Abstract The focal study initially describes the development of the banking industry in Finland, then analyses the development of banking partnerships, and concludes by applying the findings about partnership development to the banking industry in order to increase our understanding of the industry development, especially of the development of the nature and structure of a typical banking firm. In this study, banking partnerships and co-operation is the perspective from which industry development is studied. The study constructs a framework of reasons for entering partnerships from three theoretical views. The partnership-specific view explains the reasons based on the benefits that a partnership may produce for a bank. Industry-specific view explains the reasons based on the banking industry paradigm, i.e. what are the general banking logic features that could explain the change in partnership entering reasons and how those features have developed. The external view explains the reasons from the environmental level, specifically environmental attribute and changes that can stimulate partnership entry. Examining partnership entry reasons through these three-levels and the different emphasis of each view improves both the theoretical understanding of the reasons banks enter partnerships as well as our understanding of the development of banking industry. The development of the vertically integrated banking model towards a more core-competence specialised one describes the development of banking logic. In the continuum of the logic in Finland, the focus of customer service on core competences places the customer service at the centre of the integration of business functions and disciplines. On the other hand, the growing need for economies of scale does not allow a domestic or regional bank to maintain a great deal of the existing proprietary manufacturing. This means that an entire service can and has to be manufactured outside the bank's own hierarchy. The production of banking services are transforming from the traditional proprietary manufacturing model to a three-levelled model. A great part of the existing production will be outsourced because of the increasing need for scale of economies. In other words, economies of scale will be purchased instead of proprietary manufacturing. The second level is formed by such banking services that have certain needs for the economies of scale, but in addition, qualities like flexibility are important factors in the production. The need of scale forces domestic and regional banks to move the manufacturing outside of the focal bank, but the need of qualities highlights partnership-like needs in the selection of the producer. The third level is the "manufacturing" of tacit personal services, in which the economies of scale is absent. For Finnish banks, this layer forms the core of their proprietary operation.

The work presented in this thesis is a collection of four different research projects, conducted at the intersection between academic and industrial fields, and related to the restructuring of the electricity industry. Many models have been proposed to organise restructured electricity systems. We first propose a unified mathematical framework for expressing them, using variational inequalities. This allows the use of existence and uniqueness theorems, but also leads to models that can be solved by existing numerical algorithms. In the second part, we present a model of the European Commission proposals on cross-border trade, in particular access to the network and congestion issues. The model allows for various domestic regulation of the national non-eligible market, and different forms of competition in the eligible market. We illustrate this flexibility on a stylised example, and identify policy issues to be studied in a more realistic case study. The third contribution elaborates on the modelling of imperfect competition on electricity markets, more specifically the integration of imperfect competition behaviours in power models, through conjectural variations. We propose a consistent estimation procedure. Finally, a model of the EU Emission Trading Scheme, limiting the total CO2 emissions, is proposed. We illustrate the effect of some basic economic assumptions on the investment and generation mix, and how these assumptions impact the permit price and affect profitability. The novel part is in the way allocation mechanisms for subsequent commitment periods can potentially distort the behaviour of CO2 emitting agents.

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In recent decades, there have been an increasingly large number of developing countries that have embraced external economic liberalisation policies. Following trade theory, trade liberalisation has the potential to increase employment elasticity of economic growth and hence, have a greater poverty reduction impact, compared to import-substitution or closed economies. However, critics of globalisation often emphasise that the benefits from growth may not be evenly spread; hence, the distributional impacts may have an adverse effect on the poor. Vietnam has undertaken major market-based reforms to transform itself into an outward-oriented economy. The resulting effects show that not only has Vietnam achieved significant growth, but it has also managed to satisfy all the Millennium Development Goals. However, a significant element of Vietnam’s reforms involves integrating the Vietnamese economy with world markets through trade liberalisation policies, which may affect the welfare and distributional impacts on Vietnamese households. This dissertation examines the impact of trade liberalisation on growth, poverty and inequality for Vietnam. It develops a macro-micro analytical framework whereby a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is linked to a representative household model in order to capture these effects. The findings indicate that trade liberalisation will cause a significant increase in economic growth. The smallest gains occur under Vietnam’s unilateral trade liberalisation against ASEAN while the largest gains take place when Vietnam extends its liberalisation with the rest of the world. There will be a shift away from primary sectors towards industry-based sectors such as low-tech, intermediate manufacturing and durables. There is also substantial up-skilling of unskilled labour. Combined with the large real returns to capital goods, this will result in significant increases in both capital investments as well as in the accumulation of human capital. In addition, economic growth will induce a fall in poverty rates in Vietnam. Nonetheless, there will also be large increases in the inequality of income, especially in the rural sector. Hence, although growth has lifted a large proportion of households out of poverty, the distributional impacts have been detrimental to the most vulnerable households.

In recent decades, there have been an increasingly large number of developing countries that have embraced external economic liberalisation policies. Following trade theory, trade liberalisation has the potential to increase employment elasticity of economic growth and hence, have a greater poverty reduction impact, compared to import-substitution or closed economies. However, critics of globalisation often emphasise that the benefits from growth may not be evenly spread; hence, the distributional impacts may have an adverse effect on the poor. Vietnam has undertaken major market-based reforms to transform itself into an outward-oriented economy. The resulting effects show that not only has Vietnam achieved significant growth, but it has also managed to satisfy all the Millennium Development Goals. However, a significant element of Vietnam’s reforms involves integrating the Vietnamese economy with world markets through trade liberalisation policies, which may affect the welfare and distributional impacts on Vietnamese households. This dissertation examines the impact of trade liberalisation on growth, poverty and inequality for Vietnam. It develops a macro-micro analytical framework whereby a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is linked to a representative household model in order to capture these effects. The findings indicate that trade liberalisation will cause a significant increase in economic growth. The smallest gains occur under Vietnam’s unilateral trade liberalisation against ASEAN while the largest gains take place when Vietnam extends its liberalisation with the rest of the world. There will be a shift away from primary sectors towards industry-based sectors such as low-tech, intermediate manufacturing and durables. There is also substantial up-skilling of unskilled labour. Combined with the large real returns to capital goods, this will result in significant increases in both capital investments as well as in the accumulation of human capital. In addition, economic growth will induce a fall in poverty rates in Vietnam. Nonetheless, there will also be large increases in the inequality of income, especially in the rural sector. Hence, although growth has lifted a large proportion of households out of poverty, the distributional impacts have been detrimental to the most vulnerable households.

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / The object of this study is to examine and analyse the dynamics of central banks. The central bank in any country has a great impact on the economic and monetary issues within its jurisdiction. This research is based on a case study of the economic and monetary crisis in the Republic of Angola resulting from the prolonged phases of civil war. The study will focus in particular on the role of the Banco Nacional de Angola, the central bank of Angola. This bank has a very important role to play in the post-war phase, since it is the only institution capable of inspiring confidence in national and international markets. In this period the country has been closely observed by foreign investors who are believed by this researcher to be the only guarantee for an immediate development of the country. The study points out the main periods of economic crisis, emphasising their main causes and origins, and suggests ways of overcoming these problems on the path to economic recovery from the ravages of the war. Furthermore it examines the manner in which monetary policiesare monitored and implemented within the Angolan framework. Emphasis is given to the fact that the Angolan central bank was highly controlled by the state. This is due to the lack of financial resources at the state's disposal. It is believed by this researcher that the main problem of central banking in Angola is inefficiency in terms service delivery, which has had a significant impact on the quality of its functioning. This study gives some suggestions for possible tools for better performance of the central bank, so that Angola can move towards a better future. This researcher has used qualitative data from secondary sources, exploring and analysing existing information from resources such as journals, reports, legal documents, as well as banking and government sources. This researcher has also collected and analysed national and international laws and legislative policies regarding central banks in general, and the Banco Nacional de Angola in particular.

Doctor Educationis / The increase in trade, the increasing internationalisation of production and the improvements in communications, coupled with legalisation of foreign currency instruments have led to a liberalisation of the capital account in a growing number of countries. In line with this trend towards greater reliance on the open market, many governments of developing countries too, have considered the possibility of fully opening their capital accounts. In South Africa the issue was raised again in October 1991 when the financial rand discount dropped to 5.5 percent. This paper will attempt to provide a background to capital account liberalisation in general, and South

International air transport has been one of the most highly regulated and restrictive industries in the world, governed by bilateral air services agreements (BASAs). More recently progressive liberalisation, through the gradual removal of regulatory restrictions, has taken place in major air markets of the world. In Africa, more than a decade ago, African leaders agreed to liberalise the intra-African aviation market through the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) of 2000 but its full potential across the Continent has not yet been realised. Many studies worldwide have been done on air liberalisation and its impact on air traffic flows but very few include Africa. This study focuses on the impact on air passenger traffic flows of South Africa’s aviation policy in Africa by investigating the link between South Africa’s aviation policy, as reflected in the design of its BASAs, and air passenger traffic flows over an 11 year period (2000 to 2010). A mixed research methodology was followed. Qualitatively, a two-round Delphi technique was employed to determine the views of aviation experts from academia, the public and private sectors, on features of BASAs, as well as those unrelated to BASAs, that have an influence on air passenger traffic flows between country-pairs in Africa. Twenty-five BASA features and 48 non-BASA factors were identified from which a conceptual framework was formulated. The quantitative phase aimed at estimating and statistically quantifying the impact of the degree of restrictiveness or liberalisation of the respective BASAs, as measured by four variants of the Air Liberalisation Index (ALI): STD, 5th+, DES+ and OWN+. It also aimed at identifying which specific provisions of BASAs had the most significant impact on air passenger traffic flows. A fixed one-way panel regression technique was applied to the selected 11 year panel data set of 42 African countries, representing five markets: intra- African; the SADC; West African; East African and North African. A number of other predictors were also identified which meant that the impact of the aviation policy on air passenger traffic flows could not be tested in isolation: the degree of liberalisation of the policy as measured by the ALI; the number of years BASAs have been in place; GDP; the presence of a low-income country; the magnitude of services trade flows; and population size. The simultaneous impact of the six predictors was tested in each of the five markets with the various markets showing different predictors as being statistically significant. In the intra-African and SADC regional markets these were Trade, ALI and GDP; in the East African market Low Income, Trade, ALI and Population but in the North African market only GDP. Where the impact of the aviation policy was found to be significant, individual provisions such as fifth freedom traffic rights, capacity, designation and cooperative arrangements were tested for their impact on air passenger traffic over two time periods: 2000 – 2010 and 2006 – 2010. These also proved to be significantly different for the various regions. The results of this research provide new insights into the relationship between air passenger traffic flows and aviation policy in the South African – intra-African and regional contexts. The research technique used in the South African – intra-African market expands on the established cross-sectional 2005 QUASAR database, laying a foundation for similar studies in other regions where impact of policy over time can be established. / Thesis (DCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Tourism Management / unrestricted

This thesis provides international evidence relating to the impact of financial liberalisation on banking sector performance. Compared to a large number of studies linking financial liberalisation to economic growth and financial fragility, there is relatively little research at the international level linking financial liberalisation to banking sector efficiency and productivity. The research contributes to the literature by making a systematic, cross-country empirical investigation using domestic and international measures of financial liberalisation and evaluates their impact on bank efficiency and productivity by applying a combination of frontier estimation methods, dynamic panel data regressions and Granger causality techniques. The evidence is based on the use of bank-level accounting data and country-level economic data for a sample of 1536 commercial banks covering 88 countries over the period 2000 to 2009. Apart from using the global frontier for estimation of bank efficiency, empirical analysis is conducted across various levels including the use of separate income-group frontiers to determine the robustness of the findings. Using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) for the estimation of banks’ cost and profit efficiency, the evidence shows that financial liberalisation contributes positively to profit efficiency while the effect on cost efficiency is generally mixed, depending on the measures of financial liberalisation used. Additionally, the results show that while cost efficiency remains, on average, stable during the estimation period (2000-2009), average profit efficiency fluctuates in the pre-crises period (2000-06) but declines sharply during the post crises period (2007-09). Furthermore, accounting explicitly for the influence of risk in banking, the evidence suggests that financial liberalisation, lower cost efficiency and higher profit efficiency of banks all increase the potential for default risk, while the latter also reduces both cost and profit efficiency, providing support for the bad management hypothesis. Additionally, upon accounting explicitly for the role of market power or competition in banking, the evidence suggests that both financial liberalisation and greater market power contribute to higher default risk of banks. On the other hand, greater competition in banking contributes to higher cost but lower profit efficiency of banks under financial liberalisation. The cross-country empirical investigation is also extended to analyse the impact of financial liberalisation on banks’ technical efficiency and productivity growth, using a two-step approach of combining data envelopment analysis (DEA) with panel data regressions. The evidence here suggests that financial liberalisation is robustly and negatively associated with (pure) technical efficiency. Furthermore, the effect on the total factor productivity (TFP) growth (using two-step DEA-type Malmquist method) is positive, although not always statistically significant. The robustness analysis conducted across the different income groups (higher, upper-middle, lower-middle and lower) confirms that the impact on cost, profit and technical efficiency of banks is more pronounced in the more developed (higher and upper-middle) countries than in the less developed countries. In particular, the impact of financial liberalisation is largely insignificant in the lower income countries. This finding generally reflects the greater pace of capital account liberalisation in the higher and upper-middle income countries, where the impact on both cost and profit efficiency is positive. Throughout the analysis, the estimation takes into account country-specific differences in the regulatory, market structure, financial development and macro-economic conditions and the evidence shows that these influences are also mostly significant and robust under financial liberalisation. Hence, the thesis concludes by arguing that financial liberalisation exerts an independent effect on the cost, profit and technical efficiency of banks, while the risks associated with financial liberalisation should be mitigated with better regulatory and institutional structures.