The first comprehensive study of Pliny the Elder's economic thought--and its implications for understanding the Roman Empire's constrained innovation and economic growthThe elder Pliny's Natural History (77 CE), an astonishing compilation of 20,000 "things worth knowing," was av…
British Hong Kong was a “borrowed place living on borrowed time”, Richard Hughes, an Australian journalist, wrote in 1968. This thesis attested that the “1997 Question”, i.e. the perplexity stemming from the expiry of the New Territories Lease in 1997, had a considerable impact …
At a meeting held on the 19th of September 1956, members of the board of the Gold Producers’ Committee agreed that an investigation into the perennial shortages in the supply of labour to the gold mines should be undertaken. The National Institute for Personnel Research was comm…
Skilled and motivated health workers are important to delivering quality healthcare. Ensuring their availability and equitable distribution is a key priority. Low- and middle-income countries are experiencing challenges in relation to the maternal health workforce. This situatio…
Within the broader sub-discipline of environmental sociology, more scholars have begun to focus on the socioecological dynamics of marine systems, coastal communities, and the seafood industry. Environmental sociologists refer to this waxing scholarship as marine sociology, or a…
Urban Water Security (UWS) will remain a hugely important issue over the next decades and is a matter that will be exacerbated by climate change and related hazards, food insecurity and social instability. Despite attempts made by many researchers and water professionals to stud…
‘When a person dies, a library is lost’ is an adage in oral history that underpins and motivates this thesis. Not only is personal history lost but also social history. This thesis explores the use of oral history methods to record personal and professional histories in Solomon …
A Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) is a complex natural event that occurs when algae is in its growth stage and creates a harmful toxin as waste. HABs create both ecologic and public health challenges. The hypothesis of this thesis is that state and federal governments have different r…
After an introductory chapter on growth, development, institutions, and transition, this thesis presents three chapters on how institutions, government's policy priorities and policy responses affect economic development. Chapter II explores how various institutions are related …
In this dissertation, I characterize the spatiotemporal dynamics of wild animal populations and communities via literature synthesis and three empirical studies. In Chapter 1, I review how historic foundations of macroecology and the theory of island biogeography inform ecology,…