LL.M. (International Commercial Law) / The Original BRIC Organization comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China, was first conceived in 2001 as part of an economic modeling exercise to forecast global economic trends. Fast forward almost a decade into its existence and BRIC was up for a change. The BRIC foreign Ministers at a meeting held in New York in 2010, came to an agreement to invite South Africa to join the Organization. On the 14 April 2011, South Africa attended the first joint summit, evolving the former BRIC to what is known today as BRICS, the “S” referring to South Africa. This move is seen as a significant step, as its members‟ now come from four different continents and is sure to turn heads in the “old North”, what used to be the traditional Western dominance over the global economy. BRICS comprises some of the world‟s fastest growing and biggest economies, as illustrated by the statistics that emanated from the most recent summit held in Durban in March 2013. Senior Goldman Sachs economist Jim O‟ Neil, the person responsible for coining the „BRIC‟ acronym, predicted in 2001 that the combined economies of Brazil, Russia and China would overtake the United States and the G-7 countries. Since that bold statement in 2001, the words uttered by O‟Neil have become more than just a prediction. As Bidwai points out, BRICS account for over 40% of the world‟s population, 18% of its market- exchange GDP, 15% of world trade and two-fifths of its foreign currency reserves. It goes without saying that the BRICS group has many advantages and strengths that would stand it in good stead going forward. As previously stated, its members are among the fastest growing in the world, economically speaking, and were also least affected by the financial crisis that rocked many of the world‟s powerhouses. There has even been talk of a BRICS Development Bank, which was first tabled in 2012 at the Delhi summit. Although discussions are in its infancy, a proposed $100-billion currency-stabilization contingency reserve arrangement is to be negotiated...

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Law, Commerce and Management, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce in Finance, Johannesburg, South Africa, September 2019 / This study examines the role of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) in influencing firm performance and leverage as a form of financing decisions, in the presence of herding in the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS). The increase or decrease EPU is determined by the way policymakers or investors act and the consequences of their decisions. This study tries to answer the questions of: During times of economic policy uncertainty, how do firms rationalise making leverage financing decisions; and do they herd their leverage financing decisions towards what the market or other firms have decided? The sample firms are selected based on the Top 80 listed firms by market capitalisation in their respective country stock exchanges; however, the Top 50 in Russia was used. These firms will be split into two sub-groups of the first 40 (25) listed firms and the next 40 (25) listed firms. This will provide some insight into how the first group performs as to the second group at the beginning and end of the sample period. A total of 369 firms will be sampled over a period of 15 years from the beginning of June 2002 to the end of June 2017. Russian, Indian and South African results reject the primary and secondary null hypotheses and conclude that there is a significant relation with EPU being a factor in determining firm leverage financing decisions and that there is a significant relation with more EPU leading to herding towards firm leverage financing decisions, respectively. Brazilian and Chinese results fail to reject the primary and secondary null hypotheses and conclude that there is no significant relation with EPU being a factor in determining firm leverage financing decisions and that there is no significant relation with less EPU leading to little or no herding towards firm leverage financing decisions, respectively. EPU has an impact on business and affects the profit for many firms and this is the reason of investment delays or less consumption, which together may lead to economic activity slowdown. / PH2020

The co-movements and integration of financial markets has been a subject of great concern among many researchers and economists due to an interest in the impacts of stock market integration in terms of international portfolio diversification, asset allocation and asset pricing efficiency. Understanding the interdependence among financial markets is thus of immense importance especially to investors and stakeholders in making viable decisions, managing risks and monitoring portfolio performances. In this thesis, we investigated the levels of interdependence and dynamic linkages among the five emerging economies well known as the BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, using a Vector autoregressive (VAR), univariate GARCH(1,1) and multivariate GARCH models. Our data sample consisted of the BRICS weekly returns from the period of January 2000 to December 2012. We used a VAR model to examine the linear dependence among the BRICS markets. The results from the VAR model analysis provided some evidence of unidirectional linear dependencies of the Indian and Chinese markets on the Brazilian stock market. The univariate GARCH(1,1) and multivariate GARCH models were employed to explore the volatility and dynamic correlation in the BRICS stock returns respectively. The results of the univariate GARCH model suggested volatility persistence among all the BRICS stock returns where China appeared to be the most volatile followed by the Russian stock market while the South African market was found to be the least volatile. Results from the multivariate GARCH models revealed similar volatility persistence. Furthermore, we found that, the correlations among the five emerging markets varied with time. From this study, evidence of interdependence among the BRICS cannot be rejected. Moreover, it appears that there are other factors apart from the internal markets themselves that may affect the volatility and correlation among the BRICS. / M.Sc. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.

This treatise is undertaken with the purpose of investigating, through the application of the critical futures technique, causal layered analysis (CLA), the case for South Africa’s inclusion in the BRICS alliance. CLA is explored as a technique that allows for the creation of transformative knowledge which contextualises our reality, enabling techniques for exploring different alternatives that lead to outcomes. In an attempt to understand the unique features that underscore these emerging economies and why they are considered the engines behind global economic growth, the member states’ economies are systematically deconstructed. By analysing key economic variables, strengths and weaknesses, CLA allows for the development of conclusive narratives regarding the legitimacy of all BRICS economies. This study discusses the motivation for the formation of this alliance and its role in the global economy. It demonstrates and sorts out the different views concerning its dreams and aspirations. The all-inclusive nature of CLA allows for the consideration of a wide range of perspectives that seek to clarify motives behind the convergence of the BRICS economies to form an alliance. South Africa’s membership is assessed, using both the economic and political schools of thought. On a balance of a number of dominant views, considered valid, that either support or reject the inclusion of South Africa, this study demonstrates that whether or not it belongs amongst the major emerging countries is an absurd question. It thus proposes that a pertinent question to ask is one that explores ways in which South Africa can effectively capitalise on its BRICS membership to drive its own economic growth.

The awareness about corruption has distinctly risen since the 1990s. In line with this many anti-corruption approaches arose initiated by the international community. This ranged from international legislation, initiatives by international institutions as Transparency International as well as strategic efforts on corporative levels as given with the appearance of Code of Conducts. However, the phenomenon appears to be of stable nature, which clearly impacts international business. Globalisation brings companies from less corrupt countries, unexperienced with its dimensions and handling, in frequent contact with business environments being highly dominated by corruption. Due to this, we find it to be a topic of importance and high relevance for almost any multinational business actor. Within the business related research field of corruption, we identified three research gaps. Firstly, the investigation of the supply-side of corruption within the private sector has not received sufficient attention in comparison to the demand-side. Further it appears that the contextuality of the phenomenon has been widely neglected, meaning that its driving dimensions of economical, social and political nature have not been investigated as a whole, revealing potential interrelations. In connection to this, the third gap we see to be given with a lacking connection of the topic to ethical considerations, which also calls for a contextual embedment. Based on these gaps we formulated the following research question: What drives corrupt practices of Multinational Enterprises within the internationalisation process? We argue that before any decisions concerning the handling of corruption can be made, one firstly needs to understand the phenomenon in its complexity. Building up on that, we further aim to scrutinise whether the above described anti-corruption approaches represent sufficient measures for MNEs when it comes to the practical avoidance of corruption. This represents the purpose of our study. We divided anti-corruption measures into internal and external approaches. The former include corporate anti-corruption- strategies, which in connection with ethical standpoints are commonly stated within Code of Conducts. The latter depicts the international legal framework against corrupt practices as well as international institutions fighting it. We concentrated our research on MNEs based in Europe, which internationalised to the BRIC-countries. In order to gain practical insights, a qualitative multiple case study has been conducted, comprising a sample of ten European companies. Given that we decided to conduct an exploratory study, we interviewed firms of differing size and industries in order to gain diverse data. The data collection was specifically tailored to the sensitivity of our research topic. As an ethical standpoint we took the anthropological perspective of moral relativism, implying that corruption cannot be evaluated as right or wrong without taking its context into consideration. Based on the latter, the findings revealed that corruption depicts a phenomenon of high complexity, being driven by every single of the investigated dimensions. Those are intensively interrelated and further reinforce each other. This characteristic seems to lead to a failure of anti-corruption approaches as sufficient measures on the operative level. Thus, within the BRIC-countries MNEs are unlikely to be able to uphold a strict non-tolerance for corruption as it appears to represent the Western business expectations. Consequently, they seem be entangled in a dilemma, facing the local given of strongly prevalent corruption but lacking tools to efficiently circumvent any engagement. According to this we identified a need for a new perspective, going beyond the oversimplified moral evaluation of corruption as right or wrong, implying a ‘black or white’-decision. We see this to be unrealistic since the real-life- context partly leads to grey-zones, in our view making the engagement in corrupt actions morally acceptable since the assessment has to be based on national moral views and take situational dependency into account. With this, we provide a new perspective on the phenomenon of corruption which can serve as a base for future research. On top of that managers can make use of our implications in order to better understand corruption. Consequently, they are able to make more realistic evaluations, for example acknowledging acceptable cultural adaptations instead of claiming a zero-tolerance approach. This again can lead to the creation of transparency, in the end supporting the combating of corruption.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences / Department of Government and Public Administration

The debate about the influence of financial market development on economic growth has been ongoing for more than a century. Since Schumpeter (1912) wrote about the happenings on Lombard Street, right up to the economists of today, there is growing interest into how financial market development affects economic activity and hence economic growth. With economic growth gaining prominence in respect of development discourse, inquiry into the finance-growth nexus has grown rapidly. The latest advances of the finance-growth nexus show a positive relationship between financial market development and economic growth. In this regard, little research has been done globally pertaining to most recent economic developments, especially concerning the BRICS economies. This research investigates the influence of financial market development on emerging economies, BRICS and non-BRICS and to determine whether the openness of financial markets in BRICS economies contributed to higher growth trajectories compared to their non-BRICS counterparts. The research utilises the Generalised Method of Moments and an extended endogenous growth model to estimate the influence of a set of financial market indicators. The study found that higher levels of credit to the private sector and financial depth in the BRICS economies contributed to the higher levels of economic growth experienced in the BRICS compared to non-BRICs emerging economies.

This study examines the fundamental determinants of bilateral trade flows between South Africa and BRIC countries. This is done by exploring the magnitude of exports among these countries. The Gravity model approach is used as the preferred theoretical framework in explaining and evaluating successfully the bilateral trade flows between South Africa and BRIC countries The empirical part of this study uses panel data methodology covering the time period 2000-2012 and incorporates the five BRICS economies in the sample. The results of the regressions are subject to panel diagnostic test procedures. The study reveals that, on the one hand, there are positive and significant relationships between South African export flows with the BRICs and distance, language dummy, the BRICs’ GDP, the BRICs’ openness and population in South Africa. On the other hand, GDP in South Africa, real exchange rate and time dummy are found to be negatively related to export flows. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)

This study examines the fundamental determinants of bilateral trade flows between South Africa and BRIC countries. This is done by exploring the magnitude of exports among these countries. The Gravity model approach is used as the preferred theoretical framework in explaining and evaluating successfully the bilateral trade flows between South Africa and BRIC countries The empirical part of this study uses panel data methodology covering the time period 2000-2012 and incorporates the five BRICS economies in the sample. The results of the regressions are subject to panel diagnostic test procedures. The study reveals that, on the one hand, there are positive and significant relationships between South African export flows with the BRICs and distance, language dummy, the BRICs’ GDP, the BRICs’ openness and population in South Africa. On the other hand, GDP in South Africa, real exchange rate and time dummy are found to be negatively related to export flows. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)

In this thesis, we aim to find the effect of economic crisis announcements arising from the US subprime mortgage crisis and European sovereign debt crisis on the market volatility in theBRIC countries. We implement a GARCH model in order to compare the effect of individual news announcements and find that the US crisis had a bigger impact on BRIC market volatility than the European crisis. Of particular note, we find the US bailout had a higher impact than the failure of Lehman Brothers or any European crisis dates that were considered. We then examine the volatility transmission mechanism by implementing a VAR model to create a spillover index. Following, we apply a rolling window approach, creating spillover plots which show that both return and volatility spillovers are affected by crisis announcements. The importance of our results are related to investor decision making, particularly the relationship between market return and risk in developing country markets. Far to our knowledge, no recent literature has compared the two crises in the way we have nor with the datasets we have used.