This dissertation is an attempt to understand shopping leakage from Maseru to Bloemfontein and Ladybrand. It investigates the patterns of shopping leakage and factors that contribute to the leakage. Theories were understood to prove the on going shopping leakage from Maseru. The rentral plare theory was explored to show how a hierarchy of plares influenres retail and shopping activities. Other location theories such as theory of tertiary activities was utilised to explore the impact of income, types of employment and buying power on retail location and shopping activities. Rationality theory was employed to verify the rational in the shopping movement from Maseru to Bloemfontein and Ladybrand. The study was based on focus groups, interviews and observation. The patterns of shopping from Maseru to Bloemfontein and Ladybrand are mainly for higher order goods and specialised goods such as quality clothes, shoes, jewelleries, and furniture. However some people who have cars buy groreries from Ladybrand that is closer to Maseru than Bloemfontein. The shopping trips were multi purpose activities. A shopper combines shopping with two or more activities such as banking recreation, hospital checkups, salon and tourism. Maseru does not have enough thresholds for some high order goods and services, and this leads to the shopping leakage. Although the employment rate in Maseru is high, income is generally lower. Shopping leakage was trared to rertain aspects of consumer behaviour, the characteristics of the shopping trip, retail facilities and types of shops available. Socio-economic factors also influenre shopping pattern, as do entertainment activities. Government and corporate bodies such as banks, through their regulations and laws created an impact on the shopping leakage from Maseru to Ladybrand and Bloemfontein. It is assumed that topography and burning of retail buildings in Maseru in September 1998 also limits the retail facilities in the town. Finally, the growth of Maseru is slow and steady, therefore it can be implied that retail trading in Maseru is following the same sequenre as the growth of the town. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

This dissertation investigates whether consumers’ cross-border shopping due to interstate commodity tax differentials influence counties’ economic activity and states’ strategic competition in multiple tax policies. First, I examine how own and the nearest neighboring states’ commodity tax rates affect counties’ retail activity. Particularly, in contrast to many previous studies, I examine whether the distance to the state border influences the responsiveness of counties’ retail activity to sales and excise taxes of own and the nearest neighboring states. Since the costs of avoiding state commodity taxes are presumably lower along borders, the impacts of state commodity taxes on retail activity may be different for counties closer and further away from the state border. Considering retail establishments and employment of industries that are most likely to be affected by consumers’ cross-border shopping activity, I find that that the impacts of domestic and the nearest neighboring states’ sales and excise tax rates on counties’ retail establishments and employment depend on the distance to the state border. However, contrary to what would be expected, the impacts tend not to be very robust. Second, I investigate whether consumers’ cross-border shopping to low commodity taxed states influence state governments to engage in strategic competition in multiple tax policies. Previous works on fiscal competition document that state governments engage in commodity tax competition to gain cross-border shoppers. Specifically, the empirical research find that changes in neighboring states’ one commodity tax rate influence changes in a home state’s same commodity tax rates. However, these studies do not address whether changes in neighboring states’ one commodity tax rate also induce the home state to adjust other taxes, either other commodity taxes or possible income taxes. Using a panel of the United States’ state-level data for the period 1977−2002, I estimate the reaction functions not for a single tax rate but multiple rates. In this framework, I find that states react to neighbors’ lower tax rates on one tax base by changing rates on either the same tax base or/and other tax bases, thereby suggesting that states engage in strategic competition in multiple tax rates to meet their revenue goals.

Throughout history, consumers have crossed borders for various purposes. The emergence of e-commerce and digital technologies has made it easier than ever for people to shop online with merchants across the world. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate the variations of cross-border shopping motivations, the changes that occur due to advancements in various technologies, and the spatial patterns and mapped occasions that appear from each cross-border shopping episode. A qualitative, ethnographic approach has been used, and provides a detailed examination of the contemporary cross-border shopping landscape. Findings assist in developing this framework, after conducting detailed participant observation and interviews. The results indicate a range of variability stemming from generational, social, and personal differences, along with technological drivers of change. Trajectories of cross-border shopping occasions and a network model of modern cross-border shopping occasions are provided and detailed. Implications and future research are also discussed.

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