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South Africa's integration into the global economy: a structural dynamic factor analysis

  • Authors: Kabundi, Alain Ntumba
  • Date: 2008-06-10T05:47:17Z
  • Subjects: Economic integration in Southern Africa , South Africa's foreign economic relations , Globalization , International economic integration
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:9543 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/596
  • Description: This thesis studies the integration of South Africa into the global economy. It uses a structural dynamic factor model approach, instead of the well known structural vector autoregressive method, as it accommodates a large panel of time series variables characterized by a number of series significantly larger than the number of observations available. South African economic cycles show some comovement with cycles of its trading partners. But the synchronization with major trading partners has declined over time due to structural reforms initiated by the post-apartheid government. A new monetary regime, trade and financial openness, an increase in political stability together with reduced uncertainty have outweighed South African output comovement with the rest of the world. Shocks from advanced economies (the US and the EU) and East Asian countries, especially demand shocks, affect domestic variables significantly. The main channels are business and consumer confidence, trade variables, interest rates, and the exchange rate. Although South Africa comoves with Latin American countries, trade and financial linkages are still very weak. The level of development, perceptions of economic agents, and fluctuations of advanced economies (the US and the EU) are the main reasons contributing to the synchronization of their variables. South Africa’s position in Africa as economic leader starts to produce results leading to output synchronization with some of its partners’ from SADC. Similar to the Latin American scenario, the main reason is that the two sides share the EU as primary trading partner. Because of the vulnerability of the South African economy, policymakers must pay a particular attention and monitor closely developments in the global economy. In the same line, they should promote policies that enable the country to have access to international markets. Given the interdependence with the rest of the world, policymakers should monitor closely the performance of the global economy. Nevertheless, idiosyncratic features of the South African economy do play a role in the explaining fluctuations in economic activity. Hence, policies that lead to a structural transformation of the domestic economy are necessary. Reforms that allow labor market flexibility; promote competition; and support human capital formation through education, are imperative. , Doctor Francisco Nadal De Simone Professor Daniel Marais
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Die haalbaarheid van private staatskepping in die era van globalisering

Desperately seeking FDI: the impact of globalisation on the state and its devolved entities

  • Authors: Weertman, Warren
  • Date: 2009-04-30T09:23:47Z
  • Subjects: Globalization , Foreign investments , The state , Economic development , Economic policy (South Africa)
  • Type: Mini-Dissertation
  • Identifier: uj:8326 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/2453
  • Description: M.A. , Of our age, perhaps the two defining terms have been “the state” and “globalisation”, each of which is constantly changing and adapting as the international community has to deal with an increasing multiplicity of actors in the field of international relations. Witness not only the rise of supra-national state units such as the European Union, but also the increased importance of sub-national state units such as provinces and cities in international relations. At the same time it is possible to distinguish between various types of globalisation such as political and economic globalisation. Each of these types of globalisation influences the state in a variety of ways. For example, political globalisation has led to the rise in importance of supra-national and sub-national state units. As for economic globalisation, this study assesses the influence of one particular feature of economic globalisation namely FDI on the South African state and its sub-national state units, particularly Gauteng and Johannesburg. In order to assess the influence of foreign direct investment on the structure of the South African state, the study provides a theoretical framework of globalisation and the state. This theoretical framework is then built upon by incrementally discussing the structure and economic policies of the central South African state before assessing the structure and economic policies of Gauteng and Johannesburg. Particular attention is paid to the economic responses of the central South African state, Gauteng and Johannesburg to a particular manifestation of economic globalisation, namely foreign direct investment. In this regard the study discusses the precepts of the central state‟s policy known as “Growth, Employment, and Redistribution” as a means of attempting to attract foreign direct investment to South Africa. Within the context of Gauteng and Johannesburg the study assesses how these sub-national state units have adopted local economic development policies as a means to attract foreign direct investment. At the same time it is necessary to consider how these local economic development policies fit into the neo-liberal precepts of central government‟s economic policies. It was noted above that it is possible to distinguish between various types of globalisation such as political and economic globalisation. Each of these types of globalisation influences the state in variety of ways. This study assesses the influence of one particular feature of economic globalisation namely FDI on the South African state and its sub-national state units, particularly Gauteng and Johannesburg. In order to assess the influence of FDI on the South African state, Gauteng and Johannesburg, the study assesses how each of these three spheres of the South African state are attempting to attract FDI through the adoption of economic policies and other policies (such as GEAR and LED programmes). This study will assess the possibility of whether Gauteng and Johannesburg should be given greater autonomy and flexibility to attract FDI. The question which the study thus seeks to answer is: how does FDI (as a feature of globalisation) influence the structure of the South African state and the relationship between the central South African state and its sub-national state units?
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Social policy development and global financial crisis in the open economies of Botswana and Mauritius

  • Authors: Ulriksen, Marianne S.
  • Date: 2011
  • Subjects: Financial crisis , Globalization , Social security spending , Social policy development
  • Type: Article
  • Identifier: uj:5855 , ISSN 1468-0181 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/7952
  • Description: The manner in which open economies in a globalized world shape social policy development is highly disputed, as is the impact of the current financial crisis on social policy. One argument is that globalization and economic austerity force social policy dismantling. Alternatively, it is proposed that open economies – facing greater volatility, especially during crisis – push for greater social protection. Using the examples of Botswana and Mauritius, two open middle-income countries, this article suggests that, in fact, both arguments may be correct. The impact of globalization and economic crisis depends on the character of the welfare system already in place and the organized interests underpinning it. In Botswana a main social policy thrust is to increase efficiency in spending, whereas issues of job security and compensation are more prevalent in Mauritius. The findings imply that divergence across welfare systems persists and that, even in crisis, countries often use tried social policy solutions.
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Financial globalisation : lessons for South Africa

  • Authors: Mose, Xoliswa
  • Date: 2012-08-08
  • Subjects: Globalization , Globalization - Economic aspects - South Africa , Developing countries - Economic integration , Southern Africa - Economic integration
  • Type: Mini-Dissertation
  • Identifier: uj:8965 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/5436
  • Description: M. Comm. , Globalisation has become one of the contentious issues of our time. Some have praised it while others have strongly criticised it. The debate on the merits of financial globalisation intensified in the aftermath of the emerging market crises. The realisation that even countries with high growth rates and sound macroeconomic policies could be severely affected by a rapid reversal of capital flows spurred this debate. This happened just when South Africa was increasingly becoming part of this global village, where national borders have been made 'meaningless'. The resulting havoc that followed the emerging market crises, has affected even the most vulnerable groups of our society. This study aims to examine financial globalisation, its impact on the South African economy and the lessons, if any, that can be drawn from the experiences of other countries. South Africa's experiences are typical of the broader experience of financial globalisation in other emerging market economies. However, there are distinct differences in the nature of financial globalisation in these countries and the policy responses of the respective countries. Thus there are different lessons that follow from the Asian and Latin American experiences. This limits the whole transfer of best practice from these regions to South Africa.
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Thinking globally and acting locally rethinking classroom management in township schools

  • Authors: Mokoena, Catherine Rejoice
  • Date: 2012-08-22
  • Subjects: Classroom management -- South Africa , Globalization , Blacks -- Education -- South Africa , International education -- South Africa
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: http://ujcontent.uj.ac.za8080/10210/369442 , uj:2965 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/6391
  • Description: M.Ed. , Globalisation is a worldwide phenomenon it poses enormous challenges in the new world of work of which schools are not exceptions. As a result of globalisation the world has become small, interconnected and interdependent. The researcher argues that the interconnectedness and interdependence of the world poses a number of immeasurable challenges for South African township schools today. Therefore, a new paradigm in viewing education is eminently important to improve the South African township schools. This study focuses on reconceptualising classroom-management practices using global education trends in South African township schools. Furthermore, it presents evidence and arguments that it is significant for township schools to contribute to the creation of learning communities by offering a sound body of knowledge that enhances learners capacity and high performance. A single case study was used to explore the concept of thinking globally and acting locally whilst rethinking classroom management in township schools. The study was conducted at J.E Malepe Secondary School situated in a township called Tsakane. Data was collected through focus-group interview, observation and document analysis. A qualitative research method was employed with 6 educators as respondents for the focusgroup interview. Lincoln and Guba's (1985) model of trustworthiness of qualitative research was employed for validity and reliability of the study. The analysis in this study was carried out according to the following framework: comparing units applicable to each category; integrating categories and their properties; delimiting the construction; and using an independent coder. The following themes emerged from the analysis: the influence of globalisation on education; traditional approach versus transformational approach to classroom management practices; learnercentredness; knowledge implementation; resistance to change; and life-long learning. Findings suggested that globalisation has significant implications in managing classrooms in South African township schools; and that global .education is a critical aspect in effective classroom management. In general, this study found it is imperative that all learners be equipped with requisite skills to survive in the global village.
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Information management and globalisation : utilising information management systems in financial systems

  • Authors: Roberts, Ridwaan
  • Date: 2012-08-23
  • Subjects: Management information systems , Financial services industry , Online information services , Globalization , Electronic commerce
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:3071 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/6491
  • Description: M.Comm. , The Financial Services industry is in the throes of significant changes and challenges. Managers confronted with the metoric of the "information age" may experience a variety of emotions, ranging from excitement to suspicion or even outright scepticism. What has changed is that more and more businesses are defining their strategies in terms of information or knowledge. Today we hear and read much about "the learning organisation", "working knowledge", "knowledge networks", "business ntelligence", "competitor intelligence". These concepts may be popular to all but to executives they need to be clear — they make strategic decisions. Executives must realise these MIS, CIS and Expert Systems, are more than tools, they are a way of life, a way to gain strategic competitive advantage in a new market — called global isation. Managers need to rely on knowledge to make decisions and add value to the financial performance and use their collective experience without becoming bogged down in methodological or technological complexity. Biggest is no longer necessary the best. Today it is often more profitable to focus attraction the best customers than to attempt to reduce cost. Executives should be cautious, even suspicious; of the technological and software solutions being offered and sceptical that one concept can do it all. This is not surprising because we are dealing with knowledge, information and above all people. Add these together and we are to paraphrase the physicist, Freeman Dyoon, "infinite in all direction". Nevertheless companies understand that past experience has shown that common purpose, culture and focus can mobilise people for profitable and personally rewarding creativity and achievement. The future competitive landscape demands no less!
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The impact of cross-border agreements on smaller economies : a techno-economic analysis

  • Authors: Kyriakou, Stefanos
  • Date: 2012-08-30
  • Subjects: International economic relations , Commercial treaties , South Africa - Commercial treaties , European Union - Commercial treaties , Trade blocs - European Union , Globalization , Mining engineering - Economic aspects
  • Type: Mini-Dissertation
  • Identifier: uj:3425 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/6821
  • Description: M.Ing , The blue flag of the European Union (EU), with its characteristic gold stars, representative of the European member states, has become synonymous with the phenomenon of globalisation and continent sized trading blocs. It represents a bold statement and way of thinking that started many years ago, and has started to successfully materialise only recently. The flag of the European Union is misleading, however. Although these gold stars might all be symmetrically placed and appear to be equi-sized, in reality this is not so. These stars are anything but equal in size or stature, and the impact felt by member states, as a result of the new EU rules and regulations, affect different members in varying degrees and ways. It is this conflict among states within the techno-economic arena, in a time of change, that is the subject of this dissertation. In this dissertation, an attempt has been made to investigate, and subsequently, highlight the impact that the cross-border agreement, or agreements, as in the case of the EU, has on the smaller economy, and in particular to its industry.
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The role of participative communication towards a company's ascend to 'world class' status

  • Authors: Nkadimeng, Mmabje Moffat
  • Date: 2012-09-07
  • Subjects: Industrial relations , Communication in organizations , Globalization , Employees - Attitudes , Work ethic , Employees - Training of
  • Type: Mini-Dissertation
  • Identifier: uj:9743 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/7152
  • Description: M.Phil. , This study aimed at indicating that participative communication plays an important role in ensuring that a company ascent to 'world-class' status. In order for a typical South African company to become 'world-class' it must overcome a number of hurdles namely: employees' attitudes in South African organisations; productivity and competitiveness; education, and training and development; absence of work ethics and values; the corpse shadow theory; crime; HIV/AIDS and emigration. The question of companies to become 'world-class' is imperative because of the phenomenon of globalisation. The globalisation is the state of affairs economically, politically and to a certain degree socially and scientifically in which the world has been reduced to a tonal 'global village'. The 'global village' is thus a 'global market place' in which South Africa found itself thrown into after 1994, after a long winter and cocoon of economic and political isolation of pre-1994 years. South African companies found that their contemporaries are afar in the fierce economic race. The 'global market' is a battlefield in which companies (locally and internationally) fight for acquisition of lion's share in the market, retention and attraction of skilful and talented workers. The worker suitable for the 'global labour market' simply move around the globe and so does money in billions of dollars. The level- of technology is high, states' borders are `torn' to allow free movement of knowledge, information, money and skilled workers and resources. To survive in this battlefield companies (countries) must be thus productive, profitable and competitive. The study shows South Africa as being typically sluggish: showing low ranking in terms of performance economically (productivity, profitability and competitiveness). To become productive the managers and employees must change from their confrontational attitudes of the 'them versus us', adopt a 'pentotal' employment relations mindset that take the customers and shareholders into account as stakeholders. The customers want to pay for service or product of value. Thus the role and place of core values in participative work culture is addressed in this study.
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The dynamics of the global market : a knowledge acquisition and application approach

  • Authors: Madonsela, Nelson Sizwe , Mbecke, Paulin , Mbohwa, Charles
  • Date: 2015-07-01
  • Subjects: Global competitiveness , Globalization
  • Type: Article
  • Identifier: uj:5227 , ISBN 978-988-19253-4-3 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/14553
  • Description: Globalization has created vast economic opportunities for nations and companies around the world to access the global market. Consequently, nations and companies specifically within the manufacturing sector and service industries are doing business around a borderless globe. Nations are focusing on the global market to strengthen their economic growth and investing their resources in different infrastructural aspects to facilitate rapid economic growth. There has been a constant change within the global market, making nations and companies struggle to keep up with the global market emerging trends. This paper provides insight into the dynamics of the global market and the key elements contributing to these constant changes. It seeks to alert nations and companies to the need to re-focus in order to sustain competitive advantage in the global economic market. It sensitizes nations and companies to the need to re-focus on key elements such as knowledge acquisition and application in order to sustain competitive advantage in the global economic market. The main argument of this paper is that companies and nations in the developing world strive to keep up with the uncertain environments of the global market, but they overlook the dynamics of the global market. This paper’s findings suggest that sustaining competitiveness at the business level requires knowledge acquisition and application, complementary to which is further education, technical skills, re-training and technological development. At the national level this knowledge acquisition and application balances the effective strategic leadership, attracting foreign investment and reaching global networks.
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Peripheral capital goes global: Naspers, globalization and global media

  • Authors: Tomaselli, K. G.
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Naspers , Tencent , Globalization
  • Language: English
  • Type: Article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/407114 , uj:34255 , Citation: Tomaselli, K.G. 2019: Peripheral capital goes global: Naspers, globalization and global media.
  • Description: Abstract: Naspers, a South African media conglomerate worth USD$64 billion in 2016, operates across a range of media and information platforms in 120 countries, including many ‘emerging markets’. Naspers is an exemplar of media markets’ contra-flow, conceptualised as the movement of information, media content, consumer goods and capital from the ‘developing world’ into more developed markets. This study i) examines how Naspers has diversified its core media holdings (print and satellite) into digital information service providers and e-commerce; ii) how this was achieved both globally and domestically; and iii) how this diversification allowed Naspers to maintain its pre-eminent position in the South African media market...
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Essays on industrialisation and deindustrialisation

  • Authors: Callaghan, Christian William
  • Date: 2020
  • Subjects: Industrialization , Deindustrialization , Globalization , Manufacturing
  • Language: English
  • Type: Doctoral (Thesis)
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/448607 , uj:39365
  • Description: Abstract: The primary objective of this thesis is to test what determines industrial development and the extent to which industrialisation drives important country-level economic outcomes such as growth, globalisation, and poverty reduction. Global evidence indicates an inverted-U shaped relationship between countries’ level of income per capita and the share of manufacturing in GDP. There is, however, substantial heterogeneity associated with individual country experiences. Given this heterogeneity, it is unclear as to how the determinants of manufacturing’s share of gross domestic product differ across country groups at different levels of development, and if there are regional differences in these determinants. To test these relationships, Chapter 2 investigates differences in determinants of manufacturing for a world sample of 100 countries for the period 1970-2014. The study applies country fixed effects panel regression analysis to sixteen sub-groups of countries differentiated by stage of development, regions and endowments. The results reveal important differences in the determinants of manufacturing’s share, particularly for countries at different stages of development. Findings also contest the assumption that a common path of manufacturing-led development might be available to countries at all levels of development... , D.Phil. (Economics)
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Economic Complexity Index and Economic Development Level under Globalization : An Empirical Study

  • Authors: Mao, Zhuqing , An, Qin Rui
  • Date: 2021
  • Subjects: Economic Complexity Index , Development , Globalization
  • Language: English
  • Type: Journal article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/494372 , uj:44863 , Citation: Mao, Z. and An, Q., 2021. Economic Complexity Index and Economic Development Level under Globalization: An Empirical Study. Journal of Korea Trade (JKT), 25, pp.41-55. , ISSN: 1229-828X
  • Description: Abstract: Purpose – This paper empirically investigates the relationship between the Economic Complexity Index (ECI) and the level of development. Moreover, this research attempts to discover the determinants of ECI in the globalization wave. Design/methodology – Our empirical model considers the relationship between ECI and the level of development in middle- and high-income economies from 1995 to 2010 by using systemic qualitative analysis, including OLS, fixed-effects, and system GMM. Next, this research used OLS regression to find the determinants of ECI. In particular, we compared the effects of different factors on ECI in the different development stages. Findings – Our main findings can be summarized as follows: 1. If the ECI increases by 1, it could lead to an increase of about 30% in the level of development in middle- and high-income economies. 2. Human capital plays an important role in the development of and increase in ECI. 3. GVC participation and outflow FDI enhance an increase in ECI, in particular in middle-income economies. 4. The development of manufacturing industries is helpful to increase ECI; however, middle-income economies should pay more attention to their comparative advantage industries. 5. R&D has positive effects on the ECI. Originality/value – To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that uses systemic qualitative analysis to investigate the relationship between ECI and the level of development. The paper provides suggestions for policy makers to increase ECI under the current wave of globalization, in particular in middle-income economies.
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