Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-67). / Includes abstract. / The focus of this paper will be on Zimbabwe’s particular hyperinflationary episode. The crisis has its roots in Zimbabwe's struggle for independence, which took place in the 1970s. This struggle, known as the Second Chimurengo, culminated in Zimbabwe’s declaration of Independence on April 18, 1980. The incumbent President Mugabe has repeatedly referred to the current period of Zimbabwe’s history as the Third Chimurenga: the final stage in Zimbabwe's battle against those he terms the "neo-colonialists" (Raftopoulos, 2009). Given all the hyperinflations of the past, the question to be asked is whether the Zimbabwean experience is an isolated economic novelty; or, rather, is it simply a repetition of the economic and political follies that have plagued some of the fiat governments of the modern world? The purpose of this research, then, is to provide a detailed historical account of the economic side of the crisis, documenting the observable causes and phenomena that accompanied it. This account will then form the basis of a historical analysis of the key features that the Zimbabwean episode shares with other past hyperinflations, in an attempt to draw universal conclusions about the emergence and development of such episodes.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the limitations, imposed by Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act, encourage optimal asset allocation and reduce investment risk for retirement savings when contrasted to discretionary investment. A quantitative risk and return analysis was performed using available data for Regulation 28 compliant funds and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange indices. The analysis considers two hypothetical investors who are identical in all regards other than their choice of investments. The model used a 40 year working and saving horizon, whereby the investors contribute a portion of their income to a retirement savings vehicle of their choice. The savings in these vehicles accumulate and earn real returns until retirement. The analysis uses a life-cycle model (Modigliani & Brumberg,1954) which accumulates capital to the retirement date and retirement withdrawals that result in zero capital at the date of death, which is assumed to be 20 years postretirement. The model is used to analyse the differential return required in order to make investors indifferent between investing in a regulated product which is incentivised through tax credits. The findings indicate that Regulation 28 is effective in reducing the investment risk of retirement savings, however may also force the investor to sacrifice wealth. Discretionary investment may be preferential to an investor depending on the tax bracket the investor is in. Further, the complex calculations required to smooth consumption over the life cycle may contain too many variables for the ordinary individual to compute. This study is limited by assumptions regarding changes in future tax legislation, the time frame of investment returns for discretionary investment and retirement funds, inflation, investor career length and life expectancy.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 35-36). / Due to the 2008 financial crisis, investors have become more risk averse in investing in equities and have increased their holdings in bonds as they are believed to be less risky. However, South African interest rates have been volatile over the past decade due to changes in the inflation rate. This has caused the returns of bond portfolios to be uncertain since bond prices are inversely related to interest rates. It is thus imperative to manage the interest rate risk inherent in bond portfolios so that institutional investors can achieve their mandates and targeted returns.

Includes bibliographical references. / This study examines whether the Piotroski F_Score (2000) investment strategy framework is able to be replicated within the South African context. Prior work by Atwood (2012) concluded that whilst a High F_Score portfolio was able to outperform a Low F_Score portfolio, it was however not statistically significant over the selected period. This study expands prior research and provides empirical evidence that a modified High F_Score investment strategy is able to outperform both the market and a Low F_Score portfolio over the medium and long-term. These results suggest that it is possible to use accounting-based information to construct a portfolio which is able to shift an investor's distribution of returns, and thereby generating positive abnormal returns within the South African context.

In April 2012, South Africa changed its tax system on dividends. South Africa switched from using Secondary Tax on Companies (STC) to Dividend Withholding Tax (DWT) in an effort to align with the international standards and eliminate the perception of a higher tax rate. This paper attempts to establish the role of taxes in determining the ex-dividend day share price movements by comparing the pre-tax change and post-tax change in price drop ratio (PDR). In this study, I compare the mean and median PDR before and after the April 2012 Act using a t-test and Wilcoxon Mann Whitney test respectively. Furthermore, this study employs a fixed effects regression model to analyse the PDR change on the ex-dividend day before and after the April 2012 Act. The advantage of using a fixed effects model is that it controls for omitted time-invariant predictors so that the model is not biased because of omitted characteristics. I find a significant difference in the mean and median PDR before and after the tax change. Furthermore, I find that ex-dividend prices vary systematically with taxes as predicted by Elton & Gruber (1970:68) hence supporting the tax-based explanation for ex-dividend day prices. This research is particularly interesting because this is the first tax clientele study in South Africa and the 2012 Act provides a natural experiment where the tax effect can be isolated more effectively compared with other studies that have been done before. Furthermore, this research spans over a narrow time frame thereby reducing the effect of other factors that may also drive ex-dividend day prices.

The strictly regulated environment within which corporate accounting practice evolves, has traditionally paid little attention to the owner-managed corporation and the specific information needs of its owners. The literature, as well as recent corporate law amendments, though, hints strongly that owner-managed entities have different financial reporting priorities than their publicly accountable counterparts. This difference in financial reporting priorities calls for rethinking at the most fundamental level of financial reporting, i.e. accrual versus cash-basis financial reporting. This implies that the debate about the extent of sophistication that should be built into the accrual-basis model can only be conducted sensibly after the primary debate of accrual versus cash-basis, is resolved satisfactorily. The question as to whether measurement and recognition criteria within an accrual-basis model should be relaxed is therefore part of the secondary debate. The basic research question relates to the usefulness to owner-managers of cash-basis accounting compared to accrual-basis accounting. This thesis reports on the responses of 243 practising members of the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA) regarding owner-manager needs and preferences regarding financial accounting recording and reporting practices. Semi- structured interviews were conducted with owner-managers to verify the understanding of the practitioners regarding owner-manager needs and preferences. The results showed and explained an apparent paradox: owner-managers have a strong cash focus in the way they understand and use financial information, but nevertheless prefer accrual-basis annual financial statements. The unresolved challenge identified by this study is to design a financial report which could better bridge the gap between accrual-basis and cash-basis accounting than the conventional statement of cash flow.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-96). / This thesis is aimed at investigating the possibility to model the risk of stocks in financial markets and evaluating the adequacy and effectiveness of univariate GARCH models such as the symmetric GARCH and a few other variations such as the EGARCH, TARCH and PARCH in modelling volatility in monthly returns of stocks traded on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. This is further used to investigate the importance of GARCH modelling in portfolio construction using Improved Sharpe Single Index Models. The data used for model estimation has been randomly selected from different sectors of the South African economy. GARCH models are estimated and validated for the data series of the randomly selected 15 JSE stocks. Conclusions are drawn regarding the different GARCH models, best lag structure and best error distributions for modelling. The GARCH (1,1) model demonstrates a relatively good forecasting performance as far as the short term forecasting horizon is concerned. However, the use of alternatives to the more common GARCH (1,1) and use of non-normal distributions is not clearly supported. Also, the use of higher order GARCH models such as the GARCH (1,2), GARCH (2,1) and GARCH (2,2) is not clearly supported and the GARCH (1, 1) remains superior overall to these models. The results obtained from this thesis are of paramount importance in portfolio construction, option pricing and formulating hedging strategies. An illustration of the importance of the G ARCH (1,1) model in portfolio construction is given and conclusions are drawn regarding its usefulness in improving our volatility estimations for purposes of portfolio construction.

Bibliography: leaves 103-112. / This study investigates the effects that various ownership structures have on company performance. It is assumed that the ownership structure of the firm dictates the manner in which the firm monitors its managers. It is further assumed that the objective of the firm is to maximise shareholder wealth. The study therefore analyses which ownership structure provides shareholders with the greatest returns. Such a system would add the most to an economy's efficiency. It was concluded that of the three systems identified, not one system provided shareholders with a return significantly different from the others. The study added to the current South African debate as to whether or not the concentration of economic power detracts from the country's economic efficiency. Statistical evidence proves that companies owned by any of the large South African groupings are no less productive than companies otherwise owned.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 199-205). / Liquidity risk represents a vacuum of rigour in the otherwise well-researched area of risk management. In both practice and theory most of finance is silent regarding its scope and effect. This is principally due to a lack of consensus regarding its definition and measurement. Current liquidity risk measures differ fairly widely in both respects. This thesis attempts at addressing this by consolidating and examining the principle liquidity risk measures used in financial literature.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-110). / This study investigates the ability of Burns and Scapens' (2000) Institutional Framework, drawn from Old Institutional Economics, to explain diversity in management accounting practice. The framework contends that management accounting practices can shape, and be shaped by, the taken for granted ways of thinking (institutions) that exist within an organisation, and is offered in response to the perceived inability of neo-classical economics to explain diversity in management accounting practices (Burns & Scapens, 2000; Soin, Seal & Cullen, 2002; Scapens, 2006). This inability contributes to uncertainty regarding the value or relevance of the management accounting technique studied. One area in which this is particularly apparent is that of Activity Based Costing (ABC) where a paradox has emerged: while ABC is reported as being a superiour costing technique, the lack of widespread use thereof implies otherwise (Gosselin, 1997). This study tests the ability of the Institutional Framework to explain the change in management accounting practices that occurred in a medium sized South African university during the seven year period from 2000 to 2006. The case presents a situation where ABC might seem indicated, but instead a uniquely tailored response was devised. This case demonstrates the constraining influence of institutions on management accounting change and shows how institutions standing in opposition to change were altered through management processes, which is of practical relevance to management wishing to effect change successfully. Further, the study shows that that the relationship between economic considerations and institutional influences are not as suggested by the theory, and that the link between economic rationality and the institutional framework can be readily articulated.