Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / This research aimed to find out if there is a link between government financial assistance to small-scale hotels and their financial performance in Limpopo province, South Africa. The objectives of the study is to examine the impact of government financial assistance on three financial performance measures, namely, sales turnover, net profits and net asset growth of the small scale-hotels. The research used a quantitative approach. Secondary panel data was collected from the financial statements of six small-scale hotels from 2015 to 2018. Data were analyzed using multiple regression model to arrive at the conclusion. The findings from the data analysis reveal that government financial assistance positively and significantly impact the growth in sales turnover and net profits of the small-scale hotels. Furthermore, the findings show that there is no significant relationship between government financial assistance and net asset growth of small scale hotels. The findings of this research have practical implications for the companies operating in the small-scale hotel sector. In addition, the findings of this study is important for the policy makers, as it highlights the policy gaps existing in the sector. The study recommends further research to examine the relationship between government financial assistance to small-scale hotels and their financial performance.

Gegenstand dieser Dissertation ist die Rolle fiskalischen Stresses auf die Größe des Staatsausgabenmultiplikators. Hierbei werden zuerst die Folgen von empirisch identifizierten Staatsausgabenschocks in Italien untersucht. Dies geschieht sowohl in einem Zustand mit hohen Risikospreads auf Staatsanleihen, als auch in einem Zustand mit niedrigen Risikospreads. Das Resultat ist, dass kumulative Multiplikatoren kleiner sind, wenn das Ausfallrisiko von Staatsanleihen hoch ist. Zweitens erklärt die Dissertation dieses empirische Resultat im Rahmen eines DSGE Models. Im Model verdrängt ein Anstieg der Staatsausgaben private Investitionen. Der Verdrängungseffekt wird durch fragile Banken und die Rolle aggregierten Risikos ausreichend verstärkt, so dass fiskalischer Stress zu sehr kleinen oder sogar negativen Multiplikatoren führen kann. Zuletzt untersuche ich die Rolle fiskalischen Stresses auf den Staatsausgabenmultiplikator unter der Nebenbedingung, dass die nominale Zinsuntergrenze bei null bindet. In diesem Szenario kann sich der Effekt fiskalischen Stresses ins Gegenteil verkehren und der Staatsausgabenmultiplikator groß werden. / This thesis examines the role of fiscal stress on the size of the government spending multiplier. First, it explores the dynamic consequences of empirically identified government spending shocks in Italy in a regime with high sovereign bond yield spreads and a regime with low spreads. It finds that cumulative multipliers are lower when sovereign risk spreads are high. Secondly, the thesis explains the empirical result of small government spending multipliers in times of high levels of fiscal stress in the context of a DSGE Model. In this model, an increase in government spending crowds out private investment. A fragile banking sector and aggregate risk amplify the crowding out of investment sufficiently to imply small multipliers in the presence of fiscal stress. Finally, I analyze the role of fiscal stress on the multiplier, when the economy is at the zero lower bound for nominal interest rates and find that in this scenario, the effect of fiscal stress is reversed and the government spending multiplier is large.

This study empirically examines the determinants of government expenditure in South Africa using annual data for the period from 1970 to 2014; and provides an overview of the South African government expenditure. The Johansen-Juselius co-integration test established that there is a long-run relationship between government expenditure and its determinants. The error correction model was used to examine the key determinants. The results of this study show that urbanisation rate, national income, poverty reduction; trade openness lagged one period and the wage rate significantly influence the size of government expenditure. Therefore, the study recommend that government create job opportunities; increase its expenditure in developing rural areas; and find ways to manage the public sector wage bill. The study concludes that population growth, inflation and trade openness in current period are not important in determining government expenditure in South Africa / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)

Unanticipated economic fluctuations exert pressure on state governments to adjust their discretionary fiscal policies to accommodate the changing fiscal situation. Even though states adjust fiscal policy as the economy fluctuates, the typical cyclical economic factors are not the sole determinant of such adjustments. State governments budgeting systems in the United States operate under a variety of budgetary institutions. The most prominent state government budgetary institutions include balanced budget rules (BBRs), tax and expenditure limits (TELs), and supermajority voting requirements for tax increases. This dissertation examines how these budgetary institutions affect state government choices of fiscal policy under different economic conditions. To better understand the effect of state level TELs, a stringency index of state level TEL is constructed considering the major structural features. The fixed-effect panel regressions are used for the analysis of impact of TEL and BBR and tax changes and the fixed-effect Tobit is adopted to test the impact of TEL and BBR on spending cuts after the budget is adopted. The result suggests that TEL plays a more important role affecting states discretionary fiscal adjustment from the tax side, while BBR plays a more important role affecting states discretionary fiscal adjustment from the expenditure side. Results of this research show that TEL exerts pressure on states that hinder state ability to deal with volatile fiscal situations, especially in the case of periods of budget crises.

This research analyses the statistical relationship between income distribution and seven taxation and government expenditure components in Namibia using data from 1996-2016. The research is aimed at creating new knowledge on the research topic because no literature exists for Namibia. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration technique was employed to assess the long-run relationship between the dependent and independent variables in Eviews. The research findings indicated that there is no long-run relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables. In the short-run, the research findings indicate that government expenditure on social pensions and government expenditure on education have a balancing effect on income distribution, while tax on products, corporate income tax and customs and excise duties have an unbalancing and/or worsening effect on income distribution. Based on these findings, tertiary education loans are recommended as opposed to grants to ensure sustainability of Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NASFAF). In adjusting corporate and value added taxes, the government is cautioned to avoid overburdening consumers and employees through tax shifting in the form of high prices of goods and services and low wages and benefits. A tax mix, tax discrimination and a hybrid of taxation and government expenditure components are strongly recommended to achieve a balance. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)

[pt] Eu desenvolvo um modelo de ciclo de vida para avaliar a importância relativa de vários determinantes de londo prazo da taxa de juros. O modelo é uma generalização de Gertler (1999), incluindo imperfeições no mercado de crédito e heterogeneidade entre trabalhadores para capturar totalmente os efeitos da transição demográfica. O modelo é calibrado para a economia brasileira, incluindo perfis para os gastos do governo, gastos com previdência, dívida pública, crescimento da produtividade e variáveis demográficas. O modelo explica 71 porcento da variação total na taxa de juros brasileira entre 2000 e 2019. Fatores demográficos, especialmente aumentos na expectativa de vida, são os principais determinantes da queda nas taxas de juros reais. Essas forças são parcialmente compensadas por aumentos na dívida pública e nos gastos com previdência. Além disso, o arcabouço sugere que as taxas de juros reais continuarão caindo nos próximos 20 anos, atingindo o patamar de 1.5 porcento a.a., apesar de aumentos razoáveis na dívida pública. No entanto, possíveis efeitos de prêmios de risco e juros globais nas taxas de juros domésticas não são incluídos na análise. / [en] I develop a life cycle model to evaluate the relative importance of several long-term drivers of real interest rates. The model is a generalization of Gertler (1999), including credit market imperfections and heterogeneity among workers to fully capture the effects of the demographic transition. I calibrate the model to the Brazilian economy, feeding it with profiles for government spending, public debt, productivity growth and demographic variables. The model explains 71 percent of the overall change in real interest rates in Brazil between 2000 and 2019. Demographic factors, especially increases in life expectancy, are the key drivers of the fall in real interest rates. These forces are partially compensated by increases in public debt and social security spending. Moreover, the framework suggests that real interest rates will keep falling over the next 20, reaching a level of 1.5 percent despite reasonable increases in government debt. However, possible effects of risk premia and global rates on domestic interest rates are absent from the analysis.

La question du développement inclusif dans les pays en développement est au cœur de cette thèse. Cette dernière s'articule autour de quatre chapitres sur les questions de politique fiscale et les questions liées à la croissance inclusive. Le chapitre 1 explore comment la politique fiscale de l’Etat affecte l'inclusivité de la croissance dans les pays en développement. Nous observons que la politique fiscale affecte la croissance inclusive de manière significative si et seulement si les pays ont de fortes qualités institutionnelles. En outre, notre résultat montre qu'il existe un seuil optimal au-delà duquel toute augmentation du taux d'imposition négativement la croissance inclusive. Le chapitre 2 examine les effets des composantes des dépenses publiques sur l'équité et la croissance dans les pays d’Afrique subsaharienne, notamment s'il est possible de concevoir des dépenses publiques en vue de promouvoir une société plus équitable sans sacrifier la croissance économique. Notre étude a permis de montrer que l’investissement en infrastructure a contribué à une croissance plus inclusive en Afrique subsaharienne que d'autres dépenses publiques. Ces résultats suggèrent que des programmes temporaires et bien ciblés devraient être mis en place pour aider ceux qui sont laissés pour compte par le processus de croissance. Le chapitre 3 cherche à savoir si les problèmes d’inégalités de revenus se sont posés ou non dans les périodes d'ajustement budgétaire en Côte d'Ivoire au cours de la période 1980-2014. Nos résultats montrent une amélioration de la performance de croissance après les épisodes de consolidation budgétaire, mais aussi des diminutions de l'écart de revenu dans les périodes suivantes les années d’ajustements budgétaires. Enfin, le chapitre 4 évalue la crédibilité des prévisions budgétaires et leurs effets sur le bien-être social dans les pays de la CEMAC et de l'UEMOA. Nous sommes aboutis aux résultats que l'inefficacité des prévisions budgétaires se produit dans la plupart des cas parce que les erreurs de prévisions sont proportionnelles à la prévision elle-même, mais aussi parce que les erreurs passées sont répétées dans le temps. En outre, une partie des erreurs de prévision des recettes peut s'expliquer par des chocs aléatoires survenus dans l'économie. Par conséquent, ces erreurs dans les prévisions de revenus considérées comme des chocs de politique budgétaire ont un effet négatif sur la croissance inclusive. / The issue of inclusive development in developing countries is at the heart of this thesis. The latter revolves around four chapters on fiscal policy issues and inclusive growth-related matters. Chapter 1 explores how government tax policy affects the inclusiveness of growth in developing countries. Evidence is shown that tax policy affects significantly inclusive growth if and only if the countries have a strong institution quality like low corruption and a good bureaucratic policy. In addition, our result shows that there is an optimal tax beyond which, any increase in the personal income tax rate should have negative impact on inclusive growth. The Chapter 2 examines the effects of government expenditure components on both equity and growth in sub-Saharan countries, especially whether it is possible to design public spending to promote a more equitable society without sacrificing economic growth. We find that investment in infrastructure contributed to more inclusive growth in Sub-sub Saharan African economies than others government spending. These results suggest that temporary and well-targeted programs should be implemented to help those being left out by the growth process. The Chapter 3 investigates whether income inequality matters in the periods of fiscal adjustments in Côte d’Ivoire over the period 1980-2014. The results show an improvement in growth performance after fiscal consolidations episodes, but also income gap decreases in the periods ahead fiscal adjustments. Lastly, Chapter 4 assesses the credibility of fiscal forecasts and their social effects in CEMAC and WAEMU countries. We obtain evidence that the inefficiency of fiscal forecast occurs in most time because the forecast deviation is proportional to the forecast itself, but also because the past errors are repeated in the present. Furthermore, a part of revenue forecast errors can be explained by random shocks to the economy. Therefore, these errors in revenue forecast considered as fiscal policy shocks has a detrimental effect on inclusive growth.

Este estudo tem por objetivo principal identificar a (in) dependência orçamentária em relação às transferências intergovernamentais dos Municípios com até 10.000 habitantes no Estado de Santa Catarina e seu reflexo para o crescimento econômico. Como objetivos secundários este trabalho tem a finalidade de estudar o funcionamento do Estado Brasileiro a partir do seu federalismo fiscal, mensurar a relação entre as transferências intergovernamentais e a arrecadação total e própria dos Municípios, analisar a evolução da participação das transferências intergovernamentais na arrecadação municipal com a variação dos respectivos Produtos Internos Brutos (PIBs). Com o intuito de subsidiar a compreensão do tema é realizada uma explicação sobre o Estado e Administração Pública. Em seguida é analisada a Política Pública como instrumento para a materialização do Estado, sendo também elaborada uma explanação sobre tópicos de Finanças Públicas, incluindo o Orçamento Público e, por fim, o crescimento e desenvolvimento econômico. A relevância do estudo reside no fato de que pequenos Municípios têm problemas na arrecadação própria e tendo como imprescindíveis à sua “sobrevivência” as transferências intergovernamentais. A razão entre esses dois tipos de recursos influi no crescimento econômico. Dessa forma, deseja-se demonstrar a essencialidade das transferências intergovernamentais para os pequenos Municípios. Como método de pesquisa tem-se a descritiva, com o uso da pesquisa bibliográfica e documental para subsidiar o marco referencial teórico. Como resultado ficou demonstrada a dependência com as transferências e que, na média da amostra, no período de 2008 a 2012, teve representatividade acima de 89%, exceto para o ano de 2010 quando esse valor corresponde a 76,38%, sendo a União a principal origem dessas transferências. Em relação à evolução do PIB, no período da pesquisa, foi de -11%. O resultado final é que a dependência dos Municípios em relação às transferências intergovernamentais não influencia o crescimento econômico. / The present study primarily aims at identifying budget (in) dependence concerning inter- governmental transfers and their effect on the economic growth of municipalities having up to 10,000 inhabitants in the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. As secondary objectives, it aims at: studying the Brazilian State operational method from its fiscal federalism point of view through measuring the relationship between inter-governmental transfers and municipality total tax collection: and, analyzing inter-governmental transfer participations in the municipality tax collection, also considering their respective Gross Domestic Product (GDP) variations. To help understanding the subject at issue, we provide explanations of the State and Public Administration performances, Public Finances, Public Budget, economic growth and development. The study relevance lies in the fact that small municipalities have tax collection problems and inter-governmental transfers are vital for their survival. The total amount deriving from both resources greatly affects economic growth, thus we intend to show that inter-governmental transfers are essential to small municipalities. The research methodology is descriptive, bibliographic and documental focusing on the theoretical referential landmark. According to the research sample average, results show that municipalities depend on transfers, mainly from the Federal Government, that represented over 89% between 2008 and 2012, except for 2010 when they were equivalent to 76.38%. GDP during our research period was -11% showing that dependence on inter-governmental transfers does not affect the municipality economic growth.

Orientation: Over the years, the increase in executive remuneration in both the private sector and state-owned entities (SOEs) has been the subject of intense discussions. The poor performance of some SOEs with highly remunerated executives begs the question whether chief executive officers (CEOs) in South African SOEs deserve the high levels of remuneration they receive. Research purpose: The main purpose of the study was to determine whether there is a relationship between CEOs’ remuneration and company performance in South Africa’s Schedule 2 SOEs. Motivation for the study: A greater understanding of the relationship between CEO remuneration and organisational performance would expand knowledge when developing optimal CEO remuneration systems to ensure sustainability of SOEs in the South African context. If a relationship exists, it could justify the high remuneration received by CEOs. Research design, approach, and method: This quantitative, longitudinal study, conducted over a nine-year period, collected secondary data from the annual reports of 18 Schedule 2 SOEs. The primary statistical techniques used in the study included were OLS multiple regression analysis and correlational analysis on a pooled dataset. Main findings/results: The primary finding was that there is a relationship between CEO remuneration and company performance (mainly an inverse relationship), with no consistent trend between the constructs. Turnover appears to be an important component, as it was the most stable measure of company performance during the study period. The results indicate that the CEOs’ remuneration continued to increase, even when the SOEs were performing poorly. Practical managerial implications: Since the study focused on the relationship between CEOs’ remuneration and company performance, it may aid policymakers in forming new rules and regulations that would help improve the country’s economic performance while attracting international investors. Contribution/value-add: The study provides new knowledge to the limited research available on SOEs in South Africa. Further, this research focused on three different components of CEOs’ remuneration, thereby shedding more light on the relationship between their remuneration and company performance. / Business Management / PhD (Management Studies)

The adoption of the Millennium Development Goal 1 (MDG1) of reducing the rate of poverty to half of the 1990-level by 2015, the advent of democracy in South Africa, among other things, have raised concerns over the potential role of the agricultural sector. There is a belief that the sector has the capacity to successfully reduce poverty among the rural masses and contribute to addressing the problem of inequality in South Africa. In line with that thinking, South Africa‘s agricultural sector has attracted considerable fiscal policy interest. For instance, South Africa‘s statistics show that public investments in agricultural development programmes have been growing. In spite of this, rural poverty is still a major concern on an overall basis. However, this might not be the case in the Eastern Cape Province and the situation might be different for each district municipality. This study assesses the linkages between public agricultural investment, agricultural growth and poverty reduction in the Eastern Cape Province. The study also addresses the question whether Eastern Cape Province is on course to meet several regional development targets. The study also aims to provide an estimate of the amount of agricultural investment required to attain the agricultural productivity growth rate which is sufficient to meet MDG1. The study reviewed the various theories of public spending, linkages between public investment and agricultural growth and how these components affect the incidence of poverty. The conventional wisdom that public expenditure in agriculture positively affects economic growth and this growth consequently reduces poverty was noted. The reviews also revealed that in many developing countries, the current level of public agricultural investment needs to be increased significantly for countries to meet the MDG1. This study employed the decomposition technique and growth elasticity of poverty concept to estimate the response of poverty to its key determinants. The size of public spending, prioritization of public spending and the intensity in the use of public funds emerged as important in increasing agricultural production. The relationship between government investment in agriculture and agricultural GDP shows iv that public funds were largely behind the province‘s success in increasing agricultural production throughout the period from 1990s to 2010. Agricultural spending went to sustainable resource management, administrative functions and then farmer support programme. Exceptional growth in the size of spending was recorded in respect to agricultural economic function, structured agricultural training, sustainable resource management and veterinary services. Overall output from the agricultural sector fluctuated, and the sector contributed less than 5 per cent to the total provincial GDP. Correlations between growth in agricultural sector and changes in the incidence of poverty in Eastern Cape show that during the period 1995 to 2000, increases in the agricultural GDP per capita may have failed to benefit the poor as poverty increased in all the reported cases.–However, for the period between 2005 and 2010, the situation was different and it was observed that increases in agricultural GDP per capita and were associated with reduction in the incidence of poverty. Growth elasticity of poverty (GEP) estimates reveal that agricultural GDP per capita was more important in reducing poverty in 5 out of the 7 district municipalities. Non-agricultural GDP per capita was only important in two district municipalities. It emerged that most of the district municipalities are not in a position to meet any of the regional set goals. This situation is largely attributable to the province‘s failure to boost agricultural production which is an outcome of low and inefficient public expenditure management, inconsistent and misaligned policies and failure to fully embrace the concept of pro-poor growth. Varied provisional estimates for the required agricultural growth rate and the increase in public spending on agriculture required in order to reach MDG1 were calculated for each district municipalities. All the district municipalities of Eastern Cape will need to increase public investment in agriculture for them to achieve MDG1.