The application of judicial review doctrines to automated administration in the United Kingdom

This thesis evaluates the application of English doctrines of judicial review to uses of automation and machine learning in administrative decision-making. The thesis undertakes a close analysis of five doctrines of judicial review that are likely to be engaged by the use of automation and machine learning technologies in government. These doctrines are: reviewability of decisions, the Carltona doctrine, fettering of a discretion, irrelevant considerations and the duty to give reasons. The significant contribution of this thesis is that to date there has not been a granular and sustained treatment of how the grounds of review might apply to automated decision-making in the UK state. This thesis seeks to fill this gap in the literature and contribute to knowledge through an extended examination of the five selected grounds of review. The thesis answers the question: how will these doctrines in their current forms likely apply to uses of automation and machine learning in government? The thesis seeks to examine to what extent these doctrines are capable of meeting their original objectives in an environment of changing administrative behaviour due to uses of automation and machine learning. The thesis argues that some of the grounds of review examined provide a doctrinal foundation which can be flexibly applied to a new automated context and can exercise significant restrictions and constraints over unfair or unlawful uses of automated decision-making in government. Other doctrines demonstrate a more significant clash between what the law currently requires from a decision-maker and whether the technology can satisfy those requirements. By examining these grounds of review in detail I seek to shed a light on the aspects of judicial review’s doctrinal architecture that are and are not readily applicable to uses of automation and machine learning. Through this analysis I lay the foundation for future conversations and research about which areas of review require evolution or where further legal regulation of automation and machine learning is required to respond to this new administrative context

Beyond birth outcomes: the impacts of perinatal conditions on child development

This thesis investigates the impacts of perinatal conditions on children's health and development, focusing on two exposures in utero: ambient heat exposure and a temporary reduction in means-tested benefits. Existing research demonstrates that perinatal conditions can influence health at birth, as well as health, education, and employment in adulthood. However, less is known about how these processes manifest, if at all, in childhood. My thesis analyses the impacts of prenatal exposures on outcomes at birth and in childhood, through four empirical chapters. I use linked administrative data from the Northern Territory of Australia, which allows for longitudinal analysis. Chapter 2 investigates what drives seasonality in birth outcomes, identifying heat exposure as the primary driver. Chapter 3 examines which specific aspects of heat exposure matter most for health at birth. I find that prenatal exposure to both moderate and extreme heat affects newborns’ health. In Chapter 4, I find that prenatal exposure to extreme heat increases the risk of hospital admissions in early childhood and lowers test scores at ages 8, 10 and 12. In contrast to my findings in Chapter 3 on birth outcomes, I see little impact in childhood of moderate heat exposure. Chapter 5 analyses the impact of a reduction in means-tested benefits in pregnancy, finding that this led to increased hospital admissions in childhood. In contrast to the more general increase in admissions from heat exposure, the impact of the reduction in family income was driven by admissions for infections. Together, my analysis reveals that while the effects of various prenatal exposures may look similar at birth, their impacts in childhood are different. Furthermore, the effects I measure on health at birth do very little to explain or predict effects in childhood

Mobile technology and political behaviour in Africa

In recent decades, mobile technology has become widespread across Sub-Saharan Africa. Mobile phones provide material benefits, but also shape how people learn about the economy, are targeted by political parties, and are taxed by the state. Through three interrelated chapters, I examine these multifaceted political consequences of Africa’s “mobile revolution”. Each chapter focuses on a distinct type of technology, and a particular mechanism by which it shapes political outcomes, drawing on a range of cross-national data and fieldwork in Ghana and Malawi. Chapter one asks how basic mobile phones shape the availability of political information. I show that rural voters across Africa use mobile phones to regularly call relatives living in towns and cities. This rising domestic connectivity leads to the diffusion of new information from urban centres, leading to a fall in rural political trust and the urban-rural divides that structure politics in many African states. Chapter two turns to mobile internet and the quality of elections. Focusing on a controversial election in Malawi, I show that 3G coverage reduces ruling party vote share and election irregularities. I then build on fieldwork to explore mechanisms, finding that opposition groups use social media to campaign, online platforms expanded the reach of civic education groups, and election workers used WhatsApp to coordinate on polling day. Chapter three focuses on mobile payment platforms and recent moves by governments to tax them. These taxes are a substantive source of domestic revenue for low-capacity states, but have been difficult to implement due to public backlash. Using a conjoint choice experiment in Malawi, I examine how these taxes could be designed to attract greater support. The results stress the importance of earmarking revenues for local services and providing exemptions to protect the poorest citizens

Entrepreneurial subjectivity, expertise, and speculation in artificial intelligence start-ups in Taipei, Taiwan

This thesis examines entrepreneurial subjectivity in the artificial intelligence industry through an analysis of startup business founders, venture capitalists, and other entrepreneurs. In recent decades, increasing financialization has led to the emergence of a particular form of techno-optimism that is central to the ethos of these entrepreneurs. Through an ethnography based on 18 months of fieldwork, I show that AI and the economic subversions it will allegedly cause have profound effects on the self-making practices of those involved, generating forms of speculative value experienced as a sense of potential at the level of the organization and the self. To demonstrate this, the thesis focuses upon the process of subject formation in artificial intelligence work as an industry where models of the future economy are made visible through imaginative practices, including marketing, branding, and hype. I examine modalities of speculation characteristic of startup founders and organizations and demonstrate how imagined AI-enriched futures leverage their expertise while simultaneously reinscribing the epistemic authority of their work. I highlight sociotechnical practices of experts for whom breakthrough, mentorship and luck contribute to the reproduction of the expert community. The thesis draws upon science and technology studies, and social studies of finance, adding an examination of the personal lives of experts to studies of expertise and financial markets in anthropological scholarship and contributing a study of transformations in experiences of self in technoscientific capitalism to extend scholarship on the new economy

Essays on economics of natural disasters in China

This thesis investigates how flood management interventions and flood events shape the spatial distribution of economic development, firm adaptation, and innovation in China— one of the most flood-prone countries in the world. It examines both deliberate, policy-driven reallocations of flood risk and economic adaptations triggered by actual flooding. Chapters 1 and 2 analyze the impacts of China’s national Flood Detention Basin (FDB) policy, which redirects floodwaters into designated rural areas to protect downstream urban centers. Chapter 1 uses reduced-form empirical methods to quantify the economic costs taken by FDB-designated counties, while Chapter 2 develops a spatial general equilibrium model to assess the broader economic benefits of the policy. Chapter 3 investigates the role of floods in shaping the geographical pattern of patenting activities. Together, the three chapters provide a comprehensive analysis of how both flood risks and flood management strategies influence the geography of economic activity and adaptive responses in China. Chapter 1 examines the economic costs of China’s Flood Detention Basin (FDB) policy, implemented in 2000. Under this national policy, the government designated 96 counties to host FDBs — low-lying areas intended to absorb excess floodwater during extreme weather events. While protecting downstream urban centers, this policy imposes concentrated flood risks on rural counties. Using difference-indifferences methods, the chapter documents significant economic costs for FDB counties: a 10.7% reduction in nighttime light intensity, a 15.9% decline in new firm entries, and a 19.7% drop in fixed asset investment. These losses are persistent and primarily driven by firms’ aversion to locating in high-risk areas, rather than migration responses by individuals. Overall, using causal identification tools, this chapter shows that FDB policy has led to a substantial economic cost in counties selected to take more flood risks. Chapter 2 builds a structural spatial general equilibrium model to quantify both the aggregate benefits of the FDB policy. The model captures trade linkages across FDB counties, protected cities, and the rest of the country. Counterfactual simulations reveal that the policy indeed enhances national output by protecting high-productivity urban centers. Overall, the benefit to cost ratio of the Flood Detention Basin policy exceeds one. However, these gains come at the expense of lower-productivity rural areas bearing the flood risk. The model shows that removing high-productivity counties from the FDB list would not substantially reduce output gains, while greatly improving equity. These findings suggest that the current FDB configuration may overprioritize output over equality. The results indicate the necessity for a more balanced compensation scheme to support vulnerable regions. Chapter 3 explores how floods shape the spatial distribution of innovation in China. Using satellite-derived flood maps and detailed patent data, I created a dataset to measure collaborative patents among different regions. The chapter finds that floods decrease local patenting activity but simultaneously encourage cross-county collaboration in innovation. A one-day increase in average flood duration is related to a 12% increase in collaborative patents between counties. These partnerships are especially strong between counties that share similar flood histories and are more likely to yield disaster mitigation technologies. Mechanism analysis shows that historical flood experience—rather than unexpected shocks—drives the shift toward collaboration, suggesting a strategic adaptation to long-term climate risks

Descriptive assumptions and normative justifications in social choice theory: ambiguity, strategic voting and measurement

Social choice theory provides fundamental tools for many sciences. Moreover, its models are applied and implemented in a remarkable range of diverse contexts to guide collective decision procedures. Understanding these models of collective decision-making and their normative verdicts poses an important challenge to philosophers of science, epistemologists, political philosophers, and philosophers of technology. This thesis is a collection of four papers that question the assumptions in social choice theory models at the intersection of individual decision-making and the design of collective decision mechanisms. The chapters, in particular, target the normative verdicts of these models by drawing on perspectives from the philosophy of science, political philosophy, and psychology. The central claims defended in the thesis are twofold. Firstly, the core claim is that abstracting away from individual decision-making does not always lead to greater generality but often makes the verdicts of social choice models inapplicable to the intended target systems. This observation draws on the fact that most target systems of social choice models involve individuals. Individuals are significant both in how they interact within a collective decision mechanism and as the object of normative consideration. Particular assumptions about individual decision-making, although often absent in a given social choice theory model itself, are needed for the model’s normative verdict to transfer to many target systems. Secondly, many models developed by social choice theory not only require scrutiny of their descriptive assumptions but also need an explication of the normative commitments underpinning them. Normative assumptions in social choice theory typically take the form of axioms or desiderata that are prima facie difficult to reject. However, the values underlying the acceptance of a given axiom can vary greatly, which, in turn, can significantly affect whether the model’s normative verdict successfully transfers to the intended target system

Speculation and circulation: real estate development and the market for land in urban Pakistan

This dissertation studies the dynamics of Lahore’s rapidly expanding residential real estate market as a means to contextualize and understand growing housing pressures in the city. Specifically, it examines developer motivations and mechanisms of profitmaking to uncover why and how expansion has taken place in recent years, and in whose interests. By studying and centring the actions of supply side actors such as real estate developers, whose activities and modes of profitmaking remain understudied and undertheorized within existing scholarship, it investigates why the city’s real estate market remains inaccessible for a majority of the city’s residents. Drawing on sixteen months of fieldwork, this dissertation shows that actors in the business of land development in Lahore have devised a mechanism that overcomes constraints in accessing institutional finance and allows them to profit off land conversions without using their own resources. This mechanism – what I characterize as accumulation by speculative circulation – relies on market-making techniques and the circulation of a market-based instrument of land acquisition and sales known as ‘the file’ to finance land conversions. The file, as I show, is an object but also a future. It is a fictional commodity that turns ‘land’ into ‘liquid’ form, helping create a real estate market that is structured, first and foremost, to accommodate the interests of investors and state actors, rather than those looking to meet their housing needs. This thesis argues that the valorisation and repurposing of land for investment purposes serves as both site and mechanism of housing exclusion, contributing to spatial inequality in the city and heightening the odds against more equitable interventions. It also shows how state entities themselves are implicated in this accumulation model, and remain invested in furthering sprawl, gentrification and dispossession. By illustrating how speculative practices operate in real estate markets, especially in contexts where theory expects otherwise, the thesis contributes empirically and theoretically to questions of land commodification and peri-urban transformations, particularly in rapidly urbanizing cities of the Global South. It also extends and complicates theories of speculative urbanisms, financialization and dispossession

Framing change: behavioural insights to facilitate the transition to more sustainable dietary norms

There is now a strong scientific consensus that a rapid and significant reduction in the consumption of animal products is needed in order to ensure a safe operating space for the planet. A multi-strategy approach incorporating behavioural interventions, along with market and regulatory mechanisms, will likely be required to change consumers’ eating habits. Insights from behavioural science can inform both interventions and communication strategies to help facilitate the transition to more sustainable dietary norms. Emerging research suggests using dynamic norms – social norm messages which emphasise how others are changing – may be effective in influencing attitudes and behaviours in a number of domains, including meat consumption. However, there have been only a few studies investigating social norm interventions to encourage sustainable diets. Moreover, the research on dynamic norms specifically is still nascent, with much to be learned about how they work and what could limit or improve their effectiveness. Evidence from behavioural science tells us that people may respond differently to information depending on how it is framed. Could there be ways to strategically frame changing diets to increase norm receptivity? In this thesis, I investigated this question across four empirical chapters which draw on literature relating to social norms, behavioural economics, and strategic communications. I began with a scoping review which assessed the extent and nature of the research on messaging interventions using social norms to encourage sustainable food choice. It revealed mixed findings on the effectiveness of such interventions, limited by significant knowledge gaps, methodological weaknesses, and heterogeneity of research designs. The next part of the thesis focussed on optimising communications by manipulating the framing of messages communicating changing dietary norms in the United Kingdom. In a series of online randomised controlled trials, I first examined the relationship between gain/loss framing of diet change and interest in adopting the new norm. Findings revealed no evidence of backfire effects, but that food neophobia could be a barrier to norm receptivity. I then tested the effect of framing shifting norms as being rooted in shared values and goals, exploring how different value frames resonated across demographic groups. Further, I investigated other factors which could influence openness to the emerging norm, including affect, response efficacy beliefs, and perceptions of who might benefit from the change. Overall, results suggested the effectiveness of value framing is limited and that, despite the new norm being seen as good for society and future generations, negative perceptions that one would not personally benefit inhibited interest in diet change. I applied the findings of these online studies in a field intervention exploring how messages emphasising the cobenefits of diet change might be used to complement other behavioural strategies to encourage sustainable dining at a university canteen. Whilst there was no evidence that the dynamic norm influenced behaviour, I did find that students’ selection of lower emission dishes increased significantly when more of these dishes were on offer. Taken together, results suggest there is a mismatch between current messaging around changing dietary norms versus predominant barriers and motivators in this domain: The emerging norm is often framed in ethical terms such as ‘healthy and sustainable’ and ‘benefitting society and future generations’, however consumers are more motivated by perceptions that plant-based foods are satisfying and that they themselves will benefit from the change. Further, they are more likely to choose plant-based offerings when they are plentiful and affordable. Yet many perceive these foods as unappealing and expensive, and plant-based items are still vastly underrepresented in the market. Thus both policies and communication strategies which circumvent these perceptual and structural barriers and align with existing hedonic and utilitarian drivers of food choice are more likely to be successful. This thesis contributes to the literature on dynamic norms by shedding light on how people in the UK perceive, process, and respond to information about changing diets, and the interplay between these factors and norm receptivity across different groups. Findings yield valuable insights for behavioural interventions and evidence to inform food policies and how they are communicated to help ensure they will be accepted and effective

The antecedents and moderators of online privacy disclosure perceptions and behaviours

This thesis explores antecedents, contextual factors and mechanisms of individual privacy disclosure perceptions, intentions and behaviours in digital environments. The research examines the role of time pressure, engagement format, as well as the impact of sequential privacy disclosure, where individuals disclose information at multiple and connected decision stages. This thesis also aims to explore the role of personality traits (BIG5) in privacy disclosure behaviours. First, results from the large-scale online randomised controlled trial (RCT) experiments (n=2776) indicate that under time pressure, individuals decrease the disclosure of sensitive information, suggesting the presence of a trade-off between speed and privacy. Second, individuals’ willingness to disclose sensitive information is also reduced when engaging with service agents (e.g. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based, Human or hybrid Human AI teams) compared to non-agent-based engagement formats such as traditional web forms, as demonstrated by an online behavioural experiment (n=3176). This effect remains consistent for one-off and multiple engagement scenarios where sensitive information disclosure occurs. Finally, using the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach, I build a theoretical construct integrating personality traits, privacy concerns, and disclosure behaviours, showing that conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness elevate privacy concerns that drive privacy behaviours. Taken together, these findings extend the Antecedents-Privacy Concerns-Outcome (APCO) theoretical framework (Smith et al., 2011) by incorporating personality traits as another antecedent and demonstrating new boundary conditions under which individuals disclose sensitive information. They also highlight the importance of evidence-based and informed policymaking in the context of privacy regulation that should focus on the long-term aspects of privacy disclosure behaviours, especially with the steadfast advancement of AI. Furthermore, when building privacy-related user-centric experiences, organisations should focus on building a better understanding of individual characteristics to drive personalisation and strive to find the right balance between solutions that foster innovation, boost trust and reduce perceived risks of data sharing

Thesis in macroeconomics and Chinese economy

This dissertation examines the heterogeneous macroeconomic impacts of industrial and environmental policies on firm behavior, innovation, and regional development in China. The first chapter studies the effects of robot subsidies in the manufacturing sector. Exploiting variation in subsidy rollout across municipalities, I find that robot subsidies, while designed to be uniform across firms, disproportionately benefit larger firms at the cost of reducing new firm entry. I then build a theoretical framework to highlight how financial frictions cause a uniform subsidy to favor capital-rich firms, creating a trade-off between average automation gains and productivity-reducing dispersion. A calibrated dynamic model shows that a 20 percent subsidy raises output by around 1.2 percent but reduces total factor productivity by around 2.4 percent due to exacerbation of misallocation. The second chapter investigates the impact of electric vehicle (EV) subsidies on innovation along the supply chain. Using a newly compiled dataset of over 1,000 municipal subsidy policies, I document sharp differences in effectiveness across subsidy types. Innovation and public procurement subsidies significantly boost both downstream and upstream patenting, while investment and purchase subsidies show limited impact. These findings underscore the importance of aligning policy design with supply chain dynamics to foster industrial upgrading. The third chapter evaluates the economic consequences of flood control policies that real-locate environmental risk. Exploiting the designation of 96 counties as Flood Detention Basins (FDBs), I show that these counties experience lower firm entry, reduced investment, and declining nighttime lights. A spatial general equilibrium model reveals that while FDBs increase national flood resilience, the economic burden falls disproportionately on rural areas. Together, these chapters shed light on the distributional and efficiency trade-offs of industrial and environmental interventions in a developing economy context