Homicide rates have become a growing concern worldwide, yet many countries lack the proper resources and materials to adequately and efficiently report the data. While homicide rates on a global scale have had a history of lacking datasets and misreporting, the UNODC’s Global Study on Homicide 2013 aimed to identify some key factors and variables that trigger spikes or drops in homicide rates. This paper will focus on analyzing data from both the UNODC and World Bank to identify more factors that explain the levels and changes in homicide rates from 2006-2011. While this paper is not successful in explaining all determinants, it does find that variables relating to income distribution and population prove to be better explanatory variables of homicide.

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The research explored the long-term relationship between FDI, GDP and host country employment by using sector-wise panel data from 1991 to 2017 in Namibia. The study applied unit root testing and Cointegration test to test for the presence of a cointegration relationship between the variables. Also, a vector autoregression model short-run causality among the variables was examined. In the end, Impulse response functions are estimated. The research found both a short term and long-term causality going from FDI inflow to employment. Impulse responses show that both GDP and employment respond positively to an exogenous shock in FDI inflow. However, the employment response to FDI inflow shock is smaller than that of GDP response. The paper also concludes that FDI has no causal effects on economic growth in Namibia. It means that economic growth is not contributed by the FDI significantly the results in this research have some significant policy implications. Therefore, as the results suggest that the FDI inflow has a positive impact on employment, because of the results, the researcher also recommends that Namibia pursue the policy of attracting foreign firms aggressively and create all the conditions required for attracting foreign direct investment in order to create further employment opportunities.

In this paper we conduct a case study along with an empirical assessment of how sanctions impact a target nation's GDP growth. We also assess if the impact varies depending on the type of sanction. Our sample for the regression contains 35 countries of which 16 experienced sanctions between 2010-2019. We find that the implementation of sanctions yield statistically and economically significant results for the target nation's GDP growth, roughly a decrease of 1.55 pp. The impact of different types of sanctions yield less clear results. Financial and travel sanctions are significant resulting in decreases in GDP growth of roughly 1.35 and 2.30 PP respectively. This lies in line with theory as financial and travel sanctions are effective and hard to circumvent. Arms, travel and trade restrictions yield non-significant results. This could be explained by collinearity and a nation's comparative ease to circumvent said sanctions

The purpose of this paper is the examination of whether a strategy of using forecasts to stabilise the Nominal Gross Domestic Product (NGDP) growth rate as a nominal anchor, through a rules-based approach to monetary policy is viable in the Eurozone. The paper uses a modified Taylor rule, that uses NGDP forecasts as a variable to generate a prescribed interest rate from which the interest rate set by the European Central Bank (ECB) is subtracted to create a variable we call the Rate Gap. The Rate Gap is a measure of deviation that actual monetary policy had from a country’s optimal rate at a given moment in time according to the Taylor rule.  Under the hypothesis that a strategy of using forecasts to stabilise the NGDP growth rate as a nominal anchor is viable, we should expect to see countries with larger positive (negative) rate gaps have macroeconomic outcomes associated with monetary contraction (expansion). The empirical results in this paper contradict the former hypothesis as different countries have dissimilar rate gaps at the same time period which is affirmation of the Eurozone being a suboptimal currency area. However, they are supportive of the latter hypothesis, as countries with larger positive (negative) rate gaps tended to have macroeconomic outcomes associated with monetary contraction (expansion). This paper also discusses the impact of different monetary transmission mechanisms and their relationship to fiscal policy. It also contributes to the field of macroeconomics through its examination of the problem of finding viable policy strategies for a suboptimal currency area.

The effectiveness of monetary policy moving forward from the subprime mortgage crisis has come into question by academics and economists from around the world. The unconventional monetary policy tools implemented have left central banks in a tough spot in terms of an exit from these policies in an environment where economic growth and inflation targets still have not been reached ten years after the onset of the recession. One of the main criticisms by economists is the prolonged easy monetary policy implemented by central banks, which have left interest rates at near zero levels since the recession and are just now beginning to cautiously consider raising rates. In this paper, I examined the relationship between GDP growth and economic variables that could possibly affect it, including interest rates, unemployment, labor force participation rates, shadow interest rates, stock market performance, and bond market performance. I studied the relationship by running regressions on time series data collected from the economies and central banks of the United States, European Union, and Japan. I found no statistically significant relationship between interest rates and GDP growth as well as positive values for the interest rate coefficients for two out of three of my regressions. However, I did conclude that the unemployment rate, and bond market performance did have a positive relationship with GDP growth in Europe and Japan. This warrants further study and usage of policy tools that affect these variables to lessen the severity of future recessions and have a positive effect on economic growth.

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This master thesis discusses alternative debt management instruments - GDP-linked bonds. It provides concise characterization of sovereign debt management. Additionally, it discusses traditional derivatives, such as futures, swaps and bonds, from the government's point of view. The main goal of the thesis is to verify whether GDP-linked bonds are suitable for the Czech and Slovak debt management. Ergo, the bonds could smooth the cost of serving the debt. Furthermore, it describes the development of the sovereign debt and risk premium of the government bonds of the Czech and Slovak republics. It tries to find out whether the risk premium of Slovak bonds differed after introduction of euro. Additionally, the thesis analyzes the effect of various country specific variables on the development of the risk premium. The last but not least goal is to support or reject the hypothesis whether the GDP-linked bonds should be appealing to European economic and monetary union as the members has to satisfied Stability and Growth Pact requirements. The conclusion of the thesis is that the hypothesis of positive effect of the GDP-linked bonds on the cost of serving debt is partly rejected in case of the Czech and Slovak republics as well as in the case of European economic and monetary union. Furthermore, the risk...

Magister Commercii - MCom / 1. Taxes are an important source of government revenue (income). A failure by the government to collect sufficient taxes to cover for its ever increasing expenditures, engenders fiscal problems. Amongst others the government is compelled to borrow to finance its budget short fall. In this instance, should the government borrow domestically or offshore to finance its short fall . 2. Amongst the theories discussed in this paper, are the views of the Neoclassical Keynesian and the Ricardi an schools of thought. Further more, South African theories on government debt are also discussed. 3. There is a considerably large number of indicators that can be used to determine an appropriate level of both domestic and foreign debt of a country. Certain well establish criteria such as the ratio of foreign interest payments to exports, the ratio of foreign debt to gross domestic product, the ratio of·govemment debt to gross domestic product and the ratio of foreign debt to exports, are amongst the pool of indicators that can be used. However, the following indicators have been identified as the most commonly used in the analysis of budget deficits, and they are; ratio of deficit before borrowing and debt repayment to GDP, the ratio of government debt to GDP, the ratio of interest payments to government expenditure, the level of real interest rates relative to economic growth and the net asset value or net worth of the government. 4. Deficit financing refer to the ways in which the budgetary gap is financed. Overreliance on domestic borrowing may mean high real interest rates and falling investment, and overreliance on foreign borrowing can cause appreciating real exchange rates and unsustainable external indebtedness, amongst others. 5. Amongst the available remedies for debt ills in this country, is the suggestion to significantly cut government expenditure. However, realities currently confronting the authorities, like the increase in public servants as a result of the abolishment of homelands and the constitutionally guaranteed employment of civil servants from the old order, automatically put pressure on public consumption. 6. On the international front, South Africa is underborrowed. In this regard favour should go more for offshore borrowing. Certainly South Africa has to generate the means of meeting debt obligations by running a surplus of exports over imports of goods and services. The bulk of the country's debt is of domestic origin which account for well over 90 % of total debt. The current anti inflationary monetary policy with its concomitant high interest rates, makes domestic borrowing more costly.

<p>The objective of this paper is to first briefly explain the theories and results from previous works on the relationship between health and economic growth. Then based on the theories, I examine if the results found in those papers apply when running regressions using totally different types of variables in the current member countries of the European Union for the period of 1995-2004.</p><p>The main result is that there is a positive relationship between real gross domestic product and hospital discharges due to circulatory system disease, i.e. the faster the economy of a country grows the faster does the number of hospital discharges grow as well. This is analogous with the earlier results showing diminishing positive linkage between GDP per capita and health, which can even turn negative for the highestincome countries. I also found that the growth rate of the real GDP is not related to the growth rates of mental disorders incidence or hospital discharges due to ischaemic heart disease.</p>