This dissertation uses 13 year panel data to explore the nature of hyperinflations which occurred in 14 countries between the years 1980 and 2008. The countries are grouped into three geopolitical regions of Latin America, former states of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Africa. The analysis principally uses the quantity theory of money (QTM) and the purchasing power parity (PPP) as theoretical frameworks. The Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality is used to examine the nature of the relationship between exchange rates, money supply and price levels during the hyperinflationary periods. Notable similarities regarding the causal relationships, particularly between money supply, and price levels were found. Exchange rate depreciation-inflation spirals are examined using the PPP hypothesis. Over the 13 year periods under investigation, the findings suggest that prices and exchange rates did not tend to move together in all the cases. The impact of hyperinflations on the velocity of money is investigated for the three regional cases, following which the long-run relationship between QTM variables is tested using Pedroni residual co-integration. Despite the substantial dissimilarities in inflation rates and velocity in the countries, there seems not to be significant differences in the impact of hyperinflations on velocity. In examining whether a long-run or equilibrium relationship existed between inflation, money growth and real output during the hyperinflationary periods, the findings suggest it was not the case in all instances. Although the econometric results accord with findings in the relevant literature, it is apparent that despite the generic systematic features which typify the phenomenon, the hyperinflationary experiences have not been uniform and have taken different paths.

The relationship between remittances, financial development, and real growth in recent years has increasingly become a topic of interest for scholars and practitioners alike. With the ever presence of globalization, the migratory patterns have fundamentally changed. The migration of people no longer means their total isolation from their home country; but rather a new dynamic environment has emerged with the increased importance of remittances on social, economic and political transformation back in their countries of origins. In addition, the continuing development of the financial systems whether it is in the banking sector or the stock exchange has accelerated in the last few decades. It is important to point out to the accelerating trend in financial development and its impact on real growth. Equally important to highlight the extent to which the financial system influenced the remittance patterns. By looking at Egypt as the country of interest from 1977 to 2014, the thesis investigates the role and impact of financial development and remittances on GDP. Egypt is chosen as the country of interest given its status as the biggest economy in North Africa and the third largest in the continent. Additionally, it is among one of the largest recipient of remittances from its expatriate population.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has grown very rapidly over the last decade. Demand for light vehicles has rapidly increased in this period, albeit from a very low base. Growing demand is almost entirely supplied by the import of used vehicles from the developed world. This has led to an enormous automotive trade deficit in the region where, apart from South Africa, there is almost no domestic production. The dissertation establishes the trends and scale of automotive demand in SSA and then considers the question of whether and how the region can begin to meet this booming demand by developing its own industry. Despite limited industrialisation levels and relatively small domestic markets, some larger countries, such as Nigeria and Kenya, are putting policies in place to encourage domestic production. However, if countries follow individual national strategies it is unlikely that any will have sufficient market scale or investment levels to become sustainable automotive producers. A regional automotive strategy needs to be adopted in SSA in order to attract large scale productive investment.

The scale is a fundamental yet controversial concept in human geography. Among diverse views over scale, this thesis draws insights from the process-based approach of scale jumping. It is a key notion to understand scale as a process, yet few explorations have been made on making use of its methodological values. Thus this thesis seeks to elaborate the notion by redeveloping it as an analytical framework. Four key elements are therefore concerned: (a) actors and their purposes; (b) directions; (c) approaches; and (d) outcomes. These elements form a framework to investigate the rescaling process of economic space in China. Conventional studies suggest that in the context of global competition, the role of state in scale (re)production has changed from a passive to an active actor. In China, where the state plays an active role in facilitating the economy, different levels of state actors, such as government officials and institutions, are involved in the (re)production of scale. Using the production of Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone (SSCZ) as a case study, the abovementioned four elements are investigated. Specifically, there are three research questions: (a) why do local governments rescale their economy? (b) How do local governments build SSCZ? And (c) what is the outcome of rescaling through SSCZ? The qualitative research method is used to collect data and other information for this research. This includes desktop searches and interviews of businessmen, planners, government officials, and local residents. Through a detailed investigation of the production of SSCZ, this research reveals the role of local governments, their intentions for rescaling, the approaches they used, and the outcomes of the rescaling

In this dissertation, we endeavoured to investigate the relationship between mental health and labour market changes in South Africa. We started by understanding the relationship between the aggregate CESD-10 and labour market status and then explored whether this aggregate relationship holds true for each of the three mental health factors that make up the CESD-10 score. Using data from the National Income Dynamics Study, waves 1-5, we documented increasing mental health symptoms with employed to other states of unemployment. This follows for somatic symptoms, depressed affect and positive affect, but the source driving the effects differs between factors and with the CESD-10 as well. We found that those who are NEA suffer to a greater extent in positive affect than in the other two factors relative to the employed. For those who are unemployed (discouraged), we see they also experience the strongest detrimental effect to their positive affect relative to the employed. However, they experience lower depressed affect scores relative to the employed. Those who are unemployed (strict), meanwhile, experience greater depressed affect scores out of the three factors when compared to the employed. As such, we expect to see an average increase in depressive symptoms classifications among those moving from employed to NEA statuses. We can also expect an average increase in depressed affect disorder classifications among those moving from employed to NEA labour force status. Likewise, we can expect higher positive affect across the five waves among those moving from a employed to NEA status. We find that, after controlling for observed individual characteristics and utilizing the panel structure of the data by allowing for individual specific fixed effects, negative labour market shifts have a significant negative impact on mental health. The sub-group analysis shows that this has a particularly adverse effect on black people and males.

South Africa's reintegration into the global economy post-1994 has not produced the expected levels of industrialisation and growth-enhancing structural transformation that has traditionally been achieved by developed countries in the past. South Africa faces the triple challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment and needs structural growth that is inclusive and sustainable. However, trying to emulate the traditional structural transformative growth paths that developed countries have followed previously, will prove unsuccessful due to changes in the global economy. This paper, therefore, argues that an alternate growth path is needed, especially given that global warming and the effects of climate change act as a threat multiplier to economic growth and development. Furthermore, the world economy is shifting away from fossil fuels and resource depletion towards greener technologies and products. South Africa needs to adopt a growth path that accounts for the current climate and global context to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth for future competitiveness. This paper, using the Economic Complexity Methodology, identifies green industries that South Africa is best positioned to develop and grow given the existing knowledge and capabilities within the economy. A case study is conducted on the wind-power industry which proves to be a promising option given South Africa's current economic climate and the potential for employment creation. This paper aims to highlight the opportunities for the development of green industries in South Africa and the limitations that hinder this potential.

The research considers the question: What can emerging market economies do to leverage sustainable growth opportunities from resource constrained, involuntary migrant entrepreneurs? It explores the positive economic impact that involuntary migrant entrepreneurs have made in an emerging market economy, South Africa, through the establishment of sustainable businesses. The objective is to understand the underlying enablers and constraints that facilitated the establishment of such businesses historically and to use them to develop a model that might be implemented by public and private institutions to maximise the economic benefits that groups of migrant entrepreneurs can deliver. It took the form of an inductive study of behavioural attributes to which a critical realist epistemology has been applied, using network theory and the lens of “desirable difficulties” within the context of social, economic and migration capital. The research was inspired by the work of Elizabeth and Robert Bjork (1996 and 2015) and extends the concept of desirable disabilities into the realm of societal “disabilities” that have been overcome by resource constrained migrant entrepreneurs, to accumulate the necessary social, knowledge and economic capital (Bourdieu, 1985) to establish sustainable businesses. The theoretical contribution of the research is to take the involuntary migrant debate beyond the "refugee as burden" paradigm, by focusing on constrained, involuntary migrants as potential economic contributors through: 1. A theoretical proposition that the legal, knowledge, language and economic capital required by constrained migrant entrepreneurs to leverage the enabling disabilities that they have and to establish their locus of power, is augmented by additional "migration capital", an offshoot of mobility capital, which originates from the interactions within and between the migrant group networks. 2. The development of a model, based on migration capital, which may be used by emerging market countries to maximise the economic growth opportunities that severely resource constrained entrepreneurs can offer. The model utilises a newly defined form of capital, namely migration capital, as its basis. It provides an alternative view to traditional, “push” based economic theories which have categorised refugees and migrants as economic burdens that must be supported by the host country for extended periods of time, to the detriment of the local population. The “pull” model is premised on the finding that migration is a temporal rather than geographic or ethnic issue and that there is additional value to be extracted over the lifespan of a migrant business if the social integration can be expedited through the facilitation of migration capital in addition to individual social, knowledge and economic capital. It considers the benefit that can be realised by the host country, where the process driver remains the migrant entrepreneur, eager to become established in a new country and achieve their long term vision.

Using in-depth interviews and analysis of empirical research, texts and documents, this study attempts to provide a critical analysis of Kenya's trade, infrastructure, and security in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). This is important since it would give interested parties a glance at how prepared Kenya is for the AfCFTA as well as offer a comparison with its continental counterparts in these areas of integration. It was revealed that that Kenya's trade is relatively integrated with the rest of Africa but is still quite some distance behind the most integrated countries. Given that the AfCFTA will lead to increasing intraAfrican trade, the study revealed that Kenya's export basket is relatively diverse suggesting that Kenyan industries could benefit from larger markets. Furthermore, despite being one of the leaders in intra-African trade, Kenya's current level of intra-African trade is still relatively low. This is due to procedural problems, customs and administrative procedures and the over reliance of imports from outside the continent. Strong political will and the application of reforms in the region has allowed Kenya to perform better than most sub-Saharan and lower middle-income countries in terms of infrastructure and how integrated that infrastructure is with the rest of the continent. However, several infrastructural challenges threaten Kenya's successful implementation of the AfCFTA. These challenges include the high cost of implementing infrastructural projects in Kenya, project delays, the politicization of infrastructure development and poor execution and management of road investments. Lastly, the study revealed that Kenya has historically been one of the more insecure and politically unstable countries in the region but there have been some improvements over the last five years. Several security and political obstacles threaten the successful implementation of the AfCFTA in Kenya and East Africa. These obstacles, which include terrorism, ethnic tensions, porous borders, and inefficient security cooperation, stand to negatively impact regional integration in the context of the AfCFTA by destabilizing trade and movement of persons across the region.

This dissertation seeks to critically investigate, examine and describe how four large South African construction companies have responded to and engaged with Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE). Using these companies as a case study, namely, Murray & Roberts, WBHO, Group Five and Basil Read, the paper highlights the extent to which BEE and later B-BBEE implementation has been effective in so far as meeting its objectives as articulated in the scorecard that is embedded in the Construction Sector Black Economic Empowerment Charter. Moreover, the study discusses the strategic changes undergone by each of the firms over a twenty year period (1994-2014) in their efforts to comply with policy, while remaining profitable and sustainable. Additionally, through an evaluation of these corporate strategies and various growth paths, the paper aims to articulate the approaches employed by each company in the face of a reformed political environment, assessing the common tendencies displayed in the industry. The paper consequently seeks to fill in the gaps in literature with regards to the strategies that large companies in the construction industry have gradually adapted in order to continue operating in a democratic South Africa. Thus, through its investigations, it addresses how and why the (1) industry designed and adapted its corporate strategies to fit the institutional arrangements, i.e. B-BBEE, (2), how the industry has responded and implemented BEE, and (3) how the industry has influenced the policy.

An educated population has significant advantages relative to an uneducated one, since education has a high economic and social payoff. However, in the education process, scholars are not in agreement on which factors better explain student achievement. Some argue that school resources are key determinants, whereas other scholars maintain that factors outside the school better predict student achievement. Even within these sentiments, there are arguments on which school-level, classroom-level or student-level variables better explain achievement. Knowledge of such factors is critical, as it helps stakeholders to devise strategies that improve student success. It also helps to maximise budget allocations and at the same time gets the most out of per dollar expenditure. This study has used data from the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ III) to estimate the determinants of student mathematics achievement in three developing countries in Southern Africa; namely, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.