Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Pennsylvania – Economic conditions – 20th century'
To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Pennsylvania – Economic conditions – 20th century.
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Pennsylvania – Economic conditions – 20th century.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Mendez, Juan M. "The Hispanic population's economic impact on the city of West Chicago." Virtual Press, 2004. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1306379.
Full textAbstract:
Growing up as the son of Mexican immigrant parents, in a city that has changed drainatically, I have had many questions as to the reason the city has changed so much. The city of West Chicago has experienced demographic shifts that are as astonishing on paper as they are in real life. This study answers why the Hispanic population chose the city of West Chicago as a destination and the positive impact that had on the city's economy. Hispanic family interviews also reveal the important factors and draws to the city, as well as an oral history of the city.Department of Urban Planning
2
Biehl, Lundberg Andrés. "Social policy and income inequality in the Southern Cone during the 20th century : a comparative perspective." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ce998341-6b28-41a7-9453-94a22174e47a.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation compares the effects of progressive social reform on income inequality in the Southern Cone of South America, Scandinavia, and Australasia. These regions faced comparable economic challenges at the start of the 20th century, but experienced different trends of income inequality after they introduced progressive policies in this period. Australasia and Scandinavia converged on a downward trend while the Southern Cone remained comparatively more unequal. The dissertation concentrates on three areas that significantly predict inequality in contemporary research: labour markets, education, and taxation and spending policies. Existing explanations usually focus on supply-side aspects of policy reform: wage regulation, and increased taxation and spending on education and social insurance, are thought to bring inequality down in the long-run. These reforms are seen as the outcome of the relative power of working class groups over elites. Despite institutional variation, the three regions enacted progressive policies to address distributional conflict and protect their economies from global risks. I study the demand-side of policy reform; policies faced considerable collective action problems to promote compliance and cooperation in order to work in the long-time and include populations at large. The fact that most people were motivated to comply meant that labour markets generated formality and standard wages, education increased human capital, and spending became stable as the tax base increased in Scandinavia and the Antipodes. The opposite happened in the Southern Cone as social actors tried to link selectively with the state while state officials neglected the material constraints that limited access to welfare and education. Each chapter spells out the conditions through which policy addressed collective action problems to motivate cooperation with wage agreements, sending children to school, and compliance with taxation and spending policies. Behind comparable aggregate numbers in these areas, the underlying social processes differed as Australasians and Scandinavians fostered cooperation between state and social actors, while the Southern Cone did not.
3
Mirza, Rinchan Ali. "Essays in the economic history of South Asia, 1891 to 2009." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:31ac00fe-f728-4e22-bcf1-62447a4e367c.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis presents research that subscribes to the broader theme of the Economic History of South Asia from 1891 to 2009. First, Chapter 2 shows that the Partition induced expulsion of religious minorities reduced school provision in Pakistan. The effect of minorities is explained by their education, occupational structure and their contribution towards local social capital. Then, Chapter 3 examines how areas affected by the Partition fare in terms of long-run agricultural development in India. It finds that areas that received more displaced migrants after Partition perform better in terms of crop yields, are more likely to take up of high yielding varieties (HYV) of seeds, and are more likely to use agricultural technologies. It highlights the superior educational status of the migrants as a potential pathway for the observed effects. Next, Chapter 4 shows that the agricultural productivity shock induced by the adoption of HYV of seeds reduced infant mortality across districts in India. It uses data on the characteristics of children and mothers in the sample to show that it was children born to mothers whose characteristics generally correlate with higher child mortality, children born in rural areas, boys, children born in rice and wheat producing districts and children born in poorer households who benefit more from HYV adoption. Furthermore, Chapter 5 shows that baseline differences in irrigation prior to the adoption of HYV are associated with differences in the growth of yields after adoption. It explores the relationship between irrigation and yields over time to uncover potential mechanisms for the observed relationship. Finally, Chapter 6 empirically investigates the relationship between religious shrines and literacy in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
4
Guo, Huanguang. "Inequality and economic growth in China : an empirical analysis." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2004. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/607.
Full text
5
McNeil, Charles A. "Carved from stone? : community life and work in Barre, Vermont, 1900-1922." Thesis, McGill University, 1989. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61921.
Full text
6
Aprahamian, Sima. "The inhabitants of Haouch Moussa : from stratified society through classlessness to the re-appearance of social classes." Thesis, McGill University, 1989. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=75876.
Full textAbstract:
This is a case study, based on fieldwork research carried out in 1980-1981 and 1986-1987 among the inhabitants of Haouch Moussa ('Anjar)--a Lebanese Armenian community in the Beka'a valley of Lebanon. The study itself constitutes a reconstruction of the practices and experiences (and their genesis) of the people in question, as Lebanese and Armenians (and therefore, of my own history as a Lebanese and an Armenian (and a woman)). The settlement itself was established in 1939 by Armenian refugees deported from their original habitat in Mount Moussa, the Sanjak of Iskandaroun (Turkey). When relocated in the Central Beka'a the inhabitants initiated a collectivisation experiment. However, it was brought to an end shortly after Lebanese Independence. During the following decades, while the socialist ideology has persisted the individual households have at first become petty commodity producers for a regional, national and international market, and later through the dynamics of petty commodity production, capitalism, and the effects of the civil war in Lebanon further transformations have occurred. This thesis examines these transformations and attempts to translate the dynamics of the reality of the inhabitants of 'Anjar into anthropological discourse.
7
Hileman, Garrick. "Sovereign debt sustainability, financial repression, and monetary innovation : Britain and currency black markets in the mid-20th century." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2015. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3295/.
Full textAbstract:
The 1940s were the last time sovereign debt levels for many advanced economies were comparable to recent times. Following the Second World War the United Kingdom is viewed as having achieved the highest public debt to income ratio while still avoiding default of any country in last three centuries. However, previous research on the UK during this period has largely overlooked British post-war debt sustainability and the role played by financial repression. This thesis presents a conceptual framework of the mechanisms for achieving sovereign debt sustainability, along with their resultant political economy trade-offs. The conventional historical view that the UK avoided default on its sovereign financial agreements following the Second World War is re-examined and Britain is found to have ‘partially defaulted’ in the years following the Second World War. This thesis provides a historical narrative of the intellectual origins and policies of modern financial repression in Britain and presents alternative qualitative and quantitative measurements of financial repression. Monetary innovation accompanied 1930s-40s financial regulation, particularly the development of sophisticated currency black markets in New York and Switzerland. Statistical analysis of new daily time series data from these markets provides a quantitative market perspective on historical turning points during the 1940s. A currency taxonomy and discussion of the causes behind the rise and decline of alternative currencies is presented. While alternative currencies also featured during the 1940s they were arguably less numerous and less innovative than during the Great Depression period. The British case ultimately illustrates the complex dynamics and trade-offs of sovereign debt sustainability vis-à-vis other competing policy objectives, such as a desire for open markets and economic growth, financial stability, and geopolitical priorities.
8
Breashears, Margaret Herbst. "An Analysis of Status: Women in Texas, 1860-1920." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1999. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc279203/.
Full textAbstract:
This study examined the status of women in Texas from 1860 to 1920. Age, family structure and composition, occupation, educational level, places of birth, wealth, and geographical persistence are used as the measurements of status. For purposes of analysis, women are grouped according to whether they were married, widowed, divorced, or single.
9
Rubio, Varas Maria del Mar. "Towards environmental historical national accounts for oil producers : methodological considerations and estimates for Venezuela and Mexico over the 20th century." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2002. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3808/.
Full textAbstract:
Environmental accounting literature reminds us that prosperity can be ephemeral if it is built on depletion of natural resources. Traditional national accounting practice ignores the loss of natural resources. According to standard environmental accounting, this produces exaggerated income, encourages unsustainable levels of consumption and is misleading when assessing the economic prospects of resource extracting countries. While the historiography of oil-extracting countries departs from entirely different concepts and methods, it contains plenty of arguments that resemble those of the environmental accountants. This thesis shows how Mexican and Venezuelan scholars have discussed the concept of national wealth, the ephemeral prosperity delivered by oil depletion and the biases that oil cash introduced in the perceptions of their countries' economic performance. Nonetheless the arguments in the historiography lack quantitative support for the most part. The dissertation connects these previously disparate literatures and explores the resulting synergies. A priori, it seems that environmental accounting provides the tools for quantifying the hitherto qualitative observations of the historiography of two countries with very different strategies regarding the depletion of their natural resources. While Mexico approximates very closely the theoretical case of a closed economy, Venezuela has been considered the textbook example of a resource-export-driven economy. In the end, history proves to be an excellent laboratory for an ex-post analysis of the concepts, models and methods of environmental accounting. This study contributes to the surprisingly small amount of comparative historical studies of the oil industries and the economic histories of Venezuela and Mexico. The most important conclusion derived from the comparative analysis of the theoretical models of environmental accounting is that the competing methods available in the literature seem to apply to different scenarios. Furthermore, the results of the thesis show that the role of technological change in sustaining the historical levels of consumption is substantial since the terms of trade did not improve in the continuous way needed to rescue economies from declining levels of consumption. This is an important finding because gains from trade have now been included in some environmental accounting models but technological change is left out. Overall, the thesis is an examination of the tractability and usefulness of environmental accounting as a tool of economic analysis over the long run.
10
De, Rouvray Cristel Anne. "Economists writing history : American and French experience in the mid 20th century." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2005. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/36/.
Full textAbstract:
If one considers the fortunes of economic history in the 20th century U.S., the 1940s, 50s and 60s stand out as a particularly vibrant time for the field and economists’ contributions to it. These decades saw the creation of the main association and journals - the Economic History Association, the Journal of Economic History for example – and the launching of large research programs – Harvard’s history of entrepreneurship, Simon Kuznets’ retrospective accounts, cliometrics for example. Why did American economists write so much history in the decades immediately following WWII, and why and how did this change with cliometrics? To answer these questions I use interviews with scholars who were active in the mid 20th century, their publications and archival material. The bulk of the analysis focuses on the U.S., yet it relies in part on a comparison with France where economic history also experienced a golden period at this time, though it involved few economists. Instead it was the domain of Annales historians. This comparison sheds light on the ways in which the labels “economist” and “historian” changed meaning throughout the period of study. Economists’ general interest for history is best understood as a part of an ongoing debate on scientific method, specifically about whether and how to observe and what constitutes reliable empirical evidence. These debates contributed both to draw social scientists to history, and change the way they wrote history. In the U.S. the mid 20th century surge in economist-history was principally due to the post-war demand for knowledge about growth and development. The sense of urgency that came with this task increased scholars’ willingness to work with estimated (as opposed to found) data. This was reinforced by American economists’ experience in war planning and ensuing spread of an operations research mentality among graduate students. The issue of whether or not to estimate became a new demarcation line between “historians” and “economists”. By the late 1960s, scholars who wanted to turn to the past to observe economies evolve over several decades, and let these facts “speak for themselves” had largely been replaced by researchers who used modern economic theory to frame historical investigation, and relied on quantification and estimation as their main empirical inputs.
11
Al, Khalifa Muneera. "Narratives of a nation : excluded episodes in Bahrain's contemporary history." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2899dc33-d211-4f32-8771-6db94b79a71c.
Full textAbstract:
In this research, I aim to present a narrative of the process of nation building in Bahrain - to further analyze it, interrogate it, and capture an aspect of its complexity. By focusing on the years following Bahrain's independence from Britain in 1971, I examine the period in which a constitution was introduced and a short-lived parliament was dissolved after two years of operation. The hypothesis underlying this thesis project is that the dominant historical account, which is provided and sponsored by the government, does not mirror the historical narratives of the various Bahraini communities. The central argument is advanced by examining the state sponsored public articulations of identity, which portray a continuum of exclusions by omitting significant historical episodes. By consulting archival material, oral narratives, and secondary sources, I aim to question the official historical narrative and show the polarized versions of history that can occur when such exclusions take place.
12
Papadia, Andrea. "Government action under constraints : fiscal development, fiscal policy and public goods provision during the Great Depression and in 19th and early 20th century Brazil." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2017. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3683/.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation is composed by three papers whose unifying themes are the origin and impact of fiscal institutions. The main contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it highlights the usefulness of the concept of fiscal capacity for the macroeconomics and international finance literatures by demonstrating its impact on sovereign default and fiscal dynamics during the Great Depression. Limits to the ability to tax have clear implications for macro-financial research, but are neglected by much of the literature. Second, my work contributes to the fiscal and state capacity literature by focusing on municipal level fiscal institutions in Brazil. Although research in this field is burgeoning, our understanding of the origin and impact of fiscal institutions in many parts of the world, including Latin America, is still very limited, particularly at the sub-national level. In terms of structure, the dissertation is a backwards journey from the impact of fiscal institutions to their origin. The first paper studies one of the ultimate outcomes of fiscal dynamics – sovereign default – by analyzing the debt crisis of the 1930s. The second paper takes the collapse in public revenues during the Great Depression as a starting point and demonstrates that fiscal institutions were a fundamental factor in the dynamics of fiscal aggregates. By shifting the focus to a single country and a different time period – the second half of the 19th and the early 20th centuries – the third paper demonstrates that slavery was deeply detrimental to the development of local governments’ ability to tax and provide fundamental growth and welfare-enhancing public goods in Brazil.
13
Watkins, Kevin. "India : colonialism, nationalism and perceptions of development." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.670394.
Full text
14
De, Wit Christoffel Hendrik. "Die Berlynse Sendinggenootskap in die Wes-Kaap, 1838-1961, met spesiale verwysing na die sosio-ekonomiese en politieke omstandighede van sy lidmate." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/50598.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2006.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis deals with the history of the Berlin Missionary Society (BMS) that commenced their work in 1834 in South Africa. Due to financial reasons the ZuidAfrikaansche Zendinggenootskap (SASG), which coordinated missionary work in South Africa, requested the BMS to take over their activities at the missionary station Zoar in the Little Karoo. Their missionary work ofthe BMS rapidly extended to the neighbouring Amalienstein, then Ladismith, Anhalt-Schmidt (Haarlem), Riversdale, Herbertsdale, Mossel Bay, Laingsburg and Cape Town. Culturally and ethnologically, the field of work of the missionaries of the BMS in the northern provinces differed radically from that of their colleagues in the Western Cape. By 1838 the coloured communities of the Western Cape were already well acquainted with Western culture as well as with the Christian religion. This did not prevent the missionaries from applying a strict pietistic and patriarchal approach towards the coloured people they worked amongst. As the owners of the land on which these missionary stations were established, the missionaries laid down strict rules and regulations and were able to control the spiritual and material behaviour of the members of their congregations. Their approach had two important effects: The mlSSionanes, m emphasising the important role of education, opened doors to better living conditions for the various communities on a short term basis that eventually created socio-economic empowerment. On the other hand, it led to opposition from within these communities, which in later years would have a profound influence on the political mobilisation of the coloured population of the Western Cape. Financial problems and poverty became an integral part of the history of the BMS in the Western Cape- and for that matter, in South Africa. This was especially apparent during the first half of the twentieth century, when two world wars had a devastating effect on their work. The effects during this time on the BMS and the communities they served were two-fold: Due to financial constraints, the BMS increasingly handed over spiritual and educational work to local pastors and teachers. Secondly, the missionaries came to associate themselves with the rise of Afrikaner nationalism. Their low profile in opposing the developing policy of apartheid - and even tacit approval of it - not only led to a break with the committee in Berlin, but also to the estrangement of many of their church members. In 1961, the year in which a republican form of government was established in South Africa and the Berlin Wall was erected, the German Lutheran missionary societies amalgamated to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church of South Africa (ELCSA) and the traditional missionary work of the BMS came to an end. Compared with the missionary activities of the much larger Dutch Reformed Church in the Western Cape, the role of the BMS may seem less relevant. When the impact of the work of the missionaries and their dedicated coloured church members are considered, their contribution to education and human development, is far bigger than their numbers represent. This allows them a place in the history and development of the Western Cape with its cultural diversity.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif handel oor die Berlynse Sendinggenootskap (BSG) wat in 1834 in Suid-Afrika begin werk het. Sendingwerk onder die gekleurde gemeenskappe van die Wes-Kaap het in 1838 toevallig begin toe die Zuid-Afrikaanse Zendinggenootskap (SASG) die BSG versoek het om weens finansiele redes die sendingbedrywighede by Zoar in die Klein Karoo oor te neem. Van hier af het die sendingaksie vinnig uitgebrei na die nabygelee Amalienstein en daama na Ladismith, Haarlem in die Langkloof, Riversdal, Herbertsdale, Mosselbaai, Laingsburg en Kaapstad. Kultureel en etnologies het die sendelinge in die Wes-Kaap se bedieningsveld radikaal verskil van die van hulle kollegas in die noordelike provinsies. Die gekleurde gemeenskappe van die Wes-Kaap was teen 1838 alreeds met die Westerse leefwyse en kultuur bekend en was ook reeds in kontak met die Christelike boodskap. Dit het die sendelinge in hierdie gebied - met hulle sterk pietistiese agtergrond - nie verhoed om 'n sterk en streng patriargale benadering ten opsigte van hulle gemeentelede te volg nie. Om woonverblyf op die sendingstasies te bekom moes lidmate van die BSG die reels en regulasies wat die sendelinge neergele het, streng navolg. Hierdeur kon die sendelinge beheer oor hulle gemeentelede se geestelike en materiele lewe uitoefen. Hierdie benadering het twee belangrike uitvloeisels onder die gekleurde gemeenskappe van die Wes-Kaap tot gevolg gehad. Eerstens het dit vir hierdie gemeenskappe opvoedkundige deure oopgemaak wat hulle lewenskwaliteite op korttermyn verbeter het en op 'n langer termyn hulle sosio-ekonomiese posisie verbeter het. Tweedens het dit egter ook tot weerstand gelei waarin die stem van hierdie gemeenskappe vir die eerste keer gehoor is en wat in later jare 'n beduidende invloed op die politieke toekoms van hierdie gemeenskappe sou he. Finansiele probleme en armoede het soos 'n goue draad deur die geskiedenis van die BSG in die Wes-Kaap geloop. Dit was veral die geval gedurende die eerste helfte van die twintigste eeu toe twee Wereldoorloe 'n verwoestende effek op die genootskap se werksaamhede gehad het. Dit het twee belangrike uitvloeisels tot gevolg gehad: Eerstens was die genootskap gedwing om geestelike en opvoedkundige werk al hoe meer aan gekleurde werkers oor te laat- wat op sigself 'n bemagtigingsproses tot gevolg gehad het. Tweedens het die sendelinge van die BSG hulle al hoe meer met opkomende Afrikaner nasionalisme - en dus die ontplooiing van apartheid - vereenselwig wat nie alleen 'n breuk met die komitee in Berlyn tot gevolg gehad het nie, maar ook met hulle gekleurde gemeentelede wat aan die ontvangkant van rassesegregasie en diskriminasie was. Teen die einde van 1961, wat saamgeval het met die oorgang na 'n republikeinse staatsvorm in Suid-Afrika en die oprigting van die Berlynse Muur, het die verskillende Duitse Lutherse sendinggenootskappe saamgesmelt om die Evangeliese Lutherse Kerk van Suid-Afrika (ELKSA) te vorm en het die tradisionele sendingwerk van die BSG in Suid-Afrika tot 'n einde gekom. Gemeet aan die omvang van die werksaamhede van 'n kerkgenootskap soos die NG Kerk in die Wes-Kaap, veral tydens die twintigste eeu, mag die rol van die BSG gering voorkom. Op die langtermyn gesien is die invloed van die Berlynse sendelinge (en hul nageslag wat hulle permanent in Suid-Afrika gevestig het), asook die bruin lidmate van die BSG, in hierdie streek buite verhouding groot; veral ten opsigte van onderwys en opvoeding. Hiermee verdien die Berlynse Sendinggenootskap 'n staanplek in die ryk skakering van die W es-Kaapse geskiedenis.
15
Thompson, Christine Audra. ""Constructive critic" or "donor agency": does the World Bank have a role to play in sub-Saharan Africa's development beyond that of providing economic aid?" Thesis, Rhodes University, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003045.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis attempts to evaluate the role of the World Bank in Sub-Saharan Africa's development. It argues that the World Bank has stepped beyond the boundaries of a typical lending institution by linking its aid to political reform. The study argues that in this capacity the Bank has contributed to the halting democratization process currently underway in Africa. The economic effects of the World Bank's Structural Adjustment Programmes have been less successful. As yet, the programmes have not produced the expected results and there is no evidence of long-term, sustainable economic recovery in Sub-Saharan Africa. These programmes are, however, long-term strategies and it may therefore be too premature to reach a final conclusion. They may also have been affected negatively by unfavourable political environments. This study, noting the negative effects of the international terms of trade and prices for African exports, concludes that although economic recovery in Sub-Saharan Africa will be facilitated by domestic political and economic policy reform, there is also a need for reform of the international economic order. The World Bank has correctly identified the need for domestic improvement, but it has a tendency to disregard the negative consequences of the existing structure of the international economy.
16
Marktanner, Marcus. "A Comparison of Economic Development in Latin America, Middle Eastern Europe and Asia in the 1990s." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1999. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2181/.
Full textAbstract:
The 1990s were characterized by severe turbulence in the global economy. Economic and financial crises occurred in Latin America, Middle and Eastern Europe and Asia. This analysis distinguishes between the two socioeconomic criteria "transitional" and "emerging" region. Transitional countries are former centrally planned socialist economies and emerging countries former agricultural-oriented classical developing economies with mostly a history of military or some other kind of autocratic dictatorship. The resources for the analysis are data sets regarding investment, exchange rate behavior, government finance, international liabilities of monetary authorities and inflation. The study reveals macroeconomic patterns associated with economic development in each socioeconomic region. It is shown that similar patterns are responsible for successful and non-successful performance in each region. A comparison of different regions shows many parallels between emerging economies, but only little similarity between transitional economies.
17
Kong, Yuk Chui. "Jewish merchants' community in Shanghai: a study of the Kadoorie Enterprise, 1890-1950." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2017. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/417.
Full textAbstract:
Following the footsteps of British merchants, Jewish merchants began migrating to China's coastal ports starting from the 1840s. Small in their number, they exerted great influence on Shanghai's economic development. The community of Jews from Baghdad, for instance, wielded enormous clout in coastal China's economic and financial markets. To fill the gap of the economic and financial activities of the Jewish merchants' community in the existing literature, this dissertation considers Jewish economic activities in Shanghai using the Kadoorie enterprise as a case study. It examines the emergence, development and retreat of the Jewish merchants' community and argues that the Jewish merchants' community seized the opportunity of the changing political and economic environment in China to engage in the capital market in Shanghai and to enlarge their influence in the Chinese economy. Through the case study of the Kadoories, this dissertation focuses on the financial side of their operations and suggests that the Jewish merchants' community in Shanghai had established their identity and status in the Far East through expanding their economic influences. This dissertation starts by analyzing how the Kadoories knocked over the obstacles on the problem of nationality and started their business in Shanghai with the British legal tools. It further investigates their methods of raising capital and highlights their economic contributions. This dissertation examines the business strategies of the Jewish merchants, as a migration diaspora given the vagaries of the global economy and the changing political situation in coastal China. It then explores the interactions and power struggles between the Kadoories and their business partners to explain the business network of the Jewish merchants and account for the building up of the economic influence of the Jewish merchants' community in China. Furthermore, the case study examines how the Jewish merchants adapted their business strategies in response to political and economic changes. Examining the economic activities of these Jewish merchants provides insight into China's economic history. The case study of the Kadoories also reveals the fluctuations in Shanghai's economy and the characteristics of economic changes in contemporary China. Finally, this dissertation highlights the retreat of the Kadoories from Shanghai after 1945. At present, the Kadoories are still conducting business in China.
18
Adams, Randall. "Die ver-Suid-Afrikanisering van die Suid-Afrikaanse ekonomie : ’n studie van SANLAM (1918-1980)." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/17920.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: During the twentieth century, SANLAM developed as an important source of financial stability and assistance and played an important role in the economy of South Africa. That role was made possible through the effective collection and management of financial assets as well as the support of its policies to the broader South African population. But what did this performance of SANLAM hold for the population and how did the company assist South Africans to gain access to a larger share in the country's economy? These and other questions are the focus of this study which attempt to prove that SANLAM, through the use of its services and profit motive, could in fact help Afrikaners and later the broader South African public, to acquire a share in the country's economy. This was achieved to a large extent despite a ‘controversial’ identity where many people viewed SANLAM as a symbol of hope, while others saw it as a product of capitalism or as an economic puppet of the government. However, by the 1980’s, SANLAM had visible influence in nearly all sectors of the South African economy, either in a direct or indirect fashion. This makes SANLAM one of South Africa's economic success stories.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Gedurende die twintigste eeu het SANLAM as bron van finansiële stabiliteit en -hulpverlening sterk ontwikkeling en ’n belangrike rol in die ekonomie van Suid-Afrika gespeel. Daardie rol is moontlik gemaak deur die doeltreffende versameling en bestuur van finansiële bates asook die ondersteuning wat sy polisse onder die breër Suid-Afrikaanse bevolking geniet het. Maar wat het hierdie goeie vertoning van SANLAM vir die bevolking ingehou en hoe het die maatskappy gehelp om Suid-Afrikaners se aandeel in die land se ekonomie uit te brei? Hierdie vrae vorm die middelpunt van hierdie verhandeling en daar sal probeer word om te bewys dat SANLAM deur middel van beide sy diens- en winsmotief ’n groter aandeel aan Afrikaners, in die eerste instansie en Suid-Afrikaners in die breër verband, in die Suid-Afrikaanse ekonomie kon bewerkstellig. Dit is in ’n groot mate verwesenlik teen die agtergrond van ’n kontroversiële identiteit waar SANLAM deur meeste mense as ’n simbool van hoop, deur sommige as ’n produk van kapitalisme en deur ander as ’n regerings-instrument beskou was. SANLAM se invloed was teen 1980, direk of indirek, in byna alle sektore van Suid-Afrika se ekonomie sigbaar. Dit maak vir SANLAM dus een van Suid-Afrika se ekonomiese suksesstories.
19
Lancaster, Rupert Giles Swinburne. "A small town in the early apartheid era: A history of Grahamstown 1946-1960 focusing on "White English" perspectives." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013161.
Full textAbstract:
This Thesis examines the socio-political perceptions of Grahamstown, a small South African City, during the period 1946 to 1960. The ‘White English’ population of Grahamstown is the specific focus, as it formed the dominant social group during the period and consequently provided the majority of information for this work. During this period the majority of Grahamstowns ‘White English’ population thought of their City as holding many attractive features and experiences despite the slum-conditions and poverty that were rife in the Locations. During the British Royal Familie’s tour of the Union of South Africa in 1947, Grahamstown was one of the Cities visited. The loyalty that Grahamstown’s ‘White English’ citizens felt towards the Royal Family and the United Kingdom is explored in connection with the regard that ‘White English’ Grahamstown held for the 1820 Settlers. To highlight the Grahamstown City Council’s activities during this period five events are analysed: The Grahamstown Financial Crisis, The Grahamstown Housing Crisis, The Beer Hall Debate, The establishment of a Tuberculosis Hospital and the granting of Full University Status to Rhodes University College. It is shown, with regard to the politics of the period, that ‘White English’ Grahamstown, unequivocally supported the United Party and were vocally anti-Nationalist. The implementation of Apartheid policies within Grahamstown is explored, with specific focus placed upon the Group Areas Act. Finally the anti-republican sentiment espoused by ‘White English’ Grahamstown is reviewed.
20
Yamin, G. M. "The causes and processes of rural-urban migration in 19th and early 20th century India : the case of Ratnagiri district." Thesis, University of Salford, 1991. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/2232/.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the reasons for the growth of large scale labour migration from Ratnagiri district during the nineteenth century. It is argued firstly that for an understanding of the origins of migration from Ratnagiri it is necessary to investigate the socio-economic structure of the district, since exogenous demand for labour cannot explain many aspects of the pattern of migration from Ratnagiri, nor can it explain the high rate of migration compared to other areas with similar access to labour markets. It is argued that regional and gender patterns of migration from Ratnagiri can be partly explained by the structure of demand for labour within the district; but that the scale of migration can most convincingly be explained in terms of the acute poverty of sections of the rural population. It is argued that this poverty cannot be ascribed to demographic pressure in the early nineteenth century, since population in the district did not rise rapidly until migration was already underway. It is instead suggested that the poverty of many cultivators in the earlier nineteenth century was an outcome of the spread of a village zamindari system in Ratnagiri during the late eighteenth century, the impact of which was intensified by legal changes introduced under British rule; the consequent concentration of landholding in the hands of the village zamindars led to higher exactions on the lower caste cultivators, which stimulated emigration in the mid nineteenth century. Furthermore, it is suggested that the land tenure system was at the root of the problems of agricultural development which the district faced later in the nineteenth century. When population rose In the mid nineteenth century, the extension of cultivation put pressure on the fragile ecology of the district, which led to rapid deforestation and falling yields per acre. it is argued that though cultivation intensified In Ratnagiri during the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the output per head nonetheless probably fell, and the system of land tenure discouraged the adoption of many strategies which might have raised output per head, thus perpetuating the poverty which, it is argued, lay at the root of out-migration from Ratnagiri.
21
Andrews, Brian Peter Alford. "Exchange rate appreciation, competitiveness and export performance : the UK experience in the inter-war period." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1987. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:69b9bcfe-a2fa-4f02-8d49-2f847fa6dc32.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis principally studies the determination of UK export performance between the wars. Several improvements to the measurement of sterling's nominal and real effective exchange rate in the period are implemented, and the path of the exchange rate is related to UK and foreign exchange rate policies. The nature of competitiveness and the demand and supply mechanisms by which it may influence exports are discussed. In the light of this, and the commodity and geographical breakdown of UK exports, we suggest alternative measures of competitiveness which may appropriately be tested in econometric work. Aggregate UK export volume and price equations for the inter- war period are then estimated. Competitiveness, which is in turn influenced by the exchange rate, and the economic position of primary producing countries, are found to have had significant effects on UK export performance. Similarly specified equations are estimated for UK exports in eight industrial sectors. Distinctive characteristics of sectors may lead to substantial divergences between sectoral and aggregate behaviour. This is confirmed in further work on UK coal exports. Nevertheless, measures of the price of UK exports relative to the price of exports of other industrial countries generally give explanations of UK export performance which are superior to other competitiveness measures. A substantial statistical appendix containing data on, inter alia, UK and foreign exchange rates, trade volumes and values (with geographcial and commodity breakdown), labour costs and prices, together with the sources and methods used in their construction, is provided both for historical interest and to facilitate replication of results and further research.
22
Ho, Karl Ka-yiu. "The Subjective Economy and Political Support: The Case of the British Labour Party." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1992. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc500261/.
Full textAbstract:
During the past two decades, extensive research efforts have focused on the conventional wisdom that the economy has a direct influence on a party's destiny. This hypothesis rests on the implicit assumption that the linkages between macroeconomic variables such as inflation and unemployment and party support are direct and unmediated. As the present study indicates, however, objective economic measures only serve as a proxy for the invisible force that drives voters' party support. Once the relevant variables, namely, the perceptual factors of the electorate, are controlled for, variables that describe the state of the objective economy fail to exert their "magic" on political behavior.
23
Arthi, Vellore. "Human capital formation and the American Dust Bowl." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ea2309bd-57fd-463b-ac40-a1c2af870b1f.
Full textAbstract:
I use variation in childhood exposure to the Dust Bowl, an environmental shock to health and income, as a natural experiment to explain variation in adult human capital. I also examine a variety of mechanisms by which the Dust Bowl influenced later-life wellbeing, and investigate the scope for recovery from this early-life shock. I find that exposure to the Dust Bowl in childhood has statistically significant and economically meaningful adverse impacts on later-life outcomes, for instance, increasing disability and reducing fertility and college completion. These results hold even after accounting for the possibly confounding effects of the Great Depression, migration, and selective fertility or mortality. The effects I find are more severe for those born in agricultural states, suggesting that the Dust Bowl was most damaging via the destruction of agricultural livelihoods. This collapse of farm incomes, however, had the positive effect of increasing high school completion amongst the exposed, likely by reducing the demand for child farm labor where such labor was not essential to production, and thus decreasing the opportunity costs of secondary schooling; in this outcome, unlike in college completion, family income and student ability were irrelevant. Many of the worst adverse effects are found amongst those exposed prenatally and in early childhood, suggesting that congenital complications in capability development, together with low parental incomes in utero and thereafter, may be to blame for such later-life disadvantage. Together, these findings imply that the Dust Bowl acted largely "indirectly," as an economic shock that in turn affected in utero and early-life conditions, rather than "directly," through personal exposure (e.g. dust inhalation) in childhood. Lastly, results - particularly those on New Deal expenditure - imply both that remediation from early-life disaster is possible under the right circumstances, and that post-shock investment may have compensated for rather than reinforced damage to child endowments. The findings in this study are consistent with a multi-stage model of human capability formation, in which investments in one period respond to endowments in a previous one, and may either reinforce or compensate for these endowments.
24
Benkenstein, Alex. "The Global Political Economy of Mining in Selected African States." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1934.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MA (Political Science. International Studies)()--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.Many African countries present the observer with a paradox: though richly endowed with mineral wealth, these countries are among the least-developed in the world. Mineral resources have historically been an important source of revenue for the state and one finds great diversity in the strategies that states have employed to access this wealth. These strategies range from direct participation in mining activity by means of state-owned companies to more indirect methods such as taxes levied on mining activity, with approaches varying not only among states, but also over time as historically certain strategies with regard to state involvement in mining have come to predominate. This study develops a typology of public/private sector configurations in the mining sector. The typology consists of three models, a direct participation, market-led and sustainability model. This typology serves as an analytical tool to investigate the impact of mining codes on sustainable development. The study concludes that in many cases the investment-oriented mining code reform undertaken by African states in the 1980s and 1990s has had a negative impact through the social and environmental costs associated with mining. Increasing recognition of these costs has resulted in the emergence of a sustainability model.
25
Defraigne, Jean-Christophe P. L. G. "De l'intégration nationale à l'intégration continentale: analyse de la dynamique d'intégration supranationale européenne et de ses liens avec les changements technologiques des processus de production dans une perspective de long terme." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/211359.
Full text
26
Hepburn, Sacha. "A social history of domestic service in post-colonial Zambia, c.1964-2014." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:dfd7ee2e-81f6-458f-8ba9-467be0857040.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the history of domestic service in Zambia from the 1960s to the present day. Domestic service was one of the largest sectors of urban employment throughout this period and involved large numbers of men, women and children selling and buying labour in a variety of working arrangements. The sector has, however, received little scholarly or official attention, reflecting a broader historiographical neglect of informal sector employment and the female workers who predominate in this area of the economy. The lack of attention paid to domestic service by academics and policy-makers has considerably limited the questions that have been asked about who workers are and how processes of reproduction and production have been organized at a household and societal level in Zambia, both historically and in the present. Most immediately, in order to work outside of the home, earn money and access crucial resources, thousands of Zambians needed to find someone else to take care of their homes and children. Drawing on a wide range of source material, this study demonstrates the importance of domestic service to social and economic relations in post-colonial Zambia. The study centres on domestic service arrangements in black households in the capital city of Lusaka. It examines how and why men, women and children found work in service, how and why employers sought help with domestic and care labour, and the relationships that developed between these parties. The study illustrates the diversity of the sector, with working arrangements varying from seemingly-informal kinship-based labour relations at one end of the spectrum to formalised, contractual employment at the other. The study also explains the gendered and generational shifts that have reshaped domestic service over the last fifty years, drawing attention to the increased significance of women and female children's labour. Overall this thesis provides new insights into class formation, rural-urban dependencies, gender relations, and the nature of inequality in a post-colonial African city.
27
Cancian, Sonia. "Una raccolta di lettere italiane inviate agli emigrati in Canada, 1954-1955." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0028/MQ50501.pdf.
Full text
28
Downing, Arthur Michael. "The friendly planet : friendly societies and fraternal associations around the English-speaking world, 1840-1925." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:363dd204-d5f5-4639-bafd-31fd20d1ab95.
Full textAbstract:
Friendly societies and fraternal associations were self-governing convivial clubs that provided members with mutual aid in case of sickness or death. Over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries they blossomed around the English speaking world, attracting millions of members. Combining archival research and quantitative methods, this thesis is the first multi-national economic history of the friendly societies and fraternal associations. How effective were these organisations as insurers? Were they able to overcome the problems of moral hazard and adverse selection? Were they significant in generating 'social capital'? How were they affected by the emergence the welfare state?
29
Hardy, Pascale. "Développement et migrations: une étude appliquée aux pays du Maghreb." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/212261.
Full text
30
Schoenberger, Laura. "Crossing the line : the changing nature of highlander cross-border trade in northern Vietnam." Thesis, McGill University, 2006. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=99599.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis investigates how changing Vietnamese state control over the Vietnam-China border has impacted cross-border trade networks and livelihoods of border residents in Lao Cai province, North Vietnam. The investigation uses information from qualitative research with 91 marketplace traders and border officials at four crossing points in the province. I find that state control over the border and cross-border trade has increased as this trade has been progressively brought within legal parameters from 1954 to 2005.By taking a commodity chain approach to investigate the trade networks of three locally produced goods that move across the border I discuss the complex interactions of state policy, social relations and location factors in shaping contemporary cross-border trade. This investigation suggests that state policy to encourage small scale cross-border trade and new tradable commodities are increasing the livelihood options available to border residents in the province.
31
Khomo, Melvin Muzi. "The yield curve as a forecasting tool : does the yield spread predict recessions in South Africa?" Thesis, Rhodes University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004722.
Full textAbstract:
This paper examines the ability of the yield curve to predict recessions in South Africa, and compares its predictive power with other commonly used variables that include the growth rate in real money supply, changes in stock prices and the index of leading economic indicators. The study also makes an attempt to find out if monetary policy explains the yield spread's predictive power with regards to future economic activity. Regarding methodology, the standard probit model proposed by Estrella and Mishkin (1996) that directly estimates the probability of the economy going into recession is used. Results from this model are compared with a modified probit model suggested by Dueker (1997) that includes a lagged dependent variable. Results presented in the paper provide further evidence that the yield curve, as represented by the yield spread between 3-month and IO-year government paper, can be used to estimate the likelihood of recessions in South Africa. The yield spread can produce recession forecasts up to 18 months, although it's best predictive power is seen at two quarters. Results from the standard probit model and the modified pro bit model with a lagged dependent variable are somewhat similar, although the latter model improves forecasts at shorter horizons up to 3 months. Compared with other indicators, real M3 growth is a noisy indicator and does not provide much information about future recessions, whilst movements in the All-Share index can provide information for up to 12 months but does not do better than the yield curve. The index of leading economic indicators outperforms the yield spread in the short run up to 4 months but the spread performs better at longer horizons. Based on the results from the study, it appears that changes in monetary policy explain the yield spread's predictive power. This is because the yield spread loses its explanatory power when combined with a variable representing the monetary policy stance of the central bank.
32
Crête, Philippe. "Agro-pastoralists turned fishermen : socio-economic and environmental changes in the buffer zone of Coiba National Park, Panama." Thesis, McGill University, 2006. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=97937.
Full textAbstract:
In upcoming decades, the conservation and sustainable use of coastal and marine resources will become a major political and environmental challenge, as two-thirds of the world's population lives in coastal zones. The issue will likely become more problematic in developing countries, where an important number of coastal inhabitants still rely on marginal extractive activities such as fishing, farming and cattle ranching for subsistence, and where the rural poor's demand for development often lead to unsustainable extractive practices. Thus, innovative solutions need to be developed to ensure the long-term conservation and sound management of marine and coastal resources. This Masters thesis addresses the case of Coiba National Park, a marine protected area located in the Gulf of Chiriqui, Panama, and its relationship with coastal fishing and farming communities located at its outskirt. Particularly, this thesis aims to discover the drivers that pushed an important number of coastal agro-pastoralists of Coiba National Park's buffer zone to switch to artisanal fishing over the past three decades, and to determine the social, economic, and environmental impacts that resulted from that switch. In addition, this thesis analyses the relationship between Coiba National Park's authorities and buffer zone communities, and how this relationship has evolved over the years as more and more resource-users exploit the marine resources of the park. Finally, this work analyses Coiba National Park's current management strategy, how park authorities have been able to adapt their planning and management activities over the years, and explores alternatives to improve Coiba National Park's management strategy so that it can better adapt to the ever changing social, economic, and environmental conditions in which Coiba National Park's buffer zone operates.
33
Nukumi, Tetsuro. "Political Economy of Industrial Keiretsu Groups in Japan and their Impact on Foreign Trade with the United States." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1993. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278301/.
Full textAbstract:
The postwar transformation of the international environment has caused economic issues to become a main source of contention among industrial states. The trade imbalance between Japan and its trading partners became a major source of conflict. Reciprocity of access and opening the market of Japan became the main point of debate and the major issue affecting relations between Japan and the United States. While the distinction between the domain of domestic and international politics increasingly is blurred, different domestic political economies create bilateral political and economic conflict. The structure and politics of intercorporate groups or vertical keiretsu are a major feature of Japan's industrial structure and political economy. This case study examines how vertical keiretsu in the automobile and home electric appliance industries affect the Japanese political economy and international trade. A political economy approach focuses on the political context of economic phenomena by analyzing both political and economic variables. Case studies of keiretsu were used in order to gain an understanding of Japan's political economy. A number of propositions or assumptions about the political economy and the dynamics of keiretsu were examined in these studies. It was found that vertical keiretsu influences the industrial sector, trade, and foreign policies in Japan. Japan's industrial policies cannot fully be understood without taking keiretsu into consideration. Scholars have not yet fully considered vertical keiretsu as major actors in the Japanese political process. Their political influence on industrial policies has largely been overlooked. Vertical keiretsu in the automobile and home electric appliance industries were found in the case studies to have been shaping industrial policies since the early post war years. Findings about the nature of Japan's political economy help to explain the conflictive bilateral relationships between Japan and the United States. The findings also show that understanding political economies of nations is increasingly important as the world economy grows and greater trade interaction is imminent.
34
Mosquera, Becerra Maria Janeth. "Socio-spatial Transformation and Contested Space at the Street Level in Latin America: The Case of Cali, Colombia." PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1953.
Full textAbstract:
Since 2008, more than 50% of the world's population has lived in cities and it is projected that by 2050 around 87% will do so. Designing infrastructure in urban spaces has become increasingly critical for achieving human well-being. This dissertation examines socio-spatial transformation processes related to urbanization, economic development and the marginalization of utilitarian cycling in Cali, Colombia, as a particular expression of the struggle for transportation space occurring in urban areas. The research analyzes (a) the socio-spatial processes that have restricted the use of bicycles as a means of transportation in the city of Cali, Colombia; and (b) the social, health and economic implications for people who use bicycles as their primary means of transportation in this city.
Cali is a major city in Latin America and an excellent case to study the complex dynamic of how social and economic forces are evident in resource distribution at the street level. Informed by Harvey's work (1976; 1978; 2012), combined with an environmental justice perspective (Bullard 2007), this research adopts a conceptual framework that examines the transformation of the built environment as part of capitalist led urbanization. It concludes that the implementation of transportation infrastructure was aimed at enabling productivity and profits, with less emphasis on the comprehensive needs of all citizens, ultimately marginalizing transportation options for those of lower socio-economic status. The experience in Cali can be understood as a case of consolidation of inequality at the street level.
A historical review of Cali's urbanization process demonstrates that cycling as a mode of transportation has been losing social and physical space. Analysis of the political economy of more recent economic development initiatives suggest that the City, in responding to the demands of globalization, and in conjunction with international financial agencies and national government support has implemented a Bus Rapid Transit system and a set of megaprojects which marginalize bike commuters, particularly those who bike out of economic necessity. Although bike commuters recognize economic and health and time-saving benefits of biking to themselves as individuals they also experience daily travel in Cali as a classed, problematic, stigmatized, and transitory activity. From an environmental justice perspective, the resulting impact on residents, particularly, those of lower socioeconomic stratum, unmasks the uneven distribution of environmental benefits and harms. The marginalization of biking as a means of transportation in urban areas in Latin America may be understood as a social injustice similar to the deprivation of parks, schools, health services, or housing endured by residents of lower socioeconomic status.
35
Matthews, Sally Joanne. "The African Renaissance as a response to dominant Western political discourses on Africa : a critical assessment." Diss., Pretoria : [s.n.], 2002. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-05302007-162640.
Full text
36
Foisy, Cory A. "Soviet war-readiness and the road to war : 1937-41." Thesis, McGill University, 2003. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=79938.
Full textAbstract:
This is a study of the foreign and domestic policies of the USSR as they pertain to its war-readiness, as well as the degree to which these policies presumably opened the door to the European conflagration and, in 1941, to the Nazi-Soviet war. Topics to be discussed include: (1) the crash industrialization of the Soviet Union and industrial war preparations from 1928--41; (2) the development of Soviet military doctrine before and after 12 June 1937; (3) a critical re-examination of the popularly accepted reasons for the devolution of the Soviet armed forces; and (4) Soviet foreign policy from 1937--41. The chronological end of the paper (1941) is followed by a brief epilogue discussing the evident success of the Soviet industrialization program by reference to Soviet industrial performance during the Nazi-Soviet war. Furthermore, the epilogue will challenge the popular depiction of the German invasion as an effortless, seamless advance into the Soviet heartland.
37
Cunningham, Jerimy J. "Household vessel exchange and consumption in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali : an ethnoarchaeological study." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=85900.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation clarifies ethnoarchaeology's role in post-positivist epistemology through both a critical re-examination of ethnoarchaeology's position within archaeology and a study of household vessel exchange and consumption in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali. I argue that ethnoarchaeology meets its epistemic raison d'etre by achieving theoretical independence from archaeology's general theories. Independence is "built-in" to ethnoarchaeological study by focusing explicitly on the way material culture is used in daily practice; in particular, by re-embedding material culture in the "modern" contexts where it is used. Ceramic exchange in the Inland Niger Delta can not be understood apart from either the exchange and consumption of other industrial household vessels or the political economies women experience within patrilineal households. Household vessels are distinctly women's tools in the Delta and their consumption is an intimate part of the way women resist exploitation and the appropriation of their wealth within household political economies. The different roles vessels play are manifest in the distances these objects travel during consumption and are also materialized by their location within house compounds. Enamel vessels are used in displays of social and economic capital related to marriage that insulate women from exploitation; aluminum vessels are expensive items bought as part of marriage trousseaus; and plastics are relatively low value items given as small gifts or bought in local markets to insulate small amounts of wealth from appropriation. Pottery is relatively marginal within household economies; yet, potters rely on the income ceramic production creates. Thus, potters use extensive marketing strategies to sell their wares to a relatively disinterested clientele in order to meet their own obligations within patrilineal households and to buy the other types of household vessels that they desire. The findings of thi
38
Faniel, Jean. "Les syndicats, le chômage et les chômeurs: raisons et évolution d'une relation complexe." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210879.
Full textAbstract:
En Belgique, 85% des chômeurs sont affiliés à une organisation syndicale. Cette situation inhabituelle est principalement due à la fonction d’organisme de paiement des allocations de chômage que remplissent les trois syndicats interprofessionnels. L’objet de la thèse est d’examiner les origines de la relation particulière qui découle de cet état de fait et de questionner ses implications tout à la fois pour les syndicats et pour les chômeurs.Les développements théoriques se penchent sur le mode de fonctionnement et sur les déterminants de l’action des organisations syndicales, sur les causes du chômage et ses conséquences pour les travailleurs salariés et leurs organisations, ainsi que sur les obstacles et les incitants à l’action collective contestataire des sans-emploi.
Ces outils d’analyse sont ensuite utilisés pour examiner, depuis l’origine des organisations syndicales contemporaines et de l’indemnisation du chômage, au XIXe siècle, jusqu’à la réforme du mode de contrôle des chômeurs en 2004, les fondements et l’évolution de la relation que les syndicats belges entretiennent avec les questions de l’emploi et du chômage d’une part, avec les chômeurs d’autre part.
In Belgium, 85% of the unemployed are unionised. This peculiar situation is mainly related to the specific position of the trade unions, as the jobless can choose to receive their benefits through the intervention of one of the three national unions. The Ph.D. dissertation aims at examining the origins of that specific relationship and its implications on both the trade unions and the unemployed.
The theoretical part explores the features of union action and functioning, the causes of unemployment and its consequences for the workers and their organisations, as well as the impediments and impetus to the contentious mobilisation of the unemployed.
Based on that theoretical framework, the Ph.D. dissertation then examines the origins and the evolution from the 19th century till 2004 of the union positions on the issues of employment and unemployment on the one hand, and their links with the jobless on the other.
Doctorat en sciences politiques
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
39
Gottwald, Carl H. "The Anglo-American Council on Productivity: 1948-1952 British Productivity and the Marshall Plan." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1999. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc279256/.
Full textAbstract:
The United Kingdom's postwar economic recovery and the usefulness of Marshall Plan aid depended heavily on a rapid increase in exports by the country's manufacturing industries. American aid administrators, however, shocked to discover the British industry's inability to respond to the country's urgent need, insisted on aggressive action to improve productivity. In partial response, a joint venture, called the Anglo-American Council on Productivity (AACP), arranged for sixty-six teams involving nearly one thousand people to visit U.S. factories and bring back productivity improvement ideas. Analyses of team recommendations, and a brief review of the country's industrial history, offer compelling insights into the problems of relative industrial decline. This dissertation attempts to assess the reasons for British industry's inability to respond to the country's economic emergency or to maintain its competitive position faced with the challenge of newer industrializing countries.
40
Park, David. "Grayson County, Texas, in Depression and War: 1929-1946." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2009. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc12178/.
Full textAbstract:
The economic disaster known as the Great Depression struck Grayson County,
Texas, in 1929, and full economic recovery did not come until the close of World War II. However, the people of Grayson benefited greatly between 1933 and 1946 from the myriad spending programs of the New Deal, the building of the Denison Dam that created Lake Texoma, and the establishment of Perrin Army Air Field. Utilizing statistical data from the United States Census and the Texas Almanac, this thesis analyzes the role of government spending‐federal, state, and local‐in the economic recovery in Grayson County.
41
Zogg, Philipp Emanuel. "Who mines what belongs to all? A historical analysis of the relationship between the state and capital in the South African mining industry." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/6807.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores the relationship between the state and mining capital in South Africa since the beginning of gold mining. It provides a historical analysis centered around the notion that neither state nor capital have been able to dominate each other wholly but retained their respective relative strength and independence. By applying a qualitative approach, this thesis seeks to determine whether this notion still holds true today, how the relationship between the state and mining capital has evolved over time and by what factors was it determined. I suggest that structurally the nature of the state-capital relationship continues to endure fifteen years after apartheid. Accordingly the thesis is organized in terms of two critical junctures, one in the 1920s and one in the long 1970s when the balance of power between the state and mining capital experienced a number of shifts. Recent developments in post-apartheid South Africa seem, as of now at least, to represent more of a continuation of the shift that materialized in the long 1970s rather than a new conjuncture of its own or one in the making. Contrasting these findings with the adamant calls of the ANCYL for a nationalization of mines indicates that nationalization as the ANCYL foresees it does not seem to be informed by a historical understanding of the mining capital-state relations and that it is ceteris paribus unlikely to materialize.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die tesis ondersoek die verhouding tussen die staat en mynbou kapitaal in Suid-Afrika sedert die begin van die goudwedloop. Op grond van ’n historiese oorsig word daar aan die hand gedoen dat nòg die staat nóg mynbou kapitaal mekaar oorheers het en dat hierdie tendens vyftien jaar na apartheid steeds voortduur. Die magsbalans tussen die staat en kapitaal word egter gekenmerk deur twee uiteenlopende periodes, naamlik die Twintiger jare en die langdurige Sewentigs. Verwikkelinge in post-apartheid Suid-Afrika suggereer ’n voortsetting van die dinamika van die Sewentigs. Volgens onlangse uitlatings deur die ANC Jeugliga blyk dit asof die beweging nie bewus is van die kompleksiteit van hierdie historiese verhouding nie en dat dit dus hoogs onwaarskynlik is dat nasionalisering in terme van ANC Jeugliga beleid die lig sal sien.
42
Oosterlinck, Kim. "Sovereign debts in trouble times." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/211300.
Full text
43
Arana, Mario J. "Macroeconomic adjustment and poverty: the case of Nicaragua, 1980s-1990s." Thesis, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/1471.
Full text
44
Dube, Thabani Ngoni. "National unity or impunity : examining the impact off the Inclusive Government (IG) on the politics in Zimbabwe post 2005." Thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/11442.
Full textAbstract:
Since the colonial period, Zimbabwe has been a territory characterised by contestation. In the
2000s, Zimbabwe entered a period of severe socio-economic conditions; this period was also
marred with several cases of human rights abuses and political violence. This period also saw
the emergence of a new opposition party, the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC). In the
mid-2000s, South Africa was vested with the task of resolving the political crisis in Zimbabwe by
the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Former South African President Thabo
Mbeki managed to facilitate a Global Political Agreement (GPA), which was signed on 15
September 2008. This led to an Inclusive Government (IG) being formed on 3 February 2009.
The IG brought the three main opposition parties in Zimbabwe into a power-sharing
government with the Zanu-PF. This dissertation explores the role played by South Africa in
brokering a power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe, it also assesses whether “power-sharing” is an
effective peace-building model. At the core of this dissertation is an assessment of the impact
of the IG on the politics in Zimbabwe. Three themes are used to assess the politics, namely
socio-economics in Zimbabwe, the rule of law in Zimbabwe and the perceived legitimacy of the
government. The dissertation uses content analysis as the research method to analyse three
newspapers, a South African newspaper, the Mail & Guardian and two Zimbabwean
newspapers, the Sunday Mail and the Standard Newspaper. The period of analysis will be from
2005 to 2011. The dissertation offers a substantive analysis of the reporting of the three
newspapers. The findings of this dissertation reveal that the socio-economic situation in
Zimbabwe has improved since the implementation of the IG but is still in a dire situation. It also
reveals that, despite the decrease in reports of human rights abuses and the cases of political
violence, Zimbabwe is still devoid of the rule of law. It reveals that the legitimacy of the
government is in Zimbabwe has slight improved since the implementation of the IG. The
dissertation offers recommendations to the political crisis in Zimbabwe from the discipline of
conflict transformation scholarship.M.Soc.Sc. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.
45
Steinert, Per Ole Christian 1940. "Surviving on the economic brink : Maya entrepreneurs in the urban informal sector of Guatemala." 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/4015.
Full textAbstract:
This study has focused on the conditions of indigenous entrepreneurs of production in the urban informal sector. In that sense, it is a first of its kind. Eleven Maya entrepreneurs in the city of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, in five different productive activities, were interviewed. In addition a control group of three Ladino entrepreneurs was established and some large formal enterprises were visited. Besides analyzing the general working situation of the Maya entrepreneurs, the study tested two hypotheses on ethnicity. The first put forward the assumption that Maya entrepreneurs use their ethnic network to promote their enterprises, the other that Maya entrepreneurs are active in certain activities of the informal sector and not in others, due to, for example, structural conditions in the ethnically stratified and segregated society of Guatemala. Neither of these hypotheses were substantiated by the data. However, while ethnic segregation was not observed among Ladino and Maya entrepreneurs of production, there is circumstantial evidence of a structural discrimination that forces many Mayans who do not succeed in establishing a productive enterprise, to try their luck in the less economically promising sector of commerce. Besides the ethnic aspects, the study gave conclusive evidence for answers to some of the questions directed towards the informal sector in general, among them, the question whether or not capital accumulation takes place and, eventually, to which extent. The annual capital accumulation among productive enterprises in the informal sector of the city of Quetzaltenango was modeled. The results indicate an accumulation per year of roughly $1.5 million. Recalculations with a sensible variation of some of the crucial assumptions, gave results within a band of $1.35 million - $1.65 million. The capital is accumulated by 258 enterprises, with four or more workers (including the owner), with a total work force of 1,320 workers, out of a total of 1879 enterprises of production. To this author's knowledge, no similar attempt of such an estimation has been reported in the literature before. The study offers calculations on the economic take-home earnings of some of the Maya entrepreneurs and identifies the mechanisms behind the entrepreneurial successes and failures. It concludes that it is necessary to distinguish between enterprises of production and enterprises of commerce due to their different natures. It presents data on the labor wages in the informal sector. It shows that the salaries are, first, closely related to the productivity of the individual worker, and, second, that, probably more often than not, they are tied to fluctuations in the demand of the market for the products of the enterprise. This means that the salary bracket within one economic activity may vary widely throughout the year. Other topics where the study offers new insight on entrepreneurial practice in the informal sector, are on lending conditions and the use of formal loans, on taxation, on the use of different management schemes and the potential of these, and on productivity and profitability within different economic activities. A list of the findings of the study is given at the end.text
46
Checkol, Daniel Dejene. "Land tenure reform and socioeconomic structures in Dabra Marqos (Gojjam), Ethiopia : c1901-1974." Thesis, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/26795.
Full textAbstract:
In this doctoral thesis I advance a new interpretation of the social and economic history of
Ethiopia beginning with the turn of the twentieth century and ending with the third decade of
that century. One of my achievements in this study is the careful utilization of property
documents in the reconstruction of the modern social history of Ethiopia, more precisely
Däbrä Marqos (Gojjam) in northwestern Ethiopia. Besides original use of property
documents in my study, I have used new and less conventional genre of sources, viz.,
courtroom observation, images, biblical references, private documents, and old sayings.
Combining these genre of sources and oral data helped me to provide a plausible story and
advance a new interpretation of the property system and the socioeconomic and power
relations arising from modern Däbrä Marqos (Gojjam). I emphasize the continued relevance
of tax appropriation in contemporary Däbrä Marqos (Gojjam). This is to counter an adverse
claim to tribute in kind and services as well as the resilience of old practices relating to land
use, political power, exploitation, social domination, landholding and violence. All these
served as the background to impede changes, in the course of progress of the imperial policy,
mostly, between liberation in 1941 and revolution in 1974. As the main argument embedded
in my study is that despite the attempt of the imperial state to figure out what the content of
land tenure and surplus appropriation in Däbrä Marqos (Gojjam) was like, in actual fact
what the effort produced was the people's multiple reaction. New measures relating to
property reform which the imperial state tried to codify and fix failed to achieve stability and
order, precipitated a revolution leading to the end of the imperial rule with broadly similar
historical trajectory to what many scholars viewed on the subject.History
D. Phil. (History)
47
Copeland, Nicholas Matthew 1973. "Bitter earth: counterinsurgency strategy and the roots of Mayan neo-authoritarianism in Guatemala." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/3719.
Full textAbstract:
Ten years after the Guatemalan Peace Accords heralded the construction of a multi-ethnic democracy, corrupt neo-authoritarian regimes have derailed the Accords, continued state violence and impunity, and implemented neoliberal economic policies that have worsened poverty in Mayan highlands. Strangely, war tattered and impoverished rural Mayans, including many who supported the revolutionary left in the 1970s, provide these parties' main base of support. Stranger still is widespread support for ex-dictator general Ríos Montt, who stands indicted for genocide of Mayans in the 1980s. Mayan support for neo-authoritarians is usually viewed as either an expression of pure democratic free will or as the repression of revolutionary consciousness through fear and/or deception. While the former ignores massive Mayan support for the left and trivializes decades of repression, the latter ignores important changes in Guatemalan political culture and erases Mayan agency. My dissertation reframes this phenomenon by providing a critical genealogy of Mayan political imaginaries in relation to overlapping and competing regimes of power for the last sixty years. During 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the right-dominated Mayan-Mam town of San Pedro Necta, I investigated Mayan responses to reformist and revolutionary organizing, state repression, state-led agrarian modernization, and neo-authoritarian development populism. I focus on the effects of these mechanisms on evolving conceptions and practices of politics, development, and community among township inhabitants. Bitter Earth locates the appeal of neo-authoritarian politics in the ways that state strategies have rearranged the conceptual and affective terrain upon which Mayans collectively struggle for economic security, dignity, and racial equality. This research shows the limits of neoliberal multiculturalism, particularly its complicity with colonial governance and counterinsurgency strategy, and orients our thinking towards political alternatives consistent with Mayans' long-term struggles for racial justice and community autonomy.
48
Narjoko, Dionisius Ardiyanto. "Indonesian manufacturing and the economic crisis of 1997/98." Phd thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/146657.
Full text
49
"Mobility of blacks and whites in the U.S: evidence from National Longitudinal Surveys and Nation Longitudinal Survey of Youth." 2013. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5884305.
Full textAbstract:
Yeung, Ion Lam.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references.
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts also in Chinese.
50
Gökalp, Deniz 1978. "Beyond ethnopolitical contention: the state, citizenship and violence in the 'new' Kurdish question in Turkey." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/3720.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation aims to illuminate the changing nature of the Kurdish contention in Turkey since the 1990s as well as its ubiquitous dissemination among the Kurdish grassroots through examining the repercussions of political violence and the relocation of the grassroots from rural to urban centers. My understanding of the recent internal displacement of Kurdish citizens in Turkey in the late 1980s, but en masse in 1990s relates the issue to three overarching intertwined trajectories; 1) the end of the cold war, resulting in the changing nature of political violence and of identity politics; 2) the incursion of neoliberalism and the changing paradigms regarding the nature of state-society relations, resulting in a tendency for decentralization and a decline in the welfare functions of the state 3) the increasing salience of new international concerns--particularly international human rights rhetoric--and their influence domestically. Against this backdrop, I examine how the displacement of Kurdish citizens on a large scale has become part of the changing nature of the Kurdish Question, and in turn has started to redefine its contemporary face in Turkey in the 1990s. I argue that following the 1990s, the Kurdish question in Turkey has [re]surfaced as 1) a problem of political legitimacy between the state and (Kurdish) citizens affected by conflict and displacement 2) an ethno-nationalist claim, 3) a poverty and social citizenship problem. I analyze these three propositions in relation to three main processes. First, I propose that new dynamics have been introduced into the state/center-citizen/periphery relations, through which 'legitimate' Kurdish citizens and secure spaces/geographies are distinguished by the Turkish state in contrast to the 'illegitimate,' 'so-called', 'undeserving' and/or 'suspicious' ones. This process, in turn, brought in question the legitimacy of the state in the eyes of the displaced Kurdish citizens. Second, previously existing Kurdish contention has turned into an ethno-political issue, which is entrenched among the Kurdish masses mired in poverty in the urban centers of southeastern Turkey. Finally, the discontents of neoliberal restructuring in the form of poverty, unemployment and social exclusion have converged with the ethnicized discontent prevailing among the Kurdish masses in the city centers in southeastern Turkey.