This paper draws on communications research to complement existing models of the political economy of trade policy by introducing the role of media as an institution interacting with policy makers, special interest groups and the public, influencing the formulation of policy and supporting a bias towards protective trade policies. Through the concepts of framing and perceived public opinion, media can contribute to and reinforce problem definitions and suggested solutions that limit the range of alternative policies available to policy makers. In the case of trade policy, established frames for conflict discourse that are efficiently represented in media give incentives to special interest groups to voice demands for support that focus on foreign adversaries, trade interventions and import restrictions. The hypothesis that media effects can contribute to trade policies based on tariffs or other forms of import restrictions is tested by an empirical examination of media coverage leading up to the U.S. decision to impose tariffs on imported steel in the spring 2002. The empirical study of news coverage in the New York Times suggests that to the extent that policy makers are concerned about real or perceived public opinion, they have incentives to adopt tariff-based or other import-restricting trade policies, rather than economically more efficient redistributive policies, wherever the conflict frame is prevalent and special interest groups have media access.

Many people would argue that New Zealand has had a poor reputation for providing support services for the families of people with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The limited support services available for families in this country were highlighted during the trial and the manslaughter conviction of Janine Albury-Thomson. Albury-Thomson was found guilty of the manslaughter of her autistic daughter, Casey (MOH, 1999). The sentencing judge called for an independent inquiry to be held to examine the extent of support services that were available for families affected by the disorder with a view to identifying any gaps that may exist and ascertaining whether or not government policy could be blamed (Norris, 1998). More than twelve years have now elapsed since the Albury-Thomson trial and research was needed to ascertain the experiences of families raising a child with ASD. This research examines the experiences of families who have a child who has an ASD diagnosis. Research participants were families of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder who reside in the Canterbury/West Coast area. The research explored the support needs of families and the informal and formal supports that are available to them in this region. This research was conducted in three parts, with each part having a distinct method of data collection allowing triangulation of research findings. Part one was a survey questionnaire distributed via a range of mediums using a snowball sampling method. The second data set was made up of two case studies that were undertaken with a semi-structured interview approach. The third set of data was elicited via a semi-structured interview process from five local service providers that provide services to those with ASD and their families. A qualitative methodology was adopted to analyse research findings. This methodological approach was selected because it gave participants the opportunity to tell their stories about the diagnostic pathway they travelled and their experiences using available services. This research has social policy relevance as it was designed to examine the participant’s experiences while using services and resources available for the families of people with ASD in the Canterbury/West Coast area. Participants told of various social, emotional, and practical impacts and of the experiences they encountered while using the various services available. While the level of awareness of ASD has increased, the diagnosis process proved to be problematic for some when using the public health system. Consistent with a 2001 study commissioned on behalf of the Autistic Association of New Zealand, participants in this study who sought a diagnosis through the public health system found it to be a protracted process. Participants attributed delays to a lack of resources or staff that had a limited knowledge of ASD and saw these factors as barriers to obtaining a diagnosis within an acceptable time frame. A more timely diagnosis was reportedly received when the private health system was used. With regards to support offered by the agencies involved with ‘day to day’ contact with families it was found that overall, competent, experienced people worked for the existing agencies and they were capable of offering support where needed. However specific issues were identified by participants including a perception that case managers failed to understand their situation because they were unfamiliar with the implications of having a family member with ASD. Significantly, family members and service providers both identified a concern about a lack of suitable accommodation that can be utilised by a person with ASD. Because there is limited research into the support needs of families of a child with ASD this research provides an important insight into the needs of a fairly marginalised, and sometimes socially isolated, group. Implications for ongoing service provision and support of families are discussed in the thesis.

The purpose of the study was to develop an optimum market-positioning model for the special interest tourism market to support arts festivals in South Africa (SA). Three subareas were deemed essential for the model, namely determining which attributes contribute to the success of three arts festival scenarios, comparing the different arts festival packages as a tourism attraction and then combining these subareas to develop a model enabling future researchers and marketers to present a successful arts festival in South Africa. The three main arts festivals in South Africa, at Potchefstroom, Grahamstown and Oudtshoorn, were studied. Screening questions followed by judgmental and quota sampling were used to select only like-minded respondents from festival attendees on a scenario basis. In personal interviews the data were collected and then analysed using conjoint analysis and game theory. Conjoint analysis was used in a linear regression model with individual ratings for each product. The average of the r-squares in this study was 0,83, indicating a good fit between data and model developed. Then these results were used in the game theory, comparing the three arts festival scenarios to identify the most successful tourism attraction. A different combination of attributes gave each of the three festival scenarios an optimum market position in its own niche market. The study contributes to the existing body of positioning knowledge, specifically in the festivals and events domain. It also adds value as this model can be applied to other festivals in South Africa and also to other business sectors. / Transport Economy, Logistics and Tourism / D. Com. (Tourism Management)

Despite there being general agreement that SMEs are valuable in the global and South African economy to aid in creating jobs and in growing the economy, few benefits accrue to these enterprises as they endure a number of challenges which make them unsustainable. This research aimed to investigate the sustainability of SMEs in Tshwane townships, with an aim to design a framework that could be used by other SMEs that intend to enter the tourism industry, to ensure that they are sustainable and can contribute towards the expansion of the South African economy. The primary data was collected through a questionnaire, which was used to obtain information on Tshwane township tourism SMEs, as a way of detecting whether they were sustainable or not. The results indicated that the Tshwane township tourism SMEs were very small enterprises created by owners who were passionate about the tourism product. These enterprises have not been able to grow and employ more people but have provided employment and survival income for the owner and, in some cases, two additional people. SMEs face various challenges relating to sustainability, one of the main challenges being financial stability. SMEs are therefore unable to play their intended role in the creation of employment as well as in contributing to the economy as a whole. In an attempt to assist the owners and/or managers of SMEs to fulfil their roles, an SME framework was developed in the course of the present research. This framework comprises a step-by-step guide that asks all the relevant questions aimed at getting to know the business and culminating in a range of recommendations that could assist in making these SMEs sustainable. / Entrepreneurship and Supply Chain, Transport, Tourism and Logistics Management / M. Com. (Tourism Management)

[pt] Esta tese é composta por três capítulos que enfocam o crescimento da China como um experimento quasi-natural de forma a avaliar os efeitos de choques de comércio exterior sobre a economia política da política comercial e sobre a dinâmica do mercado de trabalho e desigualdade de salários no Brasil. No primeiro capítulo, utilizamos evidência sobre diferenciais de exposição a esse choque da China entre mercados de trabalho locais para estimar seu efeito em indicadores do mercado de trabalho brasileiro, em particular em medidas de desigualdade de rendimentos. Primeiro, encontramos que o choque de demanda por exportações diminuiu a desigualdade de salários no setor de bens comercializáveis, sobretudo por meio do componente entre firmas da dispersão salarial, e apresentamos evidências de que essa redução parece causada por uma mudança no comportamento das firmas, e pode estar relacionado com uma redução no prêmio salarial de firmas exportadoras. Em seguida, estimamos um modelo baseado em Helpman et al. (2016), e exploramos diferenças setoriais no choque de demanda externa para realizar exercícios contrafactuais que corroboram a hipótese de que esse choque pode explicar parte da redução agregada no prêmio salarial de firmas exportadoras e na dispersão de salários. No segundo capítulo, desenvolvemos uma versão do modelo dinâmico de Caliendo et al. (2019) de modo a estimar os efeitos do duplo choque da China na dinâmica setorial do emprego no Brasil. Mostramos que ambos os choques levam à contração da maioria dos setores de manufaturas, e expansão da maioria dos setores de serviços, mas os efeitos de equilíbrio geral dos choques são modestos, especialmente quando comparados a um contrafactual alternativo no qual a produtividade brasileira nos setores primários aumenta. Estendemos o modelo para incluir dois tipos de trabalho, de alta e baixa qualificação; resultados apontam para efeitos distributivos pequenos, mas consistentes com resultados em forma reduzida obtidos no primeiro capítulo. No capítulo final, construímos uma base de dados inédita sobre características de associações setoriais brasileiras, com o intuito de investigar se os setores com maior capacidade de organização política são capazes de obter maior proteção contra competidores estrangeiros. Usamos variação na penetração de importações como uma medida da necessidade de proteção comercial, e para lidar com a endogeneidade nessa medida usamos um instrumento baseado no choque de importações da China. A evidência sugere que setores com maiores sindicatos patronais são capazes de obter maior proteção comercial, em particular por meio de licenciamento não-automático; as estimativas sugerem que esse efeito é mais alto quando a penetração de importações aumenta mais intensamente, o que é interpretado como um aumento na necessidade de medidas de proteção. / [en] This thesis consists of three chapters, all of which focus on the rise of China as a quasi-natural experiment in order to assess the effects of foreign trade shocks on the political economy of trade policy and on the dynamics of labor markets and earnings inequality in Brazil. In the first chapter, we use evidence on the differential exposure across local labor markets to this China shock in order to estimate its effect on Brazilian labor markets outcomes, in particular on measures of income inequality. First, we find that the export demand shock has decreased wage inequality in the tradables sector, mostly through the between-firms component of wage dispersion, and provide evidence that this reduction seems driven by a change in wage-setting behavior of firms, and may be linked to a reduction in the wage premium of exporter firms. We then estimate a model based on Helpman et al. (2016), and explore sectoral differences in the foreign demand shock to run counterfactual exercises that support the hypothesis that this shock can explain part of the aggregate reduction in the exporter wage premium and in wage dispersion. In the second chapter, we develop a version of the dynamic trade model by Caliendo et al. (2019) in order to estimate the effects of the dual China shock on the sectoral dynamics of Brazilian employment. We show that both shocks lead to a contraction in most manufacturing sectors, and an expansion in most services sectors, but the general equilibrium effects of the shocks are modest, especially if compared to an alternative counterfactual in which Brazilian productivity in primary sectors increase. We then extend the model to include two types of labor, skilled and unskilled. Results also point to small distributional effects of the China shock, but consistent with reduced-form evidence obtained in Chapter 1. In the final chapter, we build a novel dataset on Brazilian trade associations’ characteristics in order to investigate whether industries with higher capacity of political organization are able to obtain more protection from foreign competitors. We use variation in import penetration as a measure of the need for trade protection, and address endogeneity on this measure by using an instrumental variables strategy based on the China import shock. Evidence suggests that industries with larger employer unions are able to obtain more protection, particularly through non-automatic licensing; the estimates suggest that this effect is higher when import penetration increases more intensely, which is interpreted as increased need for protective measures.