This thesis argues that the financial sector played a positive, but limited role in British economic growth from 1850 to 1913. It examines empirically the role played by different types of financial institutions: commercial banks, stock markets and merchant banks. To this end, the thesis uses recently developed time series and dynamic panel methods for the econometric analysis, alongside new data on different parts of the financial system. The results suggest that at a national level, the growth of commercial banks had a limited impact on British economic development over the long run, and stock markets had no impact. However, changes in bank lending influenced economic growth to a significant extent in the short term. Growing conservatism in bank lending practices did not significantly increase credit constraints, as had been previously suspected. Findings from new geographically disaggregated data indicate that the spread of bank offices improved the economic performance of English and Welsh counties. Increased concentration of the banking industry did not hinder economic growth, a result that challenges widespread suggestions in the relevant literature. Moreover, the development of provincial stock exchanges – exchanges outside London - did not influence county-level economic growth, contrary to the view that they were important for the expansion of local industry. Finally, this thesis is the first to assess econometrically the role of merchant banks. It demonstrates that their trade financing activities were beneficial not only for the growth of British international trade, but also for that of the domestic economy.

This thesis makes contributions to provide the microeconomic evidence on the effects of electricity provision and on the feasibility of electricity provision via renewable energy in developing countries. Three selected topics are presented. First, we discuss how the impact of national electricity grid provision affects household welfare and individual labor activities in Vietnam. To overcome the endogeneity problem of infrastructure provision, the slope of the terrain is used as the instrumental variable. We present both first-difference regression and pooled regression results using household survey data and geographic datasets. The effect of electrification on female labor supply is negative, contrary to the evidence suggested in the previous literature. Second, we measure willingness to pay for solar lanterns among the poor rural households in India using the Becker-DeGrook-Marschak method. We conduct field surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of providing a trial period and postponed payment scheme to promote sales. Results show that willingness to pay for the solar product among the consumers is low. Lastly, we report patterns of awareness and interest in solar home systems (SHS) among the poor rural households in India. Results show that willingness to pay for SHS is low, even if the national subsidy is taken into account. Moreover, households that have experience using grid electricity have greater willingness to pay for SHS.

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2002

One of the central pillars of the new developmental agenda of the 1990s is a vibrant and plural civil society. It has been argued that civil society is not only crucial to safeguarding democracy but to extending democratic space. The absence of democratic accountability has often been cited in explaining poor levels of development in Africa. Given the resource weakness within civil society organisations in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa many multilateral and bilateral donors have intervened to support and manufacture civil society. While these interventions have been going on little work has gone into theorising the forms of civil society that would broaden democratic space. Donors have largely intervened to implement civil society building programmes that are to their liking. This research paper reviews recent literature. It evaluates the claims and the practice of donor agencies. The paper also identifies key areas of donor interest, the deployment of funding in pursuance of those interests and how these interests are shaping civil society engagement. The paper argues that the structure of funding is acting to exclude certain organisations that may hold the key to ensuring democratic accountability. It also reviews the emerging literature on the ideological changes that have attended the new developmental agenda of the late 1990s and their links with the civil society building process. / Thesis(M.Dev.Studies)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Economics)) - Rhodes University, 2009.

This qualitative study of networks of entrepreneurs in the mobile technology industry in three ecosystems - Kathmandu, Nairobi and London - examines perceptions and attitudes of entrepreneurs related to their networking activities. The focus is on understanding the entrepreneurs' motivations for, and benefits and risks of networking, as well as the overall trends of development of the three ecosystems, which are very different from each other in terms of socioeconomic circumstances. The findings provide new insights into the link between the concept of a community of supportive peers and the acquisition of subjective resources, such as self-efficacy and legitimacy, while also supporting conclusions of earlier empirical and theoretical work linking networks with the acquisition of resources necessary for founding and building a new firm. A comparison of results across the three ecosystems uncovers a strong tendency towards institutional convergence of the three ecosystems based on a model inspired by the Silicon Valley experience. The mechanisms through which this is found to occur are mimesis and storytelling, motivated primarily by learning goals and the pursuit of legitimacy for entrepreneurial action in the mobile technology industry, as well as for the individual ventures. The overall finding emerging from the cases is that, despite significant differences, the three ecosystems are reliant on a shared pool of relevant information and knowledge, via the Internet and through personal and organizational connections. They resemble one another not only in terms of resources sought by entrepreneurs through their networks, but also in the ways entrepreneurs signal their purpose and value to their community, and in the way the describe their environment - through references to other entrepreneurship ecosystems. In the absence of an existing theoretical approach to analyzing convergence of diverse entrepreneurship ecosystems, the study proposes a framework based on DiMaggio and Powell's theory of institutional isomorphism, and integrating the works of Wiewel and Hunter, on legitimacy-building by association through networks, and Djelic, on the process of cross-national transfer, or export, of economic models. The type of isomorphism perceived is termed "aspirational," since it is found to occur in the context of pursuing a specific outcome previously achieved by the application of a particular institutional model. The difference between "aspirational isomorphism" and behaviours described by DiMaggio and Powell lies in the interpretation and adaptation of a model that can then be embedded in a nascent institutional environment (in this case, an entrepreneurial ecosystem). Rather than pure mimesis, aspirational isomorphism is a flexible and creative endeavor.

The main aim of this Master´s thesis was to process economic development program of Středočeský region in compliance with environmental protection and sustainable devel-opment. The proposed arrangements in Středočeský region spring from various views. Attention was paid mainly to economic characteristic of given region in relation to spe-cific nature conditions. Furthermore the program is based on social and environmental development characteristics. Stress is put on processing of sustainable development principles including optimization, use and support of renewable sources of energy.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-11T13:53:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO KATIA MARIA.pdf: 793030 bytes, checksum: 919d0e6a42496ed0217aba51d601f90f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-12 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work do an analyse of the implications of the increasement populous incorrelation between education, numbers of children and amount of a rent in Amazon state, delimiting a research at one universe of little mothers of thirty years old of sons that had wasborn live in 2000. A methodology used was based in research biography and in view of collected in sensus demography of 2000. Publicaded by the Institute Brazian of Geograph and Estatistic. IBGE. With this analyse the increasement populous, in the tauch to the size of the family in this universe of mothers, and their implicating for the education and per capita income, where show that Amazon state go along with, tendency Brazilian with the fall of the ritme in Amazon don`t occur of form uniform, having in sight a parcel of their population above all the group of motheres pertains the class few schoolings and of revenue under resident, mainly in part of the interior and in the areas rurals of the states, still prevailed families numerous in 2000. In interior, 14% of these five sons. In the context, was contexted the stronger influence of the education in the maner of the women how much of have sons, but in Amazon there was a percentage very tail of mothers with more of five sons between a grupo of women of schoolings extremily under. Showalso, of accord with the datum verifield in the pass a way of the research, that how much big the level of schoolings few are the opportunities of the people have better revenue and obtain a better level of live, showing that education is a factor for the promotion of the development economic. Conclued, therefore e, that education and rent are negativament correlacioned with the level of increasement populous evidencing the tact of that the reduction of the size of the families reflect positively in situation partner-economic of the population. / Este trabalho faz uma análise das implicações do crescimento populacional, na correlação entre educação, número de filhos e renda per capita no Estado do Amazonas, delimitando a pesquisa num universo de mães menores de 30 anos de filhos tidos nascidos vivos em 2000. A metodologia utilizada foi baseada em pesquisa bibliográfica e nos dados coletados no Censo Demográfico de 2000, publicados pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - IBGE. Com isso, analisa o crescimento populacional, no tocante ao tamanho da família, nesse universo de mães, e suas implicações para a educação e renda per capita, onde mostra que o Estado do Amazonas acompanhou a tendência brasileira com a queda das taxas de fecundidade em razão do processo de transição demográfica, iniciada na década de 1940. Mostrou também que a queda do ritmo de crescimento populacional no Amazonas não ocorreu de forma homogênea, tendo em vista uma parcela de sua população, sobretudo o grupo de mães pertencentes às classes menos escolarizadas e de rendimentos baixos, residente, principalmente, em parte do interior e nas áreas rurais do Estado, ainda prevalecia famílias numerosas em 2000. No interior, 14% dessas mães tinham 1 filho e 34% mais de 5 filhos. Nesse contexto, foi constatada a forte influência da educação no comportamento das mulheres quanto à decisão de ter filhos, pois no Amazonas existia um percentual muito elevado de mães com mais de 5 filhos entre o grupo de mulheres de escolaridade extremamente baixa. Mostra também, de acordo com os dados verificados no decorrer da pesquisa, que quanto maior o nível de escolaridade, maiores são as chances das pessoas obterem melhores rendimentos e, por conseguinte, um melhor padrão de vida, mostrando que a educação é um fator condicionante para a promoção do desenvolvimento econômico. Conclui, portanto, que educação e renda estão negativamente correlacionadas com o nível de crescimento populacional evidenciando o fato de que a redução do tamanho das famílias reflete, positivamente, na situação sócio-econômica da população. Palavras-chave: Crescimento Populacional, Educação, Renda per capita, Desenvolvimento Econômico.

O investimento e a poupança são pilares do desenvolvimento de um país, por meio deles que o país consegue gerar empregos e melhorar a renda da população. O sistema financeiro é relevante para o desenvolvimento e crescimento econômico de um país, pois possibilita a alocação de recursos de poupadores e investidores. O mercado de capitais, em especial o de ações, tem papel relevante na ascensão do investimento e da poupança. Com o intuito de tornar o mercado de ações acessível às pequenas e médias empresas, como opção de financiar seus projetos de expansão, os dirigentes da bolsa de valores brasileira desenvolveram um segmento especial de listagem denominado BOVESPA MAIS. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar os resultados obtidos pelo programa BOVESPA MAIS, no período de fevereiro de 2008 até junho de 2014. A pesquisa apresentada é exploratória, descritiva, bibliográfica e documental. Os dados utilizados foram obtidos em fontes de acesso público. A análise dos dados é dividida em duas partes. A primeira se refere aos números globais do programa BOVESPA MAIS. Na sequência, é apresentada uma análise dos indicadores econômicos-financeiros das três empresas do segmento BOVESPA MAIS que abriram o capital no período analisado. O estudo faz uma comparação dos preços das ações ordinárias das companhias BIOMM, NUTRIPLANT e SENIOR SOLUTION e da pontuação do índice Bovespa, considerando os valores diários de abertura, fechamento, máximo e mínimo. Os resultados obtidos apontam que as ações ordinárias das companhias, em nenhum momento do período analisado, tiveram um desempenho superior ao índice Bovespa. Outro aspecto relevante observado é que para inserir a pequena e média empresa no mercado de capitais há muitos entraves como: dificuldades na gestão da empresa, burocracia das entidades de mercado, exigências regulatórias e preocupação com o custo de todo o processo de pré e pós IPO. / Investment and savings are pillars of development of a country, through them that the country can create jobs and improve the populations income. The financial system is relevant to the development and economic growth of a country because it enables the allocation of resources savers and investors. The capital market, especially the stock, plays an important role in the rise of investment and savings. In order to make the stock market accessible to small businesses as an option to finance its expansion projects, the Brasil stock exchange leaders developed a special listing segment called BOVESPA MAIS. This study aims to analyze the results of the BOVESPA MAIS program in February 2008 period to June 2014. The presented research is exploratory, descriptive literature and documents. The data used were obtained from published sources. Data analysis is divided into two parts. The first refers to the global BOVESPA MAIS program numbers. Following is presented an analysis of economic and financial indicators of the three BOVESPA MAIS segment of companies that went public during the period. The study is a comparison of the prices of the common shares of BIOMM companies, and Nutriplant SENIOR SOLUTION and the Bovespa index score, considering the daily values of opening, closing, high and low. The results suggest that the common shares of companies at any time during the period analyzed, outperformed the Bovespa index. Another relevant aspect observed is that to enter the small and medium enterprises in the capital market there are many barriers as difficulties in running the company, bureaucracy of market entities, regulatory requirements and concern for the cost of the whole process of pre and post IPO.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Political Science, August, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.