A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics / This thesis focuses on sectoral growth composition, foreign debt and social welfare in selected African economies. Data for the study were obtained from International Financial Statistics (IFS), the World Bank (WB), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) annual reports, and the Penn World Table (PWT). The thesis has 5 chapters. Chapter 1 is the general introduction. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are stand-alone related papers on social welfare, external debt, and real exchange rate. Chapter 5 is the conclusion of the study. Chapter 1 presents the background to the study, the motivating problems, the research objectives and questions, the significance of the study, the literature gaps, and contributions. The chapter ends with an outline on the organization of the study. Chapter 2 examines the impact of the composition of growth on poverty and inequality in 36 African countries. Specifically, the study demonstrates how changes in the composition of growth can affect the welfare of the segments of the population that are socially and economically deprived. While previous studies have presented different results for different continents, much of the findings show that in Africa, the primary sector is the most effective sector that improves the levels of poverty and inequality. This study re-examines this claim based on the belief that previous findings suffer from measurement bias in the estimation of parameters. This study employed a measurement approach that corrected for the observed differences. The generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique was adopted, and the findings were robust, showing that rather than the much-touted primary sector, the secondary and tertiary sectors are actually the main drivers of welfare improvement in the African continent. It is therefore recommended that for a sustained welfare improvement strategy, policy-making institutions in Africa should as a matter of urgency adopt appropriate industrial policy targets on the secondary and tertiary sectors with specific focus on the construction, manufacturing, mining, wholesale, retail, and hotel sectors. vii Chapter 3 investigates the impact of growth composition on external debt (ED) in selected African countries. Precisely, the study examines how each of the three productive sectors (agriculture, industry, and services) impacts on the level of ED in Africa. While many development studies have relied on aggregate output growth to investigate debt-growth dynamics, received literature shows that studies which examine the impact of growth on ED are scarce. Relying on two frameworks – “perfect capital mobility” of the Neoclassicals, and the “Dualism” theory, this study investigates the composition of the growth-debt relationship in Africa. The study applies the dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique to conduct its analysis. The results show that the composition of growth has significant effect on the levels of ED a country can maintain. Although, the results were lagged at different periods, the outcome suggests that the industrial (construction and manufacturing) and services sectors (wholesale, retail, and hotels ‒ WRH) are the leading sectors that drive the growth-ED relationship. The result shows more robustness when a country’s institutional quality, real interest rate, and current account balance were controlled for. Chapter 4 examines the effectiveness of real exchange rate (RER) as a policy tool for industrial diversification. Economic experts have emphasized the need for industrial diversification, especially for developing countries. However, in spite of the numerous socio-economic gains associated with industrial diversification, little effort has been made in Africa to identify and develop the sectors that achieve higher output growth for the region. The effective management of real exchange rate (RER) has provided economies with the needed tool for achieving these growth objectives. Recent empirical literature finds that undervalued RERs help countries to achieve faster economic growth, while overvaluation of the RER slows economic growth. Furthermore, recent growth studies have shown that different sectors respond differently to changes in RER. This study shows that even though many of the previous works have drawn up policy recommendations from these researches, the findings may be driven by inappropriate estimation assumptions, which inevitably results in biased findings. When these assumptions are re-specified, the empirical findings for a sample of 36 countries suggest that in Africa, sectors such as agriculture, construction, mining and utility lead to appreciation of the RER, while the manufacturing, transport and communications, “WRH” sectors, and “other” lead to depreciation of RER among countries. Although the coefficients for manufacturing, and transport and communications are not significant, this is probably due to the levels of development of the sectors within the African continent. Improving the level of development in these sectors therefore through appropriate economic policy framework will certainly impact on the strength of the coefficients of the three sectors, thereby leading to industrial revolution. Chapter 5 concludes the study with a summary of the key findings from Chapters 2, 3, and 4 with highlights of the policy implications of the findings. The highlights include: (1) the need for policy frameworks that discourage continual channelling of resources into sectors other than the industrial and services sectors. (2) A policy thrust in favour of improving domestic sources of revenue through targeting specific subsectors of the industrial and services sectors with appropriate policy instruments. This will provide the needed resources that will reduce the high debt stock per aggregate national income of African countries. (3) A policy thrust that reverses the undermining of development in the manufacturing, and transport and communications sectors. The reversal will stimulate exports and aggregate economic growth through the policy of undervaluation of the RER. Concluding the chapter, the study suggests areas for further research. / MT2017

One of the central tenets of much current development thinking in southern Africa is that market-oriented strategies and private sector involvement must be the basis for future economic growth. This has underpinned structural adjustment and economic policy reform policies in the region over the last decade or more. It also underlies the argument for encouraging external foreign direct investment (FDI) as a motor for growth. However growing evidence suggests that such a strategy has not paid off. Economic growth rates have been disappointing, private, and particularly foreign, investment has been limited, and employment in the formal sector has fallen dramatically.1 Structural adjustment and market liberalisation have clearly not delivered the developmental benefits claimed of them, and people's livelihood opportunities have, ft seems, declined over the same period and their levels of vulnerability have increased. The increasing recognition that the standard neo-liberal prescriptions were not having the expected benefits, especially for poor people, has resulted in some rethinking about how best to redirect the benefits of globalisation and economic reform towards the poor, and how to offset some of the losses. Thus ‘pro-poor growth strategies’, ‘making markets work for the poor’ and ‘growth for redistribution' have become well-worn slogans. However, the practical and policy measures required, whereby the benefits of an engagement with a globalised economy, investment by the private sector and liberalisation privatisation measures can result in poverty reduction, remain vague.A number of issues arise. For the sceptics, questions are raised about the degree to which the turn to a 'pro-poor' markets approach is simply rhetorical gloss, added to the discredited neo-liberal paradigm, or actually a genuinely new policy perspective in its own right. It is important to differentiate between broad economic policy reform objectives (which, with some nuances, remain largely in the standard neo-liberal form) and sectoral policies which contain explicitly pro-poor elements. While retaining the argument that market liberalisation and external investment are key, such policies may include some strategic elements of state- directed intervention which boost the access of the poor to new markets and investment opportunities. It is this stance, where the state intervenes to improve access and for particular groups of people, redressing to some extent the imbalances caused by the lack of level playing fields of existing markets, which potentially sets a pro-poor perspective apart.

The concern of this study is "locating the African Renaissance in development discourse: a critical study" and aims to investigate how the South African President Thabo Mbeki has conceptualized the African Renaissance. Through this the author has discovered the meaning of Mbeki's African Renaissance discourse with regard to its context in African development and how it is located in historical conceptions of development in Africa. Through this what innovation to development in Africa is presented by the discourse of the African Renaissance has been identified. Therefore this study is based primarily on an extensive literature research on conception of development and the African Renaissance. In comparison with other discourses on development, the study finds that Mbeki's African Renaissance discourse has been inspired by Pan-Africanist discourses such as self-reliance and African regeneration combined with dominant political and economic discourses such as globalization, good governance, structural adjustment and democracy. The study finds that the great contribution of Mbeki's African Renaissance is to call again on the Africans to realize their self-rediscovery and to restore the African's self esteem without which Africans will never become equipped for African development. However Mbeki stops short of attempting to suggest practical strategies to do so. The study finds that Mbeki' s Arican Renaissance discourse is moralistic and can no longer challenge global economic inequalities. / Thesis (M.A.)- University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

Pour la constitution de ce sujet, je suis partie du contexte de l'etude plutot que de son objet. L'Afrique m'est apparue comme un choix logique pour deux raisons principales. La premiere, d'ordre personnel, est que les personnes qui me sont les plus cheres sont, chacunes a leur maniere, proches du continent africain. Sous leur influence, j'ai developpe un interet certain pour les cultures et les problemes de l'Afrique noire. Ce penchant s'est transforme en conviction lorsque, dans les aleas de leur carriere professionnelle, mes parents ont ete mute au Mali il y a deux ans. Ce demenagement m'a permis de constater la situation de l'Afrique par quelques voyages sur le continent. Ces experiences me permettent aujourd'hui affirmer que l'Afrique occupe une part importante de ma vie et de mes centres d'interet. / La seconde raison a l'origine de ce devoir: Je pense qu'en adoptant une demarche critique vis-a-vis des rapports socioculturels, je pourrais construire un environnement intellectuel stimulant qui contribuerait a remettre en question nombre de presupposes que l'on tient trop souvent pour vrais et definitifs. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The untenable inequalities and suffering experienced by Africans blatantly exposes that a lot more than simple developmental ‘lag’, lack of economic ‘growth’, ‘governance’, or a shaky ‘investment climate’ inhibits Africa’s legitimately progressive human development. This dissertation calls for and probes a serious reflection on the roots of the concepts broadly understood as ‘African Integration’ and ‘African Renaissance’ in light of how the space we call Africa has been constructed across centuries, serving very particular interests to effect modernity’s meta-narrative into reality, subsequently positioning Africa at the periphery of the periphery of its hierarchical ordering. Narratives, defined as a distinct form of discourse as retrospective meaning-making are effective stories manifesting the conscious experience of every ‘thing’ in the universe. How Africa’s ‘story’ has been constructed, and how its actual story diverges from the convergence theories of the colonial-imperial-globalisation project are this dissertation’s major focus. It deeply mines what Foucault exposed as global technologies-of-power, to elucidate the negative impacts of northern-centric discourses on Africa’s ‘self’, from individuated to collective aspects of that ‘self’. This dissertation draws attention to how Africa’s eco-social justice practices vindicate particular scientific, cultural, and social emancipatory discourses, and democratic theories emphatic that the monumental task of de-colonising Africa’s minds from meta-narrative constructions should prioritise, and inform developmental continental policy design. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This research focused primarily on certain bilateral agreements as well as relevant multilateral agreements that govern the world's investment system. Attention is given to governance in the world of foreign direct investment and the aims and objectives of the integration initiative, as well as to the centrality of investment law in the scheme. The role of investment and the effect this have on the development of Africa is also a focal point of this paper. The central objective of the integration initiative is also looked at against the backdrop of investment-rating agencies and investment flows around the world.

Thesis (M.A. (Political and International Studies))--Rhodes University, 2006. / A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts.

Using a pooled panel data set from nine developing countries within the SADC region from 1992 to 2004, this paper empirically examines; firstly, the relationship between stock market development and long-term economic growth, and secondly, the macroeconomic determinants of stock market development, particularly market capitalisation as a percentage of GDP. The results suggest that there is a strong link between stock market development and economic growth, particularly through the liquidity provided by the market. The evidence obtained lends support to the view that a well-developed and functioning stock market can boost economic growth by enhancing faster capital accumulation and allowing for better resource allocation, particularly in developing countries. In terms of the macroeconomic determinants of stock market development, the results support those of Garcia and Liu (1999), in that we found the indicators of financial intermediary development, the value of shares traded as a percentage of GDP and the macroeconomic instability variable to be important determinants of stock market development.

The role of institutions – economic freedom – is a critical determinant of economic growth, yet the global distribution of economic freedom is skewed. Economic freedom focuses on personal choice, the ability to make voluntary transactions, the freedom to compete and the security of property rights. The SADC is attempting to alleviate poverty and achieve sustainable development and economic growth. This thesis illustrates that economic freedom, in aggregate, and on an individual component basis, drives economic growth. The annual data for the 12 SADC counties from 2000 to 2009 are used to construct a panel data model to conduct the empirical analyses. Cross-sectional effects, as well as time (period) effects, are valid; and thus, a two-way error-component model is estimated. The Hausman test showed the regressors to be endogenous and correlated with the error term. The Pesaran CD test, suitable for dynamic panels, determined that cross-sections are interdependent; and the cross-correlation coefficient indicated a relatively weak, yet substantial, correlation. The LSDV two-way error-component model is re-estimated using the Driscoll and Kraay standard errors and time-demeaned data to correct for cross-sectional dependence. Given the endogeneity between the idiosyncratic disturbance term and the regressors, the presence of heteroskedasticity and serial correlation, as well as the interdependence amongst the cross-sections, the econometric model is then estimated using the two-step system general method of moments with forward orthogonal deviations – instead of differencing. The results meet all the post-estimation diagnostic requirements: the Arellano and Bond test for second-order serial correlation fails to reject the null hypothesis of no autocorrelation; theSargan test for over-identification fails to reject the null hypothesis that the over-identification restrictions are valid, and the difference-in-Hansen test fails to reject the null hypothesis that the instrument subsets are strictly exogenous. The empirical results confirm the a priori expectations. Economic freedom is a positive and significant driver of economic growth. Investment and economic openness are positively related to growth, whereas government debt decreases growth. Government consumption is an insignificant driver of a country’s growth. The Granger causality test confirmed the direction of causality; economic freedom precedes economic growth; and it is possible for the SADC to improve their growth rates by becoming economically freer. The coefficient of adjustment derived from the error-correction model indicates that the dynamic system takes approximately two years to adjust to the long-run structural level. The Koyck Transformation indicates that the relationship between economic freedom and growth is intertemporal, requiring a lag structure. An impulse-response function shows that a permanent, positive ‘shock’ to economic freedom results in an increase in economic growth, although the extent differs for each country, as well as for the different freedom components. The five individual economic freedom components are all highly significant and positive drivers of growth; however, the magnitude of the elasticity parameters varies. The causality amongst the components indicates that bidirectional causality is present. Therefore, improving economic freedom in one area improves economic freedom in another, creating a multiplier effect.

Research Thesis being in partial submission for the degree of Master of Management in Finance and Investments at the University of Witwatersrand. / Unlocking the potential for growth at African Development Finance Institutions has become imperative, with the financial crisis of 2007/2009 having generated new discussions on the role of the state in the economy, most especially in the financial sphere (Calice, 2013). This raises new interests among decisionmakers involved in development finance institutions (DFIs), according to the World Bank (2013). It is noteworthy that DFIs played a very important role in avoiding a drastic credit crisis in many developing economics, by intensifying their activities, in terms of deleveraging and increased risk avoidance by private agents (Calice, 2013). The challenge at present, is the manner in which adequate use of DFIs can be guaranteed, to safeguard against the deployment of some costly policy instruments, while ensuring they play a dynamic role in providing access to finance (Gutierrez, Rudolph, Homa and Blanco, 2011). With prevalent market failures in the provision of finance for infrastructure, agriculture, and housing, as well as small and medium enterprise (SME) finance, this is specifically relevant for Africa, and provides a strong rationale for DFIs to play an active developmental role. The study findings will help countries in Africa and finance professionals in investment and development banking, to improve their application of policies and procedures, in order to achieve the mission and vision of the proposed developmental projects. In addition, the research findings will serve as good reference material for scholars studying development finance, while the longterm benefit will result in assisting Investment bankers, DFIs, Donors, and individuals, as well as governmental institutions, to operate optimally in providing services to their customers more effectively. Although much has been done towards improving knowledge about African DFIs, to provide evidence on key areas to target., more research is, however, still needed (Calice, 2013). The aim of this study, therefore, is the analysis and evaluation of the perceived or real problem(s) associated with the effectiveness of development banks for African countries. In other words, to explore a comprehensive assessment of the development effectiveness of African DFIs to measure public policy performance and how it can enhance development financing. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection were employed, to critically evaluate the development effectiveness of African Development Financial Institutions. Primary data, collected using online questionnaires, came from selected DFIs in the headquartered, corporate business environment in Johannesburg, South Africa and Lagos, Nigeria. A well-functioning, efficient and effective, international development financing system is essential for: global poverty reduction; improving living standards in developing countries; reducing worldwide inequalities; and for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), with feedback from respondents of this study indicating that much has been done by DFIs in Africa. The findings, indicate potential problem areas, with regards to environmental issues and their handling, as well as there being no proper stakeholders’ needs alignment, which could be due to collaboration issues, and/ or lack of training and experience. / XL2018