This thesis explores causal attribution statements on performance outcomes given in annual reports of UK listed rms. The objectives are three-fold. First, it analyses the nature and extent of attribution statements provided. Second, it explores corporate governance factors and rm-speci c characteristics that are related to the provision of attribution statements. Finally, it investigates the economic consequences of providing attribution statements by examining their association with the rm's cost of equity capital. Using data drawn from a sample of 142 UK rms listed on the London Stock Exchange, content analysis was used to measure the extent of attributions in the annual reports for the year 2006. The results show that the volume of attribution statement provision is generally low and variation across rms is low. Firms also show a strong tendency to explain performance with internal rather than with external reasons. The results from regression analysis show that the volume of attribution statements and the space given to internal and external attribution statements is associated with the proportion of non-executive directors, director share ownership, audit committee size, market value, gearing, pro tability and new share issues. With respect to the relationship between the attribution statements and the cost of capital, the PEG model was employed to estimate the cost of equity capital. The ndings indicate an association between attribution statement provision and the cost of equity capital, but only for rms with low analyst following. For these rms, more extensive performance explanations and more extensive internal explanations are associated with a higher cost of equity capital. However, attribution statements are unrelated to the cost of equity capital for rms with high analyst following. The thesis makes two contributions in the area of attribution determinants. First, it measures attribution provision with a measure that has not been previously applied in the literature to measure attribution statements. Second, it provides evidence on how rm-speci c characteristics and the rm's corporate governance mechanisms in uence the extent and the type of performance explanations provided by rms. The thesis makes four contributions regarding the e ect of attribution statements on the cost of capital. First, it uses a quantitative approach to directly estimate the cost of capital e ects of attribution statements. Second, it provides evidence that the association between attribution statements and the cost of equity capital is in uenced by an interaction between attribution statements and analyst following. Third, the thesis provides the rst evidence of the relationship between attribution statements and the cost of equity capital in a UK setting. Fourth, it provides evidence that the relationship between disclosure and the cost of equity capital is complex and is in uenced by interactions between disclosure and information intermediaries.

This dissertation investigates how the agents and organs of the Seleucid Empire explored, bounded, and endowed with meaning its imperial territory. I argue that king and court responded to the enormous opportunities and challenges of such a landscape with a range of ideological constructions and practical interventions, from border diplomacy to colonialism, ethnographic writing to royal parade. The first half concentrates on the kingdom's "pioneering phase" during the reigns of Seleucus I and Antiochus I. It examines the closing of the empire's eastern frontier in India and Central Asia and the role of court ethnographers in naturalizing the shape of this landscape. I then shift to the western periphery and investigate the founder-king's failed attempt to conquer Macedonia and the consequent relocation of homeland associations to northern Syria. In the second half of the dissertation the focus falls on the mature kingdom in the later third and second centuries BCE and on its declining agony. I look at the modes in which the bounded imperial landscape was articulated and ordered - the itinerant court and the ways it forged a sovereign terrain around the king's body, and the colonial foundations and their evolving importance within the kingdom. It is argued that the spatial practices and ideology that brought the empire into existence also generated the fault-lines along which it fell apart. In terms of method, the dissertation engages with spatial theory and cultural geography, and full use is made of archaeological material and textual evidence, literary and epigraphic, Greek, Roman, Babylonian, Jewish, and Persian. / The Classics

This dissertation investigates the dynamics of mass attitudes toward redistributive social policies in post-industrial democracies: How have these attitudes changed over time? What factors and mechanisms drive these changes? According to workhorse models in political economy, as inequality increases, support for redistributive social policies should also increase, especially among those most likely to benefit from them. Yet, despite a sharp growth in income inequality in the United States and the United Kingdom since the 1970's, there is no evidence that attitudinal trends match these predictions. Drawing from findings in the behavioral sciences on mental processes of attitude formation and on the role of other-oriented concerns, I argue that political economy's workhorse models perform well only under specific scope conditions. Once these conditions are accounted for, observed trends become less puzzling. First, workhorse models only capture one component of demand for redistribution, namely support for redistribution conceived as taking from the "rich" (redistribution from), and ignore a separate component, support for redistribution conceived as giving to the "poor" (redistribution to). These two facets of redistribution, I argue, prime different individual motives: self-interested income maximization on the one hand, and other-oriented social affinity with welfare beneficiaries on the other, which is shaped by social ranking and non-economic moral dispositions. Second, attitudinal change that matches these models' predictions is conditional on whether elites politicize redistributive issues. The nature and structure of the options available in one's political environment impact the kind of choices citizens make, i.e. the motives that guide attitude formation. I show how elite competition over distinct redistributive agendas increases the likelihood that individuals will translate their economic circumstances into support for, or opposition to, redistribution. Through a context-sensitive analysis of longitudinal survey data, I show how most of the action in the UK and the US has happened through other-oriented motives. The decline in the predictive power of income in these countries, has been mirrored in both countries by an increase in the predictive power of moral values. Differences in the choice sets provided by elite-level electoral competition help explain how this plays out differently on each side of the Atlantic.

This study explores economic conditions among Iraqi refugee women living in urban areas of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan through open-ended interviews. The research aims to address coping mechanisms Iraqi refugee women use to adapt to their financial situation. The goal is to review the proactive efforts women make to turn family units from traditional consumers (buying goods) to producers (making goods) in order to find financial stability. The study incorporates three overarching themes: First, it establishes Iraqi refugee women’s financial status by surveying economic security and employment opportunities. Second, the study investigates how living in urban areas of Jordan affects Iraqi women’s economic status. Thirdly, the study explores how Iraqi refugee women approach their financial situation. How have Iraqi women taken steps to exercise control over their financial lives and improve their economic situation as refugees? The objective of this project is to promote women’s empowerment by creating an open dialogue about Iraqi women’s struggles and to highlight the steps that women take to improve their situation. The study suggests steps that can be taken to aid Iraqi refugees. / text

In The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu distinguishes between governing regimes and positive law based on principles that emerge from relationships within the actual world and laws based on prejudices or ignorance which encourages one group to exert political power adverse to others. The reduction of the influence of prejudice becomes a central component of Montesquieu’s political theory. It requires the promotion of moderation and political liberty and becomes the central work of the legislator in “free and moderate” or self-governing states. Montesquieu’s conception of moderation and liberty requires him to develop a conception of liberalism in contrast to the approaches of both the ancient republics of singular institutions and the modern political theorists, Machiavelli and Hobbes. Both the ancient and modern conceptions of liberalism rely on a version of prejudice-inspired regimes that are inappropriate to modern self-government. The English Constitution provides the best practical example of a “free and moderate state” that can aspire to political greatness. England promotes political liberty in its two forms through the separation of powers and political partisanship, while it encourages moderation by the prudent harnessing of England’s “mores, manners, and received examples” in the form of religion, commerce, and politics (XIX, 27). The English Constitution demonstrates the difficulty of reducing prejudices for other states, and highlights Montesquieu’s ambivalence regarding man’s potential to govern himself given the constraints upon him. / text

With the increasing population heterogeneity and rising tensions in Western nations, the governments of those nations have sought ways to manage conflict between different groups. This often comes in the form of laws criminalizing certain speech, and numerous Western nations have passed bills strengthening sanctions against hate speech or adding previously unprotected groups. However, when the European Union attempted to pass strict hate speech legislation, many EU member states disagreed with its provisions and, due to the structure of the EU, managed to substantially change the resulting legislation. This study examines how proponents and opponents of hate speech legislative change frame the issue and the role the EU. / text

Waste and its management is a dynamic subject that has far reaching implications. These extend beyond basic practical issues of producer responsibility and consumer behaviour, and encompass pollution and environmental problems in a global context. Economic concerns, such as scarcity of resources and the emergence of environmental issues such as sustainability, have influenced the need for a waste management strategy that will increase material re-use and recycling, and energy recovery. Increasing quantities of waste and changes in its composition have placed an ever increasing pressure on traditional disposal routes, namely landfill, giving impetus to the development of alternative management options. The emphasis on management through a waste hierarchy has resulted in a trend throughout Europe of striving towards numerical targets to induce movement away from landfill. In 1990 the UK government set a target of recycling 25% of household waste by the year 2000. The Dutch have set a general waste target to separate 65% of waste for recycling, by the year 2000. Currently, achievement of the UK target is unlikely. Explanations for this do not stem from the target being too high, as it has been illustrated in Europe and more specifically in the Netherlands, that more stringent targets are already being attained. Therefore this research is of importance in developing a greater understanding of the barriers and alternative policy incentives that exist in achieving materials reclamation and energy recovery, and aims to contribute to the development of suitable policies and strategic options. Previous research has focused on specific aspects or singular concepts within the field of waste management. Although this has proved useful in specific contexts, the results and applications have been limited. This research extends such experience further in developing a model that can link the barriers that exist with regard to the 'successful' implementation of waste management strategies. This model focuses on evaluating data gained from the case study, having identified causal relationships and underlying pressures. It introduces a way of relating national data with local data, and it is at this interface that the 'success' of a waste management strategy can be determined, or barriers to its application can be identified and policies developed to overcome such barriers. The research design has been developed within the framework of a comparative embedded case study. The methodology enables a fuller understanding of the current situation at national, regional and local level, incorporating a number of different data collection techniques. The selection of Sheffield and Amsterdam allows a greater focus on crosscultural issues with specific reference to environmental awareness, recycling behaviour and implementation strategies within each local political framework. These results can then be placed within the context of the model to identify the feasibility of policy targets, and propose modifications to the policy or strategic options available.

Ectogenesis -- literally creation outside the womb -- is a word coined by British geneticist J.B.S. Haldane in 1923 as he provocatively predicted future scientific frontiers. Fast-moving assisted reproductive technologies assure us that ectogenesis is no longer the fantastical creation of futuristic writers. Instead, it is likely to manifest in one of three ways. It may be a quiet byproduct of the lessening gap between in vitro procedures and the use of sophisticated neonatal environments. It may arise from endometrial tissue ladders grown into artificial wombs. Or, it may be as bizarre as that envisioned in Brave New World where there is an intentional effort to create an artificial womb from which the development of a human being may be scrutinized and monitored from start to finish. / The morass of hasty and reckless legislation passed in various countries to deal with the creation and termination of embryonic life shows that few are prepared to deal with exigencies of ectogenesis when it arrives insidiously or abruptly. Moreover, Eastern thought and traditions will conflict with Western ideology with respect to the beginning and maintenance of human life. This thesis suggests that the language, structure and philosophy of the United Kingdom's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act is well crafted and should be considered as a world-wide paradigm. This thesis also suggests that ectogenesis will mandate that the interests of the developing fetus override notions of reproductive autonomy.

This thesis is a critical analysis of the law relating to insider trading in three common law countries. Chapter One, addresses the merits and demerits of the regulation of insider trading and presents a review of the academic literature relating to this field. In Chapters Two, Three and Four, the law of insider trading in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom is analysed and discussed on a comparative basis. Each of these chapters is in two sections. The first section describes the regulatory system and institutions, and the second section discusses the regulation of insider trading, highlighting the critical elements of this type of regulation, such as the definition of an 'insider' and the scope of 'inside information'. It concludes with a broad discussion of the differing approaches of these countries to insider trading.

This PhD study centres on analysing the changing employment service portfolios available to disadvantaged people out of work in Britain and Germany. Looking at the recent wave of comparative studies on ‘activation’ reforms, it springs to mind that the question of the changing portfolio of ‘active’ labour market policy (ALMP) measures has received only little attention in the sense of a rigorous comparative analysis. In order to address that gap, this study develops a novel normative and analytical perspective for the study of ALMP, which then is applied to the empirical cases Britain and Germany. I first develop the concept of personalisation as the normative and analytical framework for the analysis of ALMP. I show that the diversity of ALMP portfolios, which is a precondition for a personalised service provision, can serve as a proxy for measuring personalisation. Equipped with this analytical tool, the analysis subsequently focuses on the changes to ALMP portfolios over the past 15 years in terms of diversity. It is shown that during this period both Britain and Germany reformed working-age benefits in a way that led to a closer integration of the benefit system at an institutional level. Taking the policy rhetoric that closer integration will lead to more ‘personalised’ (UK) or more ‘tailor-made’ (Germany) services as a starting point, I analyse whether these developments at an institutional level have indeed led to a more personalised, or more diverse, provision of employment services. This study looks in particular at the situation of those groups in the two countries who have been most affected by recent integration reforms. These have primarily been claimants of second-tier working-age benefits, namely incapacity related benefits in the UK, and ‘Sozialhilfe’ (SH, social assistance) and ‘Arbeitslosengeld II’ (ALGII, Unemployment Benefit II) in Germany. I find that in both countries, employment services for claimants of these second-tier benefits have become more diverse in the wake of the integration reforms of the past 10 to 15 years, thereby increasing their personalisation potential. However, the two countries have each followed very specific reform trajectories. While the volume and coverage of ALMP have increased in both countries, the portfolio of services for second-tier claimants today is much more diverse in Germany than in Britain. This is primarily due to the existence of a large volume of services directed at claimants more distant from the labour market that follow a social integration & employability approach. These services are more marginal in Britain, where measures that follow a work-first approach are dominant. This divergent development is indicative of major and persistent differences in terms of ideational context as well as institutional (operational) factors. New Public Management reforms have influenced operational policy to different degrees in the two countries, effectively limiting the diversity of employment services in Britain more than in Germany.