No description available.

This thesis consists of three chapters. In the first two chapters I study the optimal design of communication hierarchies between an uninformed decision maker and privately informed experts who have different preferences over decision maker's action. The motivation for the model described in the first two chapters comes from the fact that in organizations, a central problem is that much of the information relevant for decision making is dispersed among employees who are biased and may lack the incentives to communicate their information to the management. This paper studies how a manager can elicit employees' information by designing a hierarchical communication network. The manager decides who communicates with whom, and in which order, where communication takes the form of cheap talk (Crawford and Sobel, 1982). I show that the optimal network is shaped by two competing forces: an intermediation force that calls for grouping employees together and an uncertainty force that favours separating them. The manager optimally divides employees into groups of similar bias. Under simple conditions, the optimal network features a single intermediary who communicates directly to the manager. Third chapter is work in progress. Here, I study a situation in which a DM can commit to both communication networks and to the delegation of decision rights but not to transfers or arbitrary decision rules based on received information. I show a novel trade-off between centralization and decentralization with two experts and a decision maker, when experts receive noisy and complementary evidence. There is a single decision to be made, the decision maker can allocate the decision right to any of the experts, and can commit to communication channels betwent the players. I study conditions under which delegation combined with decentralized communication outperforms centralization. This happens because delegation encourages information sharing between the experts. Two conditions have to be satisfied in order for a decision maker to benefit from decentralization. First, the expert who decides over policy has to be not too biased towards the decision maker. Second, he should have a smaller distance to the bias of the other expert compared to the DM. In this case, the other expert is willing to reveal more information to the first expert compared to the centralized case.

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a process that focuses on counteracting organizational risk, disasters and crises. Placing Business Continuity Management in the context of Strategic Planning (SP) will help organizations to cope with a wide range of unexpected incidents before, during and after their occurrence. Subsequently, this will help to ensure the long-term survival of an organization. The aim of this research is to develop an understanding of the significance of placing BCM in the context of SP. This requires studying BCM, its significance, role and practice; Strategic Planning, its significance, purpose and potential vulnerability; the rationale for placing BCM in the context of SP; the factors that are likely to influence placing BCM in the context of SP including driving factors and obstacles; and managers’ views of BCM and the placing of BCM in the context of SP. This research was undertaken in the Jordanian context. Data was collected via interviewer-administered questionnaires which were conducted with general managers and other key managers from Jordanian organizations from the banking, insurance, industrial and services sectors. 110 questionnaires were collected. The questionnaires were followed by 10 semi-structured interviews in order to support the quantitative findings obtained by the questionnaires. The research findings revealed that 80.9% of the surveyed organizations in Jordan used BCM. Those organizations that used BCM differed to some extent in their practice of BCM. 51.8% of the surveyed organizations had BCM placed in the context of SP. SP was important for achieving organizational purposes including those related to BCM. The approach to BCM, which is adopted in Jordanian organizations, helped to place BCM in the context of SP. There were a number of factors that discouraged some Jordanian organizations from placing BCM in the context of SP. However, there were also a number of factors that encouraged some other Jordanian organizations to place BCM in the context of SP. Managers had positive views regarding BCM. They either agreed or strongly agreed that BCM can be integrated with SP; BCM would help their organizations to cope with various types of disasters and crises if it is integrated with SP; BCM was an integral part of their organizations’ approach to risk; and BCM was not an extra burden to their businesses.

Lack of knowledge of the effective use of measurement diversity-based systems, especially in developing countries (e.g. Libya), was the core rationale and motivation for this research. Therefore, the key focus of this study is the investigation of the effectiveness of a performance measurement alignment approach which claims that multiple performance measures (MPMs) should be aligned with environmental and organisational contingencies (i.e. business strategy, environmental uncertainty, market competition, decentralisation, formalisation, information technology, company size), in order to improve organisational performance (OP). To capture these relationships in sufficient depth, the theoretical framework of this research was developed based on contingency theory and a wide review of the relevant literature. This framework adopts both selection and mediation-based interaction approaches to contingency fit in order to investigate these contingency relationships. The current study aims to provide an empirical investigation of the effectiveness of MPMs in light of the contingency perspective in a Libyan context. The results of this study were based on cross-sectional questionnaire survey data from 132 Libyan companies (response rate of 61%) and data from face-to-face interviews with financial managers in 10 companies. The research used descriptive statistics, regression analysis, mediation regression analysis via Preacher & Hayes’ (2004) macro, and content analysis. The descriptive analysis indicated that MPMs are commonly used by many Libyan companies, whether manufacturing or non-manufacturing. However, these companies still rely heavily on financial performance measures. The statistical findings revealed that the relationship between FPMs and OP was positive but not significant, whilst relationships between NFPMs and OP, and MPMs and OP were positive and highly significant. They found that, except for “formalisation and market competition”, the remaining contextual factors studied have a significant positive impact on the extent of MPMs usage. The results also reported that MPMs have a core mediating/intervening role in most relationships between the identified contingencies and performance (except for formalisation, market competition and company size). By contrast, the interview-based qualitative results were consistent with most questionnaire-based quantitative results, and they also suggested other reasons for using or non-using MPMs. Overall, both qualitative and quantitative findings are mostly in line with the logic and importance of the context-structure fit, which is regarded as the central proposition of contingency theory. This implies that those contingency factors (e.g. strategy, PEU) are considered as important antecedents of MPMs’ usage, and MPMs’ information is considered as an important antecedent of organisational performance. This thesis introduces a better understanding and explanation of how to use MPMs effectively. It also contributes to the current body of knowledge by providing empirical evidence from an emerging context (i.e. Libya) to support the central proposition of contingency theory claiming that, in this case, enhanced organisational performance requires alignment of the structure with the context. The research concludes that Libyan companies should pay greater attention to environmental and organisational characteristics when adopting and designing measurement diversity-based systems.

This dissertation consists of three essays focussing on various theoretical extensions and empirical implementations of a model characterizing the dynamic input demand behavior of the firm. The analysis is based on recent developments on optimal investment decisions over time subject to increasing marginal costs of adjustment. Theoretical extensions to the model include the incorporation of (i) monopoly behavior based on profit maximization with both internal and external costs of adjustment on gross investment (Essay 1) and (ii) non-static output and price expectations (Essay 2). Both theoretical models are empirically implemented using annual U.S. manufacturing data, 1948-77. Results from the various specifications can therefore be analyzed and contrasted. Essay 3 consists of an application of the alternative models to measures of capacity utilization specified in terms of the explicit dynamic optimization model of the firm's behavior. Various derivations and interpretations of these measures for alternative theoretical specifications are developed and compared, both analytically and empirically. The three essays are linked by a common structural model which provides a basis for incorporation of different behavioral assumptions, and for examination and comparison of the various models in terms of demand elasticities, cyclical indicators such as multifactor productivity and Tobin's "q", and capacity utilization. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

The chapters in this thesis are each concerned with problems of coordination. The coordination issues examined here each arise in distinct situations and imply the need for a different modeling approach in each case. The first case, Chapter 2, considers gender discrimination in contemporary, competitive labour markets. It is sh9wn there that such discrimination can arise as an outcome of maximizing activities on the part of firms facing the problem of worker motivation in the light of imperfect monitorability. This is shown to lead to firms’ hiring practices (in particular discrimination) depending on the practices of other firms and consequently to labour market equilibria of discrimination and of non discrimination. It is shown that a policy of affirmative action can be useful in moving the labour market away from the discrimination equilibrium. The next chapter, Chapter 3, considers an avenue by which the structure of industries in an economy can affect the development of new technologies through its general equilibrium impact on profits relative to wages. It shows that a monopolistic structure in one industry, by increasing the share of profits in aggregate income, tends to increase the relative profitability of innovative activities elsewhere thereby leading to the creation of further monopoly rents which, in turn, feeds back into incentives for innovation thus causing a self-perpetuating cycle. This leads to the possibility of an economy exhibiting multiple steady states including a “Poverty trap” or situation of zero growth. The conditions under which multiple steady states exist are analyzed and the economy’s behaviour out of the steady state is also characterized. The role of government intervention, in the form of subsidies, direct provision of research and patent protection is also examined. Finally it is shown that the model can also explain the existence of clustering of innovations and consequent sporadic growth. The final substantive chapter, Chapter 4, centres on problems of investment coordination in the context of LDCs. These arise when the fall in the price of one good raises the demand for complementary goods, thereby implying that investment decisions leading to such price falls may not be privately undertaken whereas, when coordinated across sectors, such investments could be profitable. This chapter shows that the existence of multiple equilibria hinges upon the more restrictive Definition of complementarity between goods, namely, the Hicks definition. As a result, gross complementarity between goods (on its own), even though causing horizontal externalities, can not lead to the existence of multiple equilibria. A later section looks at gross complements in the presence of knowledge spillovers and shows, in contrast, that this can lead to multiple equilibria and coordination problems. The chapter also examines the social optimality of coordination in the Hicks complements case, showing that it is not always implied by the multiplicity of equilbria. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

This thesis is intended to assess the contribution of British direct investment to the economic development of Nigeria between 1955 and 1972. Chapter One establishes the background to the study by considering the main features of the Nigerian economy, the determinants of economic development and the natural inducements for foreign investments in Nigeria. In Chapter Two, the level and the sectoral distribution of British investment in Nigeria are discussed. It is found that Britain accounted for over half of the total foreign investment in Nigeria during the period, and that over two-thirds of British direct investment was concentrated in the petroleum industry. Chapter Three discusses the significance of British direct investment in the agricultural sector. It is shown that the level of direct investment in the sector was very low because of the prohibitive policy of the British Colonial Government with regard to foreign ownership of land in Nigeria and, later, because the repressive pricing policy of the Nigerian Marketing Boards discouraged British investors. The most important feature of British direct investment in Nigerian agriculture during the period was the indirect nature of its contribution, which proved particularly significant in tobacco growing. Chapter Four discusses the manufacturing industry, whose development and growth received the greatest priority in the Government's policies during the period. Perhaps the most important feature of British direct investment in the manufacturing sector was the concentration of the largest proportion on consumer non-durable goods with little associated linkage effects. Chapter Five discusses the petroleum industry. Apart from being the industry with the most rapid growth-rate in Nigeria, it was also the most important absorber of foreign capital during the period. British direct investment dominated the industry and British oil investors performed the Schumpeterian entrepreneurial function of pioneering the industry. It is argued that the low price paid for Nigerian crude oil before 1970 was due to the ignorance of Nigerians about the complexities of the oil industry and the economic power of the oil companies which enhanced their bargaining power. It is also shown that British direct investment in the petroleum industry was of particular importance in its contribution to the Nigerian balance of payments. Chapter Six discusses the role of British direct investment as a vehicle for the, transfer of technology and managerial skills to Nigeria. In Chapter Seven, all the major obstacles to British investment are discussed. In Chapter Eight, the main conclusions regarding the benefits, limitations of investments and the importance of the Nigerian Government's policies are indicated.

This dissertation consists of three independent essays, all of which are empirical treatments of different determinants of economic growth. The first essay, which is in Chapter 2, evaluates the role economic freedom plays in mediating the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on growth. It tests whether countries with sufficiently high level of economic freedom can exploit FDI more efficiently. It uses cross-country observations from 84 countries for the 1976-2005 period. It applies a threshold regression which is flexible enough to accommodate the possibility that the impact of FDI on growth ‘kicks in’ only when the level of economic freedom exceeds some unknown threshold. The results show that FDI has no direct (linear) effect on output growth. Instead, its impact is conditional on the level of economic freedom in the host countries. Only countries whose level of economic freedom has exceeded the threshold level of economic freedom benefited from FDI inflows. In countries below the threshold level, FDI deliver no beneficial effects. The findings are robust to several sensitivity checks and consideration of endogeneity. The second essay (Chapter 3) tests the channels and magnitude of R&D spillovers from developed countries to East Asian countries (China, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand). It examines three possible spillover channels - imports, inward FDI, and outward FDI - using panel data for the period 1984-2005. It uses a novel panel estimator which allows for cross-sectional dependence and provides country-specific estimates of R&D effects. There are several important conclusions emerge. First, both domestic and foreign R&D are important for productivity improvements. Second, imports are the most important channel of spillovers while spillover effects via FDI in uncertain. Third, there is some evidence that domestic R&D helps to increase the incidence of R&D spillovers, especially via import channel. Fourth, the U.S. is a relatively stronger provider of spillovers than Japan. Chapter 4, which is the final essay, examines the impact of insurance sector development on output growth, capital accumulation and productivity improvement. It uses panel data from 52 countries for the period 1981-2005, and applies a recent generalizedmethod- of moments (GMM) dynamic panel estimator. The results show that the development of insurance sector is important for long-run output growth, capital accumulation and productivity growth. For developing countries, insurance affects growth predominantly through capital accumulation while in developed countries it enhances productivity growth. The findings are robust to biases introduced by unobserved countryspecific effects, simultaneity, weak or numerous instruments. It remains valid even after controlling for bank and stock market developments.

This thesis offers an analysis on factor models and related topics such as forecasting, the choice of the number of factors, model selection and structural breaks

This dissertation examines the role of humanism in classical, neoclassical, and Marxian theories of value. Previous studies by Althusser, Foucault, Cutler et al., Amariglio, and Callari have identified pre-analytic visions or philosophies of Man within each of these theories. This dissertation strengthens and extends these prior claims through a systematic, comparative examination of these three theories and the variable forms, degrees, and consequences of their respective humanisms. Humanism is found to inform each theory in several ways: (1) shaping theorists' basic conceptions of economic value and the market mechanism; (2) enabling theorists to efface their very deployment of humanism by allowing their adopted visions of Man to be cast as objective truths of "human nature" rather than as products of their own, subjective philosophical commitments; (3) enabling theorists of each school to pose their particular theory of markets as universal, i.e., as the general theory of market price determination and market-based economic order; and (4) helping to (re)produce the Cold War folklore of markets--generic, stereotypical images of "the market" as either the savior of economic man (Smith, Ricardo, Walras) or his nemesis (Marx), either way allowing theorists to proclaim the essential compatibility or incompatibility of "the market" with "human nature." In addition, this dissertation reexamines Marx's value theory in Capital, Volume One and finds it to contain important departures from this modern-humanist approach. Marx's arguments are shown to include not only the humanism of the traditional "labor theory of value," but also a pointed and far-reaching critique of this humanism. These two strands are shown to be indissociably linked in Marx's arguments: (1) the modern/humanist strand exemplified by his vision of Man as a social-laboring creature and his concept of value as a self-regulative, "natural law" phenomenon; and (2) the postmodern/anti-humanist strand displayed in his pointed efforts to denaturalize value, to theorize it not as a natural expression of Man the homo faber but as a fully social construct, the "overdetermined" effect of particular economic, political, and cultural processes. Marx's value theory is thus argued to be both modern and postmodern and as such to both exploit and radically challenge the grand, liberatory pretenses of modern economic discourse.