Since housing choice and strategy are the result of both an individual’s financial capability in a particular life stage, as well as overall political-economic circumstances, the study of housing behavior has been used to emphasize processes of urban development and social change. However, housing behavior in the Chinese context has not attracted much research attention. Although many studies have been done on various topics surrounding China’s housing reform, only several quantitative studies have touched upon the topic of individual housing behavior. All of the existing literature is based on statistics before 1998 when work-unit housing distribution was officially repealed. This thesis offers an update of qualitative information on how young white-collar workers approach homeownership after 1998. Ten young homeowners from Beijing, together with some practitioners in the housing market and two governmental officials were interviewed. Based on the information offered by the interviewees, this thesis examines how state policies, market situations, family structure, and special characteristics of Beijing as a capital city impact the housing choices and strategies of young homeowners. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

On April 17, 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was proclaimed into force. By including a set of constitutionally entrenched core legal rights (i.e. ss. 8, 9, and 10(b), and a remedial mechanism designed to enforce those rights (i.e. s. 24(2)), the Charter had the potential to alter certain repressive elements of the criminal justice system that had endured in Canada for over a century. Despite this potential, both the core legal rights and s. 24(2) were drafted using vague terminology. As a result, the Charter ‘s ability to succeed where previous attempts at instituting effective due process protections for Canadians had failed would depend largely on the judiciary’s ability to satisfactorily craft such protections out of imprecise statutory language. This thesis will argue that the Supreme Court of Canada has created a test for the exclusion of unconstitutionally obtained evidence under s. 24(2) that fails to adequately protect the core legal rights of the socially, racially and economically marginalized individuals to whom the Canadian criminal justice system is disproportionately applied. In advancing this argument, the relevant jurisprudence and academic literature will be analyzed according to a methodology inspired by the Critical Legal Studies movement. The issue of exclusion will be examined in its social context, primarily by analyzing the current system of Canadian criminal justice and acknowledging its over-application to the socially disenfranchised. It will be argued that the Supreme Court’s test for exclusion has developed as it has because of the judiciary’s subconscious tendency to interpret unclear constitutional provisions in keeping with the dominant conservative ideology, a method that favours maintaining the social status quo. The purpose of this thesis is to set out a framework for a reform of the Charter ‘s exclusionary mechanism. This new approach will attempt to situate social context at the forefront of the s. 24(2) decision-making process. It will be argued that the concept of “disrepute” within s. 24(2) must be redefined so that it captures investigatory practices made possible by unjust social, racial and economic divisions that render certain groups powerless, and thus more vulnerable to police surveillance. / Law, Faculty of / Graduate

Inequities in education have long been the driving force behind school reform movements. In efforts to desegregate schools and offer more equitable education opportunities, more privatized and marketized school systems have emerged. This movement has been referred to as neoliberalism. This term encompasses the individual’s right to make school selections based on their personal preferences or desires. Current school choice research suggests parents seek schools with better resources or curriculum, desire the social connections certain schools can offer them, or select schools based on right fit for their families. Neoliberals argue that schools will be reformed or transformed as a result of changing to meet the needs of their customers. They believe competitive school markets will lead to better education systems. However, outcomes of choice movements have been inconsistent and have not demonstrated that choice has impacted achievement or addressed educational disparities. Some argue that it has further segregated schools and has led to greater inequities, particularly for minority or disadvantaged students. Furthermore, the research suggests that access may be facilitated or hindered by an individual’s cultural or social capital. Conversely, the research on student mobility suggests that minority and disadvantaged student populations are often highly mobile students. Frequent school moves for these student groups are detrimental to their academic success and can affect their school experience on multiple levels. The result is two opposing views on how to best ensure student achievement. One view encourages movement, the other does not. This study examined the use of open-enrollment in highly-mobile, high poverty schools. The findings suggest that a connection between student mobility and use of open-enrollment exists. Additionally, the findings revealed that barriers continue to hinder true choice access and motivations for school choice differs in parents at high-poverty, high-mobility schools. The parents in this study did not exercise choice to improve academic outcomes. This is counter to the intent of school choice. Factors such as safety, happiness and relationships were more valued and sought. Moreover, school movement was often prompted by negative events resulting in situational movement. In these instances, open enrollment was utilized to facilitate a reactionary response instead of being utilized to improve achievement outcomes. Based on the results of this study, an evaluation of current school choice practices, legislation and funding may be necessary to ensure the future success of students when exercising choice opportunities.

The Coinage Bill of 1816 was a turning point in monetary history, establishing Britain on the gold standard and making provision for a major recoinage and exchange of silver. The intention in this thesis has been to examine why the reform happened when it did, what its legacy was for the nineteenth century and what the surviving records, particularly of the exchange, reveal about the nature of the circulating medium. In Chapters 1 and 2 the eighteenth-century background is explored in order to clarify why government chose to allow the condition of the silver coinage to decline. The argument is advanced that economic stability for many years lessened the necessity for reform and the importance of gold in the economy made ministers wary of damaging its position through change. An investigation into the wear of silver coins has also been conducted which demonstrates that by the 1780s they were likely to have lost virtually all trace of design details. The reasons why reform was enacted in 1816 are discussed in Chapter 3, the explanation offered being the importance of war with France having ended and the Bank of England's needing to prepare for the resumption of redeeming its notes in gold. In Chapter 4 the political reputation of William Wellesley Pole is assessed together with his contribution to the recoinage, while in Chapters 5 and 6 the administration of the reform is described and analysed in detail. The traditional view of its being a success is confirmed by new research. The accounts from exchange stations set up to effect the change-over, listed in Appendices 3 and 4, and discussed in Chapter 6, reveal that although there were trading centres and manufacturing areas in which the old silver currency was concentrated, it was nevertheless fairly well distributed across Britain. I have attempted throughout to link the silver coinage to the other elements of the money supply. This approach is particularly evident in Chapter 7 in which the impact of the political and economic forces pressing for a resumption of cash payments are seen to shape the survival of the settlement of 1816-17.

The thesis contains three essays that investigate the effects of macroeconomic reforms on the Malawian economy between 1980 and 2010. Specifically, the thesis tries to answer three broad questions. First, what is the effect of financial reforms on consumption behavior in Malawi? Second, how did monetary transmission mechanism in Malawi change over time following the implementation of financial reforms? Last, how did the monetary policy respond to foreign aid increases following the implementation of financial reforms in the country? Although answers for these questions are available for other developing countries where abundant research has been conducted, this is not the case in Malawi. Existing research on Malawi has not accounted for the effects of the reforms on consumption behavior, the evolution of the transmission mechanism over time and the monetary policy impact of aid on the economy. Yet such information is very useful in the design and proper implementation of financial and monetary policies that contribute to price stability and economic growth. The first essay assesses whether financial reforms has had a statistically significant effect on Malawi consumption behaviour. More specifically, the essay starts by examining the existence of Permanent Income Hypothesis (PIH) and then proceed to assess whether the reforms have affected consumption behaviour by reducing liquidity constraints. The essay presents a robust account of the financial reforms and constructs financial reform indices for the country. These indices are then used to exam the effects of the reforms on consumption. The essay finds that the PIH does not hold in Malawi. Most consumers are current income consumers (rule-of-thumb). They consume from “hand to mouth” and very little is left to smooth consumption in their life time. The reforms did not shift current income consumers to permanent income consumers. Empirical evidence from the thesis shows that the main failure of the PIH hypothesis is due to liquidity constraint which is manifested in the under development of the financial market and unstable macroeconomic conditions in Malawi. Weak financial institutions, both structural and operational have impacted negatively on the accessibility of financial resources for most Malawians despite the reforms. This is a bigger lesson for policy makers to consider in the preparation of future broad based financial reforms. The second essay provides an empirical analysis of the lag effect of implementing financial reforms on price stability and economic growth. We use the monetary transmission mechanism framework based on the time varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model with stochastic volatility. It is becoming clear from literature that financial reforms can change the transmission mechanism by changing the overall impact of the policy or by altering the transmission channels overtime. Therefore, the impact of monetary policy on price stability and output growth can vary and portray delayed effects overtime. The essay finds that inflation, real output and exchange rate responses to monetary policy shocks vary over the period under review. Importantly, beginning mid-2000, the monetary policy transmission performed consistently with predictions of economic theory and there is no evidence of price puzzle as found in the previous literature on Malawi. In the last essay, a Bayesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model for Malawi is developed and estimated to account for the short-run monetary response to aid inflows in Malawi between 1980 and 2010. The model incorporated the rational expectations of economic agents based on micro foundations. The estimated model showed that monetary authorities reacted to foreign aid inflows. Based on how aid was spent and absorbed in Malawi, aid inflows appeared to be associated with depreciations of the exchange rate rather than the expected real appreciation. There is also evidence of limited impact of a positive aid shock on depreciation and inflation when RBM targets monetary aggregates compared to when the authorities use the Taylor rule and incomplete sterilisation. On the other hand, the thesis found that the implication of increased aid inflows became more prominent in an economy comprising of few economic agents having access to financial assets. Furthermore, the monetary policy responses are much clear consistent with economic theory in a market with less controls over prices and open capital account. The contribution of the thesis to the literature is that, firstly, this looks into the effects of macroeconomic reforms on economic activities in the context of a Sub-Saharan Africa country, Malawi. The thesis enhances the understanding of the effects of macroeconomic reforms on consumption, evolution of monetary policy overtime and the impact of aid inflows on the conduct of monetary policy in Malawi in ways that have not been done before. Secondly, the thesis takes advantages of multivariate econometric methodologies in an attempt to capture both the dynamics of time series data and the relationship among key macroeconomic variables. The thesis develops and estimates a DSGE model for Malawi which is derived from microeconomic foundations of optimisation problem, making it less susceptible to the Lucas critique and thus suitable for policy analysis. The results will help policy makers and development partners such as the IMF and the World Bank in the design of policies and programs that aim at improving the financial sector that is accommodative of achieving price stability and economic growth in Malawi. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Economics / PhD / unrestricted

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / The Government of Namibia has been responsible for facilitating the resettlement of destitute and landless people since its independence in 1990. The provision of resettlement is a very contentious issue in Namibia. The bulk of land is still in the hands of minority white communities and foreigners. It is against this background that the study examined the land reform process in Namibia. The objectives of the study was to investigate to what extent the land reform process has been successful in one of Namibia's regions, and what factors are relevant for success, and identify ways to improve the process; to examine the original government objective/policy and how/why it changed over time. / South Africa

Magister Philosophiae (Land and Agrarian Studies) - MPhil(LAS) / The thesis examines continuity and change in the agrarian history of the Mwenezi District, southern Zimbabwe since 1980. It analyses agrarian reforms, agrarian practices and development initiatives in the district and situates them in the localised livelihood strategies of different people within the Dinhe Communa Area and the Mangondi resettlement Area in Lieu of the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) since 2000. The thesis also examines the livelihood opportunities and challenges presented by the FTLRP to the inhabitants of Mwenezi.The thesis contributes to the growing body of empirical studies on the impact of Zimbabwe's ongoing land reform programme and to debates and discourses on agrarian reform. / South Africa

Tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade are measures that are put in place in a country to which an exporter wants to export to. These barriers make it difficult for a new manufacturer to export their products. These measures may be considered undesirable in the context of world trade, because they restrict the flow of goods and are detrimental to the consumer because they drive prices up. The Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations significantly reduced tariff barriers to trade. During the same round, the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade was negotiated with a view to ensure that countries use technical regulations (non- tariff barriers) for no other purpose than to protect the health and safety of the public and the environment. Many of the developing countries have not yet been able to take full advantage of this agreement. It is often difficult and costly for exporters from developing countries to meet the technical requirements of standards and technical regulations and to provide evidence of compliance. This stems from a lack of resources available to developing countries to participate and influence the work of international standards-setting bodies serving as a basis for technical regulation. The absence of internationally recognised national infrastructure for standardisation, accreditation and metrology also prevents acceptance of African products in export markets. Various regions such as Asia and Europe have initiated technical regulatory reforms to align their technical regulations with the requirements of the World Trade Organisation requirements and to establish appropriate technical institutions. These reforms are also expected to assist member countries to gain a competitive edge in global trade ensuring increased gains from trade liberalisation initiatives which provide fair market access for goods and services. Africa appears to be lagging behind the abovementioned regions. The current technical regulatory system in Africa is still too inefficient and ineffective to position African countries competitively. The technical institutions are underdeveloped and under funded and can not support market assess and thus economic development. It is in this context that this study is conducted to explore the technical regulatory framework in Africa against the background of reforms in Asia and Europe with a view of providing public policy recommendations for the establishment of an African technical regulatory system supported by appropriate institutional capacity that may expedite economic recovery for the continent. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / Unrestricted

Canada has long been a proponent of free trade while at the same time defending the current supply management system that protects the dairy industry from import competition. In the most recent Doha Development Round of talks amongst nations belonging to the World Trade Organization, the validity of Canada's protectionist position has been questioned and it is conceivable that Canada may have to make significant changes in the dairy industry to allow more liberal trade policies to be enacted. The key purpose of this study is to find out how free trade will affect the research and development (R&D) incentives of Canadian dairy farmers. On one hand they may be induced to perform more R&D due to competition effects in order to lower costs and achieve a competitive advantage over the main competitor, the United States. On the other hand they may be induced to perform less R&D due to the spillover effect, which allows the Canadian R&D efforts to be used by the United States at no additional cost. It is found that the outcome of these two opposing forces depends on the market scale effect. If Canada is a net importer when the border opens the spillover effect may dominate and Canadian dairy producers may invest less into R&D than under the current protectionist policies. These results however will switch if Canada is found to be the net exporters. The results also depend on the level of the quota currently in place. If the current quota is chosen at a quantity relatively close to the amount supplied at the monopolistic level, a free trade regime may promote R&D efforts more so than supply management. On the other hand, if the current quota level in Canada is closer to the quantity that would be supplied in a competitive industry, Canadian dairy producers may invest less heavily in R&D efforts under a free trade regime than a supply management system. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

One of the measures introduced in order to address the effects of the racial land discriminatory practices and policies which led to the majority of the South African population being denied access to land prior to 1994 is the national land reform programme. This includes replacement of discriminatory policies with those intended to redress the injustices of colonial and apartheid land dispossession. This study has focused on national land reform programme with specific reference to the land redistribution programme. This has been done by assessing the factors affecting the beneficiaries of the land reform process with reference to the selected land redistribution project in the Cacadu District Municipality in the Province of the Eastern Cape. As a result of this study, key challenges experienced by the beneficiaries of the land reform process were identified. These challenges include the difficulties relating to access to services such as training, mentoring, credit and transport by the beneficiaries of the land reform process; lack of skills , lack of access to markets, and the lack of co-ordination between government departments. In view of these challenges, this study provides recommendations for improving the implementation of land redistribution projects.