Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Three Essays On Socio-Institutional Ecosystems & Labor Structures, Jonathan Donald Jenner

Doctoral Dissertations

In three essays, this dissertation explores the relationship between the social and the economic, with an eye to how social and institutional formations affect economic outcomes. In the first essay, I construct a theoretical base by developing the metaphor of ‘ecosystem’ as a frame for thinking of the various interrelations between social processes and economic phenomena – the socio-institutional ecosystem analysis. In invoking ecosystem as a central metaphor, this dissertation calls into focus the interaction between the economic and the non-economic, recognizing the multiplicity of causal inter- and intra-relationships between the two. I deploy this analysis in two substantive case …

The Impact Of Chinese Investments On The Kenyan Economy, Candice Newcomb

International Studies (MA) Theses

The involvement of China in Kenya has been increasing in recent years. China’s investments in Kenya are still impacting the Kenyan economy significantly. This thesis will examine the positive and negative impacts that the Chinese investments have had on the Kenyan economy.

This thesis will also address the role that the Kenyan government plays in the facilitating of the Chinese investments. It will highlight the importance the Kenyan government has in prioritizing policies such as labor laws for the Kenyan people. The Kenyan government has a responsibility to protect its citizens from the negative impacts of Chinese investments such as …

Economic Development Under Dominant-Party Regimes, Christopher J. Gorud

Honors Theses

Case studies of economic development in Japan, Mexico, India, and Kenya examine the relationship between dominant-party regimes and developmental outcomes. This paper studies the variables of bureaucratic coherence and cohesion, corporatism, labor relations, and national developmentism as contributing factors to developmental success or failure in these states.

Economic Reforms In East African Countries: The Impact On Government Revenue And Public Investment, Adam Beni Swebe Mwakalobo

Open Access Dissertations

In the empirical literature on the revenue consequences of trade liberalization, most studies have focused on cross-country analysis. Because these studies are static in nature, they have not addressed the short-run and long-run dynamic public revenue and public investment consequences of economic reforms in developing countries. This dissertation contributes to the literature employing a dynamic time series analysis of the three East African countries-Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. The dissertation uses a co-integration and error-correction framework to distinguish between short-run and long-run relationships. The results indicate that trade reforms in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda had varying impacts on government revenue, tax …

Voting In Kenya: Putting Ethnicity In Perspective, Michael Bratton, Mwangi S. Kimenyi

Economics Working Papers

Do Kenyans vote according to ethnic identities or policy interests? Based on results from a national probability sample survey conducted in the first week of December 2007, this article shows that, while ethnic origins drive voting patterns, elections in Kenya amount to more than a mere ethnic census. We start by reviewing how Kenyans see themselves, which is mainly in non-ethnic terms. We then report on how they see others, whom they fear will organize politically along ethnic lines. People therefore vote defensively in ethnic blocs, but not exclusively. In Decem- ber 2007, they also took particular policy issues into …

Jean Ensminger. Making A Market: The Institutional Transformation Of An African Society (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

The publication of Making a Market marks yet another excellent contribution to the field from the Cambridge Series on Political Economy. Similar to the other volumes in the series, it emphasizes the interaction of political structures and institutions with economic change. Yet whereas most of the previous volumes in the series have been written by political scientists or economists, this book stands out as unique in that it is written from an anthropological perspective. Unusual as this is, the book gives an extremely sophisticated and readable application of the new institutional economics to the developing world.