This diploma thesis deals with the analysis of the factors that affect economic growth in the Czech Republic. The thesis primarily focuses on one of these factors (technology – research and development) and it analyses its development in the last several years and how this development affected economic growth in the Czech Republic, using statistical methods.

Economic growth rate differs largely between different countries. There are many opinions on which factors really affect the rate of growth in different economies and this causes debates. The factors that affect economic growth include political systems, social settings, economic freedom, human capital and institutional organization. These factors affect not only productivity, but also efficiency. This thesis’ purpose is to investigate and explain the factors that affect economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. Through use of a fixed effects regression model, a panel data investigation will be conducted, and an analysis will be presented in this thesis. By using secondary data for sub-Saharan African countries from reliable sources, the factors that affect economic growth on an annual basis from year 2006 to 2017 are examined. Growth in gross domestic product per individual (GDP per capita growth) is the dependent variable and represents economic growth. The independent variables which are believed to affect this growth are also given, and these include: population growth, foreign direct investment, level of corruption, democracy, life expectancy at birth, expected years of schooling and economic freedom. The findings estimate that some of the chosen variables, for example population growth and life expectancy at birth significantly affect economic growth and development in these countries. The rest of the independent variables have an impact on economic growth but are not statistically significant according to this study.

La presente investigación aporta a la literatura económica sobre inclusión financiera. La importancia de su estudio radica en las implicancias de esta variable sobre el crecimiento económico y la reducción de la pobreza, ya que brinda mayores oportunidades a las personas para decidir sobre sus finanzas. La principal contribución es analizar la relación que existe entre la inclusión financiera y sus principales determinantes en economías emergentes de América Latina elegidas por el ranking 2019 de economías emergentes del MSCI, siendo estas: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, México y Perú. Asimismo, determinar las principales barreras que se perciben como razones para ser excluidos del sistema financiero. De esta manera, mediante el proceso de especificación se determinó un modelo Probit como la mejor representación; y, con el proceso de estimación de este (utilizando los datos del Global Findex Data en conjunto con Gallup), se llegó a la conclusión que las principales variables que influyen para que una persona pueda aumentar la probabilidad de ser incluido financieramente son: el género de una persona, la edad, los ingresos, el nivel de educación alcanzado y el país de origen del encuestado. Mientras que, las principales barreras para ser excluido financieramente son: que un familiar tenga una cuenta financiera y la desconfianza que se tiene hacia el sistema financiero. / This research contributes to the economic literature on financial inclusion. The importance of its study lies in the implications of this variable on economic growth and poverty reduction, as it gives people greater opportunities to decide on their finances. The main contribution of this research is to analyze the relationship between financial inclusion and its key determinants in Emerging Economies of Latin America chosen by the 2019 ranking of MSCI emerging markets, being the following countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Furthermore, determining the main barriers that are perceived as reasons to influence the probability to be part of financial exclusion. Thus, by means of the specification process, a Probit model was determined as the best representation; and, with the process of estimating this using the Global Findex Data in conjunction with Gallup, it was concluded that the main variables that have influence to be part of financial inclusion are: the gender of a person, age, income, level of education attained and the country of origin of the respondent. While the main barriers to being excluded financially are: a family member has a financial account and the distrust of the financial system. / Trabajo de investigación

The SA government has identified the craft industry as a key focus area contributing to sustainable development, economic growth and employment opportunities. However the industry faces many challenges such as global competition and lack of resources. More importantly, craft producers in SA cannot access the craft retailer market successfully which limit their financial success. The purpose of this study is to investigate the buyer behaviour of craft retailers in SA. The specific focus of the study is to investigate the buying process followed by craft retailers, to determine the importance of supplier selection criteria used to evaluate suppliers, as well as to determine the sources of information that craft retailers use most often when searching for suppliers. A self-administered survey was conducted among craft retailers and a sample of 233 were realised. The descriptive statistics are reported as well as factor analysis, ANOVA and MANOVA results. Findings indicated that the buying process craft retailers go through are extensive and that certain stages are also more often used than others. No statistical significant differences were found between the types of craft retailers or the years of buying experience and the stages of the buying process. „Product quality‟ was considered the most important supplier selection criteria followed by „product is exciting and attractive‟ and „product styling and design‟. Statistical significant differences were found between different types of craft retailers and the importance they attach to selected supplier selection criteria but no significant differences were found for the years of buying experience. - iv - The results also indicated that craft retailers consult certain information sources more often than others. Information sources were grouped into three factors after the factor analysis: internal and personal information, promotional information and print advertising. The statistical significant differences were found between the different types of craft retailers and their use of promotional information sources but no differences were evident for the other two sources, namely internal and personal and print advertising. The study resulted in a proposed marketing strategy for craft producers to enable them to market their craft products more effectively to crafts retailers. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Marketing Management / unrestricted

The aim of the thesis is to examine the relationship between inflation and economic growth using the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as a case study. The motivation emanates not only because of the lack of studies analysing this relationship in the SADC region, but also due to the fact that this relationship may differ from the one that exists in developed countries due to the level of economic development and prudent macroeconomic policies being practised in the latter (Sarel, 1996). The relationship may differ because the vast majority of developed countries have established independent central banks with a clear mandate to keep inflation levels within a specific range (adopted an inflation targeting framework). However, in most developing countries, central banks do not have a clear inflation targeting monetary policy framework, for instance, in the SADC region, only South Africa has adopted an inflation targeting monetary policy framework. High inflation episodes are known to contribute to macroeconomic instability, therefore policy makers find it important to understand the kind of the relationship that exists between inflation and economic growth in order to develop and implement sound macroeconomic policies. Therefore, inflation is viewed to be one of the basic indicators of macroeconomic stability; hence it is an indicator of the ability of the government to manage the economy. High levels of inflation may be indicative of a lack of sound governance by the monetary authority of a country. In addition, it is a sign of government that has lost control of its finances (Fischer,1993). The thesis addresses issues of nonlinearities in the inflation-growth nexus by endogenously estimating the threshold level of inflation below which inflation may have no, or positive, impact on economic growth, or above which inflation may be detrimental to economic growth. It also assesses the effects of a shock to inflation in South Africa, being the largest economy in the region, on inflation and economic growth of the rest of the region. First, different panel data methodologies; Fixed Effects (FE), Difference Generalised Method of Moments (DIF-GMM), System Generalised Method of Moments (SYSGMM), and Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) estimators are used in order to examine the relationship between inflation and economic growth in the region. Second, Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) methodology is utilised to examine the nonlinearities in the inflation-growth nexus. In particular, the threshold level of inflation is endogenously estimated and the smoothness of the transition from a low to a high inflation regime in the region is also estimated1. Thirdly, the effects of South African inflation on the inflation and economic growth in the rest of the region are assessed using impulse-response functions derived from estimating a Panel Vector Autoregression (PVAR) model. Overall, the study deals with problems which are normally encountered when using cross-country data such as endogeneity, heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. The main findings of the study are that inflation and economic growth in the region are negatively related, as is also the case in other regions of the world as depicted by the empirical literature (Fischer, 1993 and De Gregorio, 1993). Therefore, in terms of the inflation-growth link, the SADC region is not different from all the other regions around the globe. Secondly, the threshold level of inflation in the region is estimated at 18.9 per cent, which is in line with the findings of authors like Drukker et al. (2005), Mignon and Villavicencio (2011), and Ibarra and Trupkin (2011), who found a threshold level of 19.2 per cent, 19.6 per cent, and 19.1 per cent for developing countries. However, this threshold level marginally exceeds that of Khan and Senhadji (2001), Schiavo and Vaona (2007), Moshiri and Sepehri (2009) and Espinoza et al. (2010), which studies report threshold values between 10 and 12 per cent for developing countries. The empirical results also reveal that shocks to South African inflation have significant economic impact on inflation, openness, investment and economic growth in the rest of the SADC region. In particular, more interestingly, South African inflation is found to have a negative and statistically significant impact on economic growth in the region for up to about 12 years after the shock, after which, it becomes insignificant. The contribution of the thesis to the literature is that, firstly, this looks into the inflation-growth relationship in the context of Africa, in particular the SADC region; as such an investigation or research has not been conducted before. Secondly, the research takes advantage of panel data methodologies so as to provide more robust estimates and confront the potential bias emanating from problems such as endogeneity, heterogeneity and cross-country dependence that may have affected previous empirical work on inflation-growth nexus. This is believed to provide more informative estimates on the inflation-growth link, and therefore deepens our knowledge of the region. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Economics / unrestricted

The research aims to investigate the relationship between economic freedom, political freedom and economic growth. The Arab Spring placed renewed interest on the topic of freedom, yet current economic conditions seemingly contradicted the established theory. The largest free economies were being outperformed by those with less political and economic freedom.Three objectives were specified to answer the research question. The first objective aimed to determine the association between economic freedom, political freedom and economic growth, for which Spearman’s correlation was used. The second objective aimed to investigate causal relationships between the variables, for which Granger’s causality was employed. The third objective aimed to examine complex relationships between the variables, for which vector autoregression was used.Economic growth was weakly correlated with the independent variables. Civil liberties, political rights and economic freedom, however, had strong correlations with each other. Economic freedom and economic growth had bi-directional Granger-causality. Political rights Granger-caused economic freedom whilst civil liberties Granger-caused political rights and economic freedom. Using vector autoregression, the model consisting of economic growth, economic freedom and civil liberties had the greatest explanatory power towards economic growth. Existing theory therefore remains valid: political freedom enhances economic freedom, which, in turn, enhances economic growth.The relationship between economic freedom, political freedom and economic growth / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The efficiency of physical capital accumulation plays a critical role for economic growth. This paper aims at examine if economic freedom promotes economic growth via physical capital accumulation. This is done by estimating a production function by replacing the inputs with institutional indices. The first input is GDP per capital growth rate which serve as a proxy for institutional aspects and the other input are the economic freedom indexes which will serve as proxies for physical capital accumulation. This is done by applying the augmented mean group (AMG) estimator that is designed for dealing with macro panel data analysis, including twenty developing countries where the economies have experienced a rapid growth, and the time period are between 1995 and 2017. The theoretical framework is based on the Solow growth model, institutional theory and marginal efficiency of capital (MEC). The results show that economic freedom promotes economic growth via physical capital accumulation where GDP per capital growth rate served as a proxy for institutional aspects and economic freedom indexes as proxies for physical capital accumulation. The results also show that the AMG estimator is the best fit for macro panel data analysis since it are designed for dealing with heterogeneity.

Business travel has become a considerable part of the daily lives of scarce human resources. Adding to the frustration is the requirement to travel with the current available modes of transport in developing countries, which effectively create a constraint in the ability of scarce human resources to apply their limited time more effectively.This study seeked to understand how and why business travel impacts the productivity of scarce human capital as well as how alternative methods of travel can contribute to increased productivity. In the study the researcher aimed to determine if an on-demand air travel service could be viable in a dynamic market such as South Africa and if so, what value a successful implementation will add to a company and the country.The research was conducted by making use of a descriptive quantitative study over two populations namely business travellers and aircraft pilots. This allowed the researcher to answer the three research questions that were identified.The study has found that not only productivity, but also the work-life balance of scarce human capital is affected negatively by the requirement to conduct business travel. It was also found that on-demand air travel could soon be a viable alternative mode of transport in dynamic markets, which would contribute to improved productivity levels of scarce human capital. This in turn will stimulate company growth and ultimately increase the overall economic growth of the country. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Le Cameroun est un pays engagé dans une stratégie de développement volontariste, faisant toutefois face à d’importantes difficultés de croissance économique et à une corruption chronique. Suivant ce contexte, la présente étude a pour objet d’effectuer une analyse théorique et empirique des effets de la corruption sur la croissance économique du Cameroun. A cet effet, notre premier axe d’analyse vise à déterminer la nature de la corrélation entre la corruption et la croissance économique au Cameroun. Notre étude révèle qu’à long terme, la corruption affecte négativement le taux de croissance économique, suivant des effets directs d’une part, et suivant des effets indirects d’autre part, à travers l’investissement privé, le niveau d’éducation et les dépenses publiques. Dès lors, un deuxième axe d’analyse nous a paru intéressant à aborder, cherchant cette fois à évaluer l’effet indirect de la corruption sur la croissance économique via les distorsions dans la répartition des dépenses publiques. Les résultats obtenus ici montrent que la corruption provoque des distorsions tendant d’une part, à accroître les allocations aux des dépenses publiques d’investissement, pour un effet induit non significatif sur la croissance économique, et d’autre part, à réduire la part des dépenses publiques de fonctionnement, pour un effet induit négatif sur la croissance économique. / Cameroon is an economy committed to an expansionist development strategy, yet faced with major economic growth challenges and chronic corruption. In this context. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to carry out a theoretical and empirical analysis of the effects of corruption on Cameroon's economic growth. The first analysis framework is aimed at determining the nature of causal relationship between corruption and economic growth in Cameroon. The estimations reveal that in long run, an increase in the level of corruption leads to a reduction in the rate of economic growth. This negative relationship is following a direct effect as well as indirect effects through private investment, education and public spending. The second axis of analysis seeks to assess the indirect effect of corruption on economic growth through distortions in the distribution of public expenditure. Our results show that corruption brings about distortions aimed at increasing allocations to public investment spending thereby producing an insignificant effect on economic growth on the one hand, and reducing the share of public recurrent expenditure with a negative effect on economic growth, on the other hand.

In 1982, when the Social Democrats returned to power, they had two goals. One was to increase the growth in the economy, another to decrease the public debt. This led to a new economic policy for the Social Democrats. The new economic policy was influenced by the neoliberal ideology that started to spread throughout the world from the late 1970s. The purpose of this study is to examine if the Social Democrats favoured economic growth over welfare, fair distribution and state ownership. The results of the study was analyzed with the use of Hiroto Tsukadas Welfare State Theory. The theory claims that politicians favour investments over welfare because welfare consumption decreases economic growth. The empirical analysis is based on parliament debates, party and union congresses, policy programs and memoirs. The results show that the arguments from leading social democrats were pro-growth and for investments over welfare spending and fair distribution policy.