Economic growth is often linked to service economy. Sustainable economic growth is based upon economic, environmental and social sustainability. Some argue that economic and environmental sustainability has its foundation on social sustainability. By analysing the effects of service economy on society, one can identify potential threats to social sustainability. Theoretical analysis is supported by historical events from around the world focusing on highlighting threats that service economy countries are exposed to.Findings were that while on short term post-industrial economies boost development and sustainability, on long term countries are facing challenges in terms of ageing population, sustainable communities and access to social equity. Furthermore, depending on local policies, in some cases a trade-off is needed among factors in order to reach the highest level of social sustainability.

A common belief about inflation and economic growth has developed during recent years. This belief is that a “low” and stable inflation rate favors economic growth. The underlying arguments for this are that a low inflation rate create a beneficial playground for all participants. A playground which will meliorate investments and ensure a stability for consumers which in return will give a favorable environment for the economy to thrive. This paper aims to clarify this relationship between inflation and economic growth in Sweden between the period 1971-2017 and thus investigate the co-integration relation between the two variables. Additional test will be conducted to explore a potential threshold level of inflation. This threshold level is defined as the point where inflation starts to harm growth.

Thesis (M.Com (Economics)) --University of Limpopo, 2018 / The burden of public debt is an economic issue, dominating debates in different sectors of our society. The post financial crisis era has been marked with an increasing level of public debt at international, national and sub-national level. The study investigates if public debt can affect economic growth in South Africa, for the period 1995 to 2016. The results for Johansen test of cointegration signposted the existence of cointegration among variables observed in this study. The trace statistic and max-eigen value complimented each other to confirm the cointegration, thus, showing a long run relationship. Furthermore, the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) is applied to achieve the objectives of the study, complemented by other econometric tests such as, Granger causality, impulse response function and variance decomposition. The VECM results revealed the existence of a short run relationship between public debt and economic growth. Granger causality results have shown that public debt can Granger cause economic growth, and there is bi-direction relationship between the two variables. The results for Variance Decomposition indicate that, a shock to public debt causes 1.509115 % fluctuation in economic growth in the second quarter. In the fourth quarter, a shock to public debt account for 16.39628 % fluctuations in economic growth. This shows that, as time goes on, a shock to public debt account for a high percent of fluctuation in economic growth. The Impulse Response Function has shown that, the period of ten quarters marks a negative response of economic growth to public debt. Thus, one standard deviation shock in public debt will inversely affect economic growth. The diagnostic tests such as serial correlation and heteroskedasticity bode well for the model because, neither serial correlation nor heteroskedasticity has been found. Moreover, the model has shown that the residuals are normally distributed, and also the stability of the model has been confirmed. The study recommends that, since South Africa is a capital scarce country, it is encouraged to borrow so that there is an increase in the accumulation of capital. However, the later stage of borrowing marked with high debt will lead to subdued economic growth. / SETA

The theme of diploma thesis "Polarization of Economic Growth in the European Union" belongs to fundamental issues of recent regionalistics. The main aim is to demark poles of economic growth and periphery areas within the EU territory. This aim is followed by hypothesis that "at recent economic circumstances, economic activities are concentrated in the central part of the EU". First part of the thesis focuses on theoretic approaches, including economic growth poles definition, finding general factors of economic attractiveness of the region, their evolution and yet known findings about concentration of economic growth in the EU in economic, social and environmental dimension. In the following practical part, the main economic, social and environmental indicators are established. Using these indicators, areas that feature strong polarization of economic growth and in opposite, areas that can be marked as periphery, are defined within the EU.

In various regions, the number of employees working in each sector is different. Some sectors may be in the region employ more workers than other sectors, indicating a higher degree of specialization. In each region, the degree of specialization varies, which could have a direct impact on economic growth. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the relationship between the degree of specialization and economic growth of the region. It turns out that there is a positive relationship between the degree of specialization and economic growth, which means that the growth rate of specialization will lead to economic growth. It follows that the focus of the region, especially on one sector can lead to faster economic growth.

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International trade is one of the leading discussions taken not only in South Africa but worldwide on daily basis. The importance of international trade is that one country can be able to assist the other country to meet its needs. The level of economic growth is important in any country not only in South Africa. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of foreign trade on economic growth in South Africa. The findings of this study will demonstrate the light about positive and negative effects of international trade on economic growth. The empirical analysis is conducted by using a time series data from 199001 - 201302 quarterly obtained from South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and Organisation of Economic Co-operation Development (OECD). The study follows a Cointegrated vector autoregression (CVAR) which contains the following: Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP) tests for stationarity. The model is also taken through the Johansen cointegration test and Vector error correction model (VECM). VECM approach will be followed if cointegration amongst the variables has been established. The findings of the study are that all variables have unit root. The cointegration model emphasizes the long run equilibrium relationship between dependent and independent variables. The empirical results for the Johansen cointegration test reject the null hypothesis of no cointegration and suggest the presence of a long term relationship among all the variables. Empirical investigation reveals that three variables such as inflation rate , export and exchange rates are positively related to GOP while other one variable such as import is negatively related to GOP. The conclusion drawn from this work is that there is a correlation amongst GOP and its independent variable. This dissertation recommends that The South African government must start strengthening the competiveness of export by making sure that it is always balanced with the import. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Economics) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2013

This study focuses on Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and their importance in the economic development of Third World Countries. Recogni sing that. MNCs can contribute to economic growth and development, most Third World Countries are constantly working to attract them. hence their demand has become highly competiti ve. However, MNCs do not go without some negative effects. such as conflicts between host and investor countries. and the creation of damaging competition to local firms. These negative effects could be minimised if policies and strategies for the promotion and attraction of MNCs are part of. and integrated into. general economic development and economic reform policies and not seen in isolation. Although Third World Countries have implemented strategies to attract more MNCs. a refinement of some of these policies is needed if a country is to be successful in this regard. / Thesis (M.A (International Relations) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2014

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / William F. Blankenau / The first essay examines the allocation of education spending. Human capital investment in early childhood can lead to large and persistent gains. Beyond this window of opportunity, human capital accumulation is more costly. Despite this, government education spending is allocated disproportionately toward late childhood and young adulthood. The consequences of a reallocation are examined using an overlapping generations model with private and public spending on early and late childhood education. Taking as given the higher returns to early investment, the model shows the current allocation may nonetheless be appropriate. With a homogeneous population, this can hold for moderate levels of government spending. With heterogeneity, this can hold for middle income workers. Lower income workers, by contrast, may benefit from a reallocation. The second essay provides a detailed review of the human capital proxies used in growth regressions. Economic theory and intuition tells us that human capital is important for economic growth, and now most empirical growth studies include a human capital component. Human capital is a complex concept that is difficult to quantify in a single measure. A number of proxies have been proposed, with most focusing on an aspect of education. The consensus is that human capital is poorly proxied. For each of the most commonly used measures, I give a description, discuss trends, summarize the literature and results, compare advantages and disadvantages, and list data sets. This review will serve as a useful reference for any researcher including human capital in a growth regression. The final essay explores the importance of a variety of human capital measures for growth using the Bayesian Averaging of Classical Estimates (BACE) approach proposed by Sala-i-Martin, Doppelhofer, and Miller (2004). BACE combines standard Bayesian methods with the classical approach to address the problem of model uncertainty. A new data set is constructed that includes 35 human capital variables. The analysis shows that multiple human capital measures are robustly significant for growth. Some of these variables are IQ scores, the duration of primary and secondary education, average years of primary education, average years of female higher education, and higher education enrollment.

Assessment of BEE progress in the petroleum industry and its role in creating value for the players within the industry.