Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Structure of developed countries'

Cette thèse a pour objectif de prendre part à la réflexion sur le risque systémique et ses conséquences négatives sur l’économie réelle, et au débat sur la mise en place d’une règlementation macro-prudentielle (effets systémiques) efficace pour l’industrie bancaire en visant la stabilité financière. Pour cela, ce travail contribue à la littérature existante à travers plusieurs aspects. Dans le premier chapitre de cette thèse, sur un échantillon de banques de l’OCDE, nous étudions la manière dont la valeur de la franchise affecte le risque bancaire avant, pendant et après la crise financière mondiale de 2007–2008, en utilisant des mesures de risque individuelles et systémiques. Nous réétudions l’hypothèse de la valeur de la franchise bancaire et son rôle disciplinant au regard de la prise de risque et de l’expansion au risque systémique avant, pendant et après la crise financière. Nous montrons qu’avant la crise, la valeur de la franchise bancaire impacte positivement la prise de risque et le risque systémique non seulement des très grandes banques dites “too-big-too-fail” mais aussi des grandes banques européennes et américaines. Cependant, nos résultats montrent que pendant et après la crise, cet effet s’inverse. En considérant la période d’avant crise, nous allons plus loin dans nos investigations sur la relation entre la valeur de la franchise d’une part et la prise de risque et l’exposition au risque systémique d’autre part, en prenant en compte les effets des différences entre les cultures de prise de risque, la taille des banques et les stratégies bancaires. Le deuxième chapitre analyse la dynamique de la structure du capital des banques en fonction de leur niveau de capital interne ciblé et/ou externe imposé. Plus précisément, il examine plusieurs caractéristiques. (i) si les frictions du marché et les coûts d’ajustement du capital sont plus considérables lorsqu’il s’agit d’ajuster les ratios de fonds propres réglementaires par rapport à un ratio de levier simple. (ii) les mécanismes d’ajustement utilisés par les banques pour ajuster leur ratio de capital. (iii) comment la vitesse d’ajustement et les mécanismes d’ajustement diffèrent entre les grandes banques systémiques et complexes d’une part, et les banques moins systémiques d’autre part. Les résultats suggèrent que les banques sont plus flexibles et plus rapides dans l’ajustement de leur ratio de levier que dans l’ajustement de leurs ratios de capital réglementaire. Tandis que les banques d’importance systémique (SIFI) sont moins réactives que les autres banques dans l’ajustement de leur ratio de levier cible, elles sont néanmoins plus rapides à atteindre leurs ratios réglementaires cibles. D’autres investigations montrent que les SIFIs pourraient être plus réticentes à modifier leur base de capital en émettant ou en rachetant des actions et préfèrent une réduction plus importante ou une expansion plus rapide de leur taille. Dans le dernier chapitre, nous analysons comment la structure organisationnelle internationale et l’expansion géographique de 105 banques européennes cotées qui ont des filiales à travers le monde, pourrait affecter leur importance systémique au cours de la période 2005–2013. Nous examinons également comment le pic de la crise financière mondiale de 2008–2009 et l’ampleur de la crise de la dette souveraine européenne de 2010–2011 pourraient avoir affecté ces relations. Nous montrons que l’internationalisation et la complexité organisationnelle sont des facteurs importants du risque systémique bancaire, en particulier pendant les années de stress financier 2008–2013<br>The aim of this thesis is to contribute on the current debate on the systemic risk and its policy implications for the implementation of new (systemic risk-based) capital requirements in the banking industry. We extend the existing literature in many aspects. In the first chapter, we investigate how bank charter value affects risk for a sample of OECD banks by using standalone and systemic risk measures before, during, and after the global financial crisis of 2007–2008. We revisit the self‐discipline role of charter value on bank’s risk-taking and systemic risk prior, during and after the crisis. We show that bank charter value is positively associated with risk-taking and systemic risk for very large “too-big-too-fail” banks and large U.S. and European banks prior to the crisis, but such a relationship is inverted during and after the crisis. Then, we deepen investigation on this relation between charter value and risk-taking and systemic risk prior to the crisis, regarding differences in risk taking cultures, bank size and bank strategies. The second chapter analyzes the dynamics of banks’ capital structure towards their desired and/or imposed capital level. It analyzes several interesting features. (i) whether or not market frictions and capital adjustment costs are larger for regulatory capital ratios vis-à-vis a plain leverage ratio. (ii) which adjustment channels banks use to adjust their capital ratio. (iii) how the speed of adjustment and adjustment channels differ between large, systemic and complex banks versus small banks. Findings suggest that banks are more flexible and faster in adjusting to their leverage capital ratio than to regulatory capital ratios. Whereas, systemically important banks are slower than other banks in adjusting to their target leverage ratio but quicker in reaching their target regulatory ratios. Further explores show that SIFIs might be more reluctant to change their capital base by either issuing or repurchasing equity and prefer sharper downsizing or faster expansion. In the third chapter, we analyze how the international organization structure and the geographic expansion, of 105 European listed banks that have foreign affiliates around the world, could affect bank level measures of systemic risk during the 2005–2013 period. We also investigate how the peak of the global financial crisis of 2008–2009 and the height of the European sovereign debt crisis of 2010–2011 might have affected such relationships. We find that internationalization and foreign complexity are important drivers of bank systemic risk, particularly during the 2008–2013 financial stress years

Due to the rapid growth of Internet technology, universities and higher educational institutions around the world are investing heavily in web-based learning systems to support their traditional teaching and to improve their students’ learning experience and performance. However, the success of an e-learning system depends on the understanding of certain antecedent factors that influence the students’ acceptance and usage of such e-learning systems. Previous research indicates that technology acceptance models and theories may not be applicable to all cultures as most of them have been developed in the context of developed countries and particularly in the U.S. So far little research has investigated the important role that social, cultural, organizational and individual factors may play in the use and adoption of the e-learning systems in the context of developing countries and more specifically there is almost absence of this type of research in Lebanon. This study aims to fill this gap by developing and testing an amalgamated conceptual framework based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and other models from social psychology, such as Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and TAM2 that captures the salient factors influencing the user adoption and acceptance of web-based learning systems. This framework has been applied to the study of higher educational institutions in the context of developing as well as developed countries (e.g. Lebanon and UK). Additionally, the framework investigates the moderating effect of Hofstede’s four cultural dimensions at the individual level and a set of individual differences on the key determinants that affect the behavioural intention to use e-learning. A total of 1197 questionnaires were received from students who were using web-based learning systems at higher educational institutions in Lebanon and the UK with opposite scores on cultural dimensions. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to perform reliability and validity checks, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in conjunction with multi-group analysis method was used to test the hypothesized conceptual model. As hypothesized, the findings of this study revealed that perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), subjective norms (SN), perceived quality of work Life (QWL), self-efficacy (SE) and facilitating conditions (FC) to be significant determinants of behavioural intentions and usage of e-learning system for the Lebanese and British students. QWL; the newly added variable; was found the most important factor in explaining the causal process in the model for both samples. Our findings proved that there are differences between Lebanese and British students in terms of PEOU, SE, SN, QWL, FC and AU; however no differences were detected in terms of PU and BI. The results of the MGA show that cultural dimensions as well as demographic factors had a partially moderated effect on user acceptance of e-learning. Overall, the proposed model achieves acceptable fit and explains for 68% of the British sample and 57% of the Lebanese sample of its variance which is higher than that of the original TAM. Our findings suggest that individual, social, cultural and organisational factors are important to consider in explaining students’ behavioural intention and usage of e-learning environments. The findings of this research contribute to the literature by validating and supporting the applicability of our extended TAM in the Lebanese and British contexts and provide several prominent implications to both theory and practice on the individual, organizational and societal levels.

In this study, a Kaleckian-Post-Keynesian macroeconomic model, which is an extended version of the Bhaduri and Marglin (1990) model, serves as the starting point. The merit of a Kaleckian model for our purposes is that it highlights the dual function of wages as a component of aggregate demand as well as a cost item as opposed to the mainstream economics, which perceive wages merely as a cost item. Depending on the relative magnitude of these two effects, Kaleckian models distinguish between profit-led and wage-led regimes, where the latter is defined as a low rate of accumulation being caused by a high profit share. Are actual economies wage-led or profit-led? Current orthodoxy implicitly assumes that they are profit-led, and thus supports the neoliberal policy agenda. The purpose of the paper is to carry this discussion into the empirical terrain, and to test whether accumulation and employment are profit-led in two groups of countries. We do so by means of a structural vector autoregression (VAR) model. The model is estimated for USA, UK and France to represent the major developed countries, and for Turkey and Korea to represent developing countries. The latter are chosen since they represent two different export-oriented growth experiences. The results of the adjustment experiences of both countries are in striking contrast to orthodox theory, however they also present counter-examples to each other in terms of their ways of integrating into the world economy. (author's abstract)<br>Series: Working Papers Series "Growth and Employment in Europe: Sustainability and Competitiveness"

The United Nations Research Institute of Social Development (UNIRSD) published a monograph after their workshop in Geneva 1994 on the development of Cambodia. Among the various issues the workshop revealed the pressing need for research regarding the post-conflict economic strategy, the socio-psychological effects of the war, appropriate forms of foreign aid and delivery mechanisms, and the roles and responsibilities of different types of local, national and international institutions involved in processes of rehabilitation and reconstruction. In response to this fundamental quest for knowledge, this study is designed to investigate the development of tourism in the war-tom Cambodian economy in the mist of poverty and social problems. International intervention and assistance, the role of government and the Third Sector!, and community participation are key embedded units for the study. The thesis also intended to examine the appropriateness of the approaches employed by the government and international aid in promoting tourism. Although this thesis focused on Cambodia, findings and discussions are highly relevant to other less developed countries (LDCs), especially those having a background of war and/or civil turmoil. The thesis also addresses questions related to tourism as a development agent for economic growth, social rehabilitation and political development. For example: • How can tourism serve to reactivate processes of economic growth and social development without seriously affecting the allocation of resources and current structure of the economy? • How can tourism development be activated given the contextual limitations? • Why should government intervene in the development process and how does one ensure the results will be accomplished with minimal disturbance to the social system? • What kind of new social problem(s) and/or distortions in the economy, if any, have been induced by tourism and/or the liberalization of the economy? The delimitation of the study to tourism is for practical reasons. On the one hand, it is impossible to investigate the situation in Cambodia and make meaningful recommendations without refining the scope of study. Tourism, on the other hand, is the world's largest single industry and one on which many countries have pinned their hopes. It is renowned for its ability to generate income, to attract foreign investment, to create employment and as some including the World Tourism Organization and the Pope John Paul II even argue for its capability to promote peace2. This thesis developed a tourism system model by theoretical induction making use of Cambodia as the subject of study. The ultimate vision of the study is to enhance the body of knowledge and thus to capitalize tourism as a development agent for the rehabilitation of a war-tom economy and social institutions to fight both poverty and marginalization. The findings of the study revealed the most current situation in Cambodia by applying the model of the tourism system and the model for tourism development proposed. The proposition that free-market capitalism might not work for less developed countries was tested and proved to be valid. This thesis revealed the barriers and potential of tourism as a development agent for LDC by using Cambodia as the subject for investigation. Specific recommendations were given. Although it might seem controversial given the difficulties as illustrated in the analysis, Cambodia has very limited option for development. The thesis also argued that many obstacles in the development are administrative. Once the problems were addressed, a significant increase in demand can be expected. This study attempts to provide answers to developmental questions. However, more questions and gaps in knowledge emerged in the process of the study. This study, as originally designed, is not an end in itself but a stepping-stone to further studies. To conclude, allow me to cite the words of Joan Healy, Overseas Service Bureau Australia, "to understand the meaning of this time we do well to see it through the experiences and aspirations of ordinary Cambodians. Then our questions change. We ask about ways they see to ease suffering and contribute to peace. We face the fact that we do not know so many answers.

The United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (UNCLDC) held in Paris in 1981, consolidated the category of least developed countries as a major issue at the international level. The creation of the category, and the theory and practice of least development are examined, and the results of the UNCLDC are assessed. Malawi is taken as a case study, to examine its response to the Substantial New Programme of Action, agreed to at the UNCLDC, and to analyse the extent to which the international community has fulfilled its commitment to substantially improve the volume and quality of assistance. The effects and causes of the recurrent cost problem in least developed countries arc analysed, at the micro and macro levels, and proposals made to ease this constraint. Attention is given to the scope of food aid to support recurrent costs, and a set of guidelines are proposed. At the UNCLDC it was suggested that very large projects (transformational investments) should be undertaken in least developed countries. The methodology for estimating the benefits of such projects is discussed, and a case study presented of the use of project appraisal and the multiplier in Malawi. A significant increase in aid was agreed as a key international support measure at the UNCLDC. As yet there is no systematic aid evaluation process. The results of an experiment arc presented, using a qualitatively based system of evaluation, which is then assessed across sets of data with quantitative summations, to measure aid effectiveness.

The underlying problem in debt management has been the allocation of the global adjustment burden between the creditors and the debtors and to make them less sensitive to the colossal economic sacrifice attendant to the adjustment. The Brady Plan seems to strike a balance between the opposing interests of the parties involved. But the question of whether such a balance can be sustained in the long run is still open. All the debt management strategies evaluated in this work seem inadequate in so far as they could not abate the recurrence of the problem. But they nevertheless, appear to be the best that can be offered in the face of the reality of the world economic situation. The susceptibility of the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) to foreign indebtedness is rooted in the poor structure and relatively undiversified nature of their economies. Thus the economic growth of these countries seems a panacea to the debt problem. To this end, the LDCs have to ensure that their economies undergo vigorous economic reforms congruent with the present and prospective realities of the world economy, aimed at lifting supply constraints, attracting foreign investments and encouraging debt-equity swaps which seems to be making a considerable inroad to effective debt management in that it saves debtor countries steep foreign exchange commitment needed for international trade and debt servicing. The economic interdependence of nations makes the success of this strategy contingent upon a 3% minimum GDP growth rate in the industrialized countries to generate not only good market for LDCs’ tradeables but also to forestall exogenous factors that promote the recurrence of the problem. Clearly, this matter is not within the province of international law. The problem is basically economic and must be practically handled and resolved in the same context. In the context of the debt problem and management, international law cannot make possible what is economically impossible. Debtors are therefore advised to save themselves the problem of international indebtedness by matching expenditures with available resources at all times while the creditor countries themselves tamper their economic policies to check the exogenous factors which promote the recurrence of the problem.<br>Law, Peter A. Allard School of<br>Graduate

Research (e.g., Strike, Gao, & Bansal, 2006) has pointed out that international firms diversifying geographically can be both socially responsible and socially irresponsible. However, the research has failed to provide a strong theoretical explanation based on a major theory. I propose to address this gap by testing two competing perspectives based on institutional theory, i.e., the institutional-transfer approach and the institutional-void approach. Based on relevant literature, I propose a contingency model predicting the different effects of geographic diversification (GD) on corporate social performance (CSP) by focusing on the institutional differences between developed and developing countries. Moreover, arguing that the institutional approaches should also consider the effects of internal firm resources, I also predict the moderating effects of firm slack resources (the slack) on the relationship between the diversification and CSP. Adopting the approach that considers the slack in a continuum of managerial discretion, i.e., low- and high-discretion slack resources (George, 2005), I argue that high-discretion slack can strengthen the relationship between GD and CSP while low-discretion slack can weaken this relationship. To test the above hypotheses, I analyze the data of multinational enterprises (MNEs) listed on the New York Stock Exchange from 2000 to 2015. The whole sample contains 477 MNEs or 1,560 firm/year observations. Through analyzing empirical data, I have obtained evidence that there is a positive relationship between GD and corporate social responsibility (CSR) when MNEs diversify into developed countries. On the other hand, the results show a negative relationship between GD and CSR and a positive relationship between GD and corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR) when MNEs diversify into developing countries. Moreover, low-discretion slack can weaken the relationship between GD and CSR in developing countries. Theoretically, this thesis makes four contributions to the literature. First, it contributes to the GD literature by focusing on CSP. Second, it enriches institutional theory by testing the predictive validity of its two approaches (i.e., institutional-transfer approach and institutional-void approach) on the GD-CSP relationship. Third, it enriches the understanding of CSP research. Finally, it reveals that different types of slack resources could affect the GD-CSP relationship. In addition to the theoretical contributions, this thesis provides findings with practical implications for managers, governments, and stakeholders. First, managers should be aware of the institutional environments where their firms diversify. Second, managers should maintain an appropriate utility to different kinds of slack resources in their firms. Third, the government should reinforce its supervision on MNEs' diversification strategies, especially in developing countries. Fourth, stakeholders should stay alert that MNEs from developed countries can also perform CSIR behaviors.

As early as forty years ago, developed countries became concerned with the concept of sustainable development and then quite successfully turned it into applied policy issues. The conceptualization of sustainable development implies integration of three pillars: (i) economic development; (ii) social development; and (iii) environmental protection. Progress across all three provinces in a consolidated manner is considered as a critical step towards the achievement of sustainable development. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/31075

This thesis studies the effect of information and cultural barriers on the demand for health care in both developed and developing countries. Chapter 1 exploits the randomized research design of PROGRESA, a conditional cash transfer programme implemented in rural Mexico, to study whether health interventions can have indirect effects on the propensity to screen for gender specific diseases. We show that among women not entitled to a cash transfer there is a higher likelihood of being screened for cervical cancer as result of greater social acceptance of the test and increased awareness of potential risk factors. Chapter 2 discusses whether attendance at health and nutrition sessions as one of the requirements for receiving a transfer, affects the health behaviour of eligible adults. Using data from the randomized design of the PAL nutritional programme, implemented in rural Mexico, we show that there is a lower propensity among women for a large waist circumference, which is driven by reduced calorie intake based on better nutrition knowledge. Chapter 3 examines whether the quality of primary care affects the uptake of mammography and colonoscopy among individuals aged 50 plus, in eight European countries. We find that better quality general practitioner are significantly increases the propensity to undergo screening. Finally, Chapter 4 looks at whether the costs involved in acquiring health information are an important determinant of the decision to buy supplementary private health insurance and whether this explains in part the large cross country variation in supplementary private health insurance coverage across European countries. We find evidence that both education and proxies for cognitive ability act as substitutes for quality of health promotion in the propensity to sign a supplementary private insurance.

<p>The present study examines the trade patterns of Less - Developed Countries from 1978 to 1986. Trade data for twenty-five developing countries is examined to test the hypothesis that there are universal factors effecting the development of every country. The hypothesis predicts that as economic development progresses, the proportion of total trade in primary goods will decrease while the proportion of total trade in manufactured goods will increase.</p> <p>In order to test what is a long run phenomena for countries with relatively short time periods of data available, a pooled cross-sectional model is utilized.</p><br>Master of Arts

Advanced technology plays a more and more important role in economic growth. With increasing international transactions, technology spillover between countries is becoming more important for especially developing countries. The main objective of this essay is to investigate the relationship between labor productivity and technological spillovers measured by Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), import and Research and Development expenditure (R&amp;D). We use data covering 41 developing countries for the time period 2005 to 2008 to assess the extent to which technological spillovers from US influence labor productivity in the selected developing countries. Our results show that the relationship between technological spillovers and labor productivity in developing countries are highly sensitive to model specification and estimation techniques. Simple pooled data estimations revels a clear relation between technological spillover an labor productivity while more complex models such as  dynamic panel data models fails in this task.

The seventieth session of the General Assembly of the UN declared that the promotion of ‘lifelong learning opportunities for all’ as one of the Sustainable Development Goals. The idea of lifelong learning was first proposed by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization during the 1970s to mitigate the global educational crisis observed during the 1960s. However, until 2015 it was never taken as an educational policy strategy for the economically poor countries of the global South, known as Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Major supranational organisations such as the World Bank have encouraged LDCs to reorient their national educational policies and practices towards the framework of lifelong learning. This is an important breakthrough; however, almost no attention has been paid to what understandings of lifelong learning are being promoted by the supranational organisations that are increasingly involved in educational policy making and governance of LDCs. Drawing on major theoretical constructs informed by Habermas (lifeworld and communicative rationality) and using critical policy sociology as a methodological tool, this study analysed educational policy documents and interviews undertaken with key educational policy makers of Nepal. This study found that the World Bank has promoted a neoliberal understanding of lifelong learning that takes investment in learning as the responsibility of individuals, promotes privatisation in education and advocates for the decentralisation of educational management to promote global governance in education. This limited notion of lifelong learning is partially adopted in LDCs like Nepal. The study concluded that the neoliberal understanding of lifelong learning has almost no potential in addressing the multifarious problems faced by LDCs such as poverty, illiteracy, and inequality. This study recommended that the international organisations should not limit lifelong learning to an economic strategy aimed at increasing competitiveness and the production of flexible labour force; rather lifelong learning should be taken as the principal means for an inclusive and harmonious form of human development led by community-based initiatives. Providing lifelong learning opportunity for adults, especially those living in rural communities, should be the responsibility of the governments of LDCs for which international organisations may play a complementary role, when needed.<br>Education, Faculty of<br>Educational Studies (EDST), Department of<br>Graduate

A number of studies, including those in the World Bank and the IMF, would suggest that trade liberalisation is an integral part of economic reform in developing countries. Although trade liberalisation is a well researched area, there are still some remaining issues that need to be addressed. Most of the earlier studies focus on establishing a link between trade policies and long-term economic performance, measured in terms of productivity or per capita GDP growth. Although theories promoting inward-oriented policies emerged in the fifties and sixties, the unsustainable and often destructive effects of importsubstitution policies have, by and large, been discredited with the realisation that potential benefits of an open trade regime may outweigh its costs. In the early 20th century, openness was not a popular policy while protectionism dominated, and during the fifties a majority of developing countries followed it as a genuine path to industrialisation.

The purpose of this thesis is to lay the empirical foundations for exploring the dynamics of democracy, inequality, and redistribution in advanced countries. The thesis consists of three main essays: The first essay provides a new measure of democracy that captures the dynamics of democracy in developed countries, and the second and third essays focus on the dynamic relation between inequality and redistribution. The first paper shows that developed democracies are not uniformly democratic across different dimensions by constructing the Democratic Performance Index (DPI). The DPI, which has eight distinct dimensions of democratic performance, is the result of a conceptual and empirical critique of the existing measures of democracy under a middle-range conception of democracy. The second and third papers are closely intertwined to address a long-standing puzzle of whether more economic inequality leads to more redistribution. The second paper investigates the relationship between economic inequality and redistribution at the country level. The paper introduces redistributive preferences as an intervening factor in the relationship and presents the Gini coefficient of perceived social position (perceived Gini) as a country-level measure of perceived inequality. The evidence shows that perceived inequality, not actual inequality, is significantly associated with redistributive preferences, while preferences for redistribution do not translate into redistribution. The third paper examines the role of both individuals’ objective or subjective social status and their perceptions of inequality in shaping preferences for redistribution. The paper provides new measures of perceived actual inequality, personal norms of inequality, and perceived injustice. The findings demonstrate that subjective social position has a stronger impact on redistributive preferences than objective social position and that individuals’ inequality norms play a more crucial role in preference formation than does their perception of actual inequality. The concluding section summarises and discusses the findings, highlights policy implications, and suggests future areas of inquiry.

<p>The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of foreign assistance on lessâ developed countriesâ agricultural productivity. The study employed a Cobb- Douglas production function model. Several alternative model specifications were utilized in an attempt to model the true relationship between agricultural inputs and output. First, the foreign aid variable was included as a distributed lag of past foreign aid receipts and then as a three years moving average of aid expenditures. Second, dummy variables were introduced to allow the effects of aid to differ by income levels, yearly factors, and geographical regions. An inter country pooled cross section and time-series data for a set of 59 countries was used in the models from 1975-1984.</p> The empirical results did not support the hypothesis that the aggregate effect of foreign aid on agricultural production ls positive. However, the results of the model including dummy variables which account for the regional differences of aid effects revealed that the contributions of aid differ by geographical regions.</p><br>Master of Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.<br>Title from electronic title page (viewed Mar. 10, 2010). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Political Science." Discipline: Political Science; Department/School: Political Science.

The rise of market globalization creates challenges for business executives seeking to pursue foreign direct investment (FDI) in least developed countries (LDC), such as Afghanistan. Multinational corporate (MNC) executives need strategies that will improve the timely delivery of minerals for mining projects in LDCs. Guided by the force field analysis theory, the purpose of this holistic, single-case study was to explore the strategies that 5 MNC executives in Beijing, China, used to improve the timely delivery of minerals associated with the Aynak copper mine project in Afghanistan. Semistructured interviews were used to elicit detailed narratives from MNC executives about their experiences to develop strategies for mining projects in LDCs. A review of company documents, as well as member-checking of initial interview transcripts, helped to bolster the trustworthiness of final interpretations. Study results included 2 themes. Theme 1 was determinants of mine investment strategies in LDCs that included an exploration of driving forces, restraining forces, neutral forces, and the effect of those forces. Theme 2 was FDI strategies for copper mine projects in LDCs that included the comparison of cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, and combination of cost leadership and differentiation strategies. By implementing a cost leadership strategy and best practices, MNC executives were able to achieve greater success to improve timely delivery of minerals associated with FDI copper mine projects in LDCs. Social implications include ongoing efforts of Afghan government leaders to implement effective economic policies that decrease unemployment while reducing poverty.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how spirituality and religion could serve as a protective factor for depressed elderly (65 and older) who are victims of abuse. The review was carried out using scientific articles found through searches of various scientific databases with no limitation date.   Results found no studies which investigated that relationship across developed countries and especially not in the European context. However, the review gave some indications that spirituality might serve as an asset for depressed elderly. In addition the study found that professionals working with abused elderly should encourage them to be involved in spiritual actions and discussions. Studies on what role spirituality can influence and improve coping strategies across abused elderly are urgently needed in order to improve interventions aimed to curb the ever growing problem of elderly abuse.

In the first part of the thesis I focus on credit markets in developing countries, and describe the competitive interaction between Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). <p>Microfinance has recently attracted a lot of attention from investors, politicians, scholars and, most of all, people working on development. As a results, a huge number of MFIs are being created all over the world so that, as of today, practitioners reckon that about 100 millions of customers are being served. Remarkably, about 67% of them are women. <p><p>The reason of this extraordinary effort is that Microfinance is considered the most promising development tool currently available. This belief is based on two important features of Microfinance: (i) It promises to be financially viable (and in some cases even profitable) since poor people have proven to be reliable clients. As a result, Microfinance is potentially a zero-cost development tool. (ii) It hinges on the entrepreneurial abilities of the poor. It is designed to help the poor to help themselves, in their own home countries, by allowing them to use their skills, ideas and potentials. This should progressively make developing countries independent of rich ones' help. <p><p>The growth of Microfinance has been so fast that many issues and related research questions are still not answered. In my thesis I try to address one of them, that I believe particularly important: the increase of competition between MFIs. As economic theory predicts, competition can have dramatic consequences in terms of borrower welfare, profitability of the institutions and, therefore, on the attractiveness of the business for potential investors, donors and entrants. I use the tools of industrial organization and contract theory to understand these effects, measure them, and give some interesting policy advice. <p><p>In the first paper, I analyze the effects of entry of a new MFI in a previously monopolistic microcredit market. In order to catch the salient features of financial markets in developing countries, I use a model of asymmetric information and assume that institutions can offer only one type of contract. I consider different behavioral assumptions for the MFIs and study their influence on equilibrium predictions. The model allows showing that competition can lead to equilibria in which MFIs differentiate their contracts in order to screen borrowers. This process can, unfortunately, make the poor borrowers worse off. Interestingly, the screening process we describe creates a previously unexplored source of credit rationing. I also prove that the presence in the market of an altruistic MFI, reduces rationing and, via this channel, affects positively the competitor's profit.<p><p>In the second paper, I study the effects of competition in those markets in which, due to the absence of credit bureaus, small entrepreneurs can simultaneously borrow from more than one institution. As in the first paper, I analyze an oligopolistic microcredit market characterized by asymmetric information and institutions that can offer only one type of contract. The main contribution is to show that appropriate contract design can eliminate the ex-ante incentives for multiple borrowing. Moreover, when the market is still largely unserved and particularly risky, a screening strategy leading to con- <p>tract differentiation and credit rationing is unambiguously the most effective to avoid multiple borrowing. The result of this paper can also be read as important robustness checks of the findings of my first paper. <p><p>In the last part of the thesis, I depart from the analysis of developing countries to consider, more generally, the corporate governance of financial infrastructures. The efficient functioning of financial markets relies more and more on the presence of infrastructures providing services like clearing, settlement, messaging and many others. The last years have been characterized by interesting dynamics in the ownership regime of these service providers. Both mutualizations and de-mutualizations took place, together with entry and exit of different players. <p><p>Starting from this observation, in the last paper (with Joachim Keller), we analyze the effects of competitive interaction between differently owned financial providers. We mainly focus on the incentives to invest in safety enhancing measures and we describe the different equilibrium market configurations. We use a model in which agents need an input service for the financial market they operate in. They can decide whether to provide it them selves by forming a Cooperative or outsource it from a Third Party Provider. We prove that the co-existence of differently governed infrastructures leads to a significant reduction in the investment in safety. In most cases, monopolistic provision is preferable to competition. Moreover, the decision rule used within the Cooperative plays a central role in determining the optimal market configuration. <p><p>All in all, throughout my thesis, I use the tools of industrial organization and contract theory to model the competitive interaction of the different actors operating in financial markets. Understanding the dynamics typical of developing countries can help in gaining a deeper comprehension of the markets in richer countries, and vice-versa. I am convinced that analyzing the differences and the similarities of financial markets in different regions of the world can be of great importance for economic theorists, in that it provides a counterfactual for the assumptions and the results on which our predictions and policy advices are based.<p><br>Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion<br>info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Consumer policy of the developed countries might not fit the needs of the consumer of the less developed countries. The researcher contends that the less developed countries should be more concerned with macro issues rather than micro ones. The main objective of this dissertation is to assess the role of the free market system in protecting the consumers interest. This has been performed by investigating the field of passenger cars in Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Two consumer surveys were carried out: One in Saudi Arabia in the period April-June 1987, and the other in the United Kingdom in the period August-September 1987. The findings of the consumer surveys support the concept that the more the economic system is oriented towards the market system, the more the augmentation of the consumer interest. It was found that a relation exists between consumer awareness, the levels of education and income as well as the environmental factors. Therefore, the best policy of the less developed countries to adopt is to accept the free market system, to increase productivity and to improve the educational standards of the consumer. Since it was found that bureaucracy discourages the consumers from claiming their rights, simplifying government procedures rather than overregulation should augment the consumer's interest. The findings of this dissertation do not present a new theory or support others, but they contribute more understanding to the consumer issues in the less developed countries.

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Economics from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics<br>This paper investigates the effects of bilateral trade agreements on the antidumping use. It points out the antidumping investigations and measures imposed from the 16 major members of WTO, in the recent years. It also states the increasing number of use of antidumping and its policies in developing countries. From the available data it examines the alterations of antidumping investigations initated by a developed country (the USA) and a developing country (Brazil) against their major trading partners under bilateral trade agreements. It states that if there is more or less antidumping use depending on a country being developed or developing.

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'analyser les implications économiques des mesures techniques non tarifaires (MTNT) en vigueur dans les pays développés sur le commerce international de produits agroalimentaires des pays Africains. De façon plus spécifique, elle s'intéresse à trois questions principales. La première, qui est plus générale, est de savoir quel est et qu'est-ce qui détermine l'effet net de l'ensemble des mesures techniques non tarifaires en vigueur dans les pays de l'OCDE sur les exportations Africaines de produits végétaux. La deuxième question, plus spécifique, cherche à savoir quels sont les effets de la conformité aux mesures de limites maximales de résidus (LMR) de pesticides sur la production, l'offre d'exportation et la demande d'importation. Finalement, la troisième question consiste à déterminer quel est l'impact direct des rejets de produits à la frontière des pays Européens du système d'alerte rapide pour les denrées alimentaires et les aliments pour animaux (RASFF) sur les exportations Africaines de fruits et légumes comestibles. Nous traitons ces différentes questions à travers trois essais. Dans le premier essai, nous analysons de façon théorique l'effet net des MTNT sur le commerce bilatéral et proposons une approche empirique robuste pour évaluer cet effet. Ensuite, nous évaluons les effets d'entrave et d'amélioration ainsi que l'effet net des MTNT en vigueur dans les pays de l'OCDE sur les exportations africaines de produits végétaux. Nos résultats théoriques montrent que l'effet net des MTNT sur le commerce bilatéral agrégé dépend non seulement de l'élasticité de substitution et de l'élasticité du coût marginal par rapport aux MTNT, mais aussi du paramètre de forme de la distribution des coûts marginaux qui dépend de la technologie. En plus, nous constatons que pour une élasticité de substitution donnée, seules les entreprises ou les pays caractérisés par un coût marginal inférieur à un coût marginal seuil et une productivité supérieure à un niveau de productivité seuil connaîtront un effet net positif du commerce vers une destination donnée. Pour nos investigations empiriques, nous estimons une équation de gravité sectorielle en utilisant la base de données des MTNT publiée par la CNUCED et le WITS, combinée aux données commerciales transversales pour 2017 de UN COMTRADE/WITS. Les données couvrent 53 pays africains exportant 40 produits végétaux à 4 chiffres du Système harmonisé (SH) vers 35 pays membres de l'OCDE. Nos résultats empiriques montrent à la fois des effets d'entrave (diminution de 3,099%) et d'amélioration (augmentation de 2,056%) des MNT en vigueur dans les pays de l'OCDE sur les exportations africaines de produits végétaux. Ensemble, ces effets produisent un effet net négatif et significatif, ce qui indique que les MNT en vigueur dans les pays membres de l'OCDE constituent des obstacles pour les exportateurs Africains de produits végétaux. Dans le second essai, nous démêlons théoriquement et empiriquement les effets des LMR pour les pesticides sur la production, l'offre d'exportation et la demande d'importation. Nous adoptons une approche de modélisation basée sur les coûts et les bénéfices associés aux normes de sécurité sanitaire des aliments et utilisons notre cadre théorique pour évaluer les effets empiriques nets des LMR de pesticides sur la production de mangues en Afrique et le commerce avec les pays membres de l'OCDE. Théoriquement, nous montrons que les effets des LMR sur la production sont négatifs tandis que leurs effets nets sur le commerce bilatéral peuvent être positifs, nuls ou négatifs selon que l'effet de la qualité perçue par les consommateurs sur la demande d'importation est supérieur, égal ou inférieur à l'effet du coût de mise en conformité sur l'offre d'exportation. Nous utilisons des données transversales pour 12 pays africains qui ont produit et exporté des mangues conformes aux LMR vers 31 pays de l'OCDE en 2016, et nous constatons que, d'une part, les effets nets des LMR de pesticides sur la production de mangues sûres sont négatifs. D'autre part, ils sont positifs sur le commerce des mangues entre les pays africains et les pays membres de l'OCDE. Nos résultats impliquent que le renforcement ou l'imposition de LMR strictes pour les pesticides dans les pays développés peut favoriser les échanges commerciaux alors qu'ils entravent fortement la production dans les pays africains. Dans le dernier essai, nous évaluons l'effet des refus d'importation des pays Européens sur les exportations Africaines de fruits et légumes comestibles, au cours de la période 2008 à 2018. De façon plus spécifique, nous estimons l'effet moyen des rejets aux frontières des pays du réseau RASFF sur les marges extensive et intensive de commerce de fruits et légumes comestibles pour 45 pays africains. Nous utilisons les données sur les rejets aux frontières issues de la base de données en ligne du RASFF avec les données sur les exportations Africaines provenant de la base de données de WITS des Nations Unies. Nous estimons la version canonique de l'équation de gravité sectorielle d'Anderson et al. (2004) en utilisant l'estimateur du Pseudo poisson maximum de vraisemblance (PPML) de Silva et al.(2006) en combinaison avec l'approche robuste d'estimation à deux étapes avec inclusion de résidus (2SRI) de Terza et al.(2008). Nous constatons qu'une augmentation du nombre de refus d'importation par un pays du RASFF une fois dans l'année en cours entraîne une diminution du nombre de partenaires commerciaux en Europe pour les pays africains de 0,018% pour les légumes comestibles et de 0,143 % pour les fruits comestibles. En outre, nos résultats montrent qu'un refus d'importation supplémentaire diminue la valeur des exportations de légumes comestibles des pays africains de 0,045%. Cependant, nous constatons que les refus d'importation des pays du RASFF une fois dans l'année en cours entraînent une augmentation de la valeur des exportations de fruits comestibles des pays africains de 0,126%. Par ailleurs, nos résultats valident explicitement l'hypothèse d'endogénéité du nombre de refus d'importation et mettent en évidence les effets directs et les effets de contagion des rejets aux frontières. Ce dernier résultat signifie qu'une augmentation du nombre de rejets à la frontière d'un produit donné (par exemple un fruit frais) au cours d'une année précédente entraîne une augmentation du nombre de rejets à la frontière pour ce produit et les produits voisins (par exemple un légume frais) au cours de l'année suivante.<br>The objective of this thesis is to analysis the economic implications of technical non-tariff measures (TNTMs) in force in developed countries on the international trade of agricultural and agri-food products of African countries. More specifically, we focus on three main issues. The first more general question is: what is and what determines the net effect of the set of TNTMs in OECD countries on African exports of plant products ? The second, more specific, question is: what are the effects of compliance with maximum residue limit (MRL) for pesticide on production, export supply and import demand ? Finally, the third question is to determine: what is the direct impact of product rejections at the border of European countries of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) on African exports of plant products ? We address these different questions through three essays. In the first essay, we theoretically analyze the net effect of technical non-tariff measures (TNTMs) on bilateral trade and suggest a robust empirical approach to evaluate this effect. We assess the impediment, enhancement and net effects of the TNTMs in force in OECD countries on African exports of plant products. Our theoretical findings highlight that the net effect of the TNTMs on aggregate bilateral trade depends not only on the elasticity of substitution and the elasticity of marginal cost with respect to the TNTMs but also the shape parameter of the distribution of marginal costs which depends on the technology. In addition, we find that for a given elasticity of substitution, only firms or countries characterized by a lower marginal cost than a cutoff marginal cost and higher productivity than a threshold productivity level will experience a positive net effect of trade to a given destination. For our empirical investigation, we estimate a sectoral gravity equation using the non-tariff measures (NTMs) database released by UNCTAD and WITS combined with cross-sectional trade data for 2017 from the UN COMTRADE/WITS database. The data cover 53 African countries exporting 40 Harmonized System (HS) 4-digit plant products to 35 OECD member countries. Our empirical results show both impediment (decrease of 3.099%) and enhancement (increase of 2.056%) effects of the TNTMs in force in OECD countries on African exports of plant products. Together, these effects yield a negative and significant net effect, which indicates that the TNTMs in force in OECD member countries are obstacles for African exporters of plant products. In the second essay, we disentangle theoretically and empirically the effects of the MRLs for pesticides on the production, export supply and import demand. We adopt a modelling approach based on the costs and benefits associated with food safety standards and use our theoretical framework to assess the empirical net effects of the MRLs for pesticides on African mango production and trade with OECD member countries. Theoretically, we show that the production effects of MRLs are negative while their net effects on bilateral trade can be positive, zero or negative depending on whether the consumers' perceived quality effect on import demand is greater than, equal to or less than the compliance cost effect on export supply through the unconditional expected standard-compliant production. We use a cross-sectional data set for 12 African countries that produced and exported MRL-compliant mangoes to 31 OECD countries in 2016, and find that, on the one hand, the net effects of MRLs on the production of safe mangoes are negative. On the other hand, they are positive on mango trade between African and OECD member countries. Our results highlight that the tightening or imposition of strict MRLs for pesticides in developed countries may be trade promoting while they severely impede production in African countries. In the last essay, we assess the effects of European countries' import refusals on African exports of edible vegetables and fruits from 2008 to 2018. We specifically estimate the average effects of the RASFF countries' border rejections on the extensive and intensive margins of African countries exports of edible vegetables and fruits. We use the border rejections data from the RASFF online database and export data on 45 African countries from the UN WITS database. We estimate the canonical version of the sectoral gravity equation of Anderson and al. (2004) using the Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood (PPML) estimator of Silva and al. (2006) in association with the robust twostage residual inclusion (2SRI) approach of Terza and al. (2008). We find that a single increase in the number of import refusals by a RASFF country in the current year leads to a decrease in the number of trade partners in Europe for African countries by 0.018 percent for edible vegetables and 0.143 percent for edible fruits. In addition, our results show that one additional import refusal decreases the export value of African countries' edible vegetables by 0.045 percent. However, we find that RASFF countries' refusal to import once in the current year leads to an increase in the export value of African countries' edible fruit by 0.126 percent. Furthermore, our results explicitly validate the hypothesis of the endogeneity of the number of import refusals and highlight both the direct and spillover effects of border rejections. The latter result means that an increase in the number of border rejections for a given product (for instance, a fresh fruit) in a given year leads to an increase in the number of border rejections for a product and its neighboring products (for instance, a fresh vegetable) in the next year.

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Agricultural policy within the European Union (EU) is but one of the founding pillars upon which unification was developed. Negotiated out of a post-war Europe, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) emphasized the protection of the domestic market, through government subsidies and payment programmes, artificially raising the price of domestic products while restricting access for the foreign agricultural producers. The objective of this paper is to explore the link between the agricultural decisions made by the EU and the effects on citizens in the Least Developed Countries (LDC). To develop a comprehensive understanding of the issue at hand a review of the existing literature will be necessary, as well as an analysis of the available quantitative data. The findings revealed that the CAP is but one factor that impacts development of agriculture in LDC’s, many other factors, such as international and bi-lateral trade agreements, government institutions, and political lobbying also influence the outcome.