No description available.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation examines the measurement of business concentration by the Herfindahl- Hirschman Index (HHI). In the course of the examination, a modification to this method of measurement of business concentration is proposed, in terms of which the accuracy of the conventional depiction of the HHI can be enhanced by a formulation involving the Gini index. Computational advantages in the use of this new method are identified, which reveal the Ginibased HHI to be an effective substitute for its regular counterpart. It is found that theoretically and in practice, the proposed new method has strengths that favour its usage. The practical advantages of employing this method are considered with a view to encouraging the measurement of business concentration using the Gini-based index of the HHI. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie verhandeling ondersoek die meting van sakekonsentrasie deur middel van die Herfindahl- Hirschman-indeks (HHI). ‘n Wysiging aan hierdie metode word voorgestel, deur middel waarvan die akkuraatheid van die konvensionele voorstelling van die HHI verhoog word, deur ‘n formulering wat die Gini-indeks betrek. Die berekeningsvoordele van hierdie nuwe metode word geïdentifiseer en dit word aangetoon dat die Gini-gebaseerde HHI ’n doeltreffende plaasvervanger vir sy meer bekende teenvoeter is. Daar word bevind dat die voorgestelde nuwe metode teoretiese en praktiese sterkpunte het wat die gebruik daarvan ondersteun. Die praktiese voordele van die voorgestelde metode word oorweeg met die oog op die aanmoediging van die gebruik van die Gini-gebaseerde HHI-indeks as maatstaf van sakekonsentrasie.

After the American Civil War, and the collapse of the market in slave-produced cotton in the South, cotton merchants in New Orleans faced challenges in re-establishing the city as a central port for Southern cotton. As commodities exchanges emerged as centralized spaces for business in the 1870s, a new class of experts emerged, upon whose reports traders bought and sold newly developed securities derivatives. Henry G. Hester (1846- 1934), Secretary of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, was an integral player in the development of the methods that governed sophisticated commodities trading around the world. His career at the New Orleans Cotton Exchange tells the story of the arrival of these methods and subsequent downfall of Euro-American centrality in the global cotton empire and contradicts previous histories that deemphasize Southern businesspersons’ contributions to modernization.

Undergraduate pre-business students who had taken an introductory business statistics course three years ago were sent a questionnaire that, among several other questions, asked them about their views on the usefulness of the course. Students rated the introductory business statistics course as "moderately important" for their business education. They favored an integrated approach that covers both the statistical concepts and the computer software necessary to carry out the statistical analysis, and they had a strong preference for the Microsoft EXCEL software. Students thought that projects played an important role in introducing them to real-world applications of statistics, but they also mentioned several problems that arose with group-based work. Factors mentioned as having had an impact on teaching effectiveness are discussed in the last part of the paper. (author's abstract) / Series: Forschungsberichte / Institut für Statistik

No description available.