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Sub-national differences in the quality of life in South Africa / Stephanié RossouwRossouw, Stephanié January 2007 (has links)
It is increasingly acknowledged that the proper objective of government efforts towards
economic development should be aimed at improvements beyond simple measures of
growth, poverty and inequality towards richer measures of human well-being. Herein, the
economic and non-economic quality of life, as well as the quantity of life, becomes
important indicators. Economists and other social planners therefore need to develop more
meaningful indicators of the quality of life. Objective and subjective indicators of the quality
of life can be distinguished. For various reasons, this thesis will focus on the search for more
meaningful objective indicators of the quality of life.
One of the most wellknown objective indicators of quality of life is the Human
Development Index (HDI). There is, however, a growing dissatisfaction with the HDI. In
this thesis, two recent methodological advances in the measurement of quality of life are
applied and combined and, in particular, in the measurement of the non-economic quality of
life, to the sub-national quality of life in South Africa. As such, this thesis’ contribution is
twofold. First, it investigates the extent to which the quality of life differs within a
developing country, as opposed to most studies that focus on either inter-country
differences in quality of life, or studies that focus only on spatial inequalities within countries
using a restricted set of measures such as per capita income or poverty rates and headcounts.
Secondly, this thesis applies a recent methodology proposed by McGillivray (2005) to isolate
the non-economic (non-monetary) quality of life in various composite indices and to focus
on the non-economic quality of life across 351 South African magisterial districts
Indices for the non-economic quality of life are compiled for geographical quality, for
demographic quality, and based on the human development index. Furthermore, given that
composite indices used in the construction of measures of quality of life consist of
weightings of multiple proxies, this thesis implements the method of Lubotsky and Wittenberg (2006) which proposed a new estimator for the case where multiple proxies are
to be used for a single, unobserved variable such as quality of life.
This thesis establishes that when the non-economic quality of life of the demographic index
is considered, the top ten regions in 1001 were as follows: Pretoria, Johannesburg, Soweto,
Port Elizabeth, Durban, Inanda, Pietermaritzburg, Wynberg, Mitchellsplain and
Vanderbijlpark. It is important to note that, when interpreting these results, one should take
caution since variables such as the number of people, number of households etc. is included
in this index and as a region grows in population size the more negative consequences such
as a higher crime rate can be associated with the particular region.
The top ten regions in which to reside in 1004 as determined by the geography quality of life
index were: Calvinia, Gordonia, Namaqualand, Kenhardt, Carnarvon, Ubombo, Williston,
Hlabisa, Ceres and Ingwavuma. This geography index measures a region's natural beauty
which, according to Wey (2000), contributes positively to one's perceived quality of life.
Considering changes in non-economic quality of life indices between 1996 and 2004, the
conclusion can he drawn that the South African government has been successful to a certain
degree in addressing non-economic quality of life. Social policies such as health care,
education, housing, water and sanitation appear to have had a positive effect on people's
perceived non-economic quality of life in areas that were relatively deprived in 1996. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007
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Regions, technological interdependence and growth in EuropeFischer, Manfred M. January 2009 (has links) (PDF)
This paper presents a theoretical neoclassical growth model with two kinds of capital, and
technological interdependence among regions. Technological interdependence is assumed to
operate through spatial externalities caused by disembodied knowledge diffusion between
technologically similar regions. The transition from theory to econometrics yields a reduced-form
empirical model that in the spatial econometrics literature is known as spatial Durbin model.
Technological dependence between regions is formulated by a connectivity matrix that measures
closeness of regions in a technological space spanned by 120 distinct technological fields. We use a
system of 158 regions across 14 European countries over the period from 1995 to 2004 to
empirically test the model. The paper illustrates the importance of an impact-based model
interpretation, in terms of the LeSage and Pace (2009) approach, to correctly quantify the
magnitude of spillover effects that avoid incorrect inferences about the presence or absence of
significant capital externalities among technologically similar regions. (author's abstract)
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Sub-national differences in the quality of life in South Africa / by Stephanié RossouwRossouw, Stephanié January 2007 (has links)
Thesis (Ph.D. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.
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Ecoulements diphasiques lors de la vidange de gaz liquefiés initialement à saturation. Influence de la nature du fluideAlix, Pascal 03 October 1997 (has links) (PDF)
En cas de perte de confinement (rupture d'un piquage) sur un réservoir de gaz liquéfié sous pression, il y aurait un écoulement diphasique (liquide-vapeur) critique. L'objet de ce mémoire est de valider les modèles décrivant ces écoulements vis à vis de differents fluides (eau, R11, méthanol, acétate d'éthyle, butane pur, butane commercial). Une installation expérimentale de taille pilote a été réalisée. Dans la conduite d'essai (L=535 mm, D=8 mm) l'écoulement est quasi-stationnaire, critique, adiabatique et reproductible. L'écart à la saturation en amont est mesuré à 25 mbar près, ce qui permet de mesurer le débit à saturation à +/- 12%. Une représentation adimensionnelle des résultats montre que la pression en amont réduite est le paramètre prépondérant. Ce résultat nouveau semble indiquer qu'un modèle peut être validé avec un minimum de fluides, pour peu que l'on raisonne en coordonnées réduites. Les modèles homogènes hors équilibre thermodynamique (DEM, HRM) sont les plus précis. HRM est le plus adapté au calcul du débit de fuite, même si il peut devenir tres majorant aux pressions réduites élevées. Aucun modèle ne prend correctement en compte la sensibilité du débit à la pression réduite. Ce biais peut avoir au moins deux origines : une influence non négligeable du glissement entre phases ou une cinétique de vaporisation perfectible. Ecrire un bilan énergetique sur la phase vapeur semble physiquement pertinent pour exprimer la cinétique de vaporisation. Mais il est également impératif de quantifier la nucléation.
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Sub-national differences in the quality of life in South Africa / Stephanié RossouwRossouw, Stephanié January 2007 (has links)
It is increasingly acknowledged that the proper objective of government efforts towards
economic development should be aimed at improvements beyond simple measures of
growth, poverty and inequality towards richer measures of human well-being. Herein, the
economic and non-economic quality of life, as well as the quantity of life, becomes
important indicators. Economists and other social planners therefore need to develop more
meaningful indicators of the quality of life. Objective and subjective indicators of the quality
of life can be distinguished. For various reasons, this thesis will focus on the search for more
meaningful objective indicators of the quality of life.
One of the most wellknown objective indicators of quality of life is the Human
Development Index (HDI). There is, however, a growing dissatisfaction with the HDI. In
this thesis, two recent methodological advances in the measurement of quality of life are
applied and combined and, in particular, in the measurement of the non-economic quality of
life, to the sub-national quality of life in South Africa. As such, this thesis’ contribution is
twofold. First, it investigates the extent to which the quality of life differs within a
developing country, as opposed to most studies that focus on either inter-country
differences in quality of life, or studies that focus only on spatial inequalities within countries
using a restricted set of measures such as per capita income or poverty rates and headcounts.
Secondly, this thesis applies a recent methodology proposed by McGillivray (2005) to isolate
the non-economic (non-monetary) quality of life in various composite indices and to focus
on the non-economic quality of life across 351 South African magisterial districts
Indices for the non-economic quality of life are compiled for geographical quality, for
demographic quality, and based on the human development index. Furthermore, given that
composite indices used in the construction of measures of quality of life consist of
weightings of multiple proxies, this thesis implements the method of Lubotsky and Wittenberg (2006) which proposed a new estimator for the case where multiple proxies are
to be used for a single, unobserved variable such as quality of life.
This thesis establishes that when the non-economic quality of life of the demographic index
is considered, the top ten regions in 1001 were as follows: Pretoria, Johannesburg, Soweto,
Port Elizabeth, Durban, Inanda, Pietermaritzburg, Wynberg, Mitchellsplain and
Vanderbijlpark. It is important to note that, when interpreting these results, one should take
caution since variables such as the number of people, number of households etc. is included
in this index and as a region grows in population size the more negative consequences such
as a higher crime rate can be associated with the particular region.
The top ten regions in which to reside in 1004 as determined by the geography quality of life
index were: Calvinia, Gordonia, Namaqualand, Kenhardt, Carnarvon, Ubombo, Williston,
Hlabisa, Ceres and Ingwavuma. This geography index measures a region's natural beauty
which, according to Wey (2000), contributes positively to one's perceived quality of life.
Considering changes in non-economic quality of life indices between 1996 and 2004, the
conclusion can he drawn that the South African government has been successful to a certain
degree in addressing non-economic quality of life. Social policies such as health care,
education, housing, water and sanitation appear to have had a positive effect on people's
perceived non-economic quality of life in areas that were relatively deprived in 1996. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007
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Model uncertainty in matrix exponential spatial growth regression modelsFischer, Manfred M., Piribauer, Philipp 10 1900 (has links) (PDF)
This paper considers the problem of model uncertainty associated with variable selection and specification of the spatial weight matrix in spatial growth regression models in general and growth regression models based on the matrix exponential spatial specification in particular. A natural solution, supported by formal probabilistic reasoning, is the use of Bayesian model averaging which assigns probabilities on the model space and deals with model uncertainty by mixing over models, using the posterior model probabilities as weights. This paper proposes to adopt Bayesian information criterion model weights since they have computational advantages over fully Bayesian model weights. The approach is illustrated for both identifying model covariates and unveiling spatial structures present in pan-European growth data. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series
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