No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rice University, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-134).

Gross domestic product (GDP) is one of the most important economic performance indicators for any country that is closely watched by governments, businesses and financial communities. GDP often influences economic decisions and policy-making. These decisions are however often based on preliminary initial announcements by statistical agencies. The preliminary estimates are then revised as more comprehensive information becomes available. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the initial GDP announcements are unbiased, efficient and can be relied on. This study focuses on seasonally adjusted and annualised (qq) growth rates at constant prices for the following national accounts aggregates: GDP, gross domestic expenditure (GDE), final consumption expenditure by households and general government, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), Exports and imports of goods and services, gross national income (GNI) and disposable income of households. The research methodology used is based on descriptive statistics and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression estimations. The results of the study indicate that little confidence should be attributed to interpretations of the initially announced estimates for GDP, GDE, final consumption expenditure by households, GNI and disposable income by households. The study found evidence that suggests that the initial announcements are biased and inefficient. This implies that the initial announcements contain measurement errors that could be eliminated in order to become a better forecast of the final or true value. This further suggests a lack of expected reliability of existing and future initial announcements of the estimates. For short-term analysis the users of GDP data are encouraged to focus on different measures. It is also recommended that the statistical agents producing South Africa’s national accounts aggregates improve their statistical compilation processes. The agencies are also encouraged to conduct periodic revisions studies and make these available to the users.

The existing United Nations System of National Accounting (IJNSNA) provides useful indicators of economic performance in terms of traditional macroeconomic variables such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), investment, savings and depreciation of capital. However, they fail to account for the depletion and degradation of environmental capital and hence give a misleading picture of sustainable development. The need for a broader assessment of growth and welfare in terms of modified accounts has therefore become a pressing concern. The main objective of this research is to modify the current Egyptian System of National Accounting (SNA) to include environmental factors, in order to provide a basis for calculating Egyptian sustainable income. Firstly, an environmental accounting approach and model is developed for Egypt to value the depletion and degradation of natural resources caused by economic activities. Secondly, valued environmental costs are incorporated into the Egyptian System of National Accounts to build up the Egyptian Environmental Macro and Sectoral Accounting, which will be helpful in decision-making, planning and policy analysis. The main findings of this research are as follows. Firstly, the environmentally adjusted macro accounting indicators portray a totally different picture of the growth and development of the Egyptian economy compared to the one resulting from conventional SNA. In addition, they indicate that Egypt has experienced an unsustainable path in at least half of the ten-year study period. Secondly, sectoral concerns, which involve measurement of sectoral productivity and performance, indicate that both the performance and the productivity of tradable sectors decrease when their depletion and degradation costs are incorporated. On the other hand, the opposite result is found for the service sectors, which may indicate a potential leading role for the service sectors in the Egyptian economy. Finally, the results indicate that Egypt's natural wealth, which lies in its people, land, the Nile river, oil and gas, and the surrounding seas, has been depleted by many economic "development' programmes that have been carried out to date.

This dissertation provides a philosophical analysis about the influence colonialism had over capitalism's current configuration and how their intricate interplay impacts both the social and the ecological spheres, in both central and peripheral countries. Such analysis draws from the work of José Lutzenberger, a Brazilian environmentalist. The current capitalist economic system tends to disregard the environment, since it would be greatly affected by negative externalities. A negative externality is an economic activity that imposes a negative effect on an unrelated third party. Many negative externalities are related to the environmental consequences of production and consumption. In addition, this dissertation explores the fact that an ecological crisis is also a social crisis. A genealogical and existential thread going from Brazil's early days as one of Portugal's colonies to the present is drawn, showing how colonialism helped to create the foundations and the conditions for the current exploitative capitalist system, in Brazil and elsewhere. To change this situation, the environment should not be entrusted to private interests but to an institution responsible for the good of society as a whole. Genuinely green economies are more prone to appear on the periphery, but only if global economic justice is achieved first.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Economics

The informal, underground or shadow economy is a significant, growing force throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, contributing to overall output, yet diminishing productivity, congesting public services, and depriving developing nations of potential fiscal revenues. This paper discusses the various definitions and methods of measurement of the informal sector, with the aim of showing the importance of collecting taxes in informal economies. Informal economy participants engage in tax evasion and avoidance of governmental regulations, therefore the implications of excessive tax burdens and onerous bureaucracy are studied, with a focus on their impact on GDP growth. Informal sector enterprises can greatly contribute to the official, recorded GDP measures if they have significant incentives to joining the formal sector. These incentives are presented and must be considered seriously by policymakers concerned with capturing additional tax revenues and improving economic growth in their nations. / by Chantal Wedderburn. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-58).

No description available.

<p>Private investment in Botswana as well as a ratio to Gross Domestic Product has been falling in some periods of 1976-2003. Viewed against the background of growing evidence of a link between investment and economic growth, an inconsistent and downward trend in Botswana's private investment is a matter of concern. Several studies in developing countries emphasize the importance of macroeconomic policy in explaining variations in investment, an in particular, identify the microeconomic determinants of private investment to include interest rates, output growth, public investment, bank credit to the private sector, inflation, real exchange rate, and the level of trade. This study evaluated the macroeconomic determinants of private investment in Botswana by means of a regression analysis based on the co-integration and Error Correction Model of Engle and Granger (1987).</p>