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Item A cross-country analysis investigating the impact of the 2008-09 Financial Crisis on the conduct of monetary policy(2021) Creamer, Kenneth; Lamperelli, DanielaTaylor Rule analysis is utilised to enable an analysis of how the 2008 Financial Crisis impacted on the conduct of monetary policy across various countries. Structural Break Analysis and Markov Switching (MS) Regressions are used in order to identify breaks and changes in the conduct of monetary policy as result of the Crisis. The study finds evidence of Crisis-related changes in monetary policy conduct in South Africa, as well as in the US, the UK, the Euro Area (the ECB), Colombia, Peru and South Korea. On the other hand, the results for Brazil, Mexico and Israel do not show conclusive differences in monetary policy conduct in the pre-Crisis and post-Crisis periods. Along with South Africa, there are only two other countries, namely Brazil and Mexico, whose smoothing parameters are larger in the post-Crisis period. Four out of the ten countries place a lower weight on inflation post-Crisis. Six central banks reduce their weighting on the output gap after the Crisis.Item A tale of tweets: the influence of Twitter on the technology sector(2022) Eltringham, BradleyInvestor sentiment has emerged to be a very topical subject within the context of behavioural finance. In more recent times textual analysis has emerged to be one such way of attempting to quantify investor sentiment. This study utilises textual sentiment and attempts to examine the predictive power of social media networks with regard to the technology sector during the course of unprecedented market wide volatility as a consequence of a global pandemic. More specifically, this study analyses the association between tweet features (bullishness/sentiment , message volume and overall investor agreement ) and market features (daily trading volume, volatility and raw returns, closing price, intraday high, intraday low) with regard to the 10 current largest technology sector firms by market capitalisation. The study spans over the period of February 2016 to December 2021, which encompasses the COVID-19 pandemic. The first finding of this study indicates that most of the tweet features are observed to be contemporaneously associated to the stock returns of the ten biggest technology firms by market capitalisation. Second, the results show the that for the most part there is no monotonic relationship between tweet features and technology sector stock market returns with exception of the relationship between the magnitude of message agreement and stock returns. Third, there is no evidence that the past values of tweet features contain any useful information that could be used to predict future stock returns. Finally, by comparing the pre-COVID data and intra-COVID data, it is noted that for the most part there is no monotonic relationship between tweet features and technology sector stock market returns. There is however evidence that the use of increased usage of Twitter as an investment tool following an exogenous shock to the market.Item An overview of corporate income tax in South Africa(2022) Ramsunder, JulitaThis paper investigates the corporate income tax regime in South Africa in order to determine if it has a comparatively high cost corporate tax regime compared to other jurisdictions. The paper also explores the relationship between corporate income tax and investment, as a higher tax cost relative to other jurisdictions is likely to discourage investment in South Africa. The paper uses three different measures to compare South Africa to other jurisdictions namely: the statutory rate, the backward effective rate and the forward effective rate. South Africa has a relatively high statutory rate, forward and backward effective tax rate which suggests the country imposes a higher corporate income tax cost compared to other jurisdictions in the sample. In South Africa, economic growth is key for driving both corporate tax collections and investment, where certain studies suggest that economic conditions are far more important than the tax structure for investment decisions. Further studies are required to fully unpack the investment and tax regime relationship in South Africa.Item Assessing alternative monetary policy frameworks and instruments in selected African economies(2017) Chiumia, Austin BelewaThis thesis contains three core chapters that assess the performance of alternative monetary policy frameworks and instruments in stabilizing 10 selected African economies. Literature and practice show that Advanced Economies (AEs) and Emerging Market Economies (EMEs) are mostly adopting the ination targeting (IT) framework. This framework relies on active use of the interest rate as a policy instrument for macroeconomic stabilisation. Di⁄erent from AEs and EMEs, the majority of African countries are characterized by low nancial market development, frequent supply shocks and volatile terms of trade. These features impede the e¢ ciency of the IT framework and the interest rate instrument. Supply shocks imply that ination is not only demand driven. Volatile terms of trade translate into excessive exchange rate uctuations. Due to these factors, policy practice in Africa remains largely divergent from the global trend. Authorities still rely on monetary aggregate targeting (MAT) with de facto managed exchange rates. However, the MAT framework is also failing to stabilize economies. This follows instability of the key factors, such as the money demand, upon which the framework is anchored. Furthermore, controlling exchange rate movements is a challenge due to weak balance of payments positions. It is not surprising, therefore, that the majority of African economies still remain in the grip of macroeconomic instability. Ination and GDP targets are rarely met and they also remain volatile. The perverse macroeconomic features and the perceived failure of the MAT regime have necessitated the search for alternative monetary frameworks and instruments. In this study, we join the search by specically focussing on three questions. First, given the macroeconomic landscape in Africa, what is the relative performance of the interest rate vis--vis the monetary aggregate as instru ments for macroeconomic stabilization? Secondly, how do these instruments perform when apart from ination and output stabilization, monetary policy also engages in smoothing exchange rate uctuations? Thirdly, what is the relative performance of ination targeting vis--vis nominal GDP targeting as alternative monetary policy regimes for macroeconomic stabilization in African economies? Although the success of monetary policy largely relies on appropriate conguration of monetary policy frameworks and instruments, answers to these questions remain controversial and scanty for African economies. In order to address these questions, we formulate a New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model. In this model, money is non-separable from consumption in the utility function. We estimate the model using the Maximum Likelihood method with quarterly data mostly from 1990 to 2014. The data is obtained from the International Financial Statistics (IFS). The thesis has ve chapters. Chapter 1 is the general background to the research problem. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 are distinct but related core chapters addressing three specic research questions. Chapter 5 is the conclusion. In Chapter 2, we compare the performance of the monetary aggregate and the interest rate as alternative instruments for stabilizing ination and output in 10 selected countries. Results show that the monetary aggregate is superior in stabilizing 5 economies. In the other 5 countries, it is the interest rate instrument which performs better. In the former group of countries, the monetary aggregate plays a relatively large role in macroeconomic dynamics while in the latter the interest rate is more signicant. These results partly reect di⁄erences in nancial market development between the two groups of countries. Overall, we nd a weak role of the interest rate compared to the monetary aggregate in driving aggregate demand dynamics. The exchange rate is also found to be a key driver of macroeconomic dynamics. Our re v sults suggest three things: First, authorities in Africa need to be cautious of a blanket adoption of the interest rate as a sole monetary policy instrument. Second, authorities will nd it di¢ cult to stabilize economies using the interest rate based frameworks. Third, exchange rate stability is key to macroeconomic stability in Africa. In Chapter 3, we extend the authoritiesobjective function. In addition to minimizing ination and output volatility, authorities also use the interest rate or money supply rules to smooth exchange rate uctuations. The results show that macroeconomic performance is enhanced when authorities smooth exchange rate uctuations in 4 of the 10 countries. The gains from exchange rate smoothing mostly arise from a reduction in ination and exchange rate volatility but not fromoutput. In the other 6 countries, exchange rate smoothing worsens macroeconomic performance. These results reect the fact that the exchange rate exerts a relatively large inuence in macroeconomic dynamics in the rst group of countries compared to the latter. Exchange rate smoothing therefore minimizes the pass-through of the exchange uctuations to ination and output leading to better performance. Overall, the ndings suggest that exchange rate smoothing is harmful in Africa. Where exchange rate smoothing delivers gains, appropriate thresholdsofsmoothingneedtobeobservedtoavoidpolicyinducedmacroeconomic instability. Authorities should also smooth temporal rather that structural shifts in the exchange rate level. In Chapter 4, we compare the performance of ination targeting (IT) vis-vis nominal GDP targeting (NGDPT) as alternative monetary policy frameworks for macroeconomic stabilization. We examine the strict and exible versions of these policy regimes. We also include a hybrid regime which combines elements of IT and NGDPT. Results show that the hybrid regime performs better in 5 countries. In the other 4 countries, it is the strict ination targeting that performs better. In 1 country, exible ination tar vi geting is optimal. The results also reveal that demand shocks dominate but are closely trailed by supply and exchange rate shocks in explaining macroeconomic uctuations. The multiplicity of signicant shocks is key in explaining the dominance of the hybrid regime. The hybrid regime successfully handles shocks that can neither be optimally handled by the IT regime nor the NGDPT regime alone. These results have several implications. First, demand management alone is insu¢ cient to stabilize African economies. Second, identifying dominant shocks is critical for choosing robust monetary policy regimes. Third, the multiplicity of signicant shocks implies that choosing monetary policy frameworks and hence macroeconomic management process is more complex for African policy makers. Overall, the results have several policy implications which are outlined in Chapter 5. First, they suggest a cautious approach towards generalized adoption of the interest rate over the monetary aggregate as a monetary policy instrument in African economies. This contradicts the current wave of monetary policy changes sweeping across African countries. Secondly, the signicanceoftheexchangeraterenderscredencetoexchangeratesmoothing in Africa. The ndings, however, suggest that exchange rate smoothing can either enhance or worsen macroeconomic performance. Where it enhances macroeconomic performance, authorities must carefully consider the thresholds of smoothing to avoid creating macroeconomic instability. Authorities need not ght structural shifts in exchange rates levels through smoothing. This would help to preserve the shock absorbing role of the exchange rate. Finally, the prevalence of demand, supply as well as exchange rate shocks makes the hybrid monetary policy regime which combines elements of IT regime as well as NGDPT regime to perform relatively better in stabilizing the majority of the economies. Given the multiplicity of shocks, authorities inAfricaneedtocomplementdemandmanagementwithpoliciesthataddress supply side and exchange rate bottlenecks to ensure sustainable macroeco vii nomic stability. Overall, the ndings suggest that there is scope to improve monetary policy performance in Africa by adopting suitable frameworks and instruments. The results also highlight the problem of tackling monetary policy issues with a "one size ts all" approach.Item Customer and employee-based brand equity driving United Bank for Africa's market performance(2017) Uford, Imoh CharlesWith increased competition in the banking industry, particularly in developing economies, United Bank of Africa Plc (UBA) in Nigeria has been thriving. The bank is a multinational financial services provider, which operates in 22 African countries. It also has offices in the US, UK and France. UBA has about 626 global branches and serves more than seven million retail, commercial and corporate global customers. Positioned as a pan-African bank, the UBA Group is firmly in the forefront of driving the renaissance of the African economy. It is also well positioned as a one-stop financial services institution, with growing reputation as the face of banking on the African continent. UBA Plc has grown over the years from being just a brand name to a house hold name in Nigeria. In 2011, it was reported that UBA’s total assets was worth about $12.3 billion. The bank is also gearing to be one of the dominant and leading banking brands in Africa. While the measurement of UBA’s asset worth is important as it reveals information of its financial performance, it can be more important to measure the worth of its intangible assets, which is being captured from the assessment of its brand equity. Brand equity does not only comprise of an organization’s intangible assets, but does reflect the values consumers hold of a brand and can also secure long-term commercial and competitive advantages for companies. With the notion that the value or power of a brand lies in what customers perceive in their minds concerning the brand, most studies have measured brand equity mainly from the customer-based brand equity (CBBE) perspective using Aaker’s (1996a) and Keller’s (1998) models. Aaker’s (1996a) model is however considered to be the most comprehensive CBBE model and it measures brand equity from five dimensions – brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, brand loyalty and proprietary assets. While CBBE can secure long-term market performance, it is being recommended that the contribution of employee-based brand equity (EBBE) should also be measured. This is particularly important in the service sector, such as banking, where “what is delivered is less important than how it is delivered”. More so, with the increasing importance of internal branding, there is a need to measure EBBE, which assesses how knowledgeable, happy and committed employees are willing to deliver on the brand promises to build brand equity. In addition to the importance of measuring both CBBE and EBBE, there is also the need to further compare the extent to which both CBBE and EBBE predict market performance, an outcome anticipated, but rarely empirically tested. This study therefore employs Aaker’s (1996) CBBE model and Kwon’s (2013) EBBE model to examine the sources of UBA’s CBBE and EBBE respectively and the extent to which each of the equities drive market performance indicators, such as consumer purchase intention, willingness to pay a price premium and brand preference. A positivist research paradigm with a quantitative survey of 182 UBA employees and 178 UBA customers were used to test the hypotheses. The relationships hypothesized in the conceptual model were empirically tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicated that the conceptual model satisfactorily fitted the data and provided reasonable explanations among variables. In terms of the relationships, it was found that UBA’s CBBE was accounted for by brand associations or image and brand loyalty. UBA’s overall CBBE positively and significantly affected all the market performance indicators of purchase intention, willingness to pay a price premium and brand preference. UBA’s EBBE which was found to be positively and significantly driven by role clarity and brand commitment could only positively and significantly predict the bank customers’ willingness to pay a price premium. Conclusively, it was found that while UBA’s EBBE make some contribution to the bank’s market performance, its CBBE is the major driver of its performance. This study theoretically contributes by not only empirically testing Aaker’s (1996b) CBBE and Kwon’s (2013) EBBE in the Nigeria’s banking sector, but by also showing how both models explain market performance. Practically, the study reveals sources of CBBE and EBBE, which not only UBA should prioritize in improving their market performance, but other service sectors in Nigeria and the continent should take special note of. Keywords: Brand equity, customer-based brand equity (CBBE), employee-based brand equity (EBBE), United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, structural equation modelling (SEM), United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, willingness to pay a price premium and brand preferenceItem The determinants of economic diversification from a Sub-Saharan African perspective(2017) Masilo, StanleySub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is poor even though it has vast natural resources, is a paradox which various scholars have studied from different points of view. Furthermore, this region has a tendency to be highly reliant on narrow natural resource export baskets which are susceptible to external shocks and mineral depletion. Thus, economic diversification is a development path that can propel SSA economies to develop broad export baskets that are not highly dependent on natural resources, in order to mitigate systemic risk that stems from volatile commodity prices and achieve long-term sustainability. The research objectives of this study are twofold. Firstly, it determines the extent of economic diversification of selected SSA economies. Secondly, this study investigates the main determinants of economic diversification. The hypothesis of this study is based on the premise that there is a statistically significant relationship between economic diversification and government quality. Government quality is an important determinant of economic diversification due to its influence on macroeconomic fundamentals, infrastructure development, public goods and services. Furthermore, government formulates national development plans which can create a conducive environment for economic diversification to take place. The main policy recommendations towards achieving economic diversification from a SSA perspective, are encapsulated by the following aspects: structural reform and Group EconomicsItem Financial sector development and economic growth in South Africa: role of the banking sector(2022) Monareng, Kabelo PreciousThis “study examines effects of the efficiency of the financial sector on economic growth in South Africa through an augmented Solow-Swan growth model using annual data from 1975 to 2020. The financial sector development is characterised by the role of the banking sector in enhancing growth through the productive use of a country’s stock of financial capital. In this study, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and instrumental variable (IV) models are used to estimate the derived augmented financial sector induced growth regressions. The ARDL method observes a positive but insignificant effect of financial sector development on economic growth. However, using internal instruments, instrumental variable regression provides joint endogeneity between regressors. The IV estimation results show that financial sector development has a significant positive effect on economic growth, hence, increased efficiency in the banking sector can lead to enhanced growth. In addition, the results observe that the quality of institutions are crucial to the relationship between financial sector and economic growth. To this end, policymakers should continue to improve financial inclusion and the quality of institutions, which could potentially spur economic growth in South Africa.Item How to win real-life Monopoly: the roles of tax havens and finance in the monopolisation of multinational corporations(2022) Nadarajah, Kristin DilaniMuch like individual income inequality, there is an increasing gap between top corporations and the rest, in terms of revenue, profits, and power more broadly. This gap is reinforced and exacerbated by the largest corporations’ ability to minimise taxes through the use of tax havens and the offshore system. There has been extensive research mapping the issue of corporate tax avoidance, as well as documenting the rise of market and monopoly power (concentration), however, there is less research combining these two. Monopoly power is thoroughly dealt with in the Monthly Review School tradition with their monopoly capital roots. Recent developments within the tradition have also incorporated finance as a key aspect of the tendency of capital to concentrate and centralise. Nevertheless, tax havens and the system around them have been excluded from this debate. This paper finds that tax havens play a crucial role in the process of concentration and centralisation of capital for three key reasons: (i) they act as a driver of financialisation which in turn accelerates the centralisation process, (ii) they provide cost minimising tools which have become central parts of capital accumulation, and (iii) they contribute to creating more opaque markets and increase the competitive advantages of the giant corporations, allowing them to increase barriers to entry. Tax havens and their usage by multinational corporations (MNCs) must therefore be seen as a systematic issue that plays a key role in not only the financial system, but also in the economy and capitalist system as a vehicle of capital accumulation in the hands of a few.Item Local is lekker: cam the Mining Charter III create a new black industrialist class(2022) Davids-Green, Larah-AnnDespite the vast resource endowment, South Africa has experienced a hollowing out of industrial capabilities and entered into premature de-industrialisation. This research was motivated by the State of the Nation Address on the 16th of February 2019, given by the current President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa. He spoke of the government taking action to transform the economy using the mining and manufacturing industry not as a sunset industry, but rather as a sunrise industry. The President highlighted the critical role of the Mining Charter Three would play as “truly an effective instrument to sustainably transform the face of mining in South Africa.” This informed the research objective: to assess whether the Mining Charter Three can successfully foster a new black industrialist class. Qualitative research underpinned the study. Data was collected from five companies which have emerged as BBEE partners to determine whether they are enjoying the fruits of forward and backward linkages in the mining sector. From the data collected, it is evident that the sector is empowering a new breed of black entrepreneurs, hence the sector is acting as a sunrise industryItem A Multi-dimensional framework for adopting Physical Address System in a developing country(2017) Ditsela, JeofreyThis thesis is about the adoption of an Information System (IS) at a country level. Information Systems literature addresses adoption of IS at an individual level, organisational level or national/country level. Each level of analysis has its own complexities. However, literature acknowledging these varied complexities has not been forth coming. That is, literature has more studies done at either individual or organisational, and hardly at national or country level. This thesis argues that the adoption of an information system (also referred to as an innovation) at country level is a multi-dimensional and multi-level phenomenon. Existing literature and previous studies have hardily addressed fully, this complexities and multi-dimensionalism, although it has been noted that countries experience and internalise the innovation adoption, as a social process, differently. The study was on a developing country adopting a Physical Address System (PAS), herein seen as an IS innovation. In this thesis, PAS is seen as a social system comprising of artefacts (digital and visual representations), physical world, residents and organisations as stakeholders. The goal of the study was to conceptualise a multi-dimensional framework for adopting a Physical Address System, in the context of a developing country. Since the thesis argument is that the adoption of IS at a country level is even more complex, varied theories were employed as lenses to tackle the various aspect of the study. These lenses are the Diffusion of Innovation, the Stakeholder Theory, Upper Echelon Theory and the Contextualist Approach. Following the interpretivist philosophy, a case study was employed as a research strategy, using Botswana as a developing country case. The research design included semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, observations, policy documents. The data was analysed, discussed, synthesised and interpreted using thematic framework analysis method. Informed by the empirical evidence and the existing literature, this thesis conceptualises that the adoption of the Physical Address System ought to be done sensitive to the developing country as a multi-dimensional social system. This multi-dimensional social system includes the roles of stakeholders, determinants of innovation and context. The contribution of the thesis is in four folds; theoretical, methodological, practical, and contextual. Theoretically, the thesis conceptualised a multi-dimensional framework for the adoption of the Physical Address System in a developing country. Methodologically, the thesis contributed by following an interpretive philosophy and a case study as appropriate for understanding the complexities of adopting an information system, employing a case. Practically, the thesis, through the framework, may inform practitioners with ways to adopt a physical address system. Contextually, the thesis gives insight into the uniqueness of a developing country adopting an information system. Keywords: Developing Country, Adoption, Physical Address System, Stakeholder Theory, Upper Echelon Theory, Diffusion of Innovation, ContextItem Testing the adaptive efficiency of bitcoin(2022) Maredi, MaromoThis research aims to investigate an alternative view of market dynamics referred to as the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis which posits that an asset’s efficiency will change over time. As such, this research will test whether Bitcoin is time-varyingly efficient. This will be accomplished in three stages. Firstly, whether Bitcoin returns follow a random walk/martingale will be investigated. If they do, that means that they cannot be predicted, thereby providing evidence of the weak-form market efficiency. If they do not follow a random walk, however, the second phase of the investigation turns to whether they can be modelled. The first attempt models the current Bitcoin return as a function of its own lagged values, which is predicated the idea of all relevant information being reflected in historical returns. The inadequacy of this model in its description of the returns generating process, provides evidence that there is private information that historical returns do not reflect which impacts returns. To account for this, the returns generating process is thus modelled using both historical returns and exogenous lagged variables without need to specify the model’s functional form. If the model performs better in some periods than in others, it can be inferred thus that Bitcoin is timevaryingly efficient.Item The analysis of ICO and IEO performance in the shortand long-run(2022) Matereke, Ngonidzashe N.Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) today present themselves as fastgrowing alternatives and innovative ways to raise external financing for entrepreneurial ventures or fintech start-ups through the selling of coins directly to investors. This study analyses both the ICO and IEO in the short-and long-run. Examined are 101 ICOs listed between January 2017 and June 2021, as well as 22 IEOs listed between January 2018 and June 2021. Furthermore, the study explores various ICO and IEO performance determinants using a fixed effects regression model. The variables analysed are proxies for asymmetric information that exists between the issuing firm and investors, size was found to be the only significant variable. More so, the study finds that generally ICO and IEO are over-priced, this eventually results in coins performing poorly following aftermarket performance. Short-run performance seems to play little to no role in determining the long-run performance of newly issued coins. The results of this study suggest that the availability of white paper is not adequate to address the asymmetric information that persists between the issuing firm and investors. Lastly, using a buy-and-hold strategy the study finds that coins underperform in the long-run as given by negative abnormal returns of 35.06% after 3 years.Item The challenges of inclusive industrial development in South Africa's clothing and textile sector(2022) Wesi, BoingotloSouth Africa’s clothing and textile sector has undergone a recovery process form nearly disappearing to reaching a stable condition. Over the years policies have been implemented to aid the sector and make it more competitive. However, the sector continues to be faced with developmental challenged. The study finds that within the clothing and textile sector, industrial policy has played an inadequate role as a tool of development and transformation. Secondly, the political economy of financing has been challenged as a result of pressures from transformational policies such as B-BEE. Lastly, there is a need for a policy agenda shift from competitiveness to transformation in South Africa’s clothing and textile sector.Item The impact of discretionary taxation on economic growth in South Africa(2022) Masipa, Makoto TryphosaThis paper considers the impact of taxes on long run growth in the South African context for the period: 1994 to 2019. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test was employed to test the long run cointegrating relationship between the variables. Further, in the study, the long run and the short run models were estimated. The results from the cointegration tests show that there is a significant long run relationship between GDP growth and tax revenue. Supply-side theorists advocate for tax cuts to improve growth; however, the results investigated in this paper are contrary to those espoused by supply-side theorists. Tax revenue can potentially improve growth in South Africa if put to good use. There is a stable long run relationship with high levels of significance between GDP and total factor productivity and between GDP and labour forces. Further, the results show a positive yet insignificant relationship between GDP growth and human capital growth. In the short run, results show that there is a positive and insignificant relationship between GDP and tax revenue as well as between GDP and human capital and labour forces. Finally, the results show a significant and positive relationship between Total factor productivity and GDP. It is recommended that adjustments in the level of government expenditure should be made to promote economic growth in South Africa (Example, invest in education and labour forces for growth).Item The social and economic relationship between renewable energy (solar) and gendered labour(2021) Taylor, JuliaThe world faces a climate crisis due to the extraction and burning of fossil fuels which has supported industrialisation and capitalist expansion. One of the solutions to the climate crisis is to reduce carbon emissions by transitioning from a fossil fuel-based energy system to one based on renewable sources such as solar or wind energy. The just energy transition promises to address unemployment and poverty while reducing the carbon intensive nature of the energy system. However, this energy transition is complex and holds uncertainty and risk for many people, particularly workers and communities who depend on the coal value chain. This research report adopts a feminist political economy lens to explore the relationship between the development of renewable energy and gendered labour. This approach highlights the importance of the economy, the household and the state in the process of social reproduction. It is relevant to debates about a just energy transition because it highlights gender and racial inequalities and the undervalued and unpaid work required for social reproduction which should be addressed in any effort to achieve justice. By analysing the impact of the development of solar power plants on the workers and communities in three towns in the Northern Cape, and focusing on the three components of social reproduction, I find that the energy transition in its current form will not deliver justice for the poor and working classes.Item The trajectory and determinants of dividends on the Johannesburg stock exchange(2022) Sekgosana, NomasontoThis study examines factors affecting the decisions of firms to pay dividends using non-financial firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The study uses 1) descriptive statistics to draw trends from the data, 2) logit regression using firm-specific factors as independent variables and a firm's decision to either pay or not pay dividends, 3) and portfolio analysis to check the robustness of the results. There is confirmation that firm-specific factors and propensity can explain the declining number of dividend-paying firms over the sample period. The South African stock market has seen a significant decline in the number of firms paying dividends from 1994 to 2020. Additionally, the pool of JSE firms declined from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. However, the overall number of firms on the JSE has remained stable since 2004 while that of dividend-paying firms continuously declined throughout the sample period. Thus, the shrunk market of the JSE does not seem to explain the drop in the number of firms paying dividends. In pursuit of specific reasons to explain the declining dividend payment trend, the study proposes five hypotheses based on the evidence from the literature. The first four predictions are based on firm-specific factors (profit, size, free cash flow and investment opportunities), while the last one is based on the propensity of firms to pay dividends over the sample period. All three methods of analysis used show either very strong or some evidence that profitability and size play a significant role in the decision of a firm to pay dividends. Although there is evidence regarding a firm’s investment opportunities, the study shows that this would be subject to a particular time frame and the size of the firm. Additionally, the fifth prediction based on the firms ‘propensity to pay dividends was supported by all three methods of analysis. Therefore, firms, in general, were less inclined to pay dividends over time during the sample period irrespective of firm-specific factors. Furthermore, the study incorporates the contribution of certain major economic and regulatory events in explaining the observed declining number of dividend-paying firms.Item What fiscal policy measures are associated with higher economic growth in South Africa? With specific reference to spending and taxation(2022) Qomoyi, SiyasangaThis paper investigated fiscal policy measures that impact economic growth by testing variables such as expenditure, personal income tax (PIT), corporate income tax (CIT), government debt and household consumption expenditure from 1994 to 2019. The study employed the Vector Autoregressive Model (VAR) for short-run and the Vector Error Regression Model (VEMC) for long-run models for model 1 and model 2 since there was more than two cointegration in the models. The study employed the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) for model 3 since there was no cointegration. The findings indicated that the variables have varying effects on private investment and economic growth in the short run. At the same time, an increase in debt will likely increase expenditure in the long run. A decreased household consumption expenditure would likely increase economic growth in the long run. There is a significant negative relationship between corporate tax and economic growth and a significant positive relationship between government debt and economic growth. The study further provides recommendations.