Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

This thesis examines the impact of illegal U.S. arms transfers upon recipient nations' war fighting capabilities and upon the American national security. Data were gathered primarily from U.S. District Court records and interviews with U.S. governmental officials from intelligence services and the Departments of Commerce, Justice and State. An investigation of the illicit arms transfers to Iran formed the basis of conclusions reached. Additionally, policy recommendations are provided to enhance the governmental detection and investigation of illegal export violations. The viability of utilizing court documents as intelligence tools for measuring military capabilities is assessed.

This thesis investigates the impact of domestic transport costs and location on exports originating from exporting regions within a developing country. It is presented in the form of three articles, each addressing a different aspect. These articles are accompanied by a literature review of the background and impact of domestic transport costs on trade. The first article provides empirical evidence for the significance of domestic transport costs in exports and the spatial location of manufacturing exporters. Cubic-spline density functions are used and the results indicate (a) the proximity to a port is an important consideration in most export-oriented manufacturing firms' location, with more than 70% of manufactured exports in South Africa originating from a band of 100 km from an export hub; and (b) there appears to be a second band of these firms at a distance of between 200 and 400 km from the hub. Between 1996 and 2004, manufactured exports in the band between 200 km and 400 km from the nearest hub increased, suggesting either an increase in manufactured exports that depend on natural resources due to demand factors, and/or a decrease in domestic transport costs, amongst others. The second article investigates the question of the location of exporters of manufactured goods within a country. Based on insights from new trade theory, the new economic geography (NEG) and gravity-equation modelling, an empirical model is specified with agglomeration and increasing returns (the home-market effect) and transport costs (proxied by distance) as major determinants of the location decision of exporters. Data from 354 magisterial districts in South Africa are used with a variety of estimators (OLS, Tobit, RE-Tobit) and allowances for data shortcomings (bootstrapped standard errors and analytical weights) to identify the determinants of regional manufactured exports. It is found that the home-market effect (measured by the size of local GDP) and distance (measured as the distance in km to the nearest port) are significant determinants of regional manufactured exports. This article contributes to the literature by using developing country data, and by adding to the small literature on this topic. This article complements the work of Nicolini (2003) on the determinants of exports from European regions and finds that the home-market effect is relatively more important in the developing country context (South Africa), a finding consistent with theoretical NEG models such as those of Puga (1998). The third article is an empirical study of the relationship between export diversity and economic growth in a developing country context. Using export data from19 sectors within 354 sub-national (magisterial) districts of South -Africa, various measures of subnational export diversity are constructed. It is found that it is not only important how much is exported, but that it is also important what it is that is exported. Regions with less specialisation and more diversified exports generally experienced higher economic growth rates, and contributed more to overall exports from South Africa. It is also found that distance (and thus domestic transport costs) from a port is inversely related to the degree of export diversity. Estimating a cubic-spline density function for the Herfindahl index measure of export diversity, it is found that export diversity declines as the distance from a port (export hub) increases. Most magisterial districts with high export diversity values are located within 100 km of the nearest port. Furthermore, comparing the cubic-spline density functions for 1004 with those of 1996 shows that distance (domestic transport costs) has become more important since 1996 (under greater openness) with magisterial districts located further than 100 km from the ports being less diverse in 2003 than in 1996. One may speculate that a possible explanation for this changing pattern of export diversity may be the impact of greater foreign direct investment (FDI) in South Africa since 1996. / Thesis (Ph.D. (International Commerce))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

The purpose of this study is to construct a macroeconometric model for the Saudi Arabian economy in order to assess the effects of external shocks through such variables as the price of (oil) exports, real (oil) exports, and the price of imports. This model follows the methodology of the aggregate demand and supply. Due to the absence of interest rates, the formulation of the aggregate demand, following the monetary approach to the income determination, is done by combining the equations from the monetary sector in addition to the government and foreign sectors of the economy. The aggregate supply side of the economy is formulated by combining the equations from the oil and non-oil production sectors. The model determines the behaviours of such important endogenous variables as the real absorptive capacity, real oil and non-oil GDP, real imports, velocity of money, money supply, balance of payments, government oil and non-oil revenues, government expenditure, government deficit, and non-oil GDP and general price inflation rates. The estimated model satisfactorily simulates the reality of the economy for the estimation period of 1971-1994. This, therefore, justifies the use of the model for both multiplier and scenario analyses. The multiplier analysis evaluates the cffects of a 10% change in the price of (oil) exports, real (oil) exports, and the price of imports on the endogenous variables. The scenario analysis, however, examines the behaviours of the endogenous variables for 1999-2005 based on several scenarios on the price of (oil) exports, real (oil) exports, and the price of imports. Concentrating on three sets of scenarios corresponding to low, moderate, and high level of oil prices, our study concludes that a sound economy into the next century requires more aggressive privatisation policies. That is, the government policies should drastically limit the government expenditure and, instead, encourage the private sector to invest and participate more aggressively in the economic development projects.

Thesis (D.B.A.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Mémoire (M.P.M.O.)--Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1997. / Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Giessen, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 206-219).

Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): Richard B. Doyle, Ira A. Lewis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-112). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1992. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.