xviii, 264 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This dissertation examines the role of stone tool production as a strategic resource in the development of chiefly authority in prehistoric Samoa. The evolution of Polynesia's complex chiefly systems is a long standing issue in anthropology, and prior archaeological research has identified that specialized goods were a significant factor in the elevation of elite status in many Polynesian contexts. Before Western contact, Samoa was a stratified chiefdom with leaders claiming exclusive privileges and participating in an extensive trade network within the Fiji-West Polynesian region during the Traditional Samoan period (c. A.D. 300-1700). However, Samoa's political structure was quite different in the earlier Polynesian Plainware period (c. 500 B.C.-A.D. 300). Archaeologists, with the aid of historical linguistics, have documented a simple hereditary system operating among small horticultural communities. To address this political transformation, I investigate coeval changes occurring in stone adze production recovered on Tutuila Island. Based firmly in the theoretical perspective of political economy, I ask three inter-related questions in my dissertation: were adze specialists present in ancient Samoa; if so, what was their connection to chiefly prerogatives; and what further relationship did these adze producers have with Samoa's emerging elite? To answer these questions, I utilize mass flake analysis and typological classifications to document technological and spatial changes in stone tool production. I also employ settlement studies and geochemical characterization to chart how leaders managed and controlled raw materials, as well as the distribution of basalt adzes in exchange networks. From my research, I record numerous nucleated workshops of adze specialization on Tutuila dating as far back as 800 years ago. As a new form of economic organization, these adze specialists acted as catalysts for increased political complexity and stratified authority. In addition, I trace how Samoan elites used their bourgeoning authority in restricting access to basalt sources and the distribution of the finished products during this same time period. In the larger Samoan political economy, I conclude that Tutuilan chiefs, located in an otherwise economically-impoverished island, utilized these newly-developed adze specialists and high-quality basalt as strategic resources for accumulating material surplus in prestige competition. / Adviser: William S. Ayres

This dissertation proposes an approach to energy that transcends the focus on energy as a mere technical economic or engineering problem, is connected to sociological theory as a whole, and takes issues of equality and ecology as theoretical starting points. In doing so, the work presented here puts ecological and environmental sociological theory, and the work of environmental justice scholars, feminist ecologists, and energy scholars, in a context in which they may complement one another to broaden the theoretical basis of the current sociology of energy. This theoretical integration provides an approach to energy focused on energy justice. Understanding energy and society in the terms outlined here makes visible energy injustice, or the interface between social inequalities and ecological depredations accumulating as the social and ecological debts of the modern energy regime. Systems ecology is brought into this framework as a means for understanding unequal exchange, energy injustice more generally, and the requirements for long-term social and ecological reproduction in ecological terms. Energy developments in Ecuador and Cuba are used here as case studies in order to further develop the idea of energy justice and the theory of unequal ecological exchange. The point is to broaden the framework of the contemporary critical sociology of energy, putting energy justice at its heart. This dissertation contains previously published and unpublished co-authored material.

This dissertation uses mixed methods to examine the role of the coal industry in the reproduction of Central Appalachia as an internal periphery within the United States and the economic, ecological, and human inequalities this entails. It also analyzes the related political economy and power structure of coal in a national context. Particularly important for analysis of the region's underdevelopment are the class relations involved in unequal ecological exchange and the establishment of successive "modes of extraction." I employ a historical comparative analysis of Appalachia to evaluate Bunker's thesis that resource dependent peripheries often become locked into a "mode of extraction" (with aspects parallel to Marxist concepts of mode of production) triggering economic and ecological path dependencies leading to underdevelopment. This historical comparative analysis establishes the background for a closer examination of the political economy of the modern US coal industry. After sketching the changes in the structure of monopoly and competition in the coal industry I employ network analysis of the directorate interlocks of the top twenty coal firms in the US within the larger energy policy-planning network to examine their connections with key institutions of the policy formation network of think tanks and business groups. My findings show the importance of the capacities of fossil fuel fractions of the capitalist class in formulating energy policy around issues such as the 2009 climate legislation. As a contribution to the growing literature applying the concept of metabolism as link between contemporary and classical theory, I examine the conflict at Coal River Mountain from the vantage points of ecology, political economy, and human development in dialectical rotation. Utilizing Marx's method of successive abstractions, the mountain is presented as a nexus of metabolic rifts in the human relationship to the earth's natural systems and an impediment to genuine human development. Finally, I conclude with some implications of this analysis for building a critical environmental sociology of extractive economies. This dissertation includes previously published materials. / 2016-09-29

Why do interstate barriers persist and proliferate in the US and go unnoticed by neoliberal policy-makers, while in other places, like the EU, they get systematically addressed? I challenge the common assumption that the EU is trying but failing to emulate the single market created in the US a long time ago. I show that in many ways, the EU has adopted more liberal rules for the exchange of goods and services across its members states than the US has in effect across its state borders. Focused on the US, I assemble a wide-ranging set of evidence for this assertion ranging from federal policies pursued by conservative administrations since the 1980s and conservative think tank scholarship to an in-depth study of mobility and market barriers in the construction industry. To explain this, I develop two arguments. Firstly, I argue that American and European free-marketeers fundamentally conceptualize markets differently, with American conservatives seeing them as the natural product of government-non-intervention, and European officials seeing them has a deliberate creation of central authority. This leads to different market building strategies with differential effectiveness. At the same time, I argue that the fragmentation and decentralization of the party and interest representation system in the US incentivizes state by state and sector by sector thinking and dis-incentivizes political action—leaving the bigger picture, i.e. interstate barriers, unchanged. Especially interest groups struggle to articulate preferences for inter-state or cross-sectoral cooperation due to organizational incentives. Applying a Bayesian process-tracing logic to mostly within-case and some cross-case evidence, I test conventional structural and institutional theories against my account. Tracing the lack of mobilization of conservative policy-makers and agenda-setters around federal market authority since the 1980s, and interviews with firms, regulators, and legislators about interstate barriers in the construction industry, clearly demonstrate how their imagination of markets prevents a single market building agenda top-down while institutional structures prevent it bottom-up. This is a novel argument, speaking to broader debates about the socially-constructed nature of markets. Studying the US shows that interstate barriers and local protectionism flourish when no central authority deliberately creates ‘free markets’.

Este trabalho realiza uma revisão teórica e crítica dos debates marxistas relacionados à questão da mulher dentro de um escopo econômico, buscando identificar sua inserção acadêmica atual e sua possível capacidade de interpretação da posição econômica das mulheres. O trabalho apresenta um levantamento bibliográfico, apresentando as principais premissas e conceitos utilizados por essa vertente de pensamento e suas correntes internas, e um estudo de caso da Rússia Soviética desde o triunfo da revolução bolchevique até a década de 40 (período da chamada “contrarrevolução feminista”), a fim de verificar como alguns desses preceitos foram aplicados e como as experiências de socialismo real contribuíram para o desenvolvimento da teoria tanto internamente, quanto em relação ao seu prestígio perante as demais escolas de pensamento feministas. Conclui-se que houve um período de fértil debate no marxismo feminista nas décadas de 60 e 70, mas que seu desenvolvimento posterior rumou ou para a fusão entre a teoria marxista e outras correntes de pensamento, afastando-se da economia, ou para o debate interno relacionado à inclusão de um recorte de gênero aos conceitos marxianos. Atualmente, o feminismo marxista parece voltar sua atenção para o resgate à obra original de Marx, em uma tentativa de propôr uma nova teoria feminista anticapitalista metodologicamente ortodoxa. / This paper presents a theoretical and critical review of Marxist debates related to the woman’s question inside the economic scope, seeking to identify it's current academic status and it's capacity to interpret the economic situation of women. A literature review is exhibited in order to present the main assumptions and concepts used by this school of thought and its internal divisions, and a case study of the Soviet Russia since the triumph of the Bolshevik revolution until the 40s (the period of the "feminist counterrevolution") is presented in order to see how some of these principles were applied and how socialism experiences contributed to the development of the theory and to its prestige towards the other feminist schools of thought. It concludes that there was a period of fruitful discussion of feminist Marxism in the 60s and 70s, but it's further development headed or to the merge between Marxist theory and other currents of thought, moving away from the economic scope, or for the debate related to the inclusion of a gender approach to Marxian concepts. Currently, Marxist feminism seems to turn it's attention to the rescue of Marx's original work, in an attempt to propose a new anti capital feminist theory methodologically orthodox.

This dissertation explores the intersection between scientific practices and political economy from the time of Maria Theresa's and Joseph II's reforms in the Habsburg State of Milan to the Cisalpina and Italian Republics. It is structured in four parts, corresponding to the themes of "appropriations", "technologies", "spaces" and "soils". Each of these parts comprises of two chapters, with the exception of the last one on "soils". Part I, named "Appropriations", explores how the Società Patriotica took on board the practices and debates which originated in the context of French Physiocracy, such as economic milling and the question of the scale of land-holdings, and analyses how they were appropriated to fit the political economy of the State of Milan. Part II, titled "Technologies", takes into account the attitudes of Milanese reformers, public officers and naturalists towards mechanical arts and, in general, towards technology for the achievement of the felicità and utilità pubblica. Part III of the dissertation has been named "Spaces". It focuses on the travels of naturalists Domenico Vandelli, Paolo Sangiorgio and Lazzaro Spallanzani, using them as starting points to examine the significance of natural history practices, such as travelling and collecting, for an understanding of contemporary political economy. Part IV, titled "Soils", examines a series of texts about the management and making of salnitro, showing their relevance in the context of the newly founded Italian Republic. Overall, the thesis aims to acknowledge the complexity, as well as the intellectual debts, of the production of political economy and scientific knowledge in the State of Milan, and pushes forward the debate on the Italian Enlightenment, by opposing those narratives which have represented it as a marginal and peripheral case in the broader and more "international" European Enlightenment.

This thesis identifies and analyzes current problems in the healthcare market in China. Although many health indicators of China such as life expectancy and child mortality rates have improved significantly and suggest that the healthcare reform in China is successful, there have been many more reports of patient's violent attack towards the doctor, the sudden death of doctors, and decreasing doctor supplies that suggest otherwise. I observed that the relationship between doctors and patients are intense, doctors experience enormous working pressure, and many doctors are leaving the market. It makes me wonder how did government fail to improve its healthcare quality while health indicators suggest huge improvements. This thesis mainly focuses on how institutions contribute to the market inefficiencies. I hope this thesis will provide some insights for future reform policies.

Este trabalho realiza uma revisão teórica e crítica dos debates marxistas relacionados à questão da mulher dentro de um escopo econômico, buscando identificar sua inserção acadêmica atual e sua possível capacidade de interpretação da posição econômica das mulheres. O trabalho apresenta um levantamento bibliográfico, apresentando as principais premissas e conceitos utilizados por essa vertente de pensamento e suas correntes internas, e um estudo de caso da Rússia Soviética desde o triunfo da revolução bolchevique até a década de 40 (período da chamada “contrarrevolução feminista”), a fim de verificar como alguns desses preceitos foram aplicados e como as experiências de socialismo real contribuíram para o desenvolvimento da teoria tanto internamente, quanto em relação ao seu prestígio perante as demais escolas de pensamento feministas. Conclui-se que houve um período de fértil debate no marxismo feminista nas décadas de 60 e 70, mas que seu desenvolvimento posterior rumou ou para a fusão entre a teoria marxista e outras correntes de pensamento, afastando-se da economia, ou para o debate interno relacionado à inclusão de um recorte de gênero aos conceitos marxianos. Atualmente, o feminismo marxista parece voltar sua atenção para o resgate à obra original de Marx, em uma tentativa de propôr uma nova teoria feminista anticapitalista metodologicamente ortodoxa. / This paper presents a theoretical and critical review of Marxist debates related to the woman’s question inside the economic scope, seeking to identify it's current academic status and it's capacity to interpret the economic situation of women. A literature review is exhibited in order to present the main assumptions and concepts used by this school of thought and its internal divisions, and a case study of the Soviet Russia since the triumph of the Bolshevik revolution until the 40s (the period of the "feminist counterrevolution") is presented in order to see how some of these principles were applied and how socialism experiences contributed to the development of the theory and to its prestige towards the other feminist schools of thought. It concludes that there was a period of fruitful discussion of feminist Marxism in the 60s and 70s, but it's further development headed or to the merge between Marxist theory and other currents of thought, moving away from the economic scope, or for the debate related to the inclusion of a gender approach to Marxian concepts. Currently, Marxist feminism seems to turn it's attention to the rescue of Marx's original work, in an attempt to propose a new anti capital feminist theory methodologically orthodox.

Essa dissertação pressupõe a existência de um trade-off enfrentado pelos políticos em anos de eleição. Se por um lado a possibilidade de realizar ciclos da política econômica em ano eleitoral pode refletir em aumento da probabilidade de reeleição, por outro lado é razoável supor que o político incorre em algum tipo de custo ao realizar ciclos. A partir dessa suposição, essa dissertação investiga se os ciclos políticos são menores em situações em que o político incumbente possui, ex-ante, uma alta probabilidade de se reeleger. Essa investigação é feita a partir da análise da despesa dos municípios brasileiros no período de 1997 a 2007. Os resultados mostram que existem evidências de que em anos eleitorais os gastos são distorcidos em favor das despesas com transferências. Os resultados também indicam que em situações em que o candidato possui, ex-ante, uma grande probabilidade de ser reeleito, os ciclos são menores, o que parece de acordo com a hipótese de existência de custos para a realização de ciclos. / This dissertation assumes the existence of a trade-off faced by politicians in election years. On one hand the possibility of cycles in election years may reflect in increased probability of re-election. On the other hand it is reasonable to assume that the politician incurs in some kind of cost to do political cycles. From this assumption, this paper investigates whether political cycles are smaller in situations where the incumbent politician has, exante, a high probability of reelection. This research is done by analyzing the expenditure of Brazilian municipalities in the period 1997 to 2007. The results shows that there is evidence that spending in election years are distorted in favor of spending on transfers. The results also indicate that in situations where the candidate has, ex-ante, a high probability of being reelected, the cycles tend to be smaller, which seems to be in line with the hypothesis postulated in this dissertation.

O primeiro artigo analisa quantitativamente a importância relativa dos fatores que determinam o desempenho econômico dos países. Em especial, é incorporada à análise a possibilidade do capital ser heterogêneo. Estimativas da qualidade do capital são feitas para cada país, resultantes de um modelo teórico, e a importância de cada um dos componentes é analisada. Mesmo depois do ajuste, a qualidade do capital físico não explica grande parte da experiência de crescimento dos países. Além disso, é feita uma análise para o caso brasileiro com o arcabouço desenvolvido durante o período que vai de 1970 até 2003. Conclui-se nesta análise que a heterogeneidade do capital não explica grande parte da experiência de crescimento do Brasil. O segundo artigo apresenta um modelo que relaciona crescimento econômico, educação, investimento e regimes políticos. Para isto, propõe-se um modelo de gerações sobrepostas em que existem dois grupos de agentes: os capitalistas e os trabalhadores. Além disso, uma democracia é definida como um governo em que todos votam e, pelo fato do eleitor mediano ser também um trabalhador, os trabalhadores podem então taxar o investimento e redistribuir na forma de capital humano. O principal resultado é que a democracia desestimula o investimento de capital físico e estimula o aumento de capital humano. O terceiro artigo busca explicar o aumento do consumo após a redução da inflação causada por um controle de preços. O foco é direcionado para o consumo de bens duráveis e a dificuldade dos domicílios de se protegerem dos efeitos da inflação. Uma redução súbita na inflação reduz o preço efetivo dos bens duráveis, levando a uma expansão destes. Todos os modelos são calibrados para a experiência brasileira do Cruzado, em meados da década de 80, e dois arcabouços básicos são apresentados: um em que os domicílios não possuem acesso ao mercado de crédito e outro em que possuem acesso parcial. Além disso, é apresentada a possibilidade de reduções permanentes e temporárias da taxa de inflação. As principais conclusões do artigo são que o modelo em que os domicílios não possuem acesso a crédito e são heterogêneos nas preferências é o que mais se aproxima com os dados apresentados da experiência do plano Cruzado. / The first article analyzes quantitatively the relative importance of the factors that determine economic performance of the countries. Mainly, the empirical exercise incorporates the possibility of heterogeneous capital. Estimates of the quality of the capital are made for each country from results of a theoretical model and the importance of each one of the components is analyzed. Even after the adjustment in the quality of capital, the quality of physical capital does not explain too much of the growth experiences. Furthermore, the Brazilian experience is analyzed with the developed framework from 1970 to 2003. The main conclusion is that the heterogeneity of capital inserted in the model does not explain too much of the Brazilian growth experience. oindent The second article presents a model which relates economic growth, education, investment and political regimes. In order to do that, is presented a model of overlapping generations with two groups of agents: capitalists and workers. Furthermore, a democracy is defined as a government where everybody votes and, by the fact that the median voter is also a worker, the working class then can tax more heavily the investment and redistribute through human capital investment. The main result of the article is that democracies undermine investment in physical capital and enhances the growth of human capital. oindent The third article seeks to explain consumption booms after inflation stabilization plans centered on price controls. The focus is directed to durable goods and the difficulty for households to protect themselves from inflation. A sudden decrease in the inflation rate reduces effective consumption price of durable goods, leading to a boom. All the models are calibrated for mid-80\'s Brazil and two base simulations are presented: one in which none of the households have access to the credit market and one where households have partial access to the credit market. Other than that, it is also presented the possibility of permanent and temporary stabilization of inflation. The main conclusion of the article is that the model in which households do not have access to the credit market and are heterogeneous in preferences is the one that better explains the Brazilian experience of Cruzado.