Variations in macroeconomic indicators affect the performance of the stock markets. In Ghana, although the performance of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) has been affected by macroeconomic variables from January 2000 to December 2013, the mechanisms of these relationships have not been studied. The purpose of this research was to examine the relationships between selected macroeconomic variables and their effect on the stock market returns on the Ghana stock market. The research questions addressed whether macroeconomic variables had significant effect on stock market returns in Ghana within the specified period. The target sample was all 36 listed firms on the Ghana stock market. Data were obtained from the Bank of Ghana bulletins, the Ghana Statistical Service website, and the GSE website. Time-series data analysis was used to determine whether there was a statistically significant relationship between stock market returns and inflation rate, exchange rate, interest rate, and money supply. The findings revealed that interest rates and money supply had a significant negative effect on stock market returns; however, exchange rates had a significant positive effect on stock market returns. Moreover, inflation rate did not significantly affect stock market returns in Ghana. The implications for positive social change include improved knowledge about the effects of macroeconomic variables on stock returns that could guide policy makers and household agents to improve investment decisions, thus increasing the net worth of these economic agents.

The research conducted intends to examine how unexpected changes in employment may affect both exchange rates and interest rates. The results used in the analysis are extracted by running two ordinary least squares regressions with data structured as an unbalanced panel. Furthermore, a two stage least squares regression has been constructed to evaluate how interest rates, instrumented by unexpected outcomes of employment, affect exchange rates through the uncovered interest rate parity condition (UIP). In contradiction to the UIP, relative percentual changes in interest rates had no effect on exchange rates, hence no support could be presented for a causative relationship between unexpected changes in employment and exchange rate movements. In line with previous studies, results are thought to lack significance due to exchange rate movements being measured as the total intraday change, constituting too long of an interval.

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Master of Science / Department of Physics / Uwe Thumm / In this work we studied the dynamics of deuterium molecules in intense laser fields both experimentally and theoretically. For studying the dynamics of the molecule on a time scale that is less than the period of the laser field (2.7 fs for 800 nm), an advanced experimental technique: COLTRIMS (cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy) was used. COLTRIMS allows studying the nuclear dynamics without using attosecond laser pulses. This thesis consists of two main parts. In the first part we deduced the angular dependence of the ionization probability of the molecule without aligning the molecules, by measuring the relative angle between a deuteron resulting from field dissociation and an emitted electron using electron-ion coincidence measurements with circularly polarized light in COLTRIMS. We found out that for 50 fs pulses (1850 nm wavelength and 2 x10[superscript]14 W/cm[superscript]2 intensity), D[subscript]2 molecules are 1.15 times more likely to be ionized when the laser field is parallel to the molecular axis than when the laser field is perpendicular. This result agreed perfectly with the result from our ab initio theoretical model and also with predictions of the molecular Ammosov-Delone-Krainov (mo-ADK) theory. In the second part of this work we calculated the time evolution of an initial nuclear wave packet in D[subscript]2[superscript]+ generated by the rapid ionization of D[subscript]2 by an ultra short laser pulse. We Fourier transformed the nuclear probability density with respect to the delay between the pump and probe pulses and obtained two-dimensional internuclear-distance-dependent power spectra which serve as a tool for visualizing and analyzing the nuclear dynamics in D[subscript]2[superscript]+ in an external laser field. We attempt to model realistic laser pulses, therefore in addition to the main spike of the pulse we include the Gaussian pedestal. The optimal laser parameters for observing field-induced bond softening and bond hardening in D[subscript]2[superscript]+ can be achieved by varying the intensity, wavelength, and duration of the probe-pulse pedestal. Despite the implicit “continuum wave” (infinite pulse length) assumption the validity of the “Floquet picture” is tested for the interpretation of short-pulse laser-molecule interactions.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The impact of multipath fading parameters on the probability of error for Offset QPSK (OQPSK) is derived. The multipath fading channel is modeled using the aeronautical telemetry channel model [1-2]. Expressions for the probability of bit error are derived that are a function of the multipath model parameters. The expressions are shown to agree with computer simulations and show that a strong multipath reflection with a short delay causes much more degradation than a weak multipath reflection with a long delay.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1992 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / The world of instrumentation data recording has traditionally been concerned with recorder performance in terms of bandwidth, data rate, tape speed and recording time, with the apparently unceasing trend to record more and more data. However, while this may remain a valid perspective for data acquisition, the increasing requirement to integrate equipment into computer based environments has resulted in the need for greater emphasis to be applied to such parameters as data control and interfacing when specifying digital data recording systems. This paper addresses these operational issues and describes the practical implementation of a computer friendly digital cassette recorder which provides a common platform for both high rate data acquisition and computer based data analysis.

Public sector corruption is endemic in many economies and is frequently cited as a cause of poor economic performance. Corruption hinders the completion of beneficial transactions and distorts the outcomes of economic policies. It can also affect the policy choices of governments as they attempt to counteract the consequences of corruption. Excessive inflation may be a negative side effect of corruption if the government compensates for lost revenue by increasing the rate of monetary expansion to exploit seigniorage. There is convincing empirical evidence from cross-section studies that inflation and corruption are positively correlated. It has been suggested that this is a consequence of governments in corrupt economies turning to the use of seigniorage as a method of raising revenue (Al-Marhubi, 2000). This seems a likely route through which the correlation can arise, but the mechanism at work has not received any theoretical attention. In particular, there has been no demonstration that an optimizing government will rationally exploit seigniorage as a response to corruption. The contribution of this study is an analysis of this issue in theoretical models in which the growth rate of money supply is chosen by an optimizing government. Although an empirical analysis is undertaken to explore the relationship between corruption and inflation in chapter one, the main focus of the study is on chapters three, four, and five where theoretical analysis plays the principal role in the research.

The dissertation investigates the issues pertaining to China’s fixed exchange rate policy and attempts to appraise the case for greater exchange rate flexibility. The thesis addresses three objectives: First, a critical appraisal of China’s exchange rate policy in the light of theoretical and empirical literature supporting greater flexibility in exchange rate; second, it builds a monetary dual exchange rate model and analyses in a dynamic theoretical framework the impact of nominal demand and price shocks due to over and undervalued currency. Third, using Chinese macroeconomic data it empirically examines the factors determining China’s real exchange rate fluctuations. After presenting a brief history of China’s exchange rate policy in the post-war period, an assessment of China’s fixed exchange rate policy is made, including the costs of maintaining its current peg. It is argued that the literature on China’s exchange rate regime has not reached a consensus, and further theoretical arguments are appraised regarding the reluctance to move to a more flexible exchange rate regime. A theoretical dual exchange rate monetary model, in the spirit of Flood and Marion (1983), is then developed to analyse the dynamics in the responses to nominal and real shocks. This provides a theoretical basis for analysing the underlying working mechanism and policy implications under some degree of capital control, to resemble the Chinese exchange rate regime. In the light of the theoretical analysis, empirical research is conducted using a structural vector auto-regression (SVAR) model to examine the effects of real exchange rate fluctuations to nominal and real shocks (represented by inflation and real GDP), in order to determine the case for exchange rate flexibility. Both the theoretical and empirical analyses complement to inform the ongoing debate on whether the current exchange rate regime in China should be made more flexible, and whether a more flexible regime is appropriate in stabilising the effects of macroeconomic shocks. The empirical findings reveal that the responses of the real exchange rate to nominal IX demand and real supply shocks are consistent with a managed exchange rate system that currently operates in China. In particular, the results show that, as China has been under a fixed exchange rate arrangement for much of the estimation period, the real exchange rate appreciates immediately in response to a positive nominal shock. The use of quarterly Chinese data in this study, which no previous study on China has used, makes it possible to identify to a greater degree the initial appreciation impact of a positive nominal shock on the real exchange rate, although the results are generally consistent with the previous study by Wang (2004) using annual data. The study finds that supply shocks are dominant in the fluctuations of output growth, and while both nominal and real shocks are significant the nominal contributes more than real shocks in real exchange rate fluctuations. Overall, these findings are consistent with other studies for developing countries and support a case for greater exchange rate flexibility for China.

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Does the choice of exchange-rate regime effect the economic growth performance of a country? And does the significance of such a relationship vary across different levels of development? Few questions in international economics, whether it be in academic or policy circles, have inspired as much debate yielding as little consensus. Although both economic growth theory and empirical literatures suggests the existence of direct and indirect channels, through which the choice of regime may indeed impinge the growth rate, neither has managed to provide an unambiguous answer. The aim of this paper is to analyze the theoretical arguments as to the relationship between the choice of exchange-rate regime and economic growth and to empirically investigate if there is an optimal regime, in terms of growth, and if the significance of this impact differs across various levels of country development. Applying a cross-sectional regression estimation of 60 countries over the period 2000-2010, this paper finds that the choice of exchange-rate regime holds no significant explanatory power over economic growth. These findings were robust to dividing the sample based on the level of country development. Although no direct relationship was found, these findings supports the argument that the choice of regime may indeed effect growth indirectly, through its impact on other deterministic growth factors, such as trade, investment and productivity. The findings of this paper are both in accord and discord with previous results and underlines how divergent the empirical research is on this continuously debated issue.