*Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters)

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Benchmarking the Technical Efficiency of South African Municipal Water Utilities: A Double-Bootstrap Dea Approach
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Matutu, Amanda; Dikgang, Johane
Efficiency enhancement in the water sector can help to optimise the use of available resources and mitigate the impact of climate change on water resources, while promoting sustainable water usage. Ultimately, this can lead to cost savings that may be channelled into enhancing service delivery and expanding access to water. Benchmarking is considered a useful method for improving water sector efficiency. The production frontier approach is the most commonly used technique for benchmarking, which can be computed using either non-parametric techniques, including data envelopment analysis (DEA), or parametric methods, including stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). A review of the literature reveals that DEA has become the most frequently used method for efficiency analysis in the water sector. Though a predictable approach, the DEA method may be influenced by measurement errors and anomalies, and it cannot be used to draw statistical conclusions. To address this problem, the double-bootstrap DEA technique was introduced, which permits statistical inference in DEA models. This technique helps the researcher to estimate efficiency scores that have been corrected for bias, and also identifies the factors that influence efficiency. For these reasons, this research employs double-bootstrap DEA to evaluate the efficiency scores of municipal water utilities in the South African water sector. The truncated double-bootstrap regression outcomes show that water consumer debt, consuming units receiving free water, and the effects of climate change (such as temperature variation and altered rainfall patterns) all impact the relative efficiencies of municipal water utilities. The results indicate notable distinctions in rankings and efficiency scores between the double-bootstrap DEA model and the traditional DEA model for both urban and rural municipal water utilities. Using the regression model, this research discovered that water consumer debt and consuming units receiving free water are significant factors influencing the efficiency of urban and rural municipal water utilities. These findings raise concerns about the prospects of South African municipal water utilities, particularly their ability to strike a balance between supporting indigent households and securing revenue for maintenance and future water infrastructure development, as well as efficiently managing water consumer debt and addressing the effects of climate change to deliver desired results consistently and sustainably.
Examining the relationship between household debt and economic performance in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-02) Karombe, Stephen; Fasanya, Ismail
High level of debt has been a major concern in the South Africa recent times. The prevalence of high debt levels hinders savings and investments, thus exerting a detrimental influence on economic growth. This surge in debt can be attributed to the consumer boom experienced in the past decade and the recent proliferation of credit cards, which have made it easier for consumers to access goods and services. This study evaluates the link between household debt and economic performance and characterises the implications of changes in household debt on economic growth in South Africa using the Toda Yamamoto VAR framework, using quarterly data covering the period 2008Q1 to 2022Q2. The connection between household debt and economic growth lies in the Life Cycle Hypothesis. The following findings are discernible from the analysis. First, the study finds that there is a bi-directional relationship between economic growth and mortgage loans and a unidirectional relationship between economic growth and household debt to disposable income ratio. Second, household debt to disposable income has a significant impact on economic growth, whilst the debt service ratio insignificantly affects economic growth with a smaller margin. Third, economic growth responds positively to mortgage loans, while a positive response to household debt exists which is transitory and positive. These results suggest that policymakers should encourage economic agents to take mortgage loans to boost economic growth in the short run. Household debt may be used to boost the economy in the short run but may deter economic growth in the long run. In the meantime, nothing maybe be done in items of debt service ratio as it has no significant impact, however, constant monitoring may be applied to avoid creeping in of debt overhang in the future. Access to household debt should be monitored and controlled since high debt significantly impacts economic growth in the long run
Associations between economic preferences and behavioural health intentions among young adults living in an informal settlement
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Andrady, Wayne Jude; Booysen, Frikkie
The emergence of non-communicable diseases in South Africa, most notably among the urban poor, is resulting in an increased burden of diseases. Since NCDs can develop in distinct periods of the life course, post-adolescence-intentions to engage in health behaviours need to be investigated. Furthermore, there is consistent evidence that health behaviours are associated with economic preferences. Yet, it is unclear whether economic preferences are also associated with behavioural health intentions. Objectives: The study aims to examine how risk-taking and patience are associated with behavioural health intentions among young adults in a poor informal urban settlement in South Africa. The study also explores whether there are gender differences in behavioural health intentions and whether these economic preferences contribute to gender gaps in behavioural health intentions. Data and Methods: The study utilized secondary survey data collected from a sample of 240 young adults using a structured questionnaire. The study collected data on behavioural intentions for seven health- protective and health-harming behaviours. Risk-taking and patience are measured using qualitative, quantitative and combined measures from the Global Preference Survey. Ordered probit and seemingly unrelated regression models were estimated and t-tests were employed to quantify gender gaps, followed by the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis. Findings The study reveals that economic preferences have a moderate association with behavioural health intentions among young adults. However, these results seem contradictory to priori expectations and further research is required. Our findings emphasize the importance of recognizing and addressing the limitations associated with imperfect measures of economic preferences when investigating their association with health behavioural intentions
Perceived returns to mathematics and student achievement: the South African case
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Gamieldien, Mohamed Faarez; Casale, Daniela
This study investigates the relationship between students’ perceived returns to mathematics – the future benefits a student believes they will obtain from studying mathematics – and mathematics achievement in South Africa. The study expands the scarce literature on the role of non-cognitive skills (and specifically extrinsic motivation) in education in South Africa. The 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) South Africa dataset was used to perform Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Instrumental Variable (IV), and Fixed Effects (FE) estimations of the model. The study finds that perceived returns to mathematics has a positive and statistically significant relationship with mathematics achievement. Further, it was found that the positive relationship that intrinsic motivation has with mathematics achievement is increased when perceived returns to mathematics is high, but that students with low intrinsic motivation for mathematics do not perform significantly differently when their perceived returns to mathematics is higher. This provides important insight into the interaction between different types of cognitive skills. Additionally, high perceived returns to mathematics had a large and significant positive relationship with mathematics achievement for students in rural schools, and the positive relationship between perceived returns to mathematics and mathematics achievement shrunk as one progressed to a more urban school location. This shows that perceived returns to mathematics matter more for students in challenging circumstances, but, importantly, the study finds that students with high perceived returns to mathematics in rural schools still perform worse than students with low perceived returns to mathematics in urban schools. This is an important finding in the South African context where gross inequalities in education persist: non-cognitive skills are important for educational achievement, but more needs to be done to improve the functionality of poor schools in South Africa
The Contribution of lifestyle risk factors on Wealth-related inequalities in Self-assessed Health and Chronic Diseases in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-05) Rosaros, Gosego Mmereki Andrew; Rossouw, Laura
There is a growing epidemiological transition from communicable diseases to non- communicable diseases (NCDs) in low- and middle-income countries. The expected pace and scale of the shift to NCDs will overwhelm the healthcare systems of many lower-income countries. A significant contributor to NCDs is lifestyle risk factors such as episodic drinking, smoking, and an unhealthy diet. This study aims to measure the contribution of current alcohol and cigarette consumption to wealth-related health inequalities in South Africa. The health measures used will be self-assessed health (SAH) and specific NCDs. This study uses data from 4178 male and 6087 female participants captured in the South African Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) in 2016. This study estimated the wealth-related health inequalities using the Erreygers’ corrected concentration index (CCI) and then estimated the Wagstaff decomposition of the concentration index to establish the contribution of alcohol and cigarette consumption to wealth-related inequalities in health outcomes. The concentration index findings indicate that the burden of morbidity is statistically significantly concentrated among individuals in wealthier quintiles for several health outcomes, except respiratory problems, which is significantly concentrated among lower wealth quintiles for males. The Wagstaff decomposition reveals that current alcohol consumption and cigarette consumption contributions to wealth-related health inequalities are smaller than the contributions of some socioeconomic and demographic factors, including wealth, educational attainment, marital status, and age. In conclusion, this study proposes that redistributing wealth towards poor individuals will likely decrease South Africa's income-related health inequalities and implement anti-smoking campaigns and advertising policies
Estimating the non-price determinants of meat demand in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Beghin, Alice; Dikgage, Johane
There is a pressing need to reduce our environmental footprint, mitigate food-related public health concerns, and ensure sustainable food systems. However, the overconsumption of meat directly undermines these needs. In order for policymakers to adapt policies to reduce the overconsumption of meat, an improved understanding of the drivers behind the demand for meat is required. Meat consumption per capita in developing economies has surpassed levels in developed countries, and is projected to continue increasing. We use South Africa as a case study, given that it is an emerging economy that is characterised by increased meat consumption since 1994. This trend correlates with (and is driven by) increasing per capita income and prices. South Africa’s diverse population (with widely varying incomes and cultures) complicates the regulatory framework required to reduce excessive meat consumption. To support consumers in making environmentally sustainable dietary protein choices, this study aims to gain a deeper understanding of meat-consumption behaviour by consumers, segmented on the basis of their meat consumption. Results were obtained through a 2015 survey of 600 community-dwelling household heads in Gauteng, South Africa. Three segments of consumers were identified by means of a two-step cluster analysis: heavy, average, and low meat consumers. The segments differed significantly in several socio-demographic and background characteristics. The segmented evaluation of consumer groups was confirmed by analysis of variance (ANOVA), which found statistically significant differences of mean weekly meat consumption amongst the three groups. To evaluate the non-price determinants of meat consumption, OLS, Poisson, and negative binomial models were run, and average marginal effects of a negative binomial model were analysed for both the separate consumer groups and the consumers as a whole. It was found that the importance of sustainable living shaped meat consumption for low and average meat consumers. Heavy meat consumers were driven by their enjoyment of the taste of meat and the centrality of meat in their meals. Behavioral economics-based nudges could prevent the overconsumption of meat in South Africa such as using environmental concerns to frame a meat reduction strategy, and challenging the link between meat consumption and gender identity
HIV/AIDS and Educational Attainment Among South African Children and Adolescents
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Havley, Simon; Booysen, Frikkie
This study examines the effects of HIV-infection, antiretroviral treatment exposure and viral load suppression on indicators of educational attainment among children and adolescents of school-going age in South Africa using data from a nationally representative survey and linked biomedical information. This study employs propensity score matching-based approaches to examine the effects of HIV-related indicators on educational attainment overall and within each gender. This study also uses decomposition analyses to examine the contribution of HIV- related indicators to gender gaps in educational attainment, and to identify factors contributing to differences in the impacts of HIV-related factors on educational attainment of females specifically. It is found that HIV-positive status has a significant impact on the likelihood of school attendance, absenteeism, and being old for one’s grade. This is the case for all children and adolescents of school-going age. These effects are statistically significant for girls but not for boys. The study also finds that HIV-related factors contribute to gender gaps in school attendance, and that these gaps are observed in all tiers of the HIV treatment cascade. These results indicate that HIV-related factors impact disproportionately and negatively on educational attainment for girls. Further research on the gendered nature of the impact of HIV on education in South Africa is encouraged, as is the design of health and education policies that specifically target improved education outcomes among HIV-positive girls.
The disproportionate effect of transport availability on the poor in South Africa: a gender perspective
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Everts, Lee; Posel,Dorrit
Issues relating to the cost and accessibility of transportation for the poor in South Africa have been thoroughly studied; however, research on the unequal impact on women and men is deficient. Thus, this study's purpose is to explore if there are gender variations in transportation disadvantage and costs, and if so, to probe possible reasons. To compare gender differences in mode of transport and expenditure, the 2020 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) from Statistics South Africa is used. Households are classified into female-dominated ( all adults in households are female), male-dominated (all adults are male) and mixed households (both female and male adults present in households). This method is used as it helps to distinguish gender differences in the economic resources available to each household type (Posel & Hall, 2021). Descriptive statistics on mode of transport (private, public and walking) and transport cost as a share of budget by household type and purpose of transport (travel to place of employment and educational institution) are first provided. A multinomial regression is then used to investigate gender differences in mode of transport in a multivariate context and an Ordinary Least Squares Regression (OLS) is used to explore gender differences in budget allocations to transport. The analysis finds that when household characteristics across household types are not controlled for, no significant differences in mode of travel between female- and male-dominated households are evident. Once included, people in female-dominated households are significantly less likely than others to walk and more likely to use public transport. Moreover, female-dominated households spend more on school transportation than male-dominated households, as well as transport shares allocated to work travel
An investigation of the relationship between ICT infrastructure and economic growth of emerging market
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-02) Jiang, Jun Wen; Fasanya, Ismail
The study examines the link between Information and Communication Technology, institutional quality, and economic growth in emerging markets over the period of 2000 to 2019, using the system Generalized Method of Moments. The connection between economic growth and technology lies on the framework of exogenous growth model. The following findings are discernible from the study. First, a substantial positive relationship exists between internet usage and economic growth, while a negative association between economic growth and fixed telephone users is evident. Second, a positive association between growth and innovation exist in emerging markets, whilst institutions reveal a negative association. These findings have a significant policy implication for policymakers to monitor innovation factors rather than institutional quality to bypass the digital divide. Consequently, policymakers should pay attention to the benefits of Information and Communication technology usage by means of reducing entries cost whilst improving network facilities transfers
A comparative analysis of the impact of Covid-19 and the global financial crisis on capital structure: Evidence from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Mjeso, Thandiwe; Chipeta, Chimwemwe
Since Modigliani and Miller (1958) introduced the modern theory of capital structure, various studies have been conducted on capital structure. This study contributes to the existing capital structure literature by investigating how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the capital structure of Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed non-financial firms and comparing this impact to that of the 2008 global financial crisis. Furthermore, this study seeks to determine the relationship between capital structure and fundamental firm factors (business risk, profitability, firm size, growth, and asset tangibility). To conduct this analysis, the financial data of these firms for the 2005 to 2022 period is extracted from Bloomberg and the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model is used to conduct the analysis of this study. The results of this study indicate that Covid-19 did not have a statistically significant impact on the capital structure of the JSE listed non-financial firms whereas, the 2008 global financial crisis had a statistically significant impact. Overall, the results of this study are consistent with the empirical evidence reported by previous studies, and they provide evidence in support of both the trade-off theory and the pecking order theory
Youth unemployment in Southern Africa: the role of corruption
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Siboyi, Lebo; Mlilo, Mthokozisi
Youth unemployment in Southern African countries remains a key concern and continues to have undesirable consequences as it leads to stagnant economic growth due to an inactive labour market and increasing pressure on the government to issue security grants amongst other issues. Most countries in Southern Africa have been faced with high youth unemployment, and policies that have been implemented thus far to counter this problem have resulted in limited success. This research aims to achieve two objectives: (i) examine the determinants of youth unemployment in Southern Africa between 1990 and 2019 and (ii) the impact of corruption on youth unemployment. Using a battery of panel data estimations techniques such as OLS, DOLS, and FMOLS simultaneously with the panel ARDL, this study assessed the relationship between corruption and youth unemployment in the 10 Southern African countries from 1990 to 2019. The findings reveal that there is a positive and significant relationship between corruption perception and youth unemployment. That is, as a country becomes less corrupt, youth unemployment increases. The cointegration analysis applied using the Pedroni and Kao tests concludes that there is a presence of a stable, long-run relationship using the combination of the variables from the model. The main conclusion from the study is that there is an indirect relationship between corruption and youth unemployment through the economic growth channel. This paper argued that corruption can promote efficiency by giving way to save time in lengthy and complex processes and rules by encouraging illegal trade. The expansion of the underground economy when corruption increases also aid in absorbing young people in the informal sector. Given that corruption is so embedded in Southern African countries, this paper recommends that when attempting to combat it, measures should be put in place to ensure that young people in the informal economy or participating and benefiting from the loopholes in the legal institutions get absorbed so that youth unemployment does not increase nor exacerbate
Linking banking sector competition and access to finance: the case of select Sub-Saharan African countries
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Molaba, Kamogkelo; Gwatidzo, Tendai
Using multi-year firm-level data of 27 Sub-Saharan countries from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES), this study investigates the link between banking sector competition and firms’ access to finance. The paper employs a probit model to measure the link between banking sector competition and access to finance by observing the impact of the four measures of competition namely: CR3, the Panzar and Rosse H-statistic, the Lerner index and the Boone indicator on credit constraints and financing obstacles whilst controlling for certain firm-level and country-level factors. The results are dominantly in line with the market power hypothesis which posits that banking sector competition improves access to finance. Additionally, the link between competition and access to finance depends on other firm-level variables such as top manager experience and industry as well as country-level variables such as institutional quality, credit information and strength of legal rights. The results of this paper are overall consistent with evidence provided by other studies that support the market power hypothesis which suggests that competitive conduct in the banking sector improves access to finance. The policy implications drawn from this study are that policymakers in the SSA region need to implement policies that strengthen competition in the banking sector without hindering efforts to strengthen banks. Policymakers need to also regulate the financing of business by banks to ensure that funds are directed at growing sectors and businesses that will in turn influence the growth of the economy
The impact of fiscal deficits on capital flows in an ‘at-risk’ framework across both resident and non-resident flows in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Meerholz, Yasmin; Farrell, Gregory
This paper studies the determinants of capital flows to South Africa by using the ‘at-risk’ framework developed by Adrian et al. (2019) and adapted for capital flow analysis in the seminal paper of Gelos et al. (2022). It extends the work of Goel and Miyajima (2021) on South Africa by including fiscal deficits as an independent variable to analyse the response of resident and non-resident flows to increases in fiscal deficits. The approach uses quantile regression to predict the probability distributions of capital flows to South Africa conditional on domestic economic and financial conditions, and external risk sentiment. Focusing on the tails as opposed to the median of the capital flow probability distributions allows for the examination of extreme cases of capital flows, such as sudden stops and surges. This paper finds a generally strong buffer effect of resident capital flows against non-resident outflows, except in the case of global risk aversion. Domestic fiscal deficits are found to have an impact on both resident and non-resident capital flows, with a specifically strong response of non-resident FDI to domestic fiscal deficits. This highlights the risk of non-resident capital flight in response to increasing fiscal deficits, and the need to properly manage fiscal deficits. This paper has important policy implications as it allows for a better understanding of what causes and subsequently what should help mitigate extreme capital flows
Support for social welfare in South Africa: Insights from national attitudinal data
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Basdow, Alisha; Posel, Dorrit
This study contributes to the South African literature on social welfare by providing an assessment of attitudes towards social welfare redistribution and attitudes towards government spending on the poor. The study investigates the individual characteristics that correlate with attitudes towards social welfare and government spending on the poor. The particular characteristics that are of interest in this study are socioeconomic status and religiosity. The data from the 2018 South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS) are used in this study. The study finds that in South Africa, religiosity promotes greater pro-social attitudes. Subjective socioeconomic status does not significantly increase or decrease adults’ attitudes towards the provision of social grants. However, adults that subjectively identify as being poor are more likely to support pro-poor spending than adults that identify as being wealthy. The findings of this study are mostly consistent with findings from studies done in other countries
The impact of COVID-19 on the Gender Wage Gap in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Ngcobo, Khwezi
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in large distributional changes in the South African labour market. Prior to the pandemic, South African women were compensated less relative to South African men. This paper applies the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the gender wage gap between February 2020, April 2020, June 2020 and March 2021. Results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic widened the existing monthly gender wage gap, while barely altering the hourly wage gap over the given period. The study finds that the main contributor to the gender wage gap is discrimination in the South African labour market. Key variables that contributed to the discrimination component across all periods are population group and having children aged below 7 years. Gender differences in the composition of the employment sector, having young children and hours of work also significantly contributed to the gender wage gap. These results suggest a need for gender- sensitive policies to improve the labour market position of disadvantaged individuals
Anxious Vigilance – An investigation of the relationship between Optimal Managerial Ownership and Firm Value on the JSE
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Muhlarhi , Tiniso Willie; Seetharam, Yudhvir
Managerial ownership has been advanced as a more effective corporate governance mechanism in minimising agency related costs by aligning the interests of managers with those of shareholders. This study examines the effects of equity ownership, using different ownership groups, on firm value of firms listed in the South African stock exchange to ascertain whether equity ownership results in well governed firms with higher firm value over the period of 2010 to 2020. The results are largely consistent with those in emerging markets, the results document that there is no statistically significant direct relationship between equity ownership and firm value. M ore so deviations from optimal equity ownership, both below and above optimal equity ownership, does not reduce firm value. The results also show that a portfolio of ownership firms (which refers to firms in which CEOs, the Executive Team, and Insiders (general employees) have equity ownership in the firm) outperforms a portfolio of non-ownership firms over the period 2015-2020, this aspect is more consistent to results reported in developed markets. Overall, managerial ownership does not appear to be an effective mechanism to aligning interest of shareholders and their managers in the South African landscape, other alternatives such as debt are proposed
A gendered analysis of labour market outcomes in South Africa during Covid-19: Evidence from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06-22) Selman, Cheryl-Lyn; Casale, Daniela
The global financial crisis of 2008-2009 disproportionately affected men’s employment. As has been the case in previous economic slumps, industries like manufacturing which predominantly employed men, experienced deeper declines (Mosomi et al 2020). However, soon after the Covid-19 pandemic started spreading globally, early predictions were that women would be hit harder by the Covid-19 crisis than men, because of the kinds of sectors (i.e. industries) and jobs (i.e. less secure, part-time, not UIF registered etc.) in which women dominated (Alon et al 2020; Dingel and Neiman 2020; Joyce and Xu 2020, Mongey and Weinberg 2020; Mosomi et al 2020), and also because of their role in childcare. Growing empirical research suggested this was indeed the case. In addition, women’s employment was slower to recover than men’s as economies reopened (Mosomi et al 2020, Casale and Shepherd 2021), and pre-Covid inequalities had worsened (Casale and Shepherd 2021). The gender gap persisted, even once occupation fixed effects and the proportion of work-from-home tasks as well as education had been used to account for individual differences in workforces in the UK and US (Adams- Prassl et al 2020).
Gender-union wage gap in South Africa: an unconditional quantile regression & coarsened exact matching approach
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Hlapisi, Nthabiseng; Gwatidzo, Tendai
South African women have been fairing badly in the labour market compared to their male counterparts since pre-colonial times due to both cultural and legal restrictions (and discrimination). Despite the corrective measures (e.g. legislation changes) that were introduced by the South African government post-apartheid to improve women’s social status, labour market conditions remain unfavorable for women. Labour unions are actively advocating for gender equality as well as higher and more equitable salaries. However, the extant literature on unions and wages pay more attention on the impact of unions and wages. There is paucity of literature on the moderating role of unions on the gender-wage inequality. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the impact of labour unions on the gender-wage inequality in South Africa, using the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) data obtained from the DataFirst website for the 2008 to 2017 waves. Furthermore, this study uses more recent econometric techniques, viz. unconditional quantile regression (UQR) and coarsened exact matching (CEM) methods with interaction effects, on a panel of 12,881 individuals. These methods are superior than the ones used in the extant literature as they control individual heterogeneities, sample attrition and selection bias that may arise from individuals’ decisions to join unions. Both the CEM and UQR results suggest a strong positive relationship between unions and wages in South Africa. In addition, both models suggest that labour unions narrow down the existing gender-wage gap in South Africa. However, this impact is weakened at higher-ends of the income distribution as the magnitude by which unions reduce the gender-wage gap reduces at higher percentiles (i.e. the 75th and 90th percentiles). This is possibly due to high-incomeearners being individuals with higher productive abilities (such as higher levels of education and additional skills) and therefore having more bargaining power to negotiate their own wages in the absence of unions. Another possible explanation could be that high productive abilities are a signal to employers that an individual will be able to do the job better than individuals with low productive abilities. This leads to employers being able to better estimate wages for such individuals outside the bargaining power of unions. These findings are important as they indicate that either unions have a weakened bargaining power for high-income earners, or that the high-income earners experience less gender-wage discriminations. It is therefore worthwhile for policymakers to analyse such trends before implementing “one-for-all” union policies and other related policies aimed at reducing gender inequality
The concept of separate legal personality in company law and its impact on the governance of company groups
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Maralack, Lawrence-John; Katzew, Judith
This research focuses on the concept of separate legal personality as it applies to company groups. This research analyses the phenomenon that the separate legal personality of subsidiaries within these company groups enables them to act in breach of good corporate governance norms. This is due to the fact that accountability may be avoided by the holding company in a group through the practice of ‘judgement proofing.’ This research proposes that a more progressive consideration of the remedy of piercing the corporate veil as well as finding alternatives to veil piercing can be used to ensure that the entity theory does not enable corporate malfeasance (as seen in the case of Milieudefensie vs Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited). It is argued that this will promote better corporate governance within company groups
Between Stability and Sovereignty: The Implications of the CFA Franc Adoption for Peripheral Economies in the Currency Hierarchy
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Diallo, Aissata; De Conti, Bruno; Tinel,, Bruno
The current composition of the International Monetary System (IMS), following the dissolution of the Bretton Woods system, has changed significantly. In the past, the system was characterized by fixed exchange rates, strict capital controls, and general economic stability. However, recent decades have been characterized by financial deregulation and liberalization, with the gradual removal of capital controls and the widespread adoption of flexible exchange rates. As part of this reconfiguration of the IMS, the dichotomy between center and periphery has intensified: Developed countries have secured a dominant position within the global capital system thanks to their highly liquid reserve currencies, giving them the leeway to tailor economic policies to their domestic needs. Conversely, developing countries have become more vulnerable to external shocks and are subject to the volatility of exchange and interest rates in this asymmetric system (see, e.g., de Paula et al., 2017; Fritz et al., 2018; Palludeto & Abouchedid, 2016). These inequalities have been highlighted in the theory of currency hierarchies, a post-Keynesian framework. This theory posits that the IMS is determined by the exchange rate regime, the degree of capital mobility, and the currency hierarchy. The latter is based on the premise that not all currencies can efficiently perform the traditional functions of money – a unit of account, means of payment, and store of value – at the international level. The consequence is a liquidity hierarchy, with developing countries at the bottom of this pyramid (de Paula et al., 2017; Palludeto & Abouchedid, 2016).

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