Globally, the tourism industry is recognised as one of the fastest growing industries, generating high revenues and creating a vast number of job opportunities. In South Africa, this is no different and, in recent years, the tourism industry has outshone the country's gold exports therefore claiming its position as the fourth highest earner of foreign exchange to date. Yet the industry is still to receive the attention it deserves from conventional economics. This research aimed to fill this gap in South Africa by providing an understanding on the determinants of international tourism demand for South Africa. The first objective of the study was to provide a broad overview of the tourism industry of South Africa. The discussion focused on the supply and demand sides of tourism which, in turn, are divided into the domestic and international tourism markets. There has been a high growth, especially in the international market since 1994 and, while domestic and international markets continue to grow, seasonality remains an issue. Tourism has a significant impact on economic activity, employment, and the balance of payments and therefore the industry has great potential. The second objective was to create a theoretical understanding on the different factors that could determine the international demand for the tourism product. From this discussion it was found that there are various economic and non-economic factors that are believed to have an influence on tourism demand. Income, prices, transport cost, and the exchange rate are amongst the favourite economic variables with travel time, population, marketing expenditure, climate, and capacity being the more popular noneconomic factors. Among these, certain threats were also identified that could have harmful impacts on tourism growth. The third objective and main aim of the study was to determine which of the factors identified earlier determine the demand for international tourism to South Africa. This was done through an empirical investigation. Data from all the continents were used to attain an international perspective on tourist arrivals (tourism demand). The results indicated that capacity and climate factors determine tourism demand in the short term with income and transport cost influencing South Africa as a tourism destination in the long term. The last objective was to determine whether certain events or disasters that take place globally have a negative influence on tourism demand to South Africa. The event that was looked as was the terror attacks on the United States in September 2001. It was found that although the overall tourism activity of the world became stagnant during this period, the effect was not that considerable in South Africa's tourism arrivals. Tourism in countries such as the United Sates, on the other hand, has still not recovered fully after this event. / Thesis (M.Com. (International Commerce))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Advances in HIV care and treatment continue to prolong the lives of people diagnosed and living with HIV (PDLWH). The National HIV/AIDS Strategy mobilizes national, state, and local efforts toward ensuring equitable access to care, reducing disparities, and improving continuum of HIV care outcomes. A social/community-based factor that contributes to sub-optimal HIV outcomes for PDLWH – all of whom require regular visits to a medical facility – is access to accommodating, affordable, and acceptable HIV care providers. Employing case surveillance data to analyze relationships between social/community-based factors and HIV disease outcomes is an opportunity to identify underserved PDLWH. This analytic approach, linking individual case-level epidemiologic surveillance data with macro-level community measures, provides public health departments a more precise estimate of priority geographic zones and subpopulation clusters whereby limited public health resources can be directed for maximal impact and efficiency. This dissertation analyzed California HIV surveillance system (CHSS) data to characterize PDLWH in terms of residential census tract characteristics related to income, poverty, unemployment, vehicle access, population density, travel duration from residence to care facility, and access to care. The primary study population was 60,979 PDLWH as of 2014 who had recent, geocoded residential addresses collected in CHSS. Access to care was measured using a novel enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method developed for this dissertation. We also assessed whether community characteristics, trip duration, and access to care were associated with suppressed viral load, an indicator of successful disease management. Several significant relationships were found between suppressed viral load and where people lived, how long they drove for care, and their E2SFCA-measured access to care. This analysis identifies new methods for state and local health jurisdictions to: investigate factors associated with HIV-specific health disparities, improve the capacity to direct resources for improving health outcomes for PDLWH, and enhance transmission prevention efforts.

This thesis investigates the key determinants of the Non-performing loans (NPLs) comparing two groups of countries from Southeastern and Western Europe, with two different levels of economic development. We try to find empirical evidence and estimate whether the determinants of NPL ratio are different for the middle and high income countries. Applying panel data models for 14 countries overall, and using the regressions of subsampled countries, we analyze the importance of the determinants at the aggregate level. The final results show that all variables considered are significant, except inflation rate under all specifications and FDI when the subsampled dummy variables are used. As for the specifications of the exchange rate determinant, we conclude that the NPL ratio is negatively and significantly influenced in the export dominant middle income economies. An additional non-economic variable, such as the educational index, constructed at the national level, is found to increase the NPL ratio. Concerning the institutional quality index, averaging all six institutional indicators, this determinant does not show a consistent result across different data sample specifications.

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Social Sciences Institute of Economic Studies MASTER THESIS The determinants of access to finance. Evidence for transition economies Author: Alina Cazachevici Supervisor: Roman Horvath, Ph.D. Academic Year: 2012/2013 Abstract The thesis provides an empirical analysis of impact of country-level and firm-level determinants on access to finance in transition economies. Generalized Ordered Logit model is applied on survey data for transition countries, combined with financial market indicators. The results show that higher concentration in banking sector, as well as higher financial deepening have a positive impact on access to finance, while volatile macroeconomic environment, higher implication of foreign-owned and state- owned banks seems to be perceived as increasing obstacles in accessing external financing. Combining indexes for liberalization in banking sector and liberalization of securities markets proved that before liberalization process firms had better access to finance. One of the possible explanations is that before liberalization state banks were forced by politicians to issue more loans, while after reforms the political pressure was removed, imposing stricter conditions for loan granting. Inclusion of corruption variable yields expectable results that...

Bachelor Thesis, Program of Master of Business and Economics, 15 hp School of Business and Economics – Linnaeus University in Växjö 2FE30E:3 Spring, 2017 Authors: Sofie Areskoug and Niklas Karlén Supervisor: Damai Nasution Examiner: Natalia Semenova Keywords: Financial Analyst, Gender, Determinants of forecast accuracy, Sweden Background: The search of finding analysts who make the best forecasts has been an ongoing process since the 1930's. Determinants that can help predict the forecast accuracy of the analysts are in the interest of both investors and brokerage houses. Newer research in this area has taken gender of the analyst into consideration. Women are widely under-represented in the analyst occupation and there is evidence that investors are apprehensive toward women in the financial sector. Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to examine determinants of forecast accuracy regarding analysts covering Swedish companies. The authors have confidence in the research to benefit investors in their decisions on the Swedish stock market. In addition, the authors aim to shed light on the unequal gender representation of female analysts. Method: This thesis has examined 519 individual scores of forecast accuracy from 284 financial analysts covering stocks on the Swedish Index OMXS30. The forecasts are from the years 2016 and 2017. This study has a quantitative strategy and the data have been tested by an OLS estimates regression. Results: The empirical evidence shows that being a female analyst have a statistically significant positive effect on forecast accuracy. Female analysts covering Swedish stocks seem to outperform their male colleagues. Furthermore, insignificant results were found for firm complexity, industry complexity, brokerage house and analyst experience.

Non-equity Crowdfunding: Funding Success and Dynamics on Hithit Veronika Machová Abstract Non-equity crowdfunding, as an innovative way of financing new ideas, has been growing enormously over recent years. Crowdfunding projects are often characterized by a predetermined monetary goal and the length of the campaign. Furthermore, potential contributors can observe the level of funding provided by others, which suggests that details of previous contributions play an essential role in funding behavior. We obtain data from the Czech crowdfunding platform Hithit, which allow us to empirically analyze the determinants of success and the funding dynamics of crowdfunding projects. Outcomes from several probit regressions indicate that shorter campaigns and campaigns offering private rewards of lower value are more likely to be successful-but these results do not demonstrate causality. A short campaign signals confidence; this positive signaling effect outweighs the marketing- opportunities effect of a long campaign. Applying fixed effects model to panel data, we show that the amount of contributions is negatively associated with the level of funding already achieved, providing evidence of free-riding effect. However, the effect of past contributions is reversed in the final phase of the campaign as the risk of...

Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2014-08-28T18:26:01Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) TCC Profmat.pdf: 610264 bytes, checksum: 97990024fcad3a6b2b90fe7a7e642a70 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-28T18:26:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) TCC Profmat.pdf: 610264 bytes, checksum: 97990024fcad3a6b2b90fe7a7e642a70 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-28 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The study of determinants development through the permutations made on their lines or columns dates back to 1812, a memory presented by Cauchy to the French Academy of Sciences. The present work is, in some way, a historical rescue. Firstly, a permutation is de ned: from a superior point of view there is a bijective application and, as such, the set of permutations has a group structure; from the elementary point of view, there is an ordainment of a group's elements. The fundamental fact is, secondly, that the de nition of determinant adjusts perfectly to both conceptions, based on the parity of the permutations. Based on the de nitions, the determinants properties are presented and, therefore, it is possible to proceed with the appropriate justi cations about their validity. A rule that associates each square matrix to a real number will de ne a real function of the variable matrix, the determinant function. This is the actual way in which determinants are presented in higher levels: the determinant is the unique alternated multilinear function of the lines (columns) of a square matrix, as indicated in [10]. By this presentation there is in mind the fact that it can be served as an inspiration to posterior studies. / O estudo sobre o desenvolvimento dos determinantes por meio das permuta ções efetuadas sobre suas linhas ou colunas remonta a 1812, com uma mem ória apresentada por Cauchy a academia de ciências da Fran ça. O presente trabalho e, em certo sentido, um resgate hist órico. Em primeiro lugar de ve-se uma permuta ção: sob um ponto de vista superior tem-se uma aplica c~ao bijetiva e, como tal, o conjunto das permuta c~oes possui uma estrutura de grupo; do ponto de vista elementar, tem-se um ordenamento de elementos de um conjunto. O fato fundamental e que, em segundo lugar, a de ni c~ao de determinante se ajusta perfeitamente as duas concep ções, tomando por base a paridade das permuta ções. Baseando nas de ni ções, as propriedades dos determinantes s~ao apresentadas e, assim, pode-se proceder com as devidas justi ficativas sobre a validade das mesmas. Uma regra que associe a cada matriz quadrada um n umero real de nir a uma fun c~ao real de vari avel matricial, a fun ção determinante. E a forma atual como os determinantes s~ao apresentados em n veis superiores: o determinante e a unica fun ção multilinear alternada das linhas (colunas) de uma matriz quadrada, conforme exibido em [10]. Com tal apresenta c~ao, tem-se em mente, o fato de poder servir de inspira c~ao em estudos posteriores.

The objective of the thesis is to investigate Malaysia’s pay determinants from three different perspectives, namely: employees’ perspective, employers’ perspective, and both employees-employers’ perspectives. As a matter of fact, previous studies have not been able to document the potential impact of employers and firms on pay determinants within the Malaysian economy, owing to a lack of appropriate data. Therefore, with the availability of new datasets – worker-level dataset (WLD) and firm-level dataset (FLD) obtained from the Second Malaysian Productivity Investment Climate Survey (PICS-2), we have developed a matched-worker-firm dataset (MWFD), so that by employing such dataset it will add a new dimension to pay analysis in Malaysia as well as allowing for a comprehensive understanding and clearer picture of Malaysia’s pay system. From the employees’ prospective, the findings of this thesis indicate that a worker with a higher education level, skills and training generally gets a higher pay compared to those without. In addition, a worker who undergoes training from his/her current employer gets a higher pay compared to those who had training from a previous employer or only off-the-job training. At the same time, workers with complex computer skills, as well as those who are in professional employment and management, also receive a considerably higher pay. From the employers’ prospective, however, the findings indicate that firm size, human capital stock in the firm, worker performance, capital stock, and firm performance are important factors that affect the Malaysian average monthly pay. Besides, the elasticity of pay with respect to employer size is two percent, and this figure supports the notion that the Malaysian labour market can be characterised as imperfect competition. From both employers-employees’ prospective, it is obvious that both observable worker characteristics and unobserved firm-effects are key elements of pay determinants. Nevertheless, firm effects seem to explain the variability in pay determinants more than observable worker characteristics. In addition, the relationship between pay component and firm performance exhibits a positive tendency. This implies that workers get a higher pay either because of worker characteristics or that firm-effects are being employed in firms that are more productive and profitability.

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