This study aims to investigate currency substitution and financial dollarization in Turkey. The extend of dollarization in Turkey appears to be very high according to both the conventional currency substitution and the recently developed financial dollarization measures. This has serious policy implications as a source of financial fragility through currency/maturity mismatches and balance sheet effects. The empirical part of this study contained an investigation of the long run relationships between the variables in a system containing currency substitution ratio, expected exchange rate change and rates of return on domestic and foreign currency denominated assets. The results of the Johansen cointegration analysis based on quarterly data for the 1987-2004 period appeared not to be strongly supporting the General Portfolio Balance Model (GPBM). The theoretical part of this study suggests that the GPBM can be reduced to the Sequential Portfolio Balance Model (SPBM) under the uncovered interest parity (UIP) hypothesis. Consequently, the GPBM may be misleading under UIP. The Johansen cointegration results suggested the validity of the UIP for the Turkish data. The estimation of the SPBM suggested that there is a long-run relationship between currency substitution and expected exchange rate change in Turkey. The elasticity of currency substitution appeared to be high but consistent with those estimated for other high inflation developing countries. The results further supported the presence of a ratchet/hysteresis effect proxied by a trend variable. All these results are consistent with the argument that currency substitution and financial dollarization are important especially in high inflation countries.

In 1997 industrialized nations, the Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, met in Kyoto, Japan to sign a treaty (the “Kyoto Protocol”) in terms of which industrialized nations would be required to reduce their greenhouse gas emission by at least five percent below 1990 levels by the end of the “first commitment period” 2008-2012. South Africa is not regarded as an industrialized nation, but nonetheless acceded to the Kyoto Protocol in 2002. The literature reviewed in the present research reveals that, although idealistic, the Kyoto Protocol has been problematic. Fourteen meetings of the Conference of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol between 1997 and 2011 have achieved little more than to repeatedly defer and redefine Kyoto obligations. This research was undertaken to document the existing environmental taxation policies employed in selected international jurisdictions with a view to providing a framework for environmental tax policy formation in South Africa to assist this country in meeting its “greenhouse gas” emission targets, while at the same time promoting economic growth. A doctrinal research methodology was adopted in this study as it mainly analysed and interpreted legislation and policy documents and therefore the approach was qualitative in nature. An extensive literature survey was performed to document the various environmental policies that have been legislated in the selected jurisdictions. Comparisons were drawn with proposed tax policy measures for South Africa. The literature indicates that in the selected international jurisdictions carbon taxes achieved less-than-optimal results, largely due to political and industry-competitive agendas. With South Africa planning to introduce a carbon tax, it is submitted that the implementation of a carbon tax regime in isolation will be counter-productive, given South Africa’s economic profile. On the basis of the literature reviewed, it was concluded that South Africa should consider “recycling” carbon tax revenues within the economy to fund a broad-based tax incentive regime that will stimulate the change to non-carbon energy whilst promoting growth through sustainable development