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After successfully overthrowing Hosni Mubarak and his government in 2011, protestors rejoiced in long-repressed nationalist fervor, hopeful for the bright future that was sure to follow. Today, three years since the triumph, political inclusion and greater economic opportunity have not arrived. Throughout this transition process, the Egyptian economy has soured, and Egyptians have begun to feel nostalgia for the days of Mubarak’s regime when political stability, albeit repressive, had at least been accompanied by economic stability. This paper seeks to discover the root causes of poor economic performance in Egypt’s recent history, examine historical cases in which governments successfully overcame similar economic hardships, and propose feasible institutional reforms and recommendations to revive Egypt’s domestic economy in light of the country’s current political landscape.

The Peel Watershed Planning Process began in the Yukon and Northwest Territories in 2004. This thesis describes the Peel Watershed Planning Commission and the main interests influencing the planning process. I explore the explanatory potential of several theories draw from urban political economy -- John Logan and Harvey Molotch’s growth machine thesis, Clarence Stone’s regime theory, and Bob Jessop and Neil Brenner’s account of rescaling the state – and suggest that each of these theories can be used to explain certain aspects of Peel Watershed politics. Then I turn to the assimilationist literature on First Nations in Canada – represented by the 1969 White Paper, Tom Flanagan’s First Nations?, Second Thoughts and Frances Widdowson and Albert Howard’s Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry – and contrast it with an alternative literature, represented especially by Paul Nadasdy’s Hunters and Bureaucrats. I argue that these literatures draw attention to aspects of the politics of planning that are neglected in the urban political economy literature, but are of obvious importance in the context of the Peel Watershed. Although questions of community preservation and wealth accumulation are central to the Peel Watershed planning process, worldviews and ways of life are also at stake. This suggests that we have to look at the politics of planning in very broad terms. / Graduate

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This dissertation comprises three essays. In the first two chapters, I examine the performance of Chinese firms in the context of trade liberalization: one chapter looks at the quality of China's exports and the other investigates the productivity impact of China's tariff reduction. In the third chapter, I study the change induced by a tax reform in the institutional incentive structure faced by Chinese village leaders.

The first two chapters study the effect of foreign lobbies on trade policy of a country which is a member of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). They rely on a monopolistically competitive political economy model in which the government determines external tariffs endogenously. In the first paper the effect of foreign lobbying under the FTA is examined empirically using Canadian industry-level trade data that allow differentiating of lobby groups by the country of origin. The analysis suggests that the presence of foreign lobbying has a significant effect on the domestic trade policy: the presence of an organized lobbying group in an FTA partner country tends to raise trade barriers while an organized lobbying group of exporters from outside of the FTA is associated with less protection. The second paper analyses political viability of FTAs and their effect on the world trading system in the presence of lobbying by organized foreign interest groups. I show that the FTA in the presence of an organized lobby group in a prospective partner country may cause an increase in the level of protection against imports from third countries and impede trade with non-member countries. I also find that foreign lobby may encourage the local government to enter a welfare-reducing trade-diverting FTA. Finally, I show that the FTA increases the lobbying power of the organized lobby groups of the member countries, which can potentially obstruct the viability of welfare-improving multilateral trade liberalization. The last paper shows that the reason for a higher capital-labor ratio observed for exporting firms is a higher capital intensity of their production technology. Exporters are more productive, more likely to survive and, hence, more likely to repay loans. A higher repayment probability causes creditors to charge lower interest rate and reduces the marginal cost of the firm when a more capital-intensive technology is used. Here, a reduction in international trade costs stimulates exporting firms to use more efficient capital-intensive technologies, while non-exporters switch to less capital-intensive ones. This within-industry change in the composition of technologies reinforces the productivity advantage of exporters and contributes further to industry-wide productivity improvement. The results of model simulations highlight that to 10% of welfare and productivity gains of trade liberalization come from the adoption of new technologies by existing firms in the industry, thus amplifying the effect of resource reallocation from firms' entry and exit.

This study examines the effects of more lenient marijuana policy on recidivism rates. Using data of prisoners by state it examined the effect that more lenient drug laws by state on that state's recidivism rates.

This dissertation argues that conventional analysis of business-state relations fails to capture the nuances of networks shaping Egypt's neoliberal reform experience. Instead, it posits that both the 'business-state' and 'domestic-international' divides should be reconsidered - with categories better understood based on the nature of individuals' socio-economic capital (Bourdieu 1986). I argue that only by using such a framework can we make visible insidious forms of resource capture and economic exclusion. On the macro-level, this dissertation tells a story of elite resource capture that occurred alongside Egypt's experience of economic liberalization. While particular attention is paid to reforms of the 2000s, I also trace developments to roots laid by international partnerships and platforms established during the first IMF-led reform project of the Mubarak era in the 1990s. On the micro-level, this is a story of some of the central networks of 'globalizers' (Springborg and Henry 2010) - or individuals who rose to become chief mediators for internationally funded initiatives to empower Egypt's 'private sector.' I examine their ascent in the industrial policy-making space during the tenure of the first businessman cabinet member, Rashid Mohammed Rashid (2004-2011). I focus on the role of these networks in capturing the central 'business development' programs initiated alongside the reforms of the 2000s, which I argue served as platforms for accessing both immediate rent streams, as well as for shaping industrial policies to gain future rents. I then follow a handful of these individuals as they secure one highly controversial industrial policy: the Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ) trade agreement between Egypt, Israel and the US. In particular, I highlight the web of individuals and organizations mobilized in the process, providing close examination of the small cohort standing at the center of negotiations. I draw from targeted interviews and participant observation conducted over three years of fieldwork and triangulate findings with printed sources including corporate press releases, leaked US embassy cables and evaluations by international development organizations.

In this sector analysis I report on my investigation of the International Smallholder Tea Sector and its incorporation into global policy spheres. “Globally, tea smallholder sector covers 70% of the plantation area and produces 60% of the global tea production volume (UNFAO, 2017) Therefore, I argue that smallholder farmers should play a greater role in creating value through representation in dynamic policy discussions, such as the UNFAO Intergovernmental Group on Tea. I address how small landholders are economically developing and overall industry strategy. I suggest governance structures in order to address challenges and opportunities in future development and specifically look at the dynamic position of global policy making and industry trends, as they pertain to the potential for sustainability and long term-success of this important industry. My regional emphasis on South Asia provides a setting to focus on shared global trends as they pertain to social, cultural, biological production atmospheres.

MELO, Aquiles Chaves de. A metamorfose da questão do imperialismo nas configurações contemporâneas do Sistema do Capital. 2011. 56f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Sociologia, Fortaleza (CE), 2011. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-03-29T12:34:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_dis_acmelo.pdf: 996596 bytes, checksum: 0433bcb01b5ddc05772f7fcaeba39f73 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-03-29T12:35:14Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_dis_acmelo.pdf: 996596 bytes, checksum: 0433bcb01b5ddc05772f7fcaeba39f73 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-29T12:35:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_dis_acmelo.pdf: 996596 bytes, checksum: 0433bcb01b5ddc05772f7fcaeba39f73 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Some authors note the disappearance of the term "imperialism" of contemporary political debates. This concept returns to the scene especially with the American entry into the Iraq war and Bush proclaimed fight against terrorism. However its meaning no longer holds any relationship to the economic basis of social structure, now being used in their conception of the nineteenth century, where it was seen as a great civilizing mission. What we perceive is that the various attempts to extinguish the concept of i mperialism were not fruitful for the interpretation of the dynamic reality of contemporary capitalism. Our hypothesis is that the maintenance of the international monetary system today, in the form of the floating dollar standard, creates an environment hi ghly conducive to the reproduction of capital by the hegemonic nation, where the United States, through the appropriation of the wealth of the peripheral countries , becoming the core of the contemporary imperialist nature. / Alguns autores apontam o sumiço do termo “imperialismo” dos debates políticos contemporâneos. Este conceito retorna à cena principalmente com a entrada americana na Guerra do Iraque e a luta proclamada por Bush contra o terrorismo. No entanto seu significado não mais guardaria relação com as bases econômicas da estrutura social, sendo agora utilizado na sua concepção do século XIX, onde era visto como uma grande missão civilizadora. Prova disso é a publicação da obra Império, de Negri e Hardt, onde seus autores apontam que o imperialismo acabara e que o mundo hoje seria dominado por uma nova forma denominada Império. O que percebemos é que as diversas tentativas de extinguir o conceito de imperialismo não se mostraram fecundas para a interpretação da realidade dinâmica do capitalismo atual. Para nós o imperialismo é algo imanente ao capitalismo e a compreensão da moderna lógica de desenvolvimento do capital perpassa pelo entendimento dos diversos mecanismos imperialistas utilizados pelos países centrais de se apropriar da riqueza dos países periféricos garantindo assim a manutenção tanto de sua posição de hegemon quanto o próprio processo de reprodução da ordem sócio- metabólica do capital. Nossa hipótese é que a manutenção hodierna do sistema monetário internacional, sob a forma do padrão dólar flexível, cria um ambiente extremamente propício para a reprodução do capital por parte da nação hegemônica, no caso os Estados Unidos, através da apropriação das riquezas dos países periféricos, tornando -se esse o cerne da natureza imperialista contemporânea