Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Endogenous rights'

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2006.
Thesis research directed by: Agricultural and Resource Economics. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

What is the relationship between networks and unit-level outcomes, such as the international trade network among states and domestic rule of law or repression? Do these effects hold after accounting for actors' strategic selection of network ties? I explore these questions by building a multi-player game, in which players make two simultaneous decisions: (1) whether to form trade links and with who, and (2) whether to increase their trade benefits by improving their type, associated with the level of domestic economic risk factors. The model predicts an endogenous relationship between the number of direct trade partners and the probability of playing High Type: High Type states have more direct trade partners, and the number of trade partners has a positive effect on the probability of choosing High Type. A state's type is also affected by indirect trade connections--counter-intuitively, indirect trade has a negative effect on the probability of choosing High Type. In Chapters 3 and 4, I test the general predictions of the theoretical model, by applying them to two distinct areas of international research. In Chapter 3, I conceptualize a state's type as the level of domestic rule of law enforcement. States with strong rule of law enforcement are regarded as High Type states, because they guarantee lower cost of operations within their borders, by enforcing property rights and contractual law. Weak rule of law states, on the other hand, can be thought of as Low Type states, as business operations within such states are constantly threatened by a risk of expropriations, inefficiencies associated with corruption within the judicial system, and other manifestations of poor business practices. In Chapter 4, I recast the theoretical model by showing how a state's type can be conceptualized as a state's domestic respect for human rights. Highlighting the economic costs of repression, such as higher economic risk, negative publicity, and decreased quality of human capital, I argue that these costs are suffered by both the domestic economic elites and their international business partners. These business elites can, however, alleviate their losses resulting from such costs by either pressuring their government to embrace stronger human rights protections or, when this option is unavailable, by setting up channels for indirect economic transactions through states with more favorable political environments. To test each Chapter's empirical predictions, model the simultaneity between network formation and effect, using a statistical estimator developed by Ripley, Snijders, and Preciado (2012). This statistical estimator, referred to as a continuous Markov Chain exponential random graph model (MC ERGM), allows for a close mimicking of the theoretical model by simultaneously modeling two dependent variables: network formation and its effect on actors' behavior. The results of the statistical tests provide some support the theoretical predictions.

L’accord de paix entre la guérilla des FARC-EP et le gouvernement colombien signé en 2016 ouvre une possibilité pour la transition d’un conflit armé qui a duré plus d’un demi-siècle vers la paix. Dans ce cas, cet accord établit la création d’un Système intégral pour la paix composé par des organes et mécanismes qui la construction de la vérité, la réparation et la réconciliation et qui favorise la participation des victimes dans tous les processus. En 2019, la composante juridique de ce Système intégral, nommé Juridiction spéciale pour la paix (JEP) a accordé un statut de victime de guerre aux territoires des peuples ethniques. Cette décision se base sur leurs cosmologies et sur les perspectives des systèmes normatifs endogènes, où le vivant non-humain a une place comme sujet. Notre travail de recherches propose d’analyser, à partir de l’étude du cas, la coordination entre différentes échelles de justice (global/local) et l’importance d’étendre le statut de victime des conflits armés aux non-humains. Cette question évoque la nécessité de dépasser des formes « classiques » de penser le règlement des conflits armés, qui souvent imposent des solutions basées sur l’imposition d’une notion de paix qui se traduit par l’établissement de modèles de développement et de « modernisation » des sociétés et d’une notion de réparation qui consiste notamment à la réparation matérielle ou monétaire des victimes. Le modèle transitionnel proposé par la Juridiction spéciale pour la paix touche d’autres langages et manières de faire monde et consiste à repenser les notions de justice, de réparation et de réconciliation à partir d’une perspective pluriverselle (à partir de différentes ontologies), reconnaissant l’importance des droits endogènes pour une résolution des conflits et une réconciliation plus profondes, comprenant non seulement la réparation des liens entre les humains mais aussi entre l’humain et le non humain, du vivant come un ensemble inséparable et interdépendant. S’appuyant sur une démarche anthropo-juridique combinant l’examen des textes législatifs et règlementaires et un séjour de recherches sur le terrain, cette thèse a permis de réaliser une étude critique de l’actuel modèle de justice transitionnelle en Colombie. Les analyses anthropologiques font la preuve des premiers pas vers une manière de concevoir le droit comme vecteur pour repenser le règlement des conflits à partir du concept de coviabilité socio-écologique, vers une notion de paix et de réconciliation qui a comme base la réparation du tissu éco-social
The peace agreement between the FARC-EP guerrillas and the Colombian government signed in 2016 opens up a possibility for the transition from an armed conflict that has lasted more than half a century to peace. In this case, this agreement establishes the creation of an Integral System for Peace composed by mechanisms that build truth, reparation and reconciliation and that promote the participation of victims in all processes. In 2019, the legal component of this Integral System, named Special Jurisdiction for Peace (Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz - JEP), granted war victim status to the territories of ethnic peoples. This decision is based on their cosmologies and on the perspectives of endogenous normative systems, where non-human living things have a place as a subject. Our research work proposes to analyze, based on the case study, the coordination between different scales of justice (global/local) and the importance of extending the victim status of armed conflicts to non-humans. This question evokes the need to go beyond "classic" forms of thinking about the of armed conflicts resolution, which often impose solutions based on the imposition of a peace concept, results in the establishment of development models and "modernization" of societies and a notion of reparation which consists in particular in material or monetary reparation for the victims. The transitional model proposed by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace touches on other languages and ways of making the world and consists of rethinking the notions of justice, reparation and reconciliation from a pluriversal perspective (from different ontologies), recognizing the importance of endogenous rights for deeper conflict resolution and reconciliation, including not only the repair of links between humans but also between human and non-human, living things as an inseparable and interdependent whole. Based on an anthropo-legal approach combining the examination of legislative and regulatory texts and a field research stay, this thesis made it possible to carry out a critical study of the current model of transitional justice in Colombia. Anthropological analyzes demonstrate the first steps towards a way of conceiving the law as a vector for rethinking the resolution of conflicts from the concept of socio-ecological coviability, towards a notion of peace and reconciliation which has as its basis the repair of the eco-social network

Cette thèse est composée de trois essais; dans le premier essai je traite les questions de la détermination, de la variance et des répercussions de la corruption. J’ai montré que la corruption est déterminée par la part des travailleurs non qualifiés sur la population. Si cette part est large alors il existe une corruption, si elle est faible la corruption est inexistante, et pour des niveaux intermédiaires, il existe une multiplicité d’équilibres. La corruption augmente les inégalités salariales entre travailleurs qualifiés et non qualifiés, et une perte de bien-être. Dans le deuxième essai je traite la question de lutte contre la corruption à travers l’incitation salariale. Avec une technologie de contrôle endogène, je montre que le gouvernement peut mieux accepter la corruption lorsqu’il est coûteux de contrôler. Lorsqu’il est optimal de combattre alors le gouvernement peut le faire soit à travers des salaires d’efficience ou soit par le contrôle. Néanmoins le rôle des salaires d’efficience dans la lutte contre la corruption est moindre dans les sociétés avec un niveau de malhonnêteté élevé. Le troisième essai traite la malédiction des ressources naturelles. Je montre que l'éducation et la corruption sont déterminées conjointement ; les ressources naturelles affectent l’incitation à investir en éducation et en ‘rent-seeking’ ce qui en retour affecte la croissance. En outre, la relation entre une abondance et la malédiction des ressources naturelles n’est pas monotone. Pour un niveau d’inégalité d’accès à l’éducation faible et un coût élevé de participation dans la vie politique, un niveau de croissance élevé et la trappe à la pauvreté coexistent
This dissertation consists of three essays. The topics cover determination, variance and repercussions of corruption (essay one), corruption deterrence through wage incentives (essay two), and natural resource curse (essay three). In the first essay, I show that for a larger population of unskilled labor, there is a widespread corruption and for a smaller population there is no corruption. For the intermediate levels there are multiple equilibria. On its consequences, corruption increases wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers, and results in output and welfare losses. In the second essay, I argue that deterring corruption through efficiency wage may become prohibitively expensive. With endogenous monitoring technology that allows capturing the dual role of auditing, as a complement with and as a substitute for wage incentives, I find that the government is better-off accepting corruption when it is costly to monitor. When it is optimal to deter bribery, the government can do it either through efficiency wages or monitoring. The role of efficiency wages decreases in societies with higher level of dishonesty. In the third essay, I build a theory explaining a resource curse. In contrast to the existing literature which generally considers low education, corruption and natural resources separately, I combine three strands of literature. Natural resources affect incentives to invest in education and rent seeking that in turn affects growth. Second, the relationship between resource-abundance and resource-curse is non-monotonic. For low inequality in access to education and high cost of political participation, high-growth and poverty-trap equilibria co-exist

Quel droit de l’environnement pour quelle société ? Avec une méthode qui conjoint un examen socio-anthropologique et un examen juridique, cette thèse pose la question pour la Nouvelle-Calédonie, par une analyse du passé récent, des difficultés contemporaines et d’une refondation rendue possible par une évolution de la pensée juridique et au moyen d’outils élaborés récemment ailleurs et qui ont permis par exemple de reconnaître la personnalité juridique à des éléments de la nature.Reconnue comme hotspot mondial de la biodiversité, avec la menace environnementale que constitue l’exploitation des immenses ressources minières de nickel, comment la Nouvelle-Calédonie, près de 150 ans après son annexion par la France et son engagement depuis une trentaine d’années sur le chemin de la décolonisation, s’y prend-elle pour protéger son environnement naturel ? La réponse que nous obtenons par l’étude du droit positif, des institutions, du droit comparé, des discours et du travail de terrain, est claire : le droit applicable aujourd’hui en Nouvelle-Calédonie est issu d’une rationalisation exogène des relations sociales. Il est de fait inadapté au contexte culturel du Pacifique. Les relations Homme Nature, équilibrées, ont été « désenchantées » par la christianisation, la colonisation et la rationalisation scientifique. Comme dans beaucoup d’endroits, en Nouvelle-Calédonie, le sacré qui caractérisait ces relations a été écarté au profit de ce que nous avons choisi d’appeler le « complexe de Noé » et qui est devenu le fondement de toute politique environnementale. Notre diagnostic sur les limites du droit de l’environnement actuel, révèle en détail les carences de l’ingénierie institutionnelle contemporaine, fondée sur des préoccupations politiques de gestion pacifiée d’une société plurielle et de rééquilibrages entre communautés et territoires pour compenser des retards de développement dus aux erreurs du passé.Il existe toutefois un contexte favorable depuis quelques années pour réenchanter la protection juridique de la nature et de ses éléments. Des gouvernements ou des juges sous d’autres latitudes reconnaissent la personnalité juridique à des éléments de la nature. Il est désormais possible de dépasser une conception restrictive du pluralisme juridique comme cohabitation étanche d’ordres juridiques irréconciliables et d’avancer vers un métissage du droit endogène et d’un ordre juridique associé aux formes de l’Etat moderne. Nous suivrons de près la co-construction, avec les populations et les autorités coutumières, par la Province des Iles Loyauté, d’un droit de l’environnement négocié et de principes innovants qui permettent enfin de prendre en compte pleinement dans le droit positif la vision Kanak de la nature. Grâce à une méthode participative d’élaboration du droit, il apparaît que l’on peut concilier, les pluralismes (culturels, sociaux, politiques et juridiques) de la Nouvelle-Calédonie du 21ème siècle, dans le cadre d’un droit négocié, seul garant de l’effectivité du droit pour protéger l’environnement naturel dans un contexte global de changements environnementaux
What environmental law for which society? With a method that combines a socio-anthropological examination and a legal examination, this thesis raises the question for New Caledonia, through an analysis of the recent past, contemporary difficulties and a re-foundation made possible by an evolution of legal thought and by means of tools developed recently elsewhere, which have made it possible, for example, to recognize the legal personality of elements of nature.Recognized as a global hotspot of biodiversity, with the exploitation of its huge nickel resources being a major environmental threat, how does New Caledonia, nearly 150 years after its annexation by France and its commitment for thirty years on the path of decolonization, fare in protecting its natural environment? The answer we get from the study of positive law, institutions, comparative law, speeches and field work is clear: the law applicable today in New Caledonia is the result of an exogenous rationalization of social relations. It is in fact unsuited to the cultural context of the Pacific. Balanced Man-Nature relations have been "disenchanted" by Christianization, colonization and scientific rationalization. As in many places, in New Caledonia, the sacredness that characterized these relationships has been sidelined in favor of what we have chosen to call "Noah’s complex" and which has become the foundation of any environmental policy. Our diagnosis on the limits of the current environmental law, reveals in detail the shortcomings of contemporary institutional engineering, based on political concerns for a peaceful management of a plural society and for rebalancing between communities and territories to compensate for underdevelopment due to past mistakes.However, there is a favorable context in recent years to re-enchant the legal protection of nature and its elements. Governments or judges in other latitudes recognize the legal personality of elements of nature. It is now possible to go beyond a restrictive conception of legal pluralism as the tight coexistence of irreconcilable legal orders and to advance towards a hybridization of the endogenous right and a legal order associated with the forms of the modern state. We will closely follow the co-construction, with the populations and the customary authorities, by the Loyalty Islands Province, of a negotiated environmental law and innovative principles that finally allow to fully take into account within positive law the Kanak vision of nature. Thanks to a participative method of elaboration of the law, it appears that we can reconcile the pluralisms (cultural, social, political and legal) of New Caledonia in the 21st century, within the framework of a negotiated law that is the only guarantee for the effectiveness of the law to protect the natural environment in a context of global environmental change

碩士
國立交通大學
經營管理研究所
98
This paper studies the impact of intellectual property right (IPR) on economic growth as an endogenous factor. Most of the economic growth theories emphasize on enhancing IPR protection in order to encourage innovation, which stimulates economic growth. However, there is a negative relationship between IPR protection and GDP growth rate. This paper uses seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) to estimate our econometric equation simultaneously. Empirical analysis with a panel of data for 46 countries during the period of 2000-2007, shows that stronger IPR decreases GDP growth rate. This paper extends the conclusion of inverse U-shaped relationship between IPR protection and economic growth that suggested by Koléda (2004) and Furukawa (2007), confirms the negative endogeneity of IPR protection and economic growth.

This dissertation presents two essays on endogenous growth and renewable resources.

The first essay explores the role of renewable resources in a tractable

model of endogenous growth driven by horizontal and vertical innovation in the closed economy.

The model is tractable in that it yields a complete, analytical characterization

of the path of utility and the associated welfare level. This property

is exploited to compare two cases of renewable resource management:

open access and full property rights. The first case involves a common

property problem in which agents ignore the long-term resource viability;

the second fully internalizes the dynamics of the resource stock.

Analysis shows that if the natural regeneration rate of the renewable

resource is too low, the tragedy of the commons occurs. If, instead,

the natural regeneration rate is sufficiently high, the steady-state

growth rate of the economy is identical across the two management

regimes. The reason is because there is no scale effect; that is,

the steady-state growth rate of the economy does not depend on the

labor or the resource endowment. However, the development path on

which the economy transits from the developing stage (no R\&D activity)

to the developed stage (positive R\&D activity) depends on the resource

management regime. In particular, a developing economy under full

property rights will cross its development threshold prior to one

under open access. This threshold depends on the size of the manufacturing

firms. When it becomes sufficiently large as a result of the decline

in the number of firms over time, there will be an incentive for the

remaining firms to conduct R\&D. Given the same number of manufacturing

firms, the firm size is larger under full property rights than under

open access due to higher nominal expenditure per capita. Therefore,

the development threshold will be reached sooner under full property

rights. In other words, the economy will start engaging in R\&D activities

sooner and more quickly accumulate knowledge, which is the source

of long-run growth. Moreover, switching from full property rights

to open access is welfare reducing due to two effects. The first is

through the price of the harvest good. Although the economy initially

enjoys a lower price of harvest good, the price gradually increases

as the resource becomes scarcer. Secondly, the competitive household

instantaneously loses the resource income and thus spends less on

manufacturing goods. This decreases the incentive for manufacturing

firms to conduct R\&D and results in a temporary deceleration of the

growth rate of TFP relative to the baseline case of full property

rights. The economy therefore experiences a cumulative loss of TFP

relative to the baseline, which is the novel feature of our model

of endogenous innovation. This mechanism has interesting and wide-ranging

implications for the role of resources in development and growth

The second essay extends the model of endogenous growth and renewable

resources into the open economy framework. The paper examines the effect of trade liberalization on resource-rich

countries, based on a two-country model in which the difference in

endowment of a renewable resource leads to asymmetric trade. In this

model, the resource-rich economy trades its harvest good and final

good for the final good from the resource-poor economy. Furthermore,

the renewable resource is considered to be under open access, where

there is no clear ownership over the resource, leading to overexploitation.

Long-term productivity, in this case, stems from endogenously-determined

knowledge accumulation. Under these circumstances, analysis shows

that the resource-rich country will lose from trade due to two effects.

The first effect is the instantaneous loss of income. Higher demand

for the harvest good, from the combined domestic and international

demand, diverts labor away from the production of technological goods

to the harvest sector, where rent is zero. The second effect is a

scarcity effect, which becomes more severe when trade results in a

greater demand for the harvest good. Overexploitation of the renewable

resource today leads to falling resource stock in the future, which

is then reflected in the higher price of harvest good, other things

being constant. Since the harvest good is an essential input to produce

the final good, given the same amount of the other inputs, the amount

of final good produced will also fall in the long run.

Dissertation

碩士
淡江大學
產業經濟學系
91
Yang and Maskus (2001) developed a dynamic general-equilibrium model of the product cycle to study the effects of stronger intellectual property rights(IPRs) in the South on incentives of firms in the North to innovate and to license advanced technologies. We are in agreement with their assumption, including innovation activities by leading firms in the North and licensing by licensee firms which all produce one-level lead products. However, different from Yang and Maskus (2001), we consider the existence of imitation firms in the South and make interest rate nearly equal to zero to be closer to the reality. The imitation rate is assumed to be exogenous and a function of the degree of IPRs protection rate in the South. Because of adding the imitation sector, the results are different from Yang and Maskus’ in our model. The effects of stronger South’s IPRs protection rate on all endogenous variables become ambiguous. For instance, the stronger IPRs protection in the South has uncertain effect on the innovation in the North. This is because the stronger IPRs in the South will increase the licensing rent for the licensor firms in the Noth, and make them more willing to innovate, while the stronger IPRs also decrease the imitation rate and make the Northern firms have less incentive to innovate since now they can keep their leadership without innovation easily. These two opposite effects result in the ambiguous innovation in the North when the South improves its IPRs protection, and then all of the ambiguous outcomes in the other variables. However, if the assumption of a very high degree of IPRs protection or no imitation is applies in the South, the same conclusions as in Yang and Maskus (2001) can be drawn. The North’s innovation and licensing will both be raised, because now there exists only the positive effect from the increasing licensing rent, which makes the Northern firms more willing to innovate as well as to licensing. Therefore, the manufacture sector in the North declines and the licensee sector in the South enlarges. Although Yang and Maskus (2001) did not discuss the effect of stronger IPRs protection on the North to South relative wage and and the consumer’s expenditure, this paper found that they both rise.

This dissertation adds to the literature on international openness and economic growth by studying and quantifying the effects of openness to trade and multinational production using a model of endogenous innovation with firm heterogeneity. The first chapter discusses the contribution of this dissertation to the theoretical and empirical literature on international openness. The second chapter studies and quantifies the long-run effects of openness to trade and multinational production in the context of advanced economies using a model of endogenous innovation with firm heterogeneity. Counterfactual experiments conducted using a calibrated version of a theoretical model find that the US would experience a significant welfare cost in consumption terms by restricting openness to both trade and horizontal multinational production with other OECD countries, with the growth effect accounting for a substantial part of the cost. Chapter Three extends the theoretical model presented in Chapter Two to include features specific to the North-South context. I show that allowing for the possibility that the South may switch from being an imitator to becoming an innovator is essential for examining the long-run growth effect of stronger intellectual property rights. In particular, the North and the South both prefer stronger intellectual property rights because this will achieve the fastest long-run economic growth. If the South is an imitator country, the North needs to maintain its absolute advantage in technology creation by maintaining a sufficiently large pool of uncopied ideas. Otherwise both countries will fall into a slow-growth equilibrium in the long run. In Chapter Four, I account for transitional dynamics and study the gains from openness and stronger intellectual property rights that arise in the North-South context. Counterfactual experiments based on a calibrated version of the model presented in Chapter Three find that the transitional welfare gains from further trade openness between China and the OECD countries can be significant. In contrast to the existing growth literature, a deterrence of imitation has limited welfare effects when the South can switch from being an imitator to becoming an innovator country. This points to a source of potential bias in the welfare estimates provided by the existing literature.
Thesis (Ph.D, Economics) -- Queen's University, 2012-05-18 10:18:34.338

The costs of acquiring parcels by condemnation are usually significantly higher than those for property acquired by negotiation, suggesting that Right-of-Way (R/W) acquisition costs may best be described by two different regression equations. This paper develops a switching regression model of acquisition cost to simultaneously predict the probability of whether a parcel will go to condemnation rather than be acquired via negotiation and the corresponding acquisition costs under these two regimes. The error terms of the selection equation and the two cost equations follow a trivariate normal distribution to reflect correlations across unobserved factors (such as a land owner's tenacity or a site's view value). When this model is calibrated using data on properties acquired across the state of Texas for transportation projects between 2008 and 2011, results suggest that R/W appraisers and staff should pay special attention to commercially used parcels in urban areas involving a partial taking with a relatively small remainder. Comparison of cost estimates between the two regimes (condemnation vs. negotiation) suggests that condemned parcels will have, on average, 78% higher acquisition costs across the 1,710 acquired properties and 51% greater price variation. These results suggest that it is much more costly to acquire a property and more difficult to accurately predict its costs if it cannot be acquired via negotiation. The application of model estimates to an example corridor highlights the value of simulation to capture all modeling uncertainties. This two-regime model is further extended to a three-category multinomial endogenous switching, allowing for differential cost estimates across negotiation-deed, administrative settlement, and condemnation contexts. A model of acquisition time -- from the agency's initial-offer date to its final possession date is also developed, to examine the effects of condemnation on acquisition duration. The results suggest that condemnation proceedings add approximately 7 to 8 months, on average, to parcel acquisitions by the Texas Department of Transportation. Taken together, such switching models for condemnation versus negotiated settlement highlight the benefits of avoiding condemnation proceedings in R/W acquisition. Estimation results illuminate the relative importance of various parcel and owner attributes, impacting the nature and cost of acquisition, and enhancing opportunities for R/W staff to identify more contentious properties and establish more reliable budget estimates.
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Pulmonary hypertension is becoming a recognized complication of the hereditary and acquired haemolytic anaemias, associated with a poor prognosis. Recently we reported that patients with paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH) have high levels of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), a biomarker associated with both right and left ventricular dysfunction and cardiac dysfunction. In the current study we evaluated a cohort of patients (N = 29) with haemolytic PNH for elevated pulmonary artery systolic pressure and cardiac function by Doppler-echocardiography. Of the 29 patients, eight were further studied using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as well as two additional patients (number of patients studied using cardiac MRI = 10). Plasma from the first cohort (N = 29) demonstrated intravascular haemolysis associated with a 12-fold increase in median nitric oxide (NO) consumption when compared with healthy volunteers (P < 0·001). Doppler echocardiography demonstrated normal left ventricular function and elevated pulmonary artery systolic pressure in 41% of patients. Cardiac MRI from the second cohort (N = 10) demonstrated depressed right ventricular function in 80% of PNH patients tested, and 60% had findings suggestive of subclinical small pulmonary emboli. Together, these data suggest a high prevalence of haemolysis-associated NO scavenging, Doppler-estimated systolic pulmonary hypertension, and depressed right ventricular function in patients with PNH.

In this thesis, we investigate behavioural mechanisms and neural substrates of distinct components of endogenous spatial attention. Endogenous attention facilitates neural processing of the selected stimulus through one of two component mechanisms: either by influencing perceptual sensitivity, i.e., enhancing the quality of sensory information processing of the selected stimulus, or by altering decisional bias, i.e. by enhancing the weight afforded to selected sensory stimuli in the downstream decision process. It is unclear whether sensitivity and bias components of endogenous attention are under the control of common, shared or dissociated neural mechanisms. Moreover, it is unclear how key regions in the frontoparietal network contribute to sensitivity versus bias control. Here, we characterise how sensitivity and bias are co-modulated during endogenous visuospatial attention using a probabilistically cued, multialternative task (endogenous “Posner” cueing task), by analysing behaviour with a novel multidimensional signal detection model. We demonstrate – for the first time – that the model successfully decouples sensitivity and bias from human behavioural data in this attention task. Then, using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), in conjunction with the aforementioned task and model paradigms, we provide novel evidence for the causal contributions of the right hemispheric PPC and FEF towards sensitivity and bias control during endogenous attention. In the first study, we tested whether the effects of endogenous cueing on sensitivity and bias could be decoupled using a probabilistically-cued, five-alternative change detection task tested with n=37 participants. Multi-alternative tasks, with more than two response options, cannot be correctly analysed using a conventional one-dimensional signal detection model. Consequently, we used a novel multidimensional signal detection model – the m-ADC model – that can decouple and accurately estimate sensitivity and bias parameters in such tasks. After confirming that the model fit human behavioural data successfully, we investigated how sensitivity and bias were each modulated by spatial cueing. We found that while bias was modulated in a graded manner according to the cue validity at each location, sensitivity followed an ‘all or none’ pattern of modulation – being highest at one location but not significantly different in the others. Cue related modulations of bias and sensitivity modulations did not covary. Further, decisional metrics such as reaction time, decision optimality and differential risk curvature were found to vary with bias, but not sensitivity. Overall, this study showed that endogenous attention modulates sensitivity and bias components of attention through dissociable behavioural mechanisms. In the second study, we probed the causal role of the human right hemispheric PPC (rPPC) in mediating the sensitivity versus bias components of endogenous attention. In a cohort of n=28 participants, we transiently inhibited activity in the rPPC with continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS), following which they performed a spatially cued multialternative task similar to that employed in the first study. We analysed participants’ behavioural responses with the m-ADC model, and compared estimated parameters between the control (sham cTBS) and stimulation (rPPC cTBS) sessions. The results revealed a specific role for the rPPC in bias, but did not indicate stimulation induced sensitivity modulation. In particular, rPPC cTBS affected the voluntary reorientation of spatial bias towards the uncued location. The results show, for the first time, a specific role for rPPC in decisional bias modulation during endogenous attention. In the next study, we investigated the causal involvement of the human right hemispheric FEF (rFEF), in sensitivity and bias modulation during endogenous attention. As before, we inhibited the rFEF using cTBS and analysed its effect on sensitivity and bias parameters using the m-ADC task and model in n = 12 participants. The results suggested that the rFEF causally mediates the modulation of sensitivity rather than bias during endogenous attention. Specifically, rFEF cTBS increased sensitivity at the cued location but did not induce a significant modulation of bias. These results suggest a double dissociation between the rPPC and rFEF in terms of bias versus sensitivity modulation, respectively. In summary, the studies outlined in this thesis shed light on the mechanisms through which endogenous attention shapes sensory processing and decision-making. We find that the behavioural mechanisms and neural substrates of endogenous attention on sensitivity and bias changes are distinctive and dissociable. This opens up exciting future possibilities for precisely mapping specific attention-related neurophysiological processes in each brain region (rPPC, rFEF) to sensory or decisional functions, charting out the role of cortico-subcortical network interactions on sensitivity and bias and, ultimately, decoding how specific neural computations give rise to emergent cognitive phenomena, such as attention