In this thesis we analyse a problem of the real economic adjustment between two countries, one of which is an emerging market and the other is a developed economy. When they form a monetary union the only possible adjustment to asymmetric shocks transmitted internationally is through the real variables. We take into account existing asymmetries in the foreign direct investment (FDI) intensity and FDI relations. The issues of FDI and differences in the FDI intensity are real aspects of functioning of economies and relations between them. They reveal some problem from the macroeconomic perspective. However, the problem relates also to microeconomic foundations. The given trade and FDI relations between countries depend on decisions of firms that are heterogeneous. To study the effect of plant delocalization and FDI on output fluctuations between two countries we use a framework that accounts for all this issues, that means dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models with heterogeneity in firm productivity. We add a new dimension to the existing literature on DSGE models with heterogeneous firms. First, we complete goods market with a new segment of production, namely products offered by multinationals which produce abroad and export back to their economy of origin. Second, we account for asymmetries in the FDI intensity and differences in production structures that occur between two economies forming a monetary union. Summing things up, the analysis allows us to state that the real aspects of economy functioning, such as trade connections between countries and differences in production structures, determine economic performance and behaviour of economies in terms of output fluctuations.

The effectiveness of South Africa's policy framework towards attracting FDI has been questionable. Determined to redress the instabilities created by the apartheid regime, the Government of National Unity (GNU) commissioned the Macroeconomic and Research Group (MERG), and charged it to devise appropriate policy reforms and intervention mechanism to address the shortcomings. This research critically interrogates the effectiveness of government's policy reforms towards attracting FDI, especially the impacts of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) initiative and the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGISA). This research concludes that the policy determinants for inflow FDI have been self-defeating. Also, it was found that necessary reforms would have to be conducted to correct some of the shortcomings of the macroeconomic policies, as a way of creating an environment that is capable of attracting greenfield investments (FDI) to South Africa. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

This dissertation is divided into six chapters, as foHows: Chapter 1 of this dissertation discusses the growing significance of FDI for developing countries. It compares FDT in developed and developing countries and analyses recent evidence ofFDI flows to developing countries. Chapter 2 analyses the (endogenous and exogenous) detenninants ofFDI flows into developing countries. Chapter 3 discusses the importance of FDI flows, which are essential for new investments or for financing fortuitous deficits in host countries, and looks at the adjustment mechanisms for the equilibrium of the balance of payments. Chapter 4 gives attention to FDI flows, the liberalisation of financial markets and the financial account of the balance of payments in developing countries in providing more opportunities and mechanisms for development and economic growth. Finally, chapter S examines and compares FDI flows tu South Africa and Angola - the biggest FDI recipients on the African continent. / Economics / MCom (Economics)

Dans cette thèse, nous analysons la question de l’ajustement réel entre des économies de niveau de développement diffèrent au sein d’une union monétaire. Dans ce, les deux économies représentées – une économie développée et une économie émergente – ne peuvent utiliser le taux de change nominal pour s’ajuster à des chocs asymétriques. Pour étudier les conditions de l’ajustement réel entre ces pays, nous prenons en compte les flux d’investissements directs. En effet, ce type d’investissement a profité largement aux économies d’Europe de l’est non membres de le zone euro. Pour étudier cette question, nous utilisons un modèle DSGE (« dynamic stochastic general equilibrium ») permettant de micro fonder les décisions d’investissement direct sur l’hétérogénéité productive des firmes. Nous complétons la littérature existante dans ce domaine en privilégiant deux aspects : (1) les investissements directs peuvent être à la fois des substituts aux importations ou une solution retenue par les firmes pour réduire leurs coûts de production afin de réimporter des biens sur leur marché national et (2) les pays sont traités de manière asymétrique, afin de relier leur niveau de développement aux types de variétiés de biens (non échangeables, exportables, délocalisables). Nous évaluons de quelle manière ces éléments affectent la dynamique des économies à un choc de productivité asymétrique. De manière générale, on observe que les économies vont répondre de manière différente au niveau macroéconomique en fonction de leur structure productive. En résumé l’analyse proposée dans cette thèse montre que des différences structurelles et la possibilité pour les pays de s’engager dans des investissements directs détermine de manière critique la réaction des variables macroéconomiques à des chocs asymétriques. / In this thesis we analyse a problem of the real economic adjustment between two countries, one of which is an emerging market and the other is a developed economy. When they form a monetary union the only possible adjustment to asymmetric shocks transmitted internationally is through the real variables. We take into account existing asymmetries in the foreign direct investment (FDI) intensity and FDI relations. The issues of FDI and differences in the FDI intensity are real aspects of functioning of economies and relations between them. They reveal some problem from the macroeconomic perspective. However, the problem relates also to microeconomic foundations. The given trade and FDI relations between countries depend on decisions of firms that are heterogeneous. To study the effect of plant delocalization and FDI on output fluctuations between two countries we use a framework that accounts for all this issues, that means dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models with heterogeneity in firm productivity. We add a new dimension to the existing literature on DSGE models with heterogeneous firms. First, we complete goods market with a new segment of production, namely products offered by multinationals which produce abroad and export back to their economy of origin. Second, we account for asymmetries in the FDI intensity and differences in production structures that occur between two economies forming a monetary union. Summing things up, the analysis allows us to state that the real aspects of economy functioning, such as trade connections between countries and differences in production structures, determine economic performance and behaviour of economies in terms of output fluctuations.

This paper adopts a quantitative and qualitative lens, through which we explore the economic relationship between the region of Sub-Saharan Africa and China as a consequence of Chinese Foreign direct investments (FDI).  Primarily, the paper’s direction, analysis, and discussions are dictated by the usage of primary and secondary data. Our primary data is constructed as a panel data set including GDP for 38 countries alongside the Chinese FDIs for each country during the period 2003-2021. Our secondary data includes already existing papers on topics related to our purpose and the data found in them. The main points include the economic development of Sub-Saharan Africa, the subsequent enforced Chinese economic policy, and further the gains China see from their strides into the region. In order to prove our hypothesis and research questions we've used econometric models.The panel data was used to conduct several time series regressions, where we further used different models and tests to get the best possible result Due to the fact that our regression shows a significant and positive correlation between economic growth in the region as a result of Chinese FDI, we can establish that past research is reinforced. Through the used model we’re enabled to look at the individual effects of every country in the region. In addition, by comparing these effects with the level of corruption and which type of income group the countries belong to, we can further highlight the fact that China tends to invest in countries who can offer something in return. Examples of such cases could be South Africa and Angola who are two of the biggest receivers of Chinese FDI in the region, which we, throughout the paper, attribute to the fact that they have an abundance of natural resources.

Condition monitoring (CM) is widely used in industry, and there is a growing interest in applying CM on rail vehicle systems. Condition based maintenance has the possibility to increase system safety and availability while at the sametime reduce the total maintenance costs.This thesis investigates the feasibility of using condition monitoring of suspension element components, in this case dampers, in rail vehicles. There are different methods utilized to detect degradations, ranging from mathematicalmodelling of the system to pure "knowledge-based" methods, using only large amount of data to detect patterns on a larger scale. In this thesis the latter approach is explored, where acceleration signals are evaluated on severalplaces on the axleboxes, bogieframes and the carbody of a rail vehicle simulation model. These signals are picked close to the dampers that are monitored in this study, and frequency response functions (FRF) are computed between axleboxes and bogieframes as well as between bogieframes and carbody. The idea is that the FRF will change as the condition of the dampers change, and thus act as indicators of faults. The FRF are then fed to different classificationalgorithms, that are trained and tested to distinguish between the different damper faults.This thesis further investigates which classification algorithm shows promising results for the problem, and which algorithm performs best in terms of classification accuracy as well as two other measures. Another aspect explored is thepossibility to apply dimensionality reduction to the extracted indicators (features). This thesis is also looking into how the three performance measures used are affected by typical varying operational conditions for a rail vehicle,such as varying excitation and carbody mass. The Linear Support Vector Machine classifier using the whole feature space, and the Linear Discriminant Analysis classifier combined with Principal Component Analysis dimensionality reduction on the feature space both show promising results for the taskof correctly classifying upcoming damper degradations. / Tillståndsövervakning används brett inom industrin och det finns ett ökat intresse för att applicera tillståndsövervakning inom spårfordons olika system. Tillståndsbaserat underhåll kan potentiellt öka ett systems säkerhet och tillgänglighetsamtidigt som det kan minska de totala underhållskostnaderna.Detta examensarbete undersöker möjligheten att applicera tillståndsövervakning av komponenter i fjädringssystem, i detta fall dämpare, hos spårfordon. Det finns olika metoder för att upptäcka försämringar i komponenternas skick, från matematisk modellering av systemet till mer ”kunskaps-baserade” metodersom endast använder stora mängder data för att upptäcka mönster i en större skala. I detta arbete utforskas den sistnämnda metoden, där accelerationssignaler inhämtas från axelboxar, boggieramar samt vagnskorg från en simuleringsmodellav ett spårfordon. Dessa signaler är extraherade nära de dämpare som övervakas, och används för att beräkna frekvenssvarsfunktioner mellan axelboxar och boggieramar, samt mellan boggieramar och vagnskorg. Tanken är att frekvenssvarsfunktionerna förändras när dämparnas skick förändras ochpå så sätt fungera som indikatorer av dämparnas skick. Frekvenssvarsfunktionerna används sedan för att träna och testa olika klassificeringsalgoritmer för att kunna urskilja olika dämparfel.Detta arbete undersöker vidare vilka klassificeringsalgoritmer som visar lovande resultat för detta problem, och vilka av dessa som presterar bäst med avseende på noggrannheten i prediktionerna, samt två andra mått på algoritmernasprestanda. En annan aspekt som undersöks är möjligheten att applicera dimensionalitetsminskning på de extraherade indikatorerna. Detta arbete undersöker också hur de tre prestandamåtten som används påverkas av typiska förändringar i driftsförhållanden för ett spårfordon såsom varierande exciteringfrån spåret och vagnkorgsmassa. Resultaten visar lovande prestanda för klassificeringsalgoritmen ”Linear Support Vector Machine” som använder hela rymden med felindikatorer, samt algoritmen ”Linear Discriminant Analysis” i kombination med ”Principal Component Analysis” dimensionalitetsreducering.

South Africa is in need of foreign direct investment (FDI) to increase economic growth and alleviate unemployment and poverty. To succeed in obtaining this FDI, South Africa must compete with the rest of the world for the available FDI. The global economic outlook is currently still uncertain and the growth of advanced economies are slowing down while Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa continue to grow at a steady pace. South Africa, as part of Sub-Saharan Africa, should take advantage of this growth on the African continent as well as internationally. Although studies have been performed to ascertain the tax policies of countries, the role of taxation applied by countries and the effects of taxation on FDI, there have been few studies on the tax policies specifically in respect of withholding taxes on interest. The new South African withholding tax on interest, applicable to South African source interest payments to non-residents, has been proposed to be included in terms of sections 49A to 49H in the Income Tax Act (58 of 1962) and will become effective from 1 January 2015. These sections have been introduced to align the said withholding tax and the section 10(1)(h) interest exemption, applicable to normal income tax in respect of non-residents, to the withholding taxes on interest and interest exemptions applied globally. Attention should be focused on whether the aforementioned global alignment will be achieved with the introduction of this legislation as South Africa had previously applied a similar legislation called non-residents’ tax on interest (NRTI) which appeared to be unsuccessful. Determining whether this legislation has been aligned with global practice will provide useful insight into whether this new legislation will promote, stagnate or be indifferent to FDI in South Africa, while at the same time not eroding the tax base with overly generous exemptions. This study reviews and compares the taxes implemented globally specifically in relation to withholding taxes on interest in a selection of countries, namely the developing countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, Mozambique and Namibia and the developed countries Germany and Denmark. Other determinants which will also have an impact on the comparisons of these withholding taxes are, for example, normal and withholding tax interest exemptions and repo rates – all of which have been incorporated into this comparative study. Based on the literature reviewed and the comparative analysis, the study concludes that the South African withholding tax on interest is effectively designed to keep attracting foreign lending in order to remain competitive in international markets. It is further shown that the South African legislation in respect of the section 10(1)(h) blanket interest exemption is aligned to that of global practice. / MCom (South African and International Taxation), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

South Africa is in need of foreign direct investment (FDI) to increase economic growth and alleviate unemployment and poverty. To succeed in obtaining this FDI, South Africa must compete with the rest of the world for the available FDI. The global economic outlook is currently still uncertain and the growth of advanced economies are slowing down while Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa continue to grow at a steady pace. South Africa, as part of Sub-Saharan Africa, should take advantage of this growth on the African continent as well as internationally. Although studies have been performed to ascertain the tax policies of countries, the role of taxation applied by countries and the effects of taxation on FDI, there have been few studies on the tax policies specifically in respect of withholding taxes on interest. The new South African withholding tax on interest, applicable to South African source interest payments to non-residents, has been proposed to be included in terms of sections 49A to 49H in the Income Tax Act (58 of 1962) and will become effective from 1 January 2015. These sections have been introduced to align the said withholding tax and the section 10(1)(h) interest exemption, applicable to normal income tax in respect of non-residents, to the withholding taxes on interest and interest exemptions applied globally. Attention should be focused on whether the aforementioned global alignment will be achieved with the introduction of this legislation as South Africa had previously applied a similar legislation called non-residents’ tax on interest (NRTI) which appeared to be unsuccessful. Determining whether this legislation has been aligned with global practice will provide useful insight into whether this new legislation will promote, stagnate or be indifferent to FDI in South Africa, while at the same time not eroding the tax base with overly generous exemptions. This study reviews and compares the taxes implemented globally specifically in relation to withholding taxes on interest in a selection of countries, namely the developing countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, Mozambique and Namibia and the developed countries Germany and Denmark. Other determinants which will also have an impact on the comparisons of these withholding taxes are, for example, normal and withholding tax interest exemptions and repo rates – all of which have been incorporated into this comparative study. Based on the literature reviewed and the comparative analysis, the study concludes that the South African withholding tax on interest is effectively designed to keep attracting foreign lending in order to remain competitive in international markets. It is further shown that the South African legislation in respect of the section 10(1)(h) blanket interest exemption is aligned to that of global practice. / MCom (South African and International Taxation), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

隨著電信科技的快速發展，與市場自由思潮和企業對外擴張的需求結合，形成了全球化的現象，其特徵為資本快速的在國際間快速流通。跨國企業為了降低成本而至其他國家直接投資生產，而對地主國產生了許多的影響。外國直接投資往往能增加地主國的就業機會、促進地方稅收、提高國民所得，帶來新的科技與技術等，因而促進了地主國經濟的發展，使得許多的國家積極的去吸引外資來投資。隨全球化不斷發展，其新的潮流為各地方政府亦希望可以吸引外資，來引導地方和國際接軌而有所發展。 本研究針對台灣在這一波全球化下受到外資進駐所受的影響進行探討，利用會計成長模型來檢驗過去外資對本國總產值的影響，並去檢驗外國投資對各縣市產值以及就業的影響，以瞭解外資對台灣的影響以及其在台灣經濟發展過程中所扮演的角色。 本研究結果顯示，外國廠商來台投資，無論對整體的國內生產毛額和地方的產值及就業，都有正面的影響效果。顯示了台灣過去引進外資促進發展的策略相當成功，外資成為過去台灣經濟發展的ㄧ大主因，因而地方政府也應當積極去爭取外國廠商至當地投資。本研究亦發現，外資集中密集度越高其正面效果越強，而不同的外資產業進入不同的區域，其產生的效果也不一致，因此引進外資時，若地方政府考量本身特性利用相關優惠，加以中央政府的輔助引進適當的外資產業，並開發專區以集中發展，將會是比較有利的方式。 / With the telecommunication technology rapidly developed、the liberation of thought around the markets、and the need for enterprise to expand as well、globalization was formed. In order to decrease the production cost、International enterprises went abroad to engage in direct investment、which caused considerably different effects in host country. Foreign direct investment (FDI) always provides more employment opportunities in host country than domestic investment、it also increases regional taxation and wages paid to workers、and brings new technology and technique to host country. Therefore、FDI promotes the economic development of host country. Because of those advantages from FDI、now many countries are eager to attract foreign capital to come to invest. As the globalization continue to boom、the new trend of globalization is that the competition for new investment by local governments seems to be ever increasing. Local governments want the FDI to help regional redevelopment. This paper inspects the effects of FDI toward Taiwan regional development under globalization. In order to realize the effects of FDI in Taiwan and what kind of role FDI plays in the process of economy development in Taiwan、this paper use growth accounting equation to examine the effects of FDI toward regional output value and GDP of Taiwan. This paper presents evidence that foreign investment not only have positive effects on GDP but also regional output value. It indicates that the strategy of using FDI to improve Taiwan economic development was successful in the past. FDI was one of those main factors to make Taiwan economy prosperous; therefore、local government should spare no efforts to attract FDI to local areas. The results suggest that the higher the density of FDI in those areas、the stronger the positive effects might be .In addition、different industries of FDI in different areas would have different effects. In this way、the best way for central government to do is to help local government consider about their local characteristics and then provide specific incentives to attract appropriate industries into specially designated area.

The most essential questions in economics is what determines economic growth? In theory FDI led to economic growth (Mello 1997), but empirical evidences indicate that the relationship is ambiguous (Masahiro & Iwasaki 2014). This thesis uses contemporary growth theories and econometric methods to empirically test for the association between foreign direct investment and economic growth in the six countries that form the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The analysis indicates a positive relationship concerning FDI and GDP growth in the panel of GCC. The result furthermore supports the endogenous growth theory and provide insights on the regions progress towards income diversification whit respect to hydrocarbons.