Browsing by Subject "Economic Science"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Open Access
    Analysis of the predictive ability and profitability of an analytically derived trading algorithm in the intra-day spot foreign exchange market
    (2011) Sokolovski, Valeri; Hassan, Shakill
    This paper examines the predictive power and profitability of an analytically derived, technical trading algorithm in the intraday spot foreign exchange market, using over nine years of hourly data. This trading rule, the reservation price policy (RPP), stems from the computer science literature and, based on certain assumptions, is shown to be efficient under the worst-case scenario criterion. The results indicate the existence of significant information content in the trading rule, which is robust to the parameter choice and consistent across the eleven currencies examined. But, the nonparametric, bootstrap analysis shows that the rule does not capture any incremental information above what is accounted for by the seasonal GARCH(1,1)-MA(1) model.
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    Open Access
    The determinants of off-farm employment and the impact of off-farm employment on food consumption in rural Ethiopia
    (2010) Shifa, Mhbuba Ahmad; Leibbrandt, Murray
    This study analyses the determinants of off-farm employment in rural Ethiopia using a representative sample farm households from four regions of the country. Very few previous regional case studies assess the impact of off-farm employment on household food consumption. To fill this gap the study goes on to examine the impact of participation in off-farm employment on household food consumption controlling for possible endogenous treatment selection bias.
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    Open Access
    Do Perceptions of Inequality Negatively Affect Interpersonal Trust?
    (2022) Jacobs, Chandré; Wittenberg, Martin
    Most studies that investigate the relationship between interpersonal trust and inequality make use of objective or societal measures such as the Gini coefficient, and the effect of individual assessments of inequality has thus far received much less academic attention. Using data from the Round 5 Afrobarometer survey, I estimate the effect of perceived inequality on interpersonal trust in South Africa. Though the Round 5 Afrobarometer survey does not include an income variable, I construct an asset index using Principal Component Analysis and find that individual perceptions of socio-economic rank deviate from this measure of objective wealth. In line with the general conclusions in the literature, I find that perceived inequality has a negative effect on interpersonal trust and that individuals who believe that their living conditions are either better or worse compared to those of other South Africans' are less likely to express trust in others. This effect is more prominent in rural areas, which suggests that individuals have biased reference groups influenced by their area of residence.
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    Firm-size and wages: a case study of the manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe
    (2021) Kupeta, Tsungai; Bhorat, Haroon
    It has long been argued in the mainstream literature that workers in large firms earn higher wages than those in smaller firms. This phenomenon is recognised as an important puzzle that explains wage disparities in labour markets. This thesis analyses the link between firm size and wages in the Zimbabwean manufacturing sector and it is structured around three main research questions: (1) What is the link between firm size and wages in the formal and informal manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe? (2) Is there a firm-size wage premium in the formal and informal manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe? (3) If yes, what are the sources of the firm-size wage premium? The analysis of the study draws on the Matched Employer-Employee manufacturing firm-level survey dataset for formal and informal sector firms and workers that was collected in 2015. Using this dataset, we are able to distinguish between theories that attribute wage disparities to worker heterogeneity and those that hypothesise the importance of firm heterogeneity, which advances the existing literature by including the informal sector and a developing country case. We then apply the Mincerian wage regression approach to determine the magnitude, significance, and sources, of the firm size-wage premium. We control for a variety of human capital, individual, job, and firm characteristics to determine the source of the firm size wage relationship. The empirical results indicate a positive and significant association between firm size and wages in both the formal and informal sectors, as theoretically expected. The firm-size premium is more nuanced in the informal sector. Human capital endowments are found to contribute to the firm size-wage relations, at least for the formal sector. Job characteristics did not explain major variation in firm-size wage relationships. Thus, apart from human capital characteristics, most theories cannot explain the wage premium received by large firms. The results further indicate that capital intensity and firm productivity are important in shaping the firm size wage premium, although they did not alter the size effect much.
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    Untangling the determinants of crime in South Africa
    (2013) Verrinder, Noel; Bhorat, Haroon
    This study investigates the relationships between several key economic, sociodemographic and infrastructural factors and crime in South Africa. Using the five March waves, 2003 to 2007, of the Labour Force Survey and crime statistics for the five-year period from April 2003 to March 2008 from the South African Police Service, this paper examines factors associated with aggregate property and violent crime rates at the district council level.