This paper presents a theoretical growth model that accounts for technological interdependence among regions in a Mankiw-Romer-Weil world. The reasoning behind the theoretical work is that technological ideas cannot be fully appropriated by investors and these ideas may diffuse and increase the productivity of other firms. We link the diffusion of ideas to spatial proximity and allow for ideas to flow to nearby regional economies. Through the magic of solving for the reduced form of the theoretical model and the magic of spatial autoregressive processes, the simple dependence on a small number of neighbouring regions leads to a reduced form theoretical model and an associated empirical model where changes in a single region can potentially impact all other regions. This implies that conventional regression interpretations of the parameter estimates would be wrong. The proper way to interpret the model has to rely on matrices of partial derivatives of the dependent variable with respect to changes in the Mankiw-Romer-Weil variables, using scalar summary measures for reporting the estimates of the marginal impacts from the model. The summary impact measure estimates indicate that technological interdependence among European regions works through physical rather than human capital externalities.

Residential and commercial buildings account for almost 40 % of total U.S. energy consumption and U.S. carbon dioxide emissions (Pew Center, 2009). Nearly all of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the residential and commercial sectors can be attributed to energy use in buildings, making high performance energy efficient buildings central to addressing diminishing resources and transitioning to a green economy. However, energy efficiency in buildings receives inadequate attention because first least cost decision-making as opposed to life cycle cost analysis (Romm, 1999). When life cycle analysis is used, it typically captures only the ‘hard’ financial cost benefits of operational energy and maintenance savings, but rarely includes environmental capital or human capital savings. This thesis proposes an empirical approach to triple bottom line calculations that integrates the economic, environmental and human cost benefits to accelerate investments in high performance building technologies. The development of a new methodology for capital expenditures in investments in the built environment can provide compelling arguments for decision makers and encourage the widespread adoption of high performance building technologies. In the first bottom line, this research quantifies the ‘financial’ or capital costs and benefits of high performance building investments, by broadening the category of associated benefits beyond energy savings from an investment (Birkenfeld et al., 2011). Traditionally, building investment decisions are made using a value engineering approach, which is driven by the agenda of cost reduction rather than valuing the benefit of different alternatives. Using net present value (NPV) and return on investment (ROI) indices, well-known in financial practices, the first bottom line calculation in this thesis moves away from a ‘first least cost’ to a life cycle approach to account for multiple non-energy financial benefits that can directly be quantified for the building decision maker. To advance a second bottom line that can be translated into Corporate Sustainability Reporting, the thesis provides a methodology for capturing the environmental benefits of reducing electricity demand related to carbon, air quality and water resources. These calculations are based on three levels of information - electricity fuel sources and power plant quality, the respective air pollution and water consumption consequences, and emerging valuation incentives for pollution reduction. The methodology focuses on critical greenhouse gases CO2, CH4; SOx, NOx, as well as particulates and water use, for three global scenarios – an emerging economy such as India, a country with mid-level sustainability goals such as the US, and a leading economy with low carbon growth goals such as the EU - in order to represent the range of environmental impacts of electric energy use. The capital saved by avoiding the environmental impacts of electricity use based on fuel source and mix can thus be added to each kilowatt-hour of electricity saved in a second bottom line calculation. To advance the third bottom line, this thesis engages a methodology for measuring and quantifying human benefits from building investments based on ongoing development of CMU CBPD's BIDS toolkit. The methodology is built on the field and laboratory research findings that link high performance building design decisions to human health and individual and organizational productivity. This thesis advances an approach to handling the third bottom line calculations, including an approach to establishing baselines, applying a broad base of laboratory and field findings. Given first cost data from vendors, first bottom line simple paybacks for 12 energy retrofit measures ranges from 2-20 years - with energy and facility management savings. When the environmental benefits are included, simple paybacks were accelerated to 1.5-18 years. Most strikingly, when human benefits are included - from reduced headaches and absenteeism to improved task performance or productivity - paybacks for investments in energy efficiency in US offices are often less than 1 year. To support the validity and reliability of results, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to validate how Triple Bottom Line (TBL) cost benefits might impact and shift decision-making patterns from a least-first-cost approach to an approach that includes TBL information. Field testing of the potential influence on decision makers to move beyond first-cost decision-making to support investments in high performance, energy efficient technologies revealed the positive impact of Triple Bottom Line accounting for decision makers (p<0.05). The introduction of triple bottom line accounting for decision-makers in the built environment may be the most critical catalyst for investments in building energy improvements.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / The South African government is promoting Small, Micro- and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMMEs) as a key strategy for job creation, economic growth for poverty alleviation and a reduction in inequalities. The sustainable development of small businesses is therefore seen as the antidote for high levels of unemployment and poverty alleviation. Academics and policy makers agree that entrepreneurs, and the new businesses they establish, play a critical role in the development and well-being of their societies. If South Africa is to overcome its pressing challenges of unemployment and poverty, it urgently needs to become a more entrepreneurial society. The Field Study Programme (FSP) initiated by the Tertiary School in Business Administration (TSiBA) in South Africa, and the Northeastern University (NU) in Boston, United States of America, aims to guide and support small business owners. The goal of the FSP was, therefore, to support small business owners to improve their understanding of managing their small business and their competency in finding innovative solutions to their current market challenges. Since the inception of the FSP at TSiBA in 2008, very little research has been undertaken to understand the value and benefits of the FSP from the perspective of community small business owners over the past seven (7) years. This study explored the perceptions and experiences of small business owners and the value of the FSP towards their small business venture to assist business schools and higher education institutions to execute FSP’s with greater success and impact. In terms of the FSP, local and international business students acted as ‘consultants’ applying their respective academic knowledge and skills to assist small business owners to adapt their business model to sustain their livelihoods. The major purpose of the FSP was for students to consult with participants regarding their needs or challenges and to transform their needs and challenges through practical intervention towards meaningful and sustainable solutions which are mutually beneficial for all parties involved. The FSP attempted to demonstrate how a joint service-learning and social entrepreneurship approach could contribute to improving the human capital of small business owners. The study applied a qualitative research approach to explore the experiences and perceptions of small business owners who participated in the FSP. Purposive sampling was used to acquire information from small business owners. In this study twenty (20), participants were chosen on the basis that they had run their own small businesses at the time of being selected for the FSP for more than 6-12 months. The FSP was conducted over a seven-month period from February 2014 to August 2014. The qualitative research instruments for this study were pre- and post-interviews with individuals and focus-group discussions. Tape recorded data was transcribed verbatim for each pre-and post-interview with individuals and focus group discussions. The researcher analysed the transcripts using thematic analysis. The study highlighted the following findings: A majority of participants reported a positive experience and satisfaction with their participation in the FSP. Most of the participants felt that the solutions presented had contributed to addressing their challenges and influenced the ongoing operations of their small business venture. It was perceived that a combined service-learning and social entrepreneurship approach to FSP could improve community outreach programs. Despite the positive feedback, more must be done to incorporate black small-businesses into the main economy. A further recommendation is that a more integrated approach is needed between small business owners and students to join forces and provide solutions and relevant skills-training once the FSP has been completed.

We augment a model of endogenous credit cycles by Matsuyama et al.(2016) with human capital to study the impact of human capital on the stability of central economic aggregates. Thus we offer a linkage between human capital formation and credit market instability on a macrolevel combined with an analysis of functional income distribution. Human capital is modelled as pure external effect of production following a learning-by-producing approach. Agents have access to two different investment projects, which differ substantially in their next generations spillover effects. Some generate pecuniary externalities and technological spillovers through human capital formation whereas others fail to do so and are subject to financial frictions. Due to this endogenous credit cycles occur and a pattern of boom and bust cycles can be observed. We explore the impact of human capital on the stability of the system by numerical simulations which indicate that human capital has an ambiguous effect on the evolution of the output. Depending on the strength of the financial friction and the output share of human capital it either amplifies or mitigates output fluctuations. This analysis shows that human capital is an essential factor for economic stability and sustainable growth as a high human capital share tends to make the system's stability robust against shocks. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

M.Comm. / The vision, values and critical success factors incorporated in the balanced scorecard (BSC) have to support the organisational strategic goals. The Learning and Growth Perspective, the foundation of the BSC, assesses organisational capital, information capital and the skills and capabilities of the Research and Innovation Support Advancement (RISA), a division of the National Research Foundation (NRF). This allows the organisation to gain insight into and understanding of what is effective and which learning and growth systems need changing. The RISA’s balanced scorecard (BSC) does not demonstrate how the Learning and Growth Perspective addresses the organisational strategic objectives. In this study, the researcher wished to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) of the Learning and Growth Perspective of RISA so as to achieve its strategic objectives. A cross-sectional, survey-based research approach was adopted. The questions formulated examined the CSFs in five critical areas of the Learning and Growth Perspective namely, information technology, leadership, organisational culture, human resources management and talent management. Two critical success areas, namely talent management and HRM were identified as having an impact on the Learning and Growth Perspective of RISA. In addressing these areas, the organisation will be able to align its organisational capital, information capital and human capital with its overall strategy.

In the new economy customers are becoming more demanding, therefore organizations should embrace services as excellent opportunities to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Internal marketing is a tool that service organizations can utilize to ensure that they build a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. Organizations who successfully want to improve and implement internal marketing need to identify employees’ perceptions and expectations on the concepts of services, organizational capital, and communication within the organization. The internal marketing challenge is not an easy one. It is an ongoing process through which organizations have to change operational procedures and convince management and employees to alter their behaviour and beliefs. Organizations which succeed internally will excel externally. / Prof. C.J. Jooste

Magister Educationis (Adult Learning and Global Change) - MEd(AL) / Scholars argue within a human capital perspective that generic employability skills such as critical thinking, computer literacy, independent thinking, problem solving, communication skills must be included in human capital development. Employers are demanding that education and training institutions enable students to develop generic employability skills so that they can be 'work ready' for employment in the 'new knowledge economy'. As a consequence, the implementation of generic employability skills programmes can be found in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges worldwide. Framed within a human capital perspective, this research paper focuses on an investigation into the extent to which the National Certificate (Vocational) Life Skills course, offered at a TVET college in the Western Cape, enables students to develop the required generic employability skills of communication, problem solving, teamwork, leadership and critical thinking. Findings reveal that the NCV Life Skills course was both successful and unsuccessful in enabling participants to develop generic skills which make them 'ready for work'.

Return to education and regional differences have been amply studied in the literature, in particular by Human Capital and New Economic Geography studies. A combination of both these perspectives was not examined in the case of Italy regarding the North vs. South gap. The purpose of this thesis is to go one step further and to analyze regional differences in return to education across five macro-regions in Italy. The country’s unification is relatively recent, and this leads to expect that regional differences might be very high in magnitude. Mainly studies about Italy consider it merely from a North versus South perspective, identifying in the former the most advanced region both from an income and from an educational point of view. The regions in analysis are dividing the country into five areas that resemble its subdivision before the unification, hence the expectation to capture more insights about the difference respect to a North-South gap. The data are unbalanced panel data consisting of 8 variables, collected every second year for 20 years, for 7254 individuals, followed over time. The focus of this thesis is five regional analyses of the Mincer’s equation, one per each Italian macro-region. The results present significant differences in returns to education across regions, identifying the North-West and the South the leading ones, the North-East and the Center as in-betweens, and the Islands as lagging behind.

From Preface: Although Alfred Marshall's definition of economics has been criticised for its allegedly narrow conception of the subject, it is sometimes overlooked that he considered the study of wealth but one side of the matter. To Marshall, the other and "more important" side of economics was that it also forms "a part of the study of man". The basic thought which underlies the present study is a similar one, namely, that economics is not only concerned with goods and service, but also with men and human action. It is spatially confined to an analysis of the human resources in a region consisting of 21 magisterial districts in the Eastern Cape Province, which cover an area of 72, 462 square kilometres, collectively described here as the Cape Midlands.

The thesis enticingly describes a synergetic mix of productivity related topics at macroeconomic level. It aims at whetting potential readers to understand in more insightful ways topics such as: (1) the use of human capital in sectoral growth; (2) the role played by rising public expenditures (health and education) in strengthening production activities; (3) the role played by disaggregation in improving models’ forecasting ability and policy guidance; etc. The current research constitutes a valuable tool for understanding and predicting a country’s overall economic behavior and the behavior of important industrial sectors. In the present study, lack of data on important variables at sectoral level led to the use of advanced econometric estimation methods such as the implied transfer function equations system. As cited in the thesis, the literature reports a set of interesting economic investigations in this field that have been successful in describing some of the features included in this study. However, this research not only enhances the theoretical discussion on the issue but also provides empirical evidence using South African data. It is anticipated that further use and development of the outcomes of this thesis will yield additional explanatory, predictive and policy-making results that will be useful to many. In addition to the usefulness of this thesis’ contribution to the body of knowledge, several suggestions for further improvement are considered. Most predominantly, the work presented in this thesis has been reported in two interrelated papers (chapters). In the first paper, a methodical discussion is provided on the use and the size of social ingredients estimated as the level of normalized human capital per capita together with the conditional convergence process applied to South African sectoral growth. In the second paper, the parameters obtained are embodied into a full-fledged Macroeconometric (Marshallian) Model employing South African economic sectors. In fact, the second paper goes beyond the simple discussion of a Disaggregated Macroeconometric Model. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the effects that freedom (Thatcher-like) reforms may induce to the South African economy. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Economics / unrestricted