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This thesis presents three papers on fiscal policy. The first paper "Macroeconomic impacts of fiscal policy shocks in UK; a DSGE analysis" (joint with Keshab Bhattarai) uses an estimated new-Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to analyse the effects of fiscal policy in the UK. We show that positive shocks in government consumption and investment result in the highest stimulus in the short term, whereas the capital tax cut and the positive public investment shock in the longer horizon. On the government’s expenditure side public investment remains the most stimulating instrument even if we allow for a constant elasticity of substitution index of private and public consumption in utility. We also find that, the nominal and real frictions present in the model tend to influence stronger the level of labour and capital tax multipliers and less public expenditure multipliers. The second paper "Credit constraints, the housing market, and fiscal policy" investigates the effects of fiscal policy in an estimated new-Keynesian open-economy DSGE model with a housing market and indebted households. We show that house prices drop following a negative shock to government transfers, and a positive shock to public spending, public investment and taxes. The results reveal that the financial deregulation increases the sensitivity of fundamentals to fiscal policy. In particular, in the case of a stimulus, the financial deregulation contributes to a weakening of multipliers in the case of government consumption and investment and tends to improve multipliers for public transfers and tax cuts. The third paper "Who is afraid of austerity? The redistributive impact of fiscal policy in a DSGE framework" (joint with Richard McManus and Gulcin Ozkan) explores the distributional consequences of fiscal austerity using a medium scale new-Keynesian DSGE model with a richly specified fiscal sector. We show that agents who are credit constrained are most exposed to austerity in contrast to agents with full access to financial markets. This is particularly true in the case of rises in taxes on labour income and cuts in transfers. In general, tax based consolidations exhibit more conflict than spending based ones. Our results also reveal that the distributive impacts of fiscal consolidations are amplified the longer the austerity persists; the slower the policy reversal and when monetary policy reaches its zero lower bound.

Cognitive Engineering has been advocated as the discipline which could ensure the effective use of interactive computing technologies. Yet Cognitive Engineering currently exists only as an idea; the present day design of cognitive tools and work is a much more informal practice. Development of the Air Traffic Management system typifies current practices of cognitive design. The informality and inconsistent success of those practices is particularly apparent in efforts made to replace the paper flight progress strip with an interactive software system. Controllers use the flight strip in monitoring, planning and controlling traffic movements, and so far, all attempts to design its replacement have met with rejection. This thesis is intended to contribute towards a Cognitive Engineering discipline. The idea of Cognitive Engineering is first investigated and essential components of the discipline identified. One component is a 'conception'; this is a technical expression of the discipline's ontology. A conception would provide the general concepts needed for reasoning about cognitive design problems. A second component is 'exemplars'; these are formulations of particular cognitive design problems - formulations which use, and so exemplify, the conception. The thesis proposes a conception for Cognitive Engineering, and then constructs an exemplar. The exemplar is a formulation of the Cognitive Engineering design problem of a reconstructed Air Traffic Management system. Finally, the thesis investigates how the design issues of the paper flight strip could be rationalised as a better basis for designing an interactive software system in the short-term. The research demonstrates how the exemplar can be used to rationalise the flight strip design issues in the case of the reconstructed system.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a key source of technology transfer, economic growth and development, but many resource-rich economies attract less FDI compared to resource-poor countries. In light of this, it is surprising that there are very few studies available on the effects of natural resources on both the composition and volume of FDI. This thesis investigates the impacts and determinants of sectoral FDI in oil-exporting and producing economies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), using three empirical papers and considering several aspects. The thesis starts by investigating the impacts of natural resource abundance (oil) on the behaviour of FDI inflows to GCC countries, utilising two different data sets and different estimators to control for the issue of endogeneity. The empirical findings show that natural resources decrease aggregate inflows of FDI to GCC economies. More specifically, the resource sector (oil) attracts more FDI inflows but deters FDI to the nonresource sector. These results confirm the so-called FDI-Natural resource curse, through crowding out effect. This thesis also examines the relationship between aggregate FDI and sectoral FDI (resource and non-resource) inflows on economic growth, using a unique data set on sector-level FDI developed by the Financial Times: fDi market. The empirical results indicate a negative relationship between total FDI inflows and GDP per capita growth in the GCC economies. Moreover, two-sector analysis (resource and non-resource) shows that resource-based FDI hinders economic growth and non-resource FDI has insignificant effects on GDP per capita growth. This gives an indicator of the presence of the natural resource curse via the FDI channel. Finally, the third chapter of this thesis explores the effects of total FDI (inflows and outflows) and sectoral FDI inflows on public and private domestic investments in GCC countries. Aggregate estimations show that FDI inflows contribute significantly to public domestic investment but discourage private domestic investments. Also, FDI outflows promote private domestic economic activities, while in contrast, they negatively affect public domestic investment. Disaggregate data shows that greenfield FDI inflows to the oil sector yield a significant and positive effect on public domestic investment. Non-oil FDI has an ambiguous effect on domestic investment.

[From the Introduction]: The divestiture of formerly nationalised public utilities during the 1980s and 1990s in the UK and elsewhere was accompanied by the vertical unbundling of their natural monopoly elements, i.e. the physical distribution networks, from upstream activities such as electricity generation and gas supply and downstream activities such as retail in order to facilitate competition in the latter. The expectation was that opening up these upstream activities to private firms would foster competition, which would in turn lead to improvements in efficiency, lower prices and increased consumer welfare. There are, on the other hand, possibilities for considerable rents to be made; these could be in the form of profits, but given the regulation that the firms face and the degree of informational asymmetry between utility managers and other stakeholders, such as regulators, shareholders, and customers, they may also take the form of slack within the firm, and the maximisation of managerial utility. We analyse the effect of RPI-X regulation on the efficiency of the UK’s water and sewage and electricity distribution industries using stochastic frontier analysis. We extend the literature in several ways; first, in the case of the water and sewage industry, we look at efficiency not only on the cost side, but also on the revenue side. Second, following the findings of Restrepo-Tobón and Kumbhakar (2014) on the shortcomings of the direct estimation of the alternative profit frontier, we show that the profit maximisation problem of a monopolist with fixed scale characteristics separates into separate cost minimisation and revenue maximisation problems, then derive an alternative specification for the revenue frontier with a firmer basis in theory. Third, we include the publicly-owned Northern Ireland Water and Scottish Water, and the three former Scottish Water Authorities that preceded the latter, in our water cost and revenue analyses, and likewise include Northern Ireland Electricity in one of our cost analyses, providing an original insight into the performance of these utilities relative to their English and Welsh and Great British counterparts, respectively. In addition, we use more recent samples than those found in the literature, providing new evidence relating to the latest price control periods in both industries. We derive two new formulae for calculating the marginal effects of environmental variables on efficiency, and apply these to analyse the impact of annual price caps and time trends on revenue and cost efficiency, giving an insight into the static and dynamic impacts of RPI-X regulation, while also examining the impact of board composition variables and public ownership. This thesis is organised into seven chapters. In the remainder of Chapter 1, we give a short history of the UK water and electricity industries. In Chapter 2, we introduce basic efficiency-related concepts, before moving on to discuss issues of market power and firm performance in utility firms, and the theory relating to utility regulation. In Chapter 3, we review the literature on frontier analysis, introducing some of the main data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) methods in particular. The relative advantages and disadvantages of each method are considered, and the features of the method used in the subsequent empirical chapters are discussed. Chapter 4 reviews the empirical literature on the performance of water and electricity utilities in the UK and internationally, along with several papers on the impact of regulation on the performance in other utility industries. Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 apply SFA to analyse the efficiency of UK water and sewage and electricity distribution utilities, respectively. Efficiency predictions are discussed and compared, trends are discussed, and the marginal effects of our environmental variables on the various efficiency measures are derived and discussed at length. Finally, Chapter 7 summarises the conclusions from our analyses and relates them back to the existing literature, and discusses implications for utility performance and policy. The limitations of this thesis, and suggestions for future research, are also discussed.

This thesis investigates the experiences of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the agricultural sector of the Russian Federation. The focus is on the form of FDI, and how each investor responds, and adapts, to the Russian operational environment. This is achieved through extensive qualitative, and multiple methods research on three manifestations of FDI: corporate, privately-funded investment; corporate, publically-funded investment; and smaller, individual private investment. Of interest are the Russia-specific constraints that may be largely underprepared for by foreign investors, and unexpected events that occur in the Russian space that hamper the efforts of investors. This thesis, thus, informs the reader of the variable nature of the Russian agricultural sphere, and the problems that exist within its boundaries, and presents the stories of some of the foreign investors that have tried to penetrate its market, mostly since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The thesis consists of four papers that have either been published, or submitted for publication, in academic journals, and utilises fieldwork that was conducted between 2013 and 2014. This thesis finds that all of the foreign investors studied have experienced - in certain aspects - failure on the Russian frontier, though there have also been certain successes. It seems that financial success is dictated by the business model of each investor; those who are afforded longer time horizons, more time to adapt on the frontier, and a source of funds that does not place short-term pressure on the business, are more likely to succeed. The Russian operating environment is unique, peculiar, and unpredictable, with a tendency to produce substantial obstacles that, for investors, are difficult to overcome; for agricultural FDI to avoid these struggles, these environmental conditions need to be anticipated and prepared for, with clear strategies painstakingly thought through before any venture physically begins on Russian soil.

This thesis investigates economic growth in Africa using three empirical papers from a number of different angles. The thesis begins by investigating the effects of different natural resources on economic growth in Africa. Three exogenous natural resources proxies (for agriculture, fuels and minerals) have been constructed to account for endogeneity issues. Empirical results show that agriculture has a strong positive effect on economic growth, while fuels and minerals affect growth negatively in all specifications even after controlling for endogeneity, quality of institutions and economic policy. The results reject the notion for generalized natural resource curse and argue that the amalgamation of natural resources components into one measure may obscure differences in their respective growth impacts. The thesis also investigates the effect of total and sectoral (primary, manufacturing and services sectors) FDI inflows on total factor productivity (TFP) at a macro level, using a new dataset for TFP developed by UNIDO-World Productivity Database and employing instrumental variables 2SLS estimation technique to control for endogeneity problem. Empirical findings show positive and statistically significant effects from total and sectoral FDI inflows on TFP growth. The findings also show that services sector has the highest potential to accelerate TFP growth (especially through communications, and trade and business sub-sectors). Finally, the thesis considers the role of economic transformation in the form of increased manufacturing share in aggregate output in accelerating growth and reducing growth volatility in Africa. It examines the key determinants of growth in the share of manufacturing output (in GDP) and its relationship with real GDP growth and (growth) volatility. Empirical results indicate that real GDP growth and domestic investment are among the key drivers of growth in the share of manufacturing output and that growth in the latter has, in turn, the potential to raise GDP growth and reduce growth volatility.

At a global level, changes in the higher education environment - such as changing funding mechanisms, regulations and audit processes, increasing customer demands, competition and internationalization, and ongoing reduction in state resources for funding Higher Education has resulted in increased interest by academics and practitioners on leadership in the higher education sector. Recent studies have noted that there has been very limited research conducted on the question of which forms of academic leadership are associated with individual academic performance. Globalisation of higher education environment can bring many benefits to higher education organisations, but it can also expose them to a number of risks and challenges. The purpose of this study was to explore how leaders in the higher education sector are using their leadership abilities and skills to bring about enhanced academic performance from their academic colleagues and subordinates’. Therefore, in this research aims to identify which specific aspects of academic leadership skill-set have the maximum impact on academics’ performance. This research used six measures; namely visionary, adaptable to change, competency, effective leadership, transformational style and charisma, for quantifying academic leadership. Individual academic performance was measured by the construct titled work-related attitude (i.e. work-related attitude was considered to be a proxy for individual academic performance). Work-related attitude was quantified by three measures; namely job satisfaction, career satisfaction and organizational commitment. Both academic leadership landscape and academics’ work-related attitude were modelled as latent constructs. Based on data from fifteen interviews and a survey of faculty members of 261 academic staff from twenty Malaysian public universities, factor analyses was used to explore four groups of academic leadership constructs; namely innovative, effective, executive and adaptive. Similarly, factor analyses were used to establish four groups of work-related attitude constructs; namely organizational commitment, career satisfaction, job satisfaction and job skills. Regression analyses suggest that academic leadership was positively associated with work-related attitude. Further, multiple regression analyses suggests executive and innovative academic leadership behavioural traits were positively associated with organizational commitment, career satisfaction, job satisfaction and job skills of work-related attitude. Unfortunately, behavioural traits titled “effective” and "adaptive" had no association with any work-related attitude (i.e. academic performance). The implications of the results for theory and practice are significant. This research provides empirical evidence for the development of a theoretical model for academic leadership grounded in self-leadership theory. Further, this study also proposes a general definition of academic leadership according to faculty members’ perspectives and a diagnostic instrument for measurement of academic leadership and work-related attitude. The study gives a new perspective on factors that contribute toward academic leadership and work-related attitude. This study revealed which contributing factors of academic leadership and work-related attitude have significant impact on professional leadership in academia. Empirically, the study reveals the underpinning factors that influence the faculty members in understanding and exploring academic leadership and work-related attitudes. This study can assist faculty members of public universities in Malaysia in dealing with the challenges and demands in academia. University administrators (especially the vice chancellors), may urge their human resources departments to encourage their faculty members toward demonstrating executive and innovative behavioural traits in pursuing their academic life. Finally, this study contributes towards testing a model, instrument and research process that is based in the US in an Asian country – Malaysia. Moreover, the proposed model has the potential to be replicated in other countries. The main originality and value of this study is that it has addressed a research gap concerning academic leadership approaches to assessing and enhancing individual academic performance in a global context. The paper has identified which forms of academic leadership are associated with enhanced individual academic performance. In this context, this study proposes a new categorisation for measuring which specific aspects of academic leadership skill-set have the maximum impact on academics’ performance, and offers a characterisation of academic leadership skill-set on academics’ performance.

Morale is a commonly used term both in business and society but the concept of morale is relatively poorly defined and understood. In a recent paper Liefooghe et al. (2004) expressed surprise that "when reviewing the literature, no strong theory to explain morale as such is in evidence, nor are there many empirical studies that offer solid ground to advise organisations"(p 1). This thesis aims to provide these theories and this empirical evidence in order to produce a better understanding of morale. This research identifies a number of deficiencies in the current understanding of morale. These range from elision with other concepts to disagreement about whether it is an individual or group phenomenon. In this study, four principal domains are examined: (i) what morale is; (ii) how it differs from other concepts; (iii) the antecedents of morale and (iv) its consequences. A mixed methods approach was adopted combining idiographic and nomothetic research. The idiographic phase of the research adopted a Straussian (1998) grounded theory approach, involving data collection from seven different organisations. The data was accrued from a combination of site visits, informal contacts, external research, and 203 semi-structured interviews which were supplemented with psychometric instruments. The data were then coded and analysed. Morale could be readily differentiated from other concepts and emerged as a phenomenon with three dimensions: affective, future/goal and interpersonal. It was also viewed as a single phenomenon which was generalisable across situations and rooted in the individual although perceived members of the group exerted considerable influence. The antecedents of morale impacted on the three dimensions outlined above. Its consequences were the zeal with which tasks are undertaken, creativity and engagement. The nomothetic element of the research developed a number of measurement scales, grounded in the qualitative phase. These allowed morale to be differentiated from other phenomena and offered insights into individual and group perceptions of morale and the influence of personality variables. Further quantitative research confirmed the three dimensional structure of the concept. The results of these two phases were then integrated to provide a picture of the phenomenon of morale, differentiate it from other concepts and elucidate its antecedents and consequences. An appraisal of the limitations of the research is also made. Finally the implications of this research for both academic researchers and practitioners are discussed along with suggestions for future research.

Currently the provision of corporate financial information through the internet is a new issue confronting providers and users of financial information in Egypt. It is expected to be important as financial information would be disseminated worldwide and this availability of information could encourage people to invest in any part of the world. Studying internet reporting in Egypt will help in providing on line timely information, thus encouraging investors to invest in Egypt. It will meet stakeholders� demands for greater speed and volume of financial information. Businesses must find better and more effective ways of communicating financial information with these stakeholders. Therefore, there is a need to examine the role played by the internet in communicating financial information in Egypt, in order to find out how that role may be enhanced. The major objectives of the study were to 1) identify the extent of internet corporate financial reporting in the Egyptian companies; 2) identify factors which influence Egyptian listed companies to voluntarily adopt internet-based corporate financial reporting; 3) evaluate the effectiveness of voluntary internet financial reporting and disclosure to selected groups of users; and 4) explore the role of Investor Relations and auditors regarding internet financial reporting and their functions or procedures are affected. Innovation diffusion, institutional change, and economic-based theories were employed to explain the adoption of internet financial reporting in Egypt. To accomplish these objectives, a sequential explanatory triangulation design was employed, employing both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. Quantitative methods were used to achieve the first and second objectives. A disclosure index was constructed to determine the level of voluntary internet financial reporting of the 100 most active listed Egyptian companies for the year ended 2004. Ten hypotheses were formulated to test the relationship between the level of voluntary financial internet disclosure and the company�s characteristics. It was found that 27 companies had no websites, the websites of 9 companies were under construction, 62 companies had websites and 35 companies disclosed their financial information on their websites. The average disclosure rates of financial information were 30% for the Egyptian companies which had websites and 44% for companies having websites and disclosing financial information. 100% of communication companies and 67% of financial services companies disclosed financial information on their websites and all communication companies had disclosure scores over 50%. The results of Univariate analysis revealed that firm size variables (total assets, total sales); leverage variables (Total Debt /Total Assets and Long term Debt/ Total Assets); foreign listing; industry type; and audit firm size are significantly associated with the extent of internet disclosure at least at the 5% level of significance. The results of multiple regressions indicated that profitability, foreign listing and industrial sector (communications and financial services) are important factors affecting the amount and presentation formatting of financial information disclosed on Egyptian companies� websites. Qualitative method was used to accomplish the second, third and fourth objectives. Seventeen interviews were conducted with stakeholders [Investor relations officers, financial analysts & fund managers, audit partners & key managers from Egyptian Stock Exchange]. A framework was developed which includes six main factors affecting companies� disclosure of financial information on the internet, which include companies� characteristics [Size, Foreign listing, Industrial sector (banking and communications sectors), Capital structure (Foreign investors, Governmental ownership, Number of shareholders)], management style, amount of paper-based disclosure, imitation, rules and regulations, and number of analysts covering the company. Investor relations officers should be responsible and decide upon the financial information to be published on companies� websites but this is not the case in Egypt. Auditors have no responsibility regarding internet financial reporting in Egypt. This study makes the following contribution to knowledge: - This study is the first which undertakes an empirical investigation regarding internet financial reporting and disclosure of Egyptian listed companies. - This is the first study to examine the effects of culture, organizational structure and demographic characteristics on the adoption of voluntary internet reporting and disclosure. - One of the significant features in this study is that it employed quantitative and qualitative methods to identify the factors which affect companies� adoption of voluntary internet financial reporting and disclosure in Egypt. - This study will contribute to the understanding of the concept, functions and activities of Investor Relations within companies and this might draw the attention to the importance of Investor Relations and help in the development of Investor Relations in Egypt. This is the first time that the role of Investor Relations has been investigated in Egypt, or indeed any Arab country. - The disclosure index used was modified to be suitable for companies working in the Egyptian environment context. This index could be used by other researchers to investigate internet financial reporting and disclosure for companies working in other Arab countries that are experiencing similar economic changes.

Organisations are increasingly deploying and using computer technology in various ways, involving the allocation of large amounts of capital and human resources. However, in many cases, computer deployment has been accompanied by failure, particularly in health care services. Therefore, information technology has raised grave questions, misunderstanding, fears, and hostility. This study emphasises the importance of computer deployment and development in developed and developing countries' health care services with examples from advanced and less advanced nations. It describes strategy development for IT/ISs using information system methodologies and explores the development of ISs strategy in the NHS in the light of fundholding and the internal market. A number of problems that commonly influence the success or failure of computer deployment and development are identified. These issues are explained through two case studies: the Omani health system and General Practices (GPRs) in the UK, which have introduced computers. The research focuses on five main sets of issues related to computer deployment and utilisation in health care: strategic planning; computer utilisation; computer fears; computer impact; and computer technical problems and performance. Users' overall satisfaction with systems in use is also considered. Data collection was carried out using two surveys. One survey was conducted in GPRs in Humberside and the other conducted in Royal Hospital and Sultan Qaboos University Hospital in Oman. Data sources included observations, review of relevant documents, such as reports, research papers and manuals, structured and non-structured interviews with selected users and a questionnaire. A number of conclusions can been drawn from this study: firstly, computer deployment, utilisation and development still faces problems in both the systems studied, more especially the Omani system. Secondly, GPRs have carried out strategic planning for computer deployment and utilisation and are prepared to use information system methodology for IT/IS strategy and there is a plan to use this for competitive advantage but Omani hospitals did not set a constructive strategic plan for their systems. Thirdly, the main problems of computer failure are related to human issues rather technical issues. The most important of these human issues are the style of the leadership planning, poor utilisation of computer applications, lack of skills and poor training. Finally, the results of the survey suggested that though the respondents were aware of the potential of computer technology, the problems of computer fears, training and lack of skills were experienced, and often, few individuals possessed computing knowledge. The author suggests several points to be considered: 1) that any thinking about computer deployment and development should employ appropriate information system development methodologies; 2) the decisions on computer deployment, use and development should be made by a special committee that has expertise in IT matters; 3) good strategic planning for computer deployment, use and development; should be connected to the organisation's overall strategy and 4) there is a need of mandate review for such development and planning. With these points in mind the researcher presents a diagram to help improving strategic planning and development of IT/IS methods with particular emphasis on the Omani environment.