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This thesis investigates the existence and form of association between the technological structure of one of the most highly capital-intensive industries in the world, the paper and pulp (p&p) industry, and its dynamic behaviour in terms of market growth and development. Industrial structure issues are particularly relevant in highly capital-intensive sectors because they reflect the influence of economies of scale and changing patterns of entry and exit. The thesis draws upon two related bodies of literature: the dynamics of industrial structure, and heterogeneity within industry. It uses a quantitative hypothesis-deductive method and two panel databases. The first of these databases identifies key characteristics of the world's 150 largest p&p firms during the period 1978-2000, accounting for two-thirds of world output. The second dataset contains annual production capacity for the entire population of US p&p companies during the period 1970-2000. The US is the largest producer and consumer of p&p, accounting for one-third of world output. The main findings are as follows. Firstly, we demonstrate that p&p firms' growth is not a 'random walk' process, a generalization referred to in the literature as Gibrat's law. Nor is there a linear relation between growth and size distribution or between time and growth rates. We find that size, technology and time matter. Secondly, we demonstrate that this departure from Gibrat's law is due to the existence of three distinctive technological configurations or strategic groups of firms: 'Large & Diversified', 'Medium & Specialized', and 'Small & Very Specialized', which show persistently heterogeneous growth performance. In contrast with the findings in most of the recent empirical literature that shows smaller firms growing faster within the industry size distribution, the medium & specialized p&p companies show systematically the highest rates of growth. Thirdly, patterns of p&p firm survival and technological adoption behaviour over the last three decades are identified and related to the principal technological advances during the period, i.e. the very rapid increase in paper machine operating speed. The research contributes to the literature by providing robust new empirical evidence of the persistence over time of an intra-industry technological structure that systematically influences the heterogeneous performance of firms with different technological configurations and whose origins are linked to firms' growth processes (industrial dynamics) in the p&p industry.

by Pak Chui Mei, Pat. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-44). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vi / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.vii / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Automobile Industry in China --- p.1 / Passenger Car --- p.2 / Outlook --- p.3 / Research Objectives --- p.4 / Chapter II. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.5 / Chapter III. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.7 / The Current Passenger Car Market Players --- p.7 / The Overall Market/ Industry --- p.13 / Chapter IV. --- HINDERING FACTORS --- p.18 / Demand Not Encouraging --- p.18 / Impact of WTO Membership --- p.18 / Neglected Component Sector --- p.19 / Aftermarket Is In Disorder --- p.19 / Policy Loophole/Conflicts --- p.20 / Local Protectionism --- p.21 / Smuggling --- p.21 / Debt Default Dilemma --- p.22 / Chapter V. --- GLOBALIZATON POTENTIAL AND VALUE --- p.24 / Market --- p.25 / Cost --- p.27 / Competitor --- p.29 / Government --- p.32 / Chapter VI. --- AREAS FOR CONSIDERATION --- p.34 / Facilitating Consolidation --- p.34 / Promoting Long-term Market Hype --- p.35 / Building Faith in the Beijing Government --- p.36 / 50/50 --- p.37 / Chapter VII. --- LIMITATIONS --- p.38 / APPENDIX --- p.40 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.42

This dissertation addresses a fundamental question: how did the English, French, and Dutch establish successful colonies and trade routes in the Iberian-dominated Americas? It argues that the English, Dutch, and French (a group I refer to as the “Upstart Empires”) relied upon Iberian and indigenous knowledge and trade networks in a series of illicit commercial operations and failed colonies in South America and the Caribbean before they were able to establish themselves permanently in the Americas. These little-studied colonial experiments all had one thing in common: tobacco. A crop in high demand that grows nearly anywhere and requires little special equipment, tobacco was an obvious choice for new colonies. The Spanish Empire was founded on mineral extraction and the subjugation of extant empires. For other colonizers, the development of plantation economies was crucial. Cultivating Colonies looks at how this came to be. This dissertation relies upon a diverse source base, using Spanish, Dutch, French, and English archives to tell a story that transcends imperial boundaries. The dissertation begins by considering the intersection of botany and European expansion. It situates European voyages of discovery and colonization in the context of a search for plants and their products, including spices, and argues that early colonization efforts involved a close understanding of local environments. Tobacco was a plant Europeans encountered nearly everywhere they went in the Americas, but it was only a century after Columbus that smoking became fashionable in Europe. Thus, tobacco’s rise as a transatlantic commodity coincided with the Upstart Empires’ increased presence in the Americas. Spanish colonists and Africans learned how to grow and consume tobacco from indigenous peoples. Spanish colonies on the margins of empire began to produce it to trade with the English, Dutch, and French from the late sixteenth century. Through this trade, the Upstart Empires learned more about tobacco, and also about the environment and geography of places just beyond the reach of the Spanish and Portuguese. They began to establish trading posts and colonies in such places, and especially in the Guianas—a vast stretch of land between the limits of the two Iberian powers. There, Carib, Arawak, and other indigenous groups were willing to ally with small numbers of interlopers against their Spanish enemies. In these settlements, Northern Europeans participated in indigenous warfare and traded commodities in exchange for agricultural knowledge, labor, and goods. Even as the Upstarts established permanent colonies in North America and the Caribbean, they continued to settle in South America, too. Moreover, the Upstarts’ experiences in South America were crucial to the development of their colonies to the north. Colonies as diverse as St. Christopher, Virginia, and New Netherland all grew tobacco using methods and seeds from South America. In each settlement’s early years, the Upstarts were also reliant upon indigenous and African agricultural knowledge, an overlooked foundation of European colonization. Cultivating Colonies argues that the illicit tobacco trade and the short-lived colonies that sprang from it were crucial to the ultimate success of the English, Dutch, and French empires in the Americas.

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The purpose of this paper is to investigate how investments in trade shows can be made more effective. The method was a descriptive study builds on primary and secondary sources. The primary sources were collected in an anonymous survey where 204 respondents were asked about their experience of trade shows and what attracts them. The secondary sources were collected from previous research collected from scientific articles. The theory indicated that more effective investments in trade shows could be made upon what the visitor requires and attracts of. The implication of the paper was that inspiration is the primary factor to visit trade shows and that a spectacular stand and dedicated and inviting people in the stand are the factors that attract the visitors. Therefor exhibitors ought to prioritise their resources to improve these factors. Plans and targets are important tools to following up the outputs from trade shows. It is also about making a consideration of focus between visitors that already have interest and the visitors that just looking. The exhibitors have to think about if they value profits in short or/and in long run. The consideration is also about how they handling giveaways and gift in the most effective way. Another significant factor is to develop the company´s Internet approach in a strategic way pre- and post-show. Above all, that the exhibitor chooses trade shows within their industry.

MA (Labour Policies and Globalisation), Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / South African pension fund assets are estimated at ZAR 1 924 billion. This is a large pool of funds that is collected from workers. However, the contention is that workers, whose savings make up the assets of pension funds have little influence on how these funds are used. As a result, most of the funds are invested in corporations, which do not reflect the aspirations of the labour movement. The argument is that if these funds were under the control and direction of the working class, enormous contributions would be made towards economic growth, socially useful investments, community development, employment creation and growth in retirement benefits. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which trade unions have been able to promote the interest of members and direct pension fund investment in sectors that will have a positive impact on working families and their communities in South Africa. This study adopted a qualitative method, using purposive sampling and a semi-structured outline to conduct face-to-face interviews with union unions and fund managers. Collected data were analyzed using content analysis. Results were categorized into two distinct parts. The first part looked at pension fund investment regulation and management, asset allocation, investment practices and composition of the pension board. The second part described trade unions’ role in promoting the interest of pension fund members; the extent of their influence in pension fund investments; their contribution to strengthening pension fund governance and how to enhance their influence and control of pension fund investments. The study suggests that trade unions have a critical role to play in pension fund management through their representation on the pension boards. However, the success can only be achieved if trade unions have a clear policy that spells out labour’s agenda on pension issues. Additionally, union trustees should be supported to getting involved in understanding their plans and develop capacities in capital market strategies, investment and economic development.

My dissertation encompasses three different topics on empirical international trade and migration. The first chapter investigates the short run effects of regional trade agreements on trade costs. It is widely accepted that the reinforcement of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) aiming at trade costs reduction among trade partners requires time. This paper investigates the effects of RTAs on trade costs over time by using unique micro-price data. We confirm that having an RTA on average lowers trade costs significantly. Furthermore, data shows significant and negative effects of RTAs on trade costs over time. Specifically, besides the initial impact on trade costs, having an RTA continuously lower trade costs every year after the commencement of the RTA. The second chapter decomposes the overall effects of gravity variables on trade through three gravity channels: duties/tariffs (DC), transportation-costs (TC), and dyadic-preferences (PC). Compared to the existing literature, additional channel of PC is introduced and shown to dominate the other two channels, with adjacency contributing about 45 percent, distance about 32 percent, colony about 14 percent, free trade agreements about 7 percent, and language about 2 percent. The results imply that gravity variables mainly capture the effects of demand shifters rather than supply shifters (as implied by the existing literature). The third chapter utilizes an immigration inflow data set from OECD countries during the period of 1984 to 2015 to shed light on how institutional quality affects the immigration rate. With the analysis in the fixed-effects framework, we construct a set of country-time specific institutional quality indexes to examine their effects on the immigration rate. The paper shows that other than the network effects, GDP difference, and migration costs, institutional qualities in both destination and source countries matter when it comes to potential migration decisions. Specifically, better socioeconomic conditions in the destination countries, and worse foreign debt, budget balance, government stability, internal conflicts, and corruption conditions in the source countries increase the immigration inflow.

In order to investigate the phenomenon of the distribution of gains from international trade, Arghiri Emmanuel's ideas are firs t critically discussed, particularly in relation to the traditional Ricardian framework as applied to labor-surplus economics. It is found that Emmanuel's concept of unequal exchange, which has been termed non-equivalent exchange by Jan Otto Anderson, has certain theoretical drawbacks. In particular, it has been pointed out that the question involved is not one to prove that the poor countries are actually worse off through trade as suggested by Emmanuel. The question involved is rather one of redistribution of gains from trade as has been voiced in the search for a new international economic order by the members of some developing countries in the U.N. Such an approach leads to the adoption of the concept of a generalized asymmetric exchange as the measure of unequal exchange. This generalization has been achieved in terms of Leontief 's input output analysis. Such a measure coincides with the disjunctive exchange approach when the input-output coefficients are modified over time. The Leontief input-output analysis leads to an aggregation problem which has been solved by taking labor as the only primary factor of production - an approach standardized by Leontief himself. According to this measure, the extent of unequal exchange can be quite different from those obtained by the measures suggested by Emmanuel, Shanin and others. It has been pointed out that there is no a-priori reason to believe that a poor country necessarily gains less than its rich counterpart. Indeed, the test that has been made of the measure in the case of trade between Ecuador and the USA shows that it is Ecuador rather the U. S. which gains more from trade between them. The study also suggests some policy recommendations for reducing unequal exchange with special reference to labor-surplus economics.

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