Submitted by Maria de Lourdes Mariano (lmariano@ufscar.br) on 2017-01-05T14:19:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 RODRIGUES_Elizeu_2015.pdf: 45148626 bytes, checksum: c2601f6494ea32696c5123573351bd95 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria de Lourdes Mariano (lmariano@ufscar.br) on 2017-01-05T14:19:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 RODRIGUES_Elizeu_2015.pdf: 45148626 bytes, checksum: c2601f6494ea32696c5123573351bd95 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria de Lourdes Mariano (lmariano@ufscar.br) on 2017-01-05T14:19:41Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 RODRIGUES_Elizeu_2015.pdf: 45148626 bytes, checksum: c2601f6494ea32696c5123573351bd95 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-05T14:19:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RODRIGUES_Elizeu_2015.pdf: 45148626 bytes, checksum: c2601f6494ea32696c5123573351bd95 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-26 / Não recebi financiamento / This research aims to investigate the relation that exists between the exchange rate and the international competitiveness of the Brazilian transformation industries classified by level of technology. It begins with a synthesis of the several studies that show the importance of the exchange rate to the development of the country and, particularly to the Brazilian case, it highlights those that point a domestic currency appreciation and stress that appreciation is contributing to put the country down in backward position in technological terms. Therefore, some authors propose the Real should be depreciated relative to Dollar to promote an internal productive diversification and the sophisticated sectors development. That discussion motived us making econometrical analyses and graphics linking exchange rate, exports and international competitiveness index to investigate if exchange rate variations impacted in determinant form and distinctly the internacional competitiveness of Brazilian industries. The methodology was used the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index of Balassa (1965) and VAR models to connect exchange rate and industries exports. The RCA index time evolution was analyzed in graphics together with the exchange rate from 1999 until 2011. The results has been showed that occurred a loss of competitiveness to the majority of national industries and exchange rate appreciation most of the analyzed period still affected the industries in the distinct manner. Finally, almost all industries did not get competitiveness gains in the period of exchange rate depreciation as expected, because they did not have enough time to react. / Neste trabalho, buscou-se investigar as relações existentes entre a taxa de câmbio e a competitividade internacional das indústrias de transformação brasileiras classificadas por nível de tecnologia. Iniciou-se com uma síntese de vários estudos, que apresentam a importância do câmbio para o desenvolvimento de um país e, particularmente para o caso brasileiro, destacam-se àqueles que apontam uma apreciação cambial e frisam que isso está contribuindo para deixar o país em posição atrasada em termos tecnológicos. Por isso, alguns autores sugerem que o real deveria se depreciar frente ao dólar para favorecer a diversificação produtiva interna e o desenvolvimento dos setores de ponta. Motivado por essa discussão, foram feitas análises econométricas e gráficas relacionando taxa de câmbio, exportações e índice de competitividade internacional com o objetivo de investigar se as variações cambiais impactaram de forma determinante e distinta a competitividade internacional das indústrias brasileiras. Como metodologia foram utilizados o Índice de Vantagem Comparativa Revelada (IVCR) desenvolvido por Balassa (1965) e modelos VAR que relacionam taxa de câmbio e exportações das indústrias. A evolução temporal dos IVCR foi verificada em gráficos juntamente com a taxa de câmbio de 1999 até 2011. Os resultados mostraram que houve perda de competitividade para a maioria das indústrias nacionais e apreciação cambial na maior parte do período analisado, que a apreciação cambial atingiu as indústrias de maneira diversificada e que a maioria das indústrias não auferiu ganhos de competitividade no período de depreciação cambial, como se esperava, dado que o tempo que ela ocorre não foi o suficiente para que essas indústrias reagissem.

Nas últimas décadas, a importância da normalização técnica para comércio internacional aumentou consideravelmente. Segundo dados da OCDE, estima-se que um total de 80% do comércio global na atualidade seja afetado por normas e regulamentos técnicos. Esse cenário justifica a preocupação dos Membros da OMC em incentivar o estabelecimento de padrões tecnológicos comuns nos diversos países, como um instrumento para evitar o incremento das barreiras técnicas e promover a facilitação do fluxo internacional de bens, serviços, investimentos e tecnologias. Contudo, o crescente envolvimento de direitos de propriedade intelectual nas normas técnicas internacionais tem preocupado algumas nações, principalmente em decorrência dos elevados custos, tensões e conflitos que resultam dessa situação, impactando de forma negativa o comércio. Sob a perspectiva do ordenamento jurídico do comércio internacional, o conflito revela-se no conjunto de obrigações que os Membros assumem no âmbito da OMC. Se os países devem obrigatoriamente utilizar como base as normas técnicas internacionais para estabelecer suas normas e regulamentos domésticos, e aquelas se encontram revestidas de direitos exclusivos privados, sua efetiva aplicação no plano doméstico depende da licença dos titulares desses direitos, nos termos e condições por eles impostos. No entanto, uma vez que eles não estejam dispostos a conceder licenças em termos razoáveis e não discriminatórios, ou se recusem a conferir a autorização, os países encontram dificuldades ou, ainda, ficam impossibilitados de implementar de forma plena as obrigações assumidas na OMC. A partir dessa hipótese, o presente estudo tem como objetivo analisar como se encontra regulada a relação entre a normalização técnica e a propriedade intelectual no ordenamento jurídico do comércio internacional. Esta tese confirma que as tensões inerentes à relação entre propriedade intelectual e normalização técnica alimentam um conflito sob a perspectiva do ordenamento jurídico do comércio internacional, que não possui regras específicas para regular a questão. Este conflito se traduz na dificuldade que os países têm na implementação plena das obrigações assumidas na OMC. Para a mitigação dos problemas que emergem desse conflito, observa-se que se destacam duas tendências seguidas pelos Membros da Organização. Uma delas consiste em incrementar as flexibilidades do Acordo TRIPS, como se verifica nos Estados Unidos, União Europeia e Índia. Outra opção observada é o afastamento das normas técnicas internacionais em prol da adoção de normas e regulamentos técnicos domésticos baseados em tecnologias nacionais ou não proprietárias com fundamento nas flexibilidades dos acordos TBT, SPS e GATS. Casos nesse sentido são identificados em países como China. Em certas circunstâncias, a preferência pelo estabelecimento de normas e regulamentos técnicos baseados essencialmente em tecnologias nacionais protegidas por direitos de propriedade intelectual pode robustecer as barreiras técnicas ao comércio. Diante disso, com o propósito de assegurar a efetividade dos acordos multilaterais de comércio e garantir segurança jurídica, entende-se necessário a adoção de medidas claras e adequadas, que busquem eliminar ou reduzir as tensões e conflito, e garantir a previsibilidade do Sistema Multilateral de Comércio. Importa, ainda, que tais medidas sejam estabelecidas de forma a facilitar o comércio internacional e promover a concorrência leal, a inovação, a transferência da tecnologia e o desenvolvimento das nações. / In recents decades, the importance of technical standards for international trade has increased substantially. According to OECD data, it is estimated that around 80% of global trade is affected by standards and technical regulations. This scenario justifies the concerns of WTO Members to encourage the settlement of common technological standards in different countries, as a tool to prevent the rise of technical barriers and promote the facilitation of the international flow of goods, services, investment and technology. However, the increasing involvement of intellectual property rights in international standards has concerned some nations, mainly due to high costs, tensions and conflicts that result from this situation, adversely impacting trade. From the perspective of international trade law, the conflict is revealed in the set of obligations that States assumed in the WTO. If countries must use international standards as a basis to establish technical regulations and norms, and those are covered by private exclusive rights, its effective implementation at the domestic level depends on the approval of rights holders, according the terms and conditions imposed by them. However, since the rights holders are not willing to grant licenses on reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions, or refuse to grant the licenses, countries may find difficult or even remain unable to fully implement their obligations in the WTO. From this hypothesis, this study aims to analyze as it is regulated the relationship between technical standards and intellectual property in international trade law. This thesis confirms that the tensions inherent in the relationship between intellectual property and technical standardization feed a conflict from the perspective of international trade law, which has no specific rules to regulate this question. This conflict is reflected in the difficulty countries have in the full implementation of the obligations assumed in WTO. In order to mitigate the problems that emerge from this conflict, it is observed that there are two trends followed by the Members of the Organization. One is to enhance the flexibilities of the TRIPS Agreement, as is the case in the United States, European Union and India. Another option is the deviation of international standards in favor of domestic standards and technical regulations based on national or non proprietary technologies founded on the flexibilities of TBT, SPS and GATS. Such cases are identified in countries like China. In some circumstances, the preference for the creation of standards and technical regulations based mainly on national technologies protected by intellectual property rights can strengthen the technical barriers to trade. Therefore, in order to ensure the effectiveness of multilateral trade agreements, it is necessary to establish clear and appropriate measures, which seek to eliminate or reduce tensions and conflict, and ensure the predictability of the multilateral trading system. It is also important that such measures are established to facilitate international trade and promote fair competition, innovation, technology transfer and development of nations.

Thesis (M. Com. (Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / International trade has been identified by many economists to be an engine for growth and development. There has been an increase in the number of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements across the globe. Trade has gained significant attention among developed and developing countries and it hugely attributed to the impact of technology and globalisation. The study employs autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to analyse The effects of international trade on economic growth in South Africa from (2000Q1 to 2017Q1) and economic review. The quarterly time series data from 2000Q1 to 2017Q1 is sourced from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and Quantec Easy Data. This study is envisaged to provide a better understanding on the relationship between South African economic growth and international trade. The findings brought light on how growth can be improved in South Africa. The unit root tests indicate a mixture of I(0) and I(1) variables which implied the employment of the ARDL approach. The cointegration model emphasizes the long-run equilibrium relationship between the dependant and independent variables. The findings reveal that exchange rate and import are positively related with GDP while one export is negatively related to it. The conclusion from this work is that there is correlation between GDP and its regressors. Since the results show that South African export have negative impact on growth, it is recommended that South African government must promote trading of goods and services internally and not focus much on exporting its primary goods and services abroad because it weakens the economy. It is recommended that South Africa must produce or export according to the need of the industry, so that the country benefit in return. Lastly, it is recommended that South Africa must support local industries and firms to create more employment opportunities and start programmes that will make youth to be active in businesses and reduce over reliance to the government.

<div>This thesis has three major chapters. Structural estimation of non-homothetic demands is the element that is the most common across the three papers in which structural parameters from the data.<br></div><div><br></div><div><b>First Chapter</b>: Preference structures in applied general equilibrium models are commonly in favor of the family of linear expenditure system (LES) due to the desire for global regularity and applicability, while other emerging preference functions include the constant-elasticity-of-substitution (CES) forms that are used as sub-utility functions to fulfil regularity conditions with additional flexibilities. Hanoch (1975) introduces indirect, implicit additive relationships—a generalization of the CES—to obtain more flexible demand relationships that are globally regular. These preference relationships unlink substitution effects from income effects in ways that go beyond relaxation of homotheticity, and are more flexible than their direct dual. However, the estimation of these models as demand systems has proven to be challenging, and most published work in this area has focused on estimation approaches that involve approximations or that cannot fully identify parameter values in the preference relationships. Essay one introduces a direct approach which avoids approximations and allows parameters to be identified. We demonstrate the estimation using the readily accessible Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) and the confidential World Bank (International Comparison Program) databases, estimating the constant difference of elasticity or CDE directly in a maximum likelihood framework. In doing this, we show that the global regularity conditions stated in Hanoch (1975) can be slightly relaxed, and that the relaxed parametric conditions facilitate estimation. We introduce a normalization scheme that is beneficial for the scaling of the parameter values and which appears to have little impact on the economic performance of the estimated system. We develop a numerical test that justifies the normalization scheme. The series of procedures developed in this paper applied to this empirical example is generalized to solve many other econometric problems of general demand models of the Bergson family and those that are under-identified using reduced-form approaches. </div><div><br></div><div><b>Second Chapter</b>: This paper presents a general equilibrium gravity model of trade based on the constant difference of elasticities of substitution preferences. Hanoch (1975) illustrates these preferences' advantages in terms of parsimony and flexibility. This paper introduces a parsimonious, non-homothetic and globally well-behaved demand model into the gravity model that both separates substitution effects from income effects and has non-constant substitution elasticities. These features of the demand model---together with the structural estimation procedure devised in this paper---allow nesting several prominent theoretical motivations for the gravity model, and exploring the merits of this more general model. They also allow identification of the elasticity of trade costs with respect to distance and asymmetric border coefficients from the elasticity of trade flows with respect to trade costs. Most previous studies cannot separately identify these structural parameters. </div><div><br></div><div><b>Third Chapter</b>: The primary advantage of structural approaches to estimating the gravity model of trade is that they allow a transparent mapping of regression coefficients to structural parameters. Unfortunately, as shown in essay two, existing structural estimation methods are unable to separately identify trade costs and the trade elasticity without incorporating external data. We demonstrate that theoretical structure is alone sufficient for identifying all of the structural parameters of the canonical constant elasticity of substitution (CES) gravity model. We accomplish this by adopting an implicitly indirect representation of utility and estimating structurally using a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints. Our estimate of the elasticity of substitution is much smaller than in much of the rest of the literature, an outcome that we attribute to Pigou's Law, which ties income and substitution elasticities together in demand systems that assume additive preferences. This restriction is undesirable in demand systems, generally, and is a critical weakness for the canonical gravity model, a model that is commonly used to interpret the geographic trade pattern and to infer the welfare gains from trade. We demonstrate a non-homothetic CES model that both achieves identification and relaxes this restriction. Our counterfactual results based on the model suggest that the combination of a lower elasticity and lower trade costs generate a larger welfare change due to border removal compared to the CES model.<br></div>

Thesis (Ph. D. Agriculture (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of limpopo, 2021 / The study analysed the effects of international trade on employment and wages in the fruit industry of South Africa. However, the study prioritised six industries within the fruit industry which are pertinent contributors to economic growth, international trade, employment and source of wages. The six types of fruits considered for this study are apples, apricots, avocadoes, oranges, pears and table grapes. The relationship between international trade and labour market is continuously significant, especially with increasing number of trade agreements amongst countries and regions. The international trade has been identified by many economic authors to be amongst main contributors of employment and wage source in the exporting countries. The overarching theoretical framework guiding research on the impact of international trade on employment and wages is based on Krugman’s theory of imperfect competition. The theory states that international trade on similar products amongst developed and developing countries works in favour of the developed countries based on the following arguments: developing countries export primary commodities; developed countries export beneficiated goods; firms in developed countries are mostly vertically integrated with a higher market share. The overall aim of the study is to analyse the effects of international trade on employment and wages in the South African fruit industry between the period between 1990 and 2018. There are five objectives for the study and they are broken down as follows: outlining the performance of the South African fruit industry in terms on international trade, employment and wages; secondly, to analyse the impact of international trade flow on employment and wages in the selected six South African fruit industries; thirdly, to determine the causality effects amongst employment, wages and exports within the six South African fruit industry; fourthly, to determine the response of employment, exports and imports on changes in wages within the selected six South African fruit industries; and lastly, to determine the effects of European Union’s Trade Development and Cooperation Agreement on wages in the South African fruit industry. vi The study adopted various analytical techniques to address the objectives. Those analytical techniques were used as follows: descriptive statistics, to profile the six prioritised fruit industries; error correction model, to analyse the impact of international trade flow on employment and wages in the selected six South African fruit industries; granger causality test, to determine the causality effects amongst employment, wages and international trade within the six South African fruit industry; two-staged least squares approach, to determine the response of employment, exports and imports on changes in wages within the selected six South African fruit industries and ordinary least squares, to determine the effects of European Union’s Trade Development and Cooperation Agreement on wages in the South African fruit industry. The findings from descriptive analysis show that all six prioritised fruit industries contributes significantly to the international trade, employment and wages in South Africa. The error correction model for all six fruit industries indicates the existence of a long-run relationship amongst total employment, wages and international trade. Therefore, findings for all fruit industries show that exports output lead to an increase in total employment in a long run, while imports output lead to a decrease in total employment in a long run. The granger causality test for all six fruit industries highlight that there is a causality effect between total employment and exports output. However, there is no causality effect between total employment and imports output, even between exports output and imports output. The results from the two-staged least squares indicate that the wages are affected positively by the exports output. However, there are other factors that affect wages positively such as net realisation from exports, local sales, total gross value of production and foreign direct investment. The wages are negatively affected by imports output, average exchange rate and average prices. The ordinary least squares for all estimated fruit industries show that the volumes of exports to the European Union market affect the wages positively, vii while other variables that are positively affected by the exports to EU market include amongst others the production volumes, productivity, total area planted and foreign direct investment. However, the volumes of exports to the European Union market negatively affect the processing volumes of the fruit industries in South Africa, domestic consumption per capita and average prices. Conclusively, it is recommended that fruit producers, with support of government institutions responsible for trade promotions, should strengthen trade cooperation with various trading blogs, more particularly the European Union; United Kingdom; countries in Asia and Middle East; and African states. This exercise will highly enhance the capacity of South African fruit producers to exploit the untapped international trade opportunities from different markets. Furthermore, it is prudent to recommend that the government should continue to regulate the labour market so that employees could benefit from net realisation from international trade. This will probably reduce the instances of unfair labour practices such as lower wages, child labour, abnormal working hours and overall poor working conditions.

This thesis addresses issues of anti-dumping law and practice from a critical and juridical analysis position. In particular, the thesis seeks to determine whether the South African anti-dumping regime is compliant with the anti-dumping regime of the World Trade Organization (hereafter WTO), and to consider possible solutions for addressing instances where the South African law is not WTO compatible. The thesis departs from the hypothesis that the WTO merely requires functional equivalence of the implementation of national legislation on anti-dumping, and not the verbatim adoption of WTO jurisprudence and relevant provisions of the Agreement on the Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 1994 (hereafter URAA), into the legislation of State Parties. Some of the provisions of the URAA are not completely clear, and are cast in convoluted and complicated technical jargon, leaving loopholes that may be justifiably exploited by State Parties. The study in this thesis was achieved through the critical analysis of legislation and relevant legal documents, case law and contemporary literature. The primary research paradigm used in this study is interpretive and analytical, which is the same as qualitative research methodology. The legal comparative research method, with a historical component, also played an important role in this study. The literature study undertaken and the critical analyses made of the South African anti-dumping regime show mixed findings. The South African antidumping regime was found to have both positive aspects and problematic aspects when compared with WTO regulations. Some of the critical areas of the South African anti-dumping regime are WTO compatible whilst others are not. In some areas the South African anti-dumping regime has adopted functionally equivalent provisions to the provisions of the WTO law. However, the practice of the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) is sometimes fraught with inconsistencies. The compatibility of the South African anti-dumping system with the WTO regime came close to being examined by the WTO on 1 April 1999 in the dispute of South Africa - Anti-dumping Duties on the Import of Certain Pharmaceutical Products from India based on allegations that the method for calculating normal value used by the ITAC was found to be inconsistent with the URAA. Similarly, the conformity of the procedures and findings of the International Trade and Administration Act (ITAA) in anti-dumping cases came under attack in the cases of Algorax v The International Trade Administration Commission and others, and Scaw v The International Trade Administration Commission and others, respectively. Finally, the thesis ends with recommendations in response to the challenges identified and key submissions made throughout the analysis. Key recommendations include the broadening of the concept of interested parties to include registered trade unions and trade union federations; introducing an explicit and mandatory "public Interests" provision to ensure that South Africa's anti-dumping administration is free from political trappings in the form of the involvement of the Minister of Trade and Industry; introducing the new section 31 bis of the ADR in order to allow the initiation of anti-dumping petitions by a registered trade union or trade union federation; providing procedural guidelines for self-initiation of anti-dumping petitions by the ITAC; increasing transparency in anti-dumping proceedings and enquires; setting realistic time-lines for all anti-dumping processes and ensuring compliance with the same; improving the institutional and functional capacity of the ITAC; amending section 18.3 of the ADR to allow search and seizure operations pursuant to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 and the Customs Act; having a clear provision on verification visits confidentiality and a clear provision on producer knowledge; introducing a clear provision in the ADR dealing explicitly with zeroing pursuant to Article 2.4.3 (ii) of URAA; and the introduction of duty refund procedures. It is hoped that the recommendations made in this thesis, which are in the form of suggested legislative interventions required to upgrade certain areas of South African anti-dumping law and practice to be fully WTO compliant, will influence the introduction of suitably crafted anti-dumping legislation in South Africa. It is further hoped that the thesis will become an invaluable source of information for practitioners and students, and a critical source on the best practice for the imposition and implementation of anti-dumping measures. Moreover, the thesis will add to the body of academic writing on South African anti-dumping law. / Thesis (PhD.(Law) North-Wets University, Mafikeng Campus, 2011

Many of the insightful writings on clusters identify the role of entrepreneurs as key agents in the formation of firms and clusters. This thesis argues instead that local entrepreneurship is not ceased once firms and clusters are established; local entrepreneurship is about the continuous (re)creation of both businesses and clusters in global spaces. Global spaces for local entrepreneurship emphasises how firms collectively become an agent of continuous renewal. Firms enact an organising context materialising in networks that stretch relations and collaborations according to the issues being dealt with. These networks are localised but are extended beyond the geographical boundaries of clusters. One important example of this, which is in focus in this doctoral thesis, is that firms operating in clusters often interact with actors whom they have met at international trade fairs (ITFs). ITFs are those attractive events that individuals, firms and institutions attend temporarily to exhibit and trade products in foreign and national markets. This thesis is based on the work contained in a cover and five papers. Each paper contributes to the research objective and questions brought forward in the thesis cover. The empirical evidence has been mostly drawn from several case studies conducted in the Lammhult cluster in Sweden. The findings show that firms build their organising contexts in order to stretch the reach and accessibility to local and non-local actors; they jointly co-create potential opportunities. The organising contexts are mapped in networks using three proximity orders. The empirical findings report three types of situations in which there is a potential opportunity for continuous renewal. By emphasising the opportunities that can be originated when a business is not realised or when a new or improved product or process has not been generated yet, this thesis aims to stimulate a theoretical reappraisal of global spaces for local entrepreneurship. With the conceptual development of global spaces for local entrepreneurship, we put forward the idea that such spaces enhance an ability to renew firms and clusters. The underlying reason is that local entrepreneurship is centered on the social interaction between individuals, firms and/or institutions; it materialises in intended and unintended dialogical situations when there is a commitment to the continuous renewal of firms and clusters. Such dialogical situations carry with them an opportunity for co-creating new businesses, new products and new processes.

'Climate change is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen' Stern (2006 p. xvii). This vigorous description highlights one of the most important and frustrating realizations of the last decades. The main reason of that market failure stems from the fact that climate change is a complex global externality. This makes the design of appropriate measures to mitigate the problem and the identification of their effects on economic activity of paramount importance. The transboundary nature of pollution combined with the skewed distribution of the origin and impact of emissions among countries reveals the need for international cooperation in the direction of multilateral agreements among countries. The characterization of Pareto-efficient environmental and trade policies has been a key issue (and continues to be) in the literature. Predominantly, however, the literature has focused on the role of taxes (trade and pollution) in achieving the first-best paying no attention to the role (if there is any) of non-tradeable goods. Chapter 4 deals with this issue. A key issue in mitigating climate change is with the appropriate extent of harmonization of environmental policies. This thesis (Chapters 2) addresses this within a general equilibrium model of international trade with endogenous pollution discharges, paying particular attention to the allocation of tax revenues. It argues that there indeed exist instances in which pollution tax harmonization (that moves the initial pollution taxes towards an appropriately weighted pollution tax vector) can deliver potential Pareto improvements. The difficulty with the achievement of global environmental agreements should not be, however, ignored. Chapter 3 deals with the possibility that governments may act unilaterally in order to mitigate the social cost of pollution. It shows that (under certain conditions) there exist unilateral Pareto improving trade policy reforms. Chapter 5 discusses the welfare implication of environmental policy reforms within a subset of countries. It shows that environmental policy coordination has opposing effect on the welfare of the coordinating and non-coordinating countries.

No description available.

Relying upon two common trends in modern castle studies, this exploratory study works to combine the landscape context and the spatial interaction of the main building to create an assessment of the spatial and social interaction between the main residential structure of a noble’s estate and the landscape features attached to surrounding property features. To explore questions about this kind of interaction this project has taken the sheriffdom of Angus, Scotland, between the year 1450 and 1542, to examine non-royal residences in an area that offered a diverse topography. This project aims to gain a better understanding of the surroundings of late fifteenth and early sixteenth century noble residences in Angus while contributing to the growing discussion of castles and their landscapes, and testing methods for addressing the spatial and social interaction between the main structure and the landscape features. Section A discusses the three source types used for compiling the dataset for this project within the context of three key categories needed to create a GIS dataset: location, object, and attributes. From the landscape features the mills and fishings were the most commonly mentioned and further details regarding the contents of the lordly landscapes were rare. Section B explores three methods of examining the relationships between the main residence and the landscape features: a modified RA and RRA values assessment, which measured levels of segregation within the noble residence site as a whole; a version of the gravity model, which helped identify the draw for interaction within the arrangement of the noble’s landscape; and network analysis questions, which facilitated a clear assessment of any connections between the use of structural terms and landscape features mentioned over both temporal and social contexts. This exploration of spatial and social interaction opens up a discussion about Scottish noble landscape creation and new methods for studying the relationship between the main structure and the wider complex of a noble residence.