In many areas of India and Australia, groundwater has been and is being withdrawn at rates far beyond the recharge capacity of the aquifer. The resulting depletion of groundwater supplies has a number of adverse social, economic and environmental consequences. These consequences and conflicts have led to a debate over the suitable institutional arrangements to manage common pool groundwater resources in a sustainable manner.

The constraints experienced by water utilities in developing countries, with regard to the universal provision of access to water and improved water services, have been defined by international policymakers as "a crisis of governance". This study departs from the theoretical perspectives on governance and aspires to accumulate knowledge and advance understanding on how the performance of water utilities can be enhanced. The thesis comprises five papers and the cover essay. Four of the papers address case studies and one is a theoretically based paper, while all five papers are supported by reviews from the literature relevant to the topic of each paper. The thesis uses insights from literature reviews mapping relevant scientific theories and concepts in the areas of mainly governance, deliberative policymaking and communicative planning, social capital, civil society and institutional theoretical perspectives. The study integrates different research methods and explores theoretical perspectives on governance to examine the governance aspects of water utilities in the transition phase from public to private management and operation. The study investigates whether the  governance structure that involves the private sector in the form of Public Private Partnership (PPP) of water utility has produced "good governance" and enhanced water governance in two cases, the Lema Water Company in Amman, Jordan and the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) in Accra, Ghana. The analysis highlights evidence of governance deficiency. Accordingly, the thesis argues against the policy design that assumes that simply transferring the management and operation of water utility to private operators would resolve the problems of water utilities and enhance water governance. The analyses and the conclusions reached in the papers, together with a review of the literature on New Institutional Economics theory that knits together all the theories that are utilised in the papers, offer insights in the understanding of aspects of water governance. The insights suggest that policymakers need to better understand how institutions at different levels impact the overall performance of a water utility. The performance of the water utility cannot be detached from the wider institutional setting or reduced to simply changing the operator.  What has been disregarded from the calculus of international policymakers, the thesis mainly argues, is the institutional perspective. The study concludes that actors’ performances are affected primarily by their institutional settings. The constraints of water utilities to provide a better performance and good governance processes reside in different kinds of institutional settings To address this, the thesis develops a generic institutional framework within which water governance aspects can be assessed at different institutional levels, from the higher level of politics to that of the individual level. According to this perspective, the study views governance process as "the interaction between actors from the spheres of a society within specific sets of formal and informal institutions in a social setting that produces certain political, economic and social outcomes".  It defines good governance as "the legitimacy given by the wider public to institutions in a social setting and the coherency of formal and informal institutions to produce socially effective outcomes for the collective public". The developed generic institutional framework is used to more thoroughly analyse the two cases integrated in the study. This approach to assessment of water governance provides an explanation for why the water utilities were not able to meet their performance goals and enriches our understanding of water governance processes. It also modestly maps the main problematic institutional areas that in each case constrained aspects of good water governance. In practical terms, this thesis emphasises that policymakers have to map and identify the institutional factors constraining the overall performance of a water utility, at all levels. The thesis also urges policymakers to be cautious regarding which formulated policies are seen as solutions. Policymakers should restrain themselves from experimenting with policy when they are not sure that certain outcomes are likely to be produced by adopting a particular policy. In the long run, inappropriate policies may negatively affect local institutional settings and are likely to undermine the capacity of local governance. / QC20100628

From the implementation of National Health Insurance on March 1, 1995 in Taiwan, the public has obtained it¡¦s benefit, and it¡¦s really a blessing for Taiwanese. Following the implementation of National Health Insurance Policy, the public began having demands for National Pension due to the aging of society from 1993. As a result the authorities including the Ministry of the Interior which is in charge of National Pension, the Council of Agriculture which plans Farmer Pension, and the Council of Labor Affairs which proposes reforming Labor Pension Payment all show their attitude to take charge then positively frame each kind of pension systems. In fact, the coming of National Pension which is a blessing for the public could be the shackles to future generations. Blessing or shackles, it all depends on whether the formation of National Pension is for the public¡¦s benefit or only for the political intention. Is it for the people¡¦s lifetime protection and peaceful old age or only to make good the commitment made during the campaign? Is it a long-term, integral and foresighted consideration about people¡¦s demand or merely a short-term, sectional and realistic payback? With the basis of economic development to measure the long-term burdens and take improving financial affairs as an important condition, or, there is only one-year budget thus the local government have to raise funds and rely on central government subsidies? National Pension and National Health Insurance are both the nation¡¦s social security business, in order to benefit the public and not to recommit the same error of the current insurance systems, the authorities and other related groups should find out people¡¦s true demands and consider whether the people could afford the insurance premium but also take advantage of other countries¡¦ experience as consultation. This article is to probe into the achievement of National Pension implementation in Japan¡Xan orient country which has similar cultural background and family social formations with Taiwan.¡Xand to understand the background, current status, and the achievement of the implementation then take their strong points as an example to us. The Taiwan government planned to carry out National Pension in 2000, which is a significant social welfare policy after the implementation of National Health Insurance; unfortunately it doesn¡¦t come into effect even to this day due to the political rivalries and the substitution of political party. National Pension is a kind of compulsory savings scheme; it¡¦s a kind of insurance program and also a project of wealth redistribution. Furthermore, National Pension can be taken as the rearrangement of economic resources to regulate individual¡¦s wealth and income in the society, the arrangement of pension system would influence the management of whole economic system. The performance of pension has its dual purpose, the positive is to undertake the horizontal integration to have a healthy aged pension system; the passive is to grasp the opportunity to keep political power and electoral factors from causing the allowance or welfare systems become disordered. Lastly, to compare the main difference of pension implementation and the feasibility analysis after performance between Taiwan and Japan. Whether the pension can be put into practice or not depends on if we can achieve the most effective resources allocation of social resources, then we can see the economic benefits of pension system.

This dissertation examines the relationship between women and economics in American Progressive Era through the discussion of selected works by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Kate Chopin, and Edith Wharton. The authors and texts included in the study together demonstrate how women responded to the economic development and the concept of the separate spheres at the-turn-into-the-twentieth-century America. Based on Thorstein Veblen¡¦s socio-psychological theory of the leisure class and the institutional economics and Gilman¡¦s analysis on the sexual-economic relationship in marriage, my discussion aims to investigate the interconnection between human relationships, women¡¦s economic values, and economic exchanges in business, focusing on the methods the three women writers employ to re/present how middle/upper-class women redefine womanhood and construct female subjectivity in an economic system that favors men. In my introductory chapter, I explain the historical background of the period, general concepts in Veblen¡¦s economic theory, and the motivation, methodology, and organization of the dissertation. Chapter Two, ¡§Veblenian Workmanship and Gilman¡¦s Woman-Made Land,¡¨ purports to cross-examine Gilman¡¦s Women and Economics and her utopian fiction Herland, aiming to show Gilman¡¦s optimistic view on women¡¦s emancipation from the private to the public. In Chapter Three, ¡§Barbarian Status of Women and Chopin¡¦s Feminism,¡¨ I discuss by Chopin¡¦s The Awakening the tension between women¡¦s growing sense of an autonomous self and men¡¦s adherence to the institutionalized habits of thought. My fourth chapter, ¡§Conspicuous Consumption and Society Women in Edith Wharton,¡¨ is a study on the relationship between the display culture in the consumer society and woman¡¦s role as the non-productive consumer in Edith Wharton¡¦s The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country. The concluding chapter, along with general comparisons of the heroines, outlines major arguments in the whole thesis.

There are two inter-related themes of this thesis: Economic development and global governance. We develop a perspective of &ndash / what we call &ndash / &lsquo / Institutional International Political Economy&rsquo / (IIPE) in order to: i) assess the likelihood of developmental success on the part of the Third World countries in the twenty-first century, and ii) analyze the developmental and world-systemic implications of the so-called &lsquo / global governance model&rsquo / , which we conceptualize as an ultra-liberal capitalist project on the part of the &lsquo / commanding heights&rsquo / of the contemporary &lsquo / world-economy&rsquo / . Our IIPE-perspective relies on an &lsquo / institutionalist&rsquo / synthesis of the classic works of Karl Polanyi, Joseph Schumpeter and Fernand Braudel. In the light of this perspective, &lsquo / state-led development&rsquo / seems to be inconceivable in the face of &lsquo / governance&rsquo / , which is an attempt to disintegrate the &lsquo / institutional substance&rsquo / of the state-as-we-know-it into &lsquo / market-like processes&rsquo / . Nevertheless, &lsquo / governance&rsquo / is bound to become the victim of its own success insofar as it destroys the indispensable political institutions upon which capitalism has survived as a historical world-system in the past.

The aim of the thesis is to clarify the methodology of the original institutional economics and then to evaluate the current attempts to utilize critical realism as a superior methodology for it. After sketching the historical background of the discussions surrounding methodology of science and 19th century economic methodology, the thesis separately analyses the methodology of institutional economics and critical realist stance in the philosophy of science. A critical discussion of the subject matter reaches to the conclusion that critical realism does not offer a better methodology for institutional economics.

This study is intended to analyze Taiwan economic development from the perspectives of the New Institutional Economics, to introduce institution and institutional transfer into the historical analysis of Taiwan economic development, and to obtain the empirical significance of institution on economic development. Due to the Japanese colonized policy in Taiwan, and the economic theory of principle for the people by Dr. Sun, Yet-Sen after Taiwan Restoration, the analysis of this study in Taiwan economic development will be conducted before and after Taiwan Restoration. This study will focus on the history of economic development before and after Restoration, and the institutional establishment and its change, and will collect relevant data to analyze and evaluate the interrelation between economic development and institution, and comment the effect of institution and its performance. The findings of this study are: 1¡Bthe national theoretical analysis of The New Institutionalism: Before Restoration, the political aspect of institution was more violent than contractual; rather, after restoration, the political and economic aspects of institution has been transferred from violent to contractual . 2¡Bthe theoretical analysis of Property Rights of The New Institutionalism: Before Restoration, the main purpose of defining property rights was to predate land; after Restoration, the main purpose of establishing property rights system was to assure the security of private property rights to facilitate the development of productive activity. 3¡Bthe theoretical analysis of transactional costs of New Instutionalism: Before Restoration, the establishment of modernized institution was aimed at reducing the transactional costs of investing in the colony by Japanese capitalists, and predating more economic achievement from the colony. After Restoration, the establishment of economic institution was aimed at reducing the transactional costs generated by both transactional factors and human factors, and stabilizing the economic development. 4¡Bthe analysis from the perspective of practical aspects of New Institutionalism: Before Restoration a variety of political measures bas been done to assist Japanese capitalists; after Restoration, the endeavor of sustaining the neutrality of agents and promoting effectiveness of enforcement produced the cooperative behavior, subject to contract. 5¡Bthe theoretical analysis of institutional transfer: Before Restoration, the economic institutional change was imposed, while after Restoration it is also imposed initially, but lately 30 years, inductive.

This thesis has two aims; to explore the economic notions of trust to develop a coherent understanding of trust within economics and to apply this understanding to the operation of money and banking. There has been a recent explosion of work about trust within economics but little consensus. This thesis explores this body of work by first developing a framework based on the different perceptions of the work of Adam Smith. The framework argues that the academic discipline of economics can be understood as mirroring the discussions of the work of Adam Smith. The Academic discipline of economics can be seen as comprising of approaches that only consider behaviour as relating to self-interested and those approaches that have adopted a stance that includes both self-interest and social, organic behaviour. The beginning of this thesis explores the notions of trust offered by Behavioural Game Theory and Institutional Economics and argues that the notions of trust developed using the institutional framework offer a richer conceptualisation and are more widely applicable to other areas addressed by economics. This concludes by developing a theory of trust in the institutional tradition based on the work of Simmel and draws a distinction between trust as applied to agency and confidence applied to structure. After drawing a distinction between trust and confidence based on agency and structure, this thesis then uses this theory to address the understanding of the operation of money and then banking. Money, or more specifically the operation of money as influencing behaviour, can be understood as being a complex institution with both agency and structural elements allowing a coherent understanding of money and trust. The same can be said of trust and banking, but a very different model develops as banks are organisations rather than complex institutions. This thesis concludes by considering the current financial crisis and the policy responses using the trust and confidence framework. Trust has been an important concept for money and banking, but without a satisfactory framework for analysis. The contribution of this thesis is to have developed a coherent framework for analysing trust, and applying it to money and banking.

published_or_final_version / Economics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Urban Planning and Environmental Management / Master / Master of Philosophy