D.Com. (Business Economics) / A clear distinction should be made between the straightforward financing of a project and project finance itself. In short, project finance can be defined as the financing of a particular economic unit with the aim of the financial structuring to be such that there is as little recourse as possible to the sponsor of the project and the lender is thus satisfied to look at the cash flows and earnings as the source of repayment and the assets of the project as security. Usually, project finance would incorporate all or some of the following characteristics namely, off balance sheet financing, recourse limited to the pre-commissioning stage, an element of fixed rate debt, utilisation of tax allowances, optimisation of tax position, long term finance and some degree of foreign exchange activity. If the project is sponsored by an existing company, it will be looking to maximise debt, minimise recourse and group tax liability, optimise financial costs and retain or improve financial ratios after consolidation of the project. However, the degree of project financing appropriate for any project depends on what lenders are prepared to accept and what sponsors are prepared to provide in order to let the project become a reality. The project financier's role is to formulate financial structures, assess financial feasibility, develop funding proposals, secure sources of finance and to manage the financing facilities once they are in place. A project sponsor employs a project financier because the latter is objective, impartial, has access to required information and is able to process it into a professional presentation to the financial community, has the experience and expertise to advise on the most appropriate and cost effective financing structure and is best equipped to perform a thorough project financial analysis. This study has been undertaken to point out the differences between project finance and finance for a project, to identify the role of project financier and is as such largely concentrated on the financial side of a project. The goal was to discuss the importance of project finance from the financial institutions' viewpoint and to identify those aspects that would be important to a project advisor or lender. Although relatively little has been published on project finance, it is a multidisciplinary subject and references have been used wherever available. The author's attendance at seminars on the subject, as well as discussions with international project financiers and bankers have also contributed to the understanding of the subject. In addition to an in-depth exposure to project finance in South Africa, several months have been spent with an international bank's project finance division in London.

Spring Break, which has been transformed from a rather mild mid-winter vacation to a cultural rite over the past seventy-years, allows students to bring their values en masse to the host locations they visit. While only visiting these locales for a short time, college students nonetheless significantly impact the economic, public governance and socio-cultural processes of their Spring Break host locations. This dissertation explores the process of how and why students choose these locations and the impacts that occur as a result. A quantitative approach is used to determine the level of impact on a host location's economic, socio-cultural and public governance processes and what role city policies have in affecting these impacts. The data comes primarily from public sources – national, state and local – between 1995 and 2005. This investigation helps to answer the question ‘Is Spring Break worth the cost of the student impacts?' In doing so, it will allow for current Spring Break cities in the U.S. to determine what role the event plays in their future and provides potential Spring Break locations with the information necessary to determine whether or not to court the next generation of Spring Breakers.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide leaders with a clear explanation of commercial corridor revitalization, standard for evaluation, and justification for the support of existing and future commercial corridor revitalization districts in New Orleans, LA. This thesis begins with a definition of commercial corridor revitalization and discussion of how it has been applied in New Orleans, LA. A standard framework for commercial corridor revitalization development and assessment is also established with several steps for implementation included. To test the feasibility, significance and relevance of the proposed framework, all of the steps mentioned were implemented in the New Orleans East Town Center Case Study. Key findings of this research may contribute to the providing a tool that evaluates criteria for evaluating city-wide policies to support the sustainability and vitality of existing and future commercial corridor revitalization districts in New Orleans, LA.

M.Comm. (Financial Economics) / This dissertation examines the relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty, and economic growth using quarterly data for South Africa covering the period 1960-2012. Inflation uncertainty is estimated using the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity modelling framework. Granger methods are employed in order to investigate the interaction between inflation, inflation uncertainty, and economic growth. The presence of structural change is investigated through dummy variables representing changes in monetary policy regime. No evidence is found of any significant structural change in either inflation or inflation uncertainty. Granger results indicate that inflation uncertainty has a negative impact on inflation, supporting Holland’s (1995) argument of stabilising central bank behaviour. Conversely, there is evidence that high inflation leads to elevated inflation uncertainty, in accordance with Friedman’s (1977) hypothesis. Inflation uncertainty does not have a significant impact on economic growth in South Africa. However, inflation does have an adverse effect on economic growth, whilst economic growth exerts a positive impact on the rate of inflation. Lastly, economic growth does not have any meaningful effect on inflation uncertainty.

First chapter contains geographical and political characteristics of Peru and its history. Second part of the thesis includes economic characteristics of Peru and structure of foreign trade. Next chapter focuses on future development of Peru. Last chapter contains key characteristics of role of Peru within the latinamerican region.

The thesis provides an analysis of Swedish economic development since the accession to the EU till present with emphasis on a period of boom and crisis at the beginning of the 3rd millennium. Basic macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP growth, inflation rate, public balance, general government debt, unemployment rate, foreign direct investment, current account of balance of payments are used to describe the economic development of Sweden. The first chapter focuses on the Swedish economy from the accession to the EU till the turn of the millennium. The second chapter deals with the Swedish economic development during the years 2000-2006. The third chapter describes the economic development of Sweden during the global economic crisis in 2007-2009 including selected issues related to the crisis.

October 2015 A research report submitted to the Faculty of Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in 25% fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Management (in the field of Public and Development Management) / Over the last forty to fifty years the industry that supports international development cooperation, has become more complex in its pursuit of multifaceted development objectives. Studies suggest that history, politics and a power differential between aid recipients and the foreign aid workforce undermine the development policy process locally. This study explores local engagement on development policy in Malawi, between public officials/aid recipients and donor-agency practitioners/foreign aid workforce; and the role of the 2008 Paris Declaration (PD) on Aid Effectiveness in this engagement. The two significant findings are that, while there are some adverse effects of history, politics and power in engagement on development policy, there is also evidence of replicable outcomes that can bolster the policy process. Secondly, the democracy model in practice in Malawi is struggling to deliver development policy dividends. The study concludes that both the state and donor agencies working in Malawi should mutually leverage global commitments, domestically, and use them to negotiate an increase in development aid committed to improving the development processes, for greater national ownership. The study specifically recommends the adoption of deliberative democratic development processes. This nuanced approach may improve Malawi’s ability to yield development policy dividends

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2016 / The primary objective of this study was to investigate the role played by financial market development (FMD) in harnessing international capital flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investment (FPI) in nine selected African economies, from 1980 to 2014. The study employed various econometric techniques such as the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) for the dynamic panel data, Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration, Vector Error Correction Models (VECM) as well as Granger-causality tests. Using Principal Components Analysis (PCA), we also developed an infrastructural development index, as well as one for financial market development. The results highlighted that FDI to sampled African countries are determined by agglomeration effects, FPI, human capital development, real gross domestic product (GDP) growth, interest rates, inflation, infrastructure, trade openness, institutional quality, natural resources, and only certain individual financial market variables. FDI determinants are magnified by the application of the infrastructural and financial market development indices. FPI inflows, on the other hand, are influenced by FDI, exchange rates, stock market capitalisation, financial system liquidity, FPI agglomeration effects, capital account openness, and real GDP growth rates. The composite FMD index has a positive and highly significant effect on both FDI and FPI inflows to the selected African countries. There is reasonable evidence of bi-directional Granger causality between FDI and FPI, and FPI and overall FMD (FMD index), thus implying complementarity, as well as uni-directional Granger causality emanating from FDI to stock market capitalisation, FDI to domestic credit to the private sector by banks and also from FDI to overall financial market development in Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tunisia. In light of these findings, the policy implications are that African governments need to be conscientised on the benefits of financial market liberalisation and development. An open economy, complemented by adequate infrastructural and financial market development, plus appropriate regulation would play a significant role in attracting the type of international capital flow desired by the African host country’s level of economic development, without the concern of depleting other non-renewable natural resources. / GR2018

A research report submitted to the Wits Business School in the University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Innovation Studies Johannesburg, 2015 / Innovation policy is a crucial driver for development, especially in developing countries. Developing countries are characterised by weak and fragmented innovation systems that pose an even greater challenge to integrating innovation policy. The key and most persistent weakness identified in South Africa’s national innovation system has been its lack of vertical and horizontal policy integration and coherence. Regions in South Africa are increasingly becoming active in developing, designing and implementing their own innovation policies. This creates an urgent need for integrating national and regional innovation policies and programmes. The basis for the study was an assessment of the extent of integration between national and regional innovation policies in South Africa and the Gauteng region in particular. The study employed both a qualitative and quantitative research approach and the methodology applied was content analysis as well as semi-structured interviews with key informants at the national and regional level. While there was no specific innovation framework regarding the question of integration across different regions due to restrictions, this study employed a more general framework utilising the policy studies to investigate this issue. The framework was based on three categories: complementary policy goals, priorities and scope; policy structures and procedures for policy integration; and mechanisms and policy instruments to steer integration. The findings of the study suggest that there is weak integration between South Africa’s national innovation policy and Gauteng’s regional innovation policy based on the framework selected for analysing policy integration. The finding revealed that there is significant lack of integration between national and regional policy structures and procedures; and mechanisms and policy instruments in promoting innovation policy. Moreover, the findings showed that South Africa’s national innovation policy is embedded in a linear, narrow path of supply-driven technology and has a top-down perspective approach. Overall, there is an opportunity for South Africa and Gauteng to improve innovation policy integration by prioritising strong leadership and commitment at the political level; establishing specific coordination mechanisms; and improving interactions between national and regional levels through policy experimentation. To achieve these objectives, functional regions should be targeted and used for improving quality of policy-relevant evidence.

This paper applies New Growth Theory (NGT) to the economic development plan of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) for the Dan River region. New Growth Theory is summarized into five concepts: knowledge and human capital, technology, flexible production and innovation, and the institutional environment. The IALR program demonstrates this NGT framework. The IALR program seeks to promote growth by attracting exogenous demand for innovation and high tech. Endogenously, the program plans to create an institutional support environment and human capital infrastructure. The New Growth Theory supports the IALR in developing a knowledge based economy. However, the New Growth Theory has limitations in application for economic development. It assumes that the targeted economy has some physical and social infrastructure. The Dan River region lacks transportation infrastructure and a history of valuing higher education. The New Growth Theory assumes that using knowledge as a factor will insure against diminishing returns. However, growth from high tech is risky and uneven. The IALR program is an example of an under-educated region trying to transform its economy by using high tech. What may happen is an increased gap between the lower and higher income population, with skilled knowledge labor being recruited and the existing human capital not able to keep up with the new skill requirements. Finally, while the Dan River region has a need to work on quality of life aspects, such as living conditions, equity, the environment, health and civic infrastructure, New Growth Theory does not consider these aspects. / Master of Public and International Affairs