Magister Commercii - MCom / Although South Africa has made progress in the last decade with regard to political transition, the economic landscape still carries the element of social stratification. This is evident from the continued widening of income distribution. There still remains a continued backlog that can only be addressed through social investment in education.

El proceso de inclusión financiera ha permitido la expansión de servicios financieros a cada vez más lugares enfocados en buscar el desarrollo. Desde el punto de vista económico, el sistema financiero contribuye de forma útil en la economía a través del aporte en las decisiones de ahorro e inversión de un país y su funcionalidad valida el crecimiento económico. Por ello, resulta importante que la estructura financiera sea sólida e inclusiva para ser sostenible en el tiempo, ya que en presencia de fallas de mercado pueden crearse barreras subjetivas y objetivas de acceso a la inclusión financiera. En este contexto, el presente estudio evalúa si el componente inclusión financiera influye en el crecimiento económico en presencia de cooperativas de créditos. Considerando la literatura existente sobre el vínculo entre el crecimiento económico y el sistema financiero, la investigación considera que las cooperativas tienen influencia en la medida que tienen propias particularidades sociales y funcionan como mecanismo para expandir la inclusión financiera. En ese sentido, este trabajo se basa en la teoría de inclusión financiera para comprender el rol de las cooperativas y su efecto en el crecimiento económico. / The financial inclusion process has allowed the expansion of financial services to more and more places focused on seeking development. From the economic point of view, the financial system contributes in a useful way in the economy through the report on the saving and investment decisions of a country and its valid functionality economic growth. Therefore, it is important that the financial structure is solid and inclusive to be sustainable over time, since in the presence of market failures, subjective and objective barriers to access to financial inclusion can be created. In this context, the present study evaluates whether the financial inclusion component influences economic growth in the presence of credit cooperatives. Considering the existing literature on the link between economic growth and the financial system, the research considers that cooperatives have influence to the extent that they have their own social peculiarities and mechanisms as a mechanism to expand financial inclusion. In this sense, this work is based on the theory of financial inclusion to understand the role of cooperatives and their effect on economic growth. / Trabajo de investigación

The objective of the paper is to study the effect that female representation in national parliaments have on economic growth in African countries. The foundation for this research question is the assumption that an increase in female representation will lead to an increase in female education and female labour force participation and this will cause a positive effect on economic growth. To test the hypothesis panel data from 50 African countries is used during the time period 2008-2018. An OLS, entity fixed effect and time and entity fixed effect regression was conducted to test the research questions and control variables are included in the regression. The results showed no statistically significant effects of female representation on economic growth and the relationship was negative which contradicts earlier research and the initial hypothesis.

The major aim of the study was to examine the short and long-run relationships and directional causality flow between road transport infrastructure development and economic growth in Namibia for the period 1990-2014. To achieve this objective, the study adopted the auto regression distributive lag (ARDL) Bounds testing approach to co-integration, to examine the short-run and long-run relationship between economic growth and transportation infrastructure in Namibia. The data was sourced from the World Bank Database on GDP from 1990 to 2014, the Namibia National Planning Commission MTEF (Medium-Term Expenditure Framework from 1990-2015) and the Roads Authority Annual Reports from 1999 to 2014, which were imported into the E-view tool to run quarterly regressions from 1990 - 2014. The results confirm a relationship among the variables. The Bounds test results indicated that there exists a long-run relationship among the variables under study. The estimated long-run model showed that there is a statistically insignificant positive relationship between expenditure on road transport and economic growth as well as between information communication technology and economic growth in Namibia. However, the short-run model revealed a positive and statistically significant relationship between expenditure on road transport and economic growth. Conversely, both the long-run and short-run estimates showed a statistically insignificant and negative relationship between foreign direct investment and economic growth. Lastly, the Granger causality test results showed no causality between expenditure on road transport and economic growth in Namibia. The present study offers fresh insights to policy makers on crafting appropriate policies to regulate tax consolidation revenue and infrastructure levies collection; secondly, to boost public sector borrowing on international capital markets through bond issues, infrastructure funds and revenue bonds; thirdly, to develop partner financing business models through sector budget support; fourthly, to secure private sector financing through a private debt, private equity or capital structure leveraging business model; and lastly, implementing fast-tightened fiscal and monetary policy measures on foreign direct investment which currently severely affect Namibian capital outflows.

Magister Commercii - MCom / This study estimates the impact of the real exchange rate’s performance on economic growth in South Africa from 1990 to 2016 based on quarterly data. A review of the literature reveals that the real exchange rate can have either a positive or a negative effect on economic growth. The empirical analysis began with testing for stationarity of the variables by applying the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips Peron (PP) tests. This was followed by the co-integration test of the model. The unit root test results show that all variables except the exchange rate were integrated at order one, that is I (1), while exchange rate volatility is integrated at order zero that is I(O). Also, the co-integration analysis indicated that variables are co-integrated. Employing the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) technique to estimate the results, the relationship between real exchange rate and economic growth was estimated. Findings further show that in the short run, economic growth is positively responsive to the real exchange rate while in the long run, a negative relationship exists between the two variables. The results in the short run suggest that the exchange rate hurts economic growth. A 1% point increase in the real exchange rate (RER) causes a reduction in economic growth by 379 per cent. A rise in the RER affects the trade balances between exports and imports, which results in more imports in the country than exports and the devaluation of the rand stipulates imports in the short run, which leads to the gross domestic product to increase. The study recommends that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Monetary Committee, together with the South African government, should develop a policy that will pursue a prudent monetary policy. A stabilise real exchange rate will enhance the economic activities that will attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and create an environment conducive to investment that will boost economic growth of South Africa.

With an ever-increasing globalising world, trade is of most importance for developing countries to not fall behind and be outcompeted. Export-led growth theory states that one of the key determinants for economic growth is exports. This thesis aims to analyse the causal effects of exports on economic growth in the case of Brazil. Annual data from the World Bank’s database for the years 1990-2018 has been used. The variables included are GDP, exports, gross capital formation, FDI and labour force. This study puts the export-led growth theory in a Vector Error Correction – Granger Causality framework. As opposed to previous scholars’ findings, neither export-led growth nor growth-led export could be determined for Brazil.

Boosting economic growth and competitiveness in different spatial contexts such as national, regional, metropolitan etc. has always been in the epicenter of both large and small-scale planning efforts pursued at different levels of government from local to extra- regional and their significance is still, and probably will always be, on the rise given the ever increasing competition in today’s, and yet-to-come future world. In order to achieve this, relevant authorities have devised and implemented a vast variety of policies and approaches which are, more often than not, based on abundance of theoretical contributions in the field of economic geography. This thesis explores one of the main theoretical contributions to this field being Innovation Systems theory and tries to adapt the concept, originally intended for application at a larger scale, to the perspective of an individual firm rather than a whole production system while briefly using empirics from the spatial context of Adelaide/South Australia, loosely defined as a region, and the sectoral context of electricity infrastructure. The initial conclusion here is that applying the concept to the more manageable context of an individual firm, may have the potential to enable one to identify the relevant organizational and institutional setup more effectively and present a better explanatory description of their role in the whole Innovation system and in turn, can contribute to a more informed planning and policy- making process for regional economic growth.

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to investigate the relationship between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions per capita in Sweden in the period of 1970-2018. As indicators, the economic indicator will be represented by the per capita gross domestic product, GDP, as the environmental indicator this study will use carbon dioxide emissions per capita, CO2, and the energy use per capita will represent the energy consumption variable.  The research hypothesis is based on the idea of the classical EKC, the Environmental Kuznets Curve. Multivariate Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) approach which makes possible to evaluate non-stationary and cointegrating variables, while overcoming the omitted variable bias was used for the methodology part. Econometrics tests such as Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test and Johansen co-integration test are included, and the Granger causality test will provide four hypothesizes for the potential causalities between the included variable in this study.

This study empirically examines the relationship between financial development and economic growth in Nigeria. It employs statistical techniques such as the Autoregressive Distributed Lag approach as well as a short and long run Granger Causality test on time series data spanning from 1960-2016. Empirical results reveal that the financial development indicators have a long run relationship with economic growth in Nigeria and the existence of unidirectional and bidirectional Granger causality was also discovered. This study recommends that policy should be geared towards promoting financial development in the country as well as encouraging more financial depth and openness – in order to foster economic growth in Nigeria.

La presente tesis tiene como objetivo medir la contribución del capital humano al crecimiento económico del Perú durante el periodo 1970-2018. Desde el punto de vista teórico, autores como Uzawa (1965), Romer (1986) y Lucas (1988) nos dicen que existe una relación positiva entre el capital humano y el crecimiento económico. No obstante, mediante la metodología de Engle y Granger (1987) el presente estudio muestra que dicha relación no se cumple para el caso peruano. Este resultado es atribuible a factores como la baja productividad del trabajador, la baja calidad educativa, la pobre infraestructura educativa, la baja inversión educativa, entre otros. / This thesis aims to measure the contribution of human capital to the economic growth of Peru during the period 1970-2018. From the theoretical point of view, authors such as Uzawa (1965), Romer (1986) and Lucas (1988) tell us that there is a positive relationship between human capital and economic growth. However, through the methodology of Engle and Granger (1987) the present study shows that this relationship is not fulfilled for the Peruvian case. This result is attributable to factors such as low worker productivity, low educational quality, poor educational infrastructure, low educational investment, among others. / Tesis