The growth performance of the South African economy over the past two and a half decades has been disappointing. The economy has not reached the high growth rates of the 1960s, which is desperately needed to alleviate poverty in the country. While the sources of growth have been a subject of much debate, recently the notion that the Real Exchange Rate (RER) level of a country matters for growth has attracted attention. While it is generally expected that the value of the currency should not remain constant and that the exchange rate fluctuates over time, in the long-term, it is expected to converge to an equilibrium level South Africa follows an inflation targeting framework and a free floating exchange rate regime. The exchange rate has been highly volatile since the abolishment of the dual exchange rate system in 1995. This implies that there were periods of overvaluation and undervaluation from the equilibrium level; in other words the rand experienced times of misalignment. In the event of misalignments, the RER is moved to levels which make it difficult for an economy to sustain international competitiveness over the long-run, and this is harmful to growth rates in the economy. This is especially true for countries, such as South Africa, which is heavily dependent on exports. The RER is therefore very powerful and has been argued to be the cause of loss of competitiveness and growth slowdowns. This study investigates this notion for South Africa. The main aim of this study is therefore to investigate the effects of RER misalignment on economic growth in South Africa. This implies that the study aims to determine the level of RER equilibrium, the misalignment in the real value of the rand, and how this misalignment has affected economic growth in the country. The Behavioural Equilibrium Exchange Rate (BEER) approach is followed to determine the Equilibrium Exchange Rate (EER), which allows for the use of fundamental macroeconomic variables to determine the real equilibrium level of the rand. Identified fundamental variables, which are the main drivers of the current RER in South Africa, include GDP per capita, trade openness, terms of trade, gross fixed capital formation and the real interest rate differential. A Vector Error-Correction Mechanism (VECM) is used in the estimation of the Real Equilibrium Exchange Rate (REER). Misalignment is calculated as the difference between the actual and the equilibrium real exchange rate. It is found that during the period under investigation (1985 to 2011) there have been substantial misalignments in the RER of the rand, though the currency was mostly overvalued. It is also shown that the rand does revert to its equilibrium level over time. The least square method is used to determine the effect of this RER misalignment on economic growth. Additional variables such as the initial level of GDP per capita, trade openness, terms of trade as well as gross fixed capital formation, are included in the growth specification. Trade reforms emphasise the importance of export-led growth in a commodity-rich economy, such as South Africa. The results indicate that the RER misalignment has a positive coefficient; this implies that a misalignment in the rand has not necessarily been harmful to economic growth. Therefore, it can be concluded that in the case of South Africa, misalignment is generally stimulating growth, but more so when the currency is undervalued. The results therefore show that the RER should be kept at competitive levels in order to boost economic growth in the country. The results also show support for the strategy of export-led growth in South Africa. / Thesis (MCom (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Citizens of South Africa expect that the policy and regulatory changes introduced by government will be translated into tangible service delivery. Elected representatives, in particular, must demonstrate that national, provincial and local government are capable of managing public resources in a way that deliver benefits to its citizens. The ex- President Thabo Mbeki often used to speak about performance-driven public sector and has referred to the critical role that local government will play in this process. Municipalities which are at the coal-face of service delivery are being challenged to demonstrate their ability to execute both basic as well as enabling services crucial for social and economic growth and development. This challenge finds expression in the requirement that municipalities are expected to report on their performance, from both a civic and policy perspective. The present government is taking performance of government officials and politicians seriously. The Government has created a new ministry in the Presidency called Performance Mortitoring and Evaluation that will assist in ensuring that government performs better. The President of South Africa Mr. Jacob Zuma said that performance management works only if there is a mechartism to hold the people responsible and accountable City of Johannesburg (COJ) therefore looks at the effectiveness of City Scorecard (CS) in terms of performance management at the City of Johannesburg for enhanced performance of employees. The improved performance of employees is imperative for effective service delivery to communities. There were numerous protests all over the country between January and August 2009 including COJ against poor service delivery by different municipalities. It is therefore essential to identify the impact of City Scorecard on performance management of municipal employees. There is a close relationship between performance management and service delivery. The needs and expectations of the community are considered in Integrated Development Plan that assists the top Management of COJ to develop strategic objectives for the City. The priorities are established by the Mayor, commonly known as Mayoral priorities. The needs, priorities and strategies are combined, monitored and measured through City Scorecard (CS). The community is a yard stick of City Scorecard. The satisfaction of the community is a means to ensure that municipal officials are performing and rendering effective and efficient services to communities. / Thesis (M. Development and Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

Citizens of South Africa expect that the policy and regulatory changes introduced by government will be translated into tangible service delivery. Elected representatives, in particular, must demonstrate that national, provincial and local government are capable of managing public resources in a way that deliver benefits to its citizens. The ex- President Thabo Mbeki often used to speak about performance-driven public sector and has referred to the critical role that local government will play in this process. Municipalities which are at the coal-face of service delivery are being challenged to demonstrate their ability to execute both basic as well as enabling services crucial for social and economic growth and development. This challenge finds expression in the requirement that municipalities are expected to report on their performance, from both a civic and policy perspective. The present government is taking performance of government officials and politicians seriously. The Government has created a new ministry in the Presidency called Performance Mortitoring and Evaluation that will assist in ensuring that government performs better. The President of South Africa Mr. Jacob Zuma said that performance management works only if there is a mechartism to hold the people responsible and accountable City of Johannesburg (COJ) therefore looks at the effectiveness of City Scorecard (CS) in terms of performance management at the City of Johannesburg for enhanced performance of employees. The improved performance of employees is imperative for effective service delivery to communities. There were numerous protests all over the country between January and August 2009 including COJ against poor service delivery by different municipalities. It is therefore essential to identify the impact of City Scorecard on performance management of municipal employees. There is a close relationship between performance management and service delivery. The needs and expectations of the community are considered in Integrated Development Plan that assists the top Management of COJ to develop strategic objectives for the City. The priorities are established by the Mayor, commonly known as Mayoral priorities. The needs, priorities and strategies are combined, monitored and measured through City Scorecard (CS). The community is a yard stick of City Scorecard. The satisfaction of the community is a means to ensure that municipal officials are performing and rendering effective and efficient services to communities. / Thesis (M. Development and Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

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This paper examines the correlation between credit intermediated by financial systems and economic growth in developing countries. More specifically we have studied whether well-functioning financial markets result in economic growth. We base our study on data from 53 low- and lower-middle income countries in the period 2004-2011. By comparing the two different economic theories, Schumpeter’s growth theory and Austrian business cycle theory, we have analysed our results from two different perspectives. The results from this study show an insignificant relationship between financial systems and economic growth, contradicting much of the theory and results from previous studies that have been reviewed. Other variables outside of the financial system in this study, such as economic freedom and corruption, could be a reason for the non-existent correlation between financial development and economic growth in this study.

This study investigates the socioeconomic effects of the economic crises and the post-crisis programs based on the experiences of Argentina, Indonesia and Turkey. For this purpose, main socioeconomic indicators of these countries are analyzed for the 1990-2002 period by utilizing the before-after methodology. The comparative analysis of the results shows that significant deteriorations in the socioeconomic indicators of these countries had occurred in the crisis periods. In addition, the social policy components of post-crisis programs of these countries are analyzed. In this regard, it is found that the governments and the BWIs are more likely to incorporate active social policy measures, which would mitigate the negative socioeconomic effects of the crises on the households, into the post-crisis programs under the presence of significant public pressure emanating from social protests.

This dissertation examines three distinctive issues that concern the regulators and policy makers in the development of financial markets. It contains three stand-alone research projects within the context of law, finance and economic growth. Chapter 2 examines the dynamic relationship between banks and economic growth from the points of view of market efficiency and asset pricing theory. Publicly traded banks are broadly representative of a country???s banking sector, so that banking industry stock prices will broadly reflect the performance of a country???s banking sector. Because previous research has established that the institutional framework, as well as the aggregate size, of the banking sector can significantly affect economic growth, this chapter investigates whether the stock returns on a country???s banking sector contain information about future economic growth, and whether the specific country and institutional characteristics that affect the functioning of the banking system and market efficiency also influence this relationship. Using the data from 18 developed and 18 emerging markets, the chapter finds a significant and positive relationship between bank excess return and future economic growth in both the time-series and panel analyses. The chapter also finds that this positive relationship is significantly strengthened by the enforcement of insider trading law, by banking crises, by bank disclosure regulations and financial development, but is weakened by government ownership of banks. Chapter 3 investigates the role of bank idiosyncratic volatility in economic growth and systemic banking crises. Using the same dataset from Chapter 2, this chapter finds an ambiguous relationship between bank volatility and economic growth in the time-series studies, which suggests that the effect of bank volatility on economic growth is more country-specific. In the panel analyses, the chapter finds a negative but very weak relationship between bank volatility and future economic growth. This negative relationship is magnified by banking crises and bank disclosure standards, but is alleviated by the government ownership of banks, the enforcement of insider trading law and financial development. The chapter goes further to examine whether bank volatility leads to the occurrence of systemic banking crises, and finds that the marginal effect of bank volatility on the probability of banking crises is very weak for the sample of all markets, and this result is mainly driven by the data from the emerging markets. However, bank volatility is a significant predictor of banking crises even after being controlled for macroeconomic indicators, which implies that market forces are more powerful in promoting the soundness of the banking system in developed markets. We also find that those macroeconomic and banking risk management indicators have different impacts on the probability of banking crises for the emerging and developed markets. Therefore, caution needs to be taken in interpreting the cross-country results of the studies on banking crises. Chapter 4 studies the corporate governance issues in China, a significant developing country that has been neglected by the current law and finance literature. Incorporated with the legal environment and ownership structure of China???s listed companies, the chapter develops a simple game model to study a neglected aspect of current corporate governance literature: the expropriation arising from the mixture of weak investor protection, ownership concentration coexisting with ownership dispersion, and the absence of a controlling shareholder. The last two chapters find that government ownership undermines the positive link between bank excess return and economic growth, but alleviates the negative impact of bank volatility on growth as well. This chapter shows that government ownership is also a two-edged sword in corporate governance in China: it leads to a double-agency problem; however, the strong legal protection of State assets also increases the cost of expropriation. Using the data from 1996 to 2003, the chapter finds the empirical evidence consistent with the model. By analysing the puzzles in China???s stock market, the chapter suggests that improving the legal protection of investors is the key issue in the future development of the financial market.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2003. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Zugl.: Diss. Univ. Duisburg-Essen, 2006.

Ο ρόλος του εμπορίου στην οικονομία και τα οφέλη που επιφέρει είναι σχεδόν τόσο παλιά, όσο και η ίδια η οικονομική επιστήμη. Τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες ο ρόλος της απελευθέρωσης του εμπορίου και τα υποθετικά οφέλη που προκύπτουν από αυτό επεκτάθηκε και θεωρείται ένας από τους επιταχυντές της οικονομικής μεγέθυνσης, αλλά και πρωταρχική πηγή σύγκλισης των οικονομιών των κρατών. Μετά το 2ο παγκόσμιο πόλεμο η σταδιακή απελευθέρωση των αγορών και πρόσφατα το «δόγμα» της παγκοσμιοποίησης άνοιξε νέους ορίζοντες στο διεθνές εμπόριο και προώθησε την δημιουργία εμπορικών συνασπισμών μεταξύ των χωρών παγκοσμίως. Σε μια εν δυνάμει παγκόσμια αρένα συναλλαγών η γνώση για την επιρροή που μπορεί να ασκήσει στην προώθηση της οικονομικής μεγέθυνσης αποτελεί κρίσιμο ζήτημα. Παρά τη μεγάλη προσπάθεια που έχει αφιερωθεί στη μελέτη του ζητήματος, υπάρχουν λίγα πειστικά στοιχεία σχετικά με την επίδραση του εμπορικού ανοίγματος στο εισόδημα των κρατών και στη σύγκλιση της οικονομικής τους μεγέθυνσης. Η παρούσα διατριβή έχει ως θεματικό πυρήνα τη διερεύνηση της επίδρασης που είχε η Σύνοδος της Βαρκελώνης το 1995, στη σύγκλιση της οικονομικής μεγέθυνσης των χωρών της λεκάνης της Μεσογείου. Για τον έλεγχο της ύπαρξης της σύγκλισης αρχικά εφαρμόστηκαν οι έλεγχοι του Dickey-Fuller και Philips-Perron. Κατόπιν στα πλαίσια της ενδογενούς θεωρίας υιοθετήθηκε η ανάλυση με πάνελ παρατηρήσεις. Τα αποτελέσματα ανέδειξαν την παρουσία σύγκλισης μετά τη σύνοδο και με την μεταβλητή του εμπορικού ανοίγματος να συμβάλει σημαντικά. / The role of commerce in economy and the benefits incurred by it, are almost as old as the science of economy itself. Over the last decades, the role of free trade police and the potential benefits of it expanded and this considered to be one of the main factor of economic growth as well as the primary source of convergence of the economies of nations. After the second world war, the gradual free trade policy and recently the “dogma” of globalization opened new horizons in the international commerce and encouraged the establishment of commercial coalitions between countries worldwide. In an existing global arena of transactions, the insight on the influence it can exert in promoting the economic development, remains a crucial matter. In spite of the great effort given on the study of the issue, there is little convincing evidence for the influence of the trade gap concerning the income of nations and the convergence of the economic development. The present dissertation has its thematic core on the study of the influence which the Barcelona summit had in 1985 on the convergence of the economic growth of the Mediterranean countries. To ensure the existence of this convergence initially Dickey – Fuller’ s and Phillips – Perron’s proof techniques were applicable. Then, in the scope of the endogenous theory the analysis through panel observations was adopted. The results proved the existence of convergence after the summit, with the variable of the trade gap contributing significantly.