The goal of this dissertation is to explore the effects of large agricultural investments on food systems change around Nanyuki, Kenya and in the Nacala corridor, Mozambique. Specifically, the effects of these investments on land, the food supply chains, food environments, and food consumption were studied. In Africa, food systems already change against a backdrop of global food system pressures, such as the inroads of supermarkets, and local drivers, such as demographic and economic changes. The large agricultural investments likely intersect with these changes, but if the investments amplify them, and to what degree, is less known. Methodologically, a postpositivist mixed-methods approach was used for an instrumental case study design with study areas in Kenya and Mozambique. Multiple data collection techniques were used, including (un)structured interviews and a household survey, and data were analysed through inductive thematic analysis and between-groups analysis. The results show myriad effects of the investments to food systems, including to land, self-production, agricultural engagement, food distribution and food environments. Overall, the investments linked with more modern food systems that were characterised by lower self-production and higher diet diversity. This change occurred through ‘hybrid modernity’ rather than linear modernity as certain traditional dynamics strengthen alongside modernisation processes. In the end, more inclusive food governance arrangements, such as food sovereignty, can counteract some of the adverse effects of large agricultural investments. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Political Sciences / PhD / Unrestricted

My research aims to compare the housing and credit bubbles between China and the US by comparing real estate bubbles of Florida and Hainan. It took the US government 4 years to overcome 2008 financial crisis. Now China has entered the era of stock housing. In the early of 2016, China had 8.4 billion sq.ft stocking housing 1. If the crisis is inevitable, how and where will it happen? What's more, I want to find out the role of financial innovations in securitization along with the incompleteness of real estate markets in the global financial crisis. Were "innovations" in securitization a common cause of the crisis of what was a global cycle? My paper will help readers to further understand the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, as well as China's current problems faced by the real estate bubble. By comparison, I hope that the United States before the problems faced by the U.S. government and the solution can be used for reference to the Chinese government and related companies in order to face the possible real est e bubble crisis. Still, China's property market looks relatively sane when compared to the peak of the Japanese residential property bubble in 1990 and Hong Kong's current property market. During this period of Japan's housing value-to-GDP ratio peaked at just under four and today Hong Kong's ratio stands at around five. As we can see, the housing and credit bubble in China is so huge now that China has never been before. As Wang Jianlin, the leader of the biggest real estate company in China, saying, "The Housing bubble in China is the biggest in history." / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

The Republic of Turkey has seen a rise in its gross domestic products (GDP), a fall in the share of agriculture percentage of GDP and a contributive role of politically connected development plans that introduce agricultural policies and trade as regional trade agreements (RTAs). It is necessary to gauge the contribution of policy and trade changes to the performance of the Turkish agriculture sector. The primary objective of this thesis is to estimate the performance of the Turkish agriculture sector between 1961 and 2016 using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The secondary objective is to evaluate the impact of politically connected development plans that introduce agricultural policies and trade as regional trade agreements (RTAs) on the performance of Turkish agriculture production. As one of the results, the performance of Turkish agriculture production shows decreases in the following a rise in the number of the regional trade agreements.

In 2011 author Robert Neuwirth identified the global informal sector economy as having a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that is equivalent to the second largest economy in the world behind the United States of America (USA).Studies have shown that the informal sector economy is prevalent in Africa and India which are both considered to be emerging market economies with potential for exponential growth. The GDP of a country is calculated using a total of a countries production of goods and services; however production in the informal sector economy is unaccounted for. The inclusion of their production could potentially boost the economic growth of these emerging market economies.This study aims to observe whether the informal sector economy should be formalized or left as it is in its current state. Despite the ‘problem statement’ in the previous paragraph, which appears to be in favour of formalization, there are advantages and disadvantages for both formalizing the informal sector economy and leaving it in its current state.The objective of this study is to come up with a sustainable strategy of how to manage and administer the informal sector economy as in its current state it is proving to be unsustainable.A two phased approach was used to produce the findings which included interviews with experts and interviews with entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector economy.These findings provided suitable recommendations to be made as to how to manage and administer the informal sector economy. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Includes bibliographical references / A large amount of people in South Africa earn their living from recycling waste on landfills or the streets in cities across the country. Much is written about those operating on landfills, although a few studies focus on those operating on the streets. The latter studies largely focus on the socio-economic conditions and collective organising capacity of these informal sector workers, and their relationships with other actors. Although, these studies provide a useful resource for understanding the nature of their work and the contexts in which it emerges, very little is known about how their work is regulated. With this in mind, this thesis asks the following research question; how are informal activities regulated in the city? Drawing on the idea of non-humans as actors (in Actor Network Theory terms) this thesis argues that informal activities are regulated by hybrid modes of regulation that include human/non-human and formal and informal assemblages. The research was conducted between 2008 and 2014. It made use of qualitative methodologies and approaches, i.e. semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and documentary analysis, as methods of data collection. The findings of the research reveal that informal activities are regulated in the followings ways. Firstly, it shows that objects such as trolleys, carthorses, bakkies and storage facilities are regulators that actively enabled or constrained informal waste activities. Secondly, the findings suggest that these nonhumans play an active role in organising the spaces where informal waste activities are carried out. Finally, the findings show that these nonhumans also play an active role in how informal waste collectors build alliances through assembling hybrid collectives of humans and non-humans in order to mobilise resources. The main finding in this study is that regulation in the urban informal economy is constituted by human/non-human and formal/informal assemblages. Including the non-human in the analysis of regulation in the urban informal economy is important because it contributes to a better understanding of regulation in the urban informal economy. It does so by highlighting that regulation in the urban informal economy is not only based on human social relations consisting of rules, norms, and institutions but is constitutive of assemblages that involve all actors (both human and non-humans).

The conditionality agreements of the International Monetary Fund have received a significant amount of criticism from the 1980s and 1990s and into the 2000s.  Critics have found little reassurance from the IMF\'s attempts to reform conditionality after 2000.  The 1980s marked a time where conditionality on IMF loans required structural adjustment and the imposition of austere fiscal measures.  The streamlining initiative in 2000 possessed only slight quantitative modification to lending conditionality.  However, recent changes in the Fund\'s lending policy occuring between 2007 and 2012 may finally display the institution\'s ability to listen, learn, and adapt policy toward a conditionality regime utilizing policy outside of the neoliberal framework.  This thesis examines these new policies and their implications for neoliberalism where the term represents an approach to economic growth that demands privatization, deregulation, and  weakening the role of the public sector.  It provides a history of conditionality reforms and positions the most recent reforms in lending policy in the evolving neoliberal context. / Master of Arts

Substantivism helps us appreciate two views on the meaning of the economy: the institutional view and the neoclassical view. This study analyzes the behaviors of producers and consumers in the supermarket industry and finds that the neoclassical school lacks a realistic behavioral theory. We observe that institutional behavioral theory is closer to reality because it recognizes that consumers are affected by their social environment through habit and emulation, and producers are survival maximizers. These social obstacles prevent humans from acting like homoeconomicus. We focus only on the supermarket industry, but this conclusion can be applied to all industries. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Stringent government mandates for the fuel economy and emissions of light-duty consumer vehicles have forced manufacturers to focus on improvements in these areas. Increased consumer pressure has also shifted the automobile market towards higher efficiency vehicles. This study investigates the use of intelligent engine peripheral control to improve fuel efficiency and reduce vehicle emissions. The conventional automotive alternator control strategy contributes to higher overall vehicle losses and increased fuel consumption through indiscriminate loading of the engine. The improved method focuses on the selective reduction of engine loading and the recapture of vehicle energy during braking using intelligent control of the alternator system. The concept was demonstrated on the Mississippi State University Challenge X hybrid vehicle. The fuel economy and NOx emissions of the vehicle were improved by 6.6% and 10.5% respectively over the drive cycle developed by the 2006 Mississippi State University Challenge X team to evaluate emissions.

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Recent increases in inflation rates make it essential that inflation be considered and properly treated in engineering economic studies. This research report presents a survey to determine how practitioners of engineering economics are accounting for inflation in their studies. After looking at inflation in general, and defining it, this report identifies the major existing techniques of handling inflation. It then discusses each in terms of advantages and disadvantage in evaluating investment projects. Finally, the report recommends an appropriate technique, and presents a computer program which calculates the present worth based on this technique which permits the user to analyze the effects of inflation over a range of values.