento em função de haverrestado claro que a mesma não estimula todas as atividades de inovação, mas apenas aquelas relacionadas à P&D, além de não haver incentivos adequados ao crescimento de infraestrutura para inovação. / The primary goal of this paper is to identify the impacts of the federal tax incentives granted by the Brazilian government with the publication of the Goodwill Law, on private investment in R&D. Beginning withthe field study, conducted in large firms in innovation habitats, especially in a technology park managed by a university, it was analyzed how the GoodwillLaw helps spreading the innovation culture and increases business competitiveness. Specifically, the paper aims to show the importance of including in a more comprehensive way theR&D infrastructure expenses in the list ofeligible activities to receive tax incentives by companies particularly located in countries that lack these incentives, such as Brazil. Furthermore, compare the mechanisms of tax incentives used by other countries intending to propose adjustments in the Goodwill Lawstructure in order to minimize its non-use due tonon-understanding in its implementation and consequent adoption of a conservative posture by companies. The methodology consisted of an exploratory qualitative study and literature review which analyzed the theoretical concepts related toinnovation, national, regional and sectorial innovation systems, triple helix, innovation habitats and public policy concepts, in addition to data collected from government agencies reports, as well as interviews with the companies that set up their R&D centers in Rio de Janeiro Technology Park, specialized consulting firms and ANPEI. The study results were obtained from the compilation of these interviews and reports data. Among other conclusions, the information allowed to assert that tax incentives, especially those related to the reduction of Corporate Income Tax, are important insofar as they allow large companies that already carry out R,D&I activities, to allocate a greater amount on these activities. Nevertheless, this policy needs to be improved since it does not stimulate all innovation activities, but only those related to R&D, besides there are no appropriate incentives to promote the growth of innovationinfrastructure.

O objetivo fundamental deste trabalho é identificar os impactos dos incentivos fiscais federais concedidos pelo Governo brasileiro com a publicação da Lei do Bem, sobre os investimentos privados em P&D. A partir de estudo de campo realizado emgrandes empresas estabelecidas em habitats de inovação, especialmente em PqTgerido por universidade, foi analisado como a Lei do Bem auxilia a disseminação da cultura de inovação e aumenta a competitividade empresarial. Especificamente, o estudo tem o intuito de mostrar a importância da inclusão de forma mais abrangente dos gastos com infraestrutura de P&D, no rol das atividades passíveis de recebimento de incentivos fiscais por empresas localizadas em países notadamente carentes neste aspecto, tal qual o Brasil. Ademais, analisar comparativamente os mecanismos de incentivos fiscais utilizados por outros países com a intenção de propor adequações na estrutura da Lei do Bem que minimizem a sua não utilização em virtude da falta de clareza na sua aplicação e consequente adoção de postura conservadora pelas empresas. A metodologia consistiu de um estudo exploratório e qualitativo e revisão bibliográfica onde foram analisados os conceitos teóricos relacionados à inovação, sistemas nacionais, regionais e setoriais de inovação, hélice tríplice, habitats de inovação e políticas públicas, além da coleta de dados realizada por meio de consulta aos relatórios elaborados por entes governamentais, bem como por entrevistas realizadas junto às empresas que instalaram seus centros de P&D no PqT UFRJ, Consultorias especializadas e à ANPEI. Os resultados doestudoforam obtidos a partir da compilação dos dados destas entrevistas e relatórios. Além de outras conclusões, as informações permitiram afirmar que os incentivos fiscais, especialmente aqueles relacionados à redução do Imposto de Renda da Pessoa Jurídica, são importantes na medida em que permitem às grandes empresas, que já realizam atividades de P,D&I, a destinação de um montante maior a essas atividades. Apesar disso, essa política pública carece de aperfeiçoamento em função de haverrestado claro que a mesma não estimula todas as atividades de inovação, mas apenas aquelas relacionadas à P&D, além de não haver incentivos adequados ao crescimento de infraestrutura para inovação. / The primary goal of this paper is to identify the impacts of the federal tax incentives granted by the Brazilian government with the publication of the Goodwill Law, on private investment in R&D. Beginning withthe field study, conducted in large firms in innovation habitats, especially in a technology park managed by a university, it was analyzed how the GoodwillLaw helps spreading the innovation culture and increases business competitiveness. Specifically, the paper aims to show the importance of including in a more comprehensive way theR&D infrastructure expenses in the list ofeligible activities to receive tax incentives by companies particularly located in countries that lack these incentives, such as Brazil. Furthermore, compare the mechanisms of tax incentives used by other countries intending to propose adjustments in the Goodwill Lawstructure in order to minimize its non-use due tonon-understanding in its implementation and consequent adoption of a conservative posture by companies. The methodology consisted of an exploratory qualitative study and literature review which analyzed the theoretical concepts related toinnovation, national, regional and sectorial innovation systems, triple helix, innovation habitats and public policy concepts, in addition to data collected from government agencies reports, as well as interviews with the companies that set up their R&D centers in Rio de Janeiro Technology Park, specialized consulting firms and ANPEI. The study results were obtained from the compilation of these interviews and reports data. Among other conclusions, the information allowed to assert that tax incentives, especially those related to the reduction of Corporate Income Tax, are important insofar as they allow large companies that already carry out R,D&I activities, to allocate a greater amount on these activities. Nevertheless, this policy needs to be improved since it does not stimulate all innovation activities, but only those related to R&D, besides there are no appropriate incentives to promote the growth of innovationinfrastructure.