Vol. 11 No. 1(J) (2019)

Several empirical works have yielded mixed and controversial results with regard to the effects of FDI on employment and economic growth. The primary focus of this study is to investigate the contribution of FDI to domestic employment levels in the context of the South African economy. The analyses of the study were carried out using the annual time series data from 1980 to 2015. The macroeconomic variables employed in the empirical investigation include employment, FDI, GDP, inflation, trade openness and unit labour costs. The study used secondary data from the South African Reserve Bank and Statistics South Africa database. The study estimated a Vector Autoregressive/ Vector Error Correction Mechanism (VAR/VECM) approach to conduct empirical analysis. However, the study also employed single equation estimation techniques, including the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) and Canonical Cointegrating Regression (CCR) models as supporting tools to verify the VAR/VECM results. This study provides strong evidence of a significant negative relationship between FDI and employment levels in the South African economy. Empirical analysis of the study suggests that the effect of economic growth on employment is highly positive and significant in South Africa’s economy. The study recommends that policymakers ought to invest more in productive sectors that aim to promote economic growth and development to boost employment opportunities in South Africa.

The purpose of the investment is to improve the current level of life satisfaction by achieving investment goals. Investors tend to attain high levels of life satisfaction when their investment goals are achieved and lower levels of life satisfaction when goals are far from achievement. The idiosyncratic characteristics of an individual may often hamper the achievement of investment goals and ultimately influence the level of life satisfaction. These characteristics can either contribute towards low life satisfaction or high life satisfaction. Income and the subjective financial well-being play a determining role in whether an investor has a positive or negative life satisfaction. Hence, the aim of this study was to determine whether income and subjective financial well-being have an influence on the life satisfaction of investors. The results of this study reveal that a strong relationship exists between income, financial well-being, and life satisfaction. Investors who perceived themselves, to have high financial well-being were more likely to have high life satisfaction. On the contrary, investors with low perceived financial well-being were more likely to have low life satisfaction. Similar results were observed for income and life satisfaction since a positive relationship was also found.

The study assessed the effects of external shocks on fiscal policy in Nigeria. Vector auto-regression VAR estimating technique is adopted to achieve the set objectives of the study. The VAR model comprises of the following variables GDP, oil output, oil price, government revenue, government expenditure, external reserve, exchange rate, fiscal balance, and non-oil export. These variables represent the external shocks, the growth variables, fiscal variables and some other macroeconomic variables. The VAR results show that oil price and non-oil export are the most important external shocks affecting fiscal policy in Nigeria. It was also discovered that public debt shock has no significant impact on government expenditure. In addition, external reserve and exchange rate shocks also have a significant impact on fiscal policy. Finally, government expenditure shock failed to have a significant impact on the GDP. The implication of these results is that the effectiveness of fiscal policy in achieving macroeconomic objectives in Nigeria depends on these identified shocks.

This study investigated the need to extend the TPB model to SMBE variables as suggested by Ayikwa and De Jager (2017) in the quest to better understand sexual behavioural patterns using the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) approach. The main research question to be answered: "how the TPB and SMBE variables should be structured into a validated CFA model?" Data were carefully collected in South Africa’s Gauteng Province using a disproportionate multi-stage stratified random sampling method to retain 607 respondents. The survey questionnaires distributed consisted of revisited pre-existing instruments. The data were then analysed by CFA model that followed Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to determine the suitability of the sample size. Assessment of the second order extended TPB model confirmed that it is worthwhile to integrate SMBE variables while extending the TPB model in the context of HIV/AIDS related behaviours.

We analyze the directional predictability in foreign exchange markets of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) using the quantilogram, based on long-spans of monthly historical data, at times covering over a century. We find that the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) holds at the extreme phases of the currency markets (and around the median for India and South Africa). Since predictability holds at certain parts of the unconditional distribution of exchange rate returns, we find support for the Adaptive Market Hypothesis (AMH). AMH, based on the idea of bounded rationality, suggests that currency return predictability will be intermittent, due to changing market conditions and institutional factors.

Employing cross-sectional data from 360 rice farmers selected from three states in South West Nigeria, the study analyzes the impact of credit demand on the productivity of rice farmers. An Endogenous Switching Regression Model (ESRM) that accounts for both heterogeneity and sample selection biases were used to estimate the impact of credit demand on rice productivity in South West Nigeria. In addition, a Tobit regression model was employed to measure the level of participation of rice farmers in the credit market. The result of the first stage (probit model) of the ESRM revealed that household assets, access to service, climate variables, regional variables, and transaction cost are statistically significant in influencing farmers’ credit demand decision. The results of the second stage of the ESRM indicate factors such as household assets and access to service were statistically significant in explaining variations in rice productivity among participants and non-participants in the credit market. Furthermore, the results of the Tobit model showed that the farmers’ location income from rice farming experience, interest rate, and distance to the source of credit are statistically significant determinants of the amount of credit received. These findings suggest that facilitating farmers’ access to credit will improve rice productivity. Therefore, it is imperative for government and development partner to work together in order to improve the conditions for suitable agricultural credit access to rice farmers, especially a review of interest rates. A necessary addition should be developed to the assistance already being provided under Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) in the form of loan guarantees and other risk-sharing incentives, such as a regulatory environment that supports the modern contractual obligations that are characteristic of well-functioning agricultural financing. This would not only contribute to the intensification of rice production in Nigeria to meet its increasing rice demand, but also improve rice farmers’ productivity and their households’ incomes.

Frontier markets, particularly the Moroccan financial market, are characterized by a narrowness of market, inability to absorb erratic price fluctuations and the low liquidity of securities that encourage investors to herd and imitate those who have all the information about the market. A quantitative research approach was used to analyze the existence of herding n Moroccan stock market. The daily data used in this study concerns the period from 04/01/2010 to 29/12/2017 and contains the daily returns of the MASI and a total of 43 traded stocks. Statistical and econometric methods such as multidimensional scaling and Cross-sectional absolute deviation were used. Subsequently, after the regression models were examined, findings indicated that the first stocks with the highest similarity to the index return are BMCE, BCP, IAM, ATW and CMSR, and the first stocks with the highest dissimilarity are PAP, IBC and SNP, This will have to allow investors to choose profitable alternatives and avoid those that present a possible risk. The results did also show the existence of herding in the Moroccan stock market both upward and downward. This finding was supported by the clear existence of a non-linearity between market performance and CSAD measurement, which confirms the prediction of a nonlinear inversion relationship between CSAD and ????????. This could be due to the low level of transparency that prevails in frontier stock exchanges and reduces the quality of their information environment, which leads investors not to react rationally and to draw information from the transactions of their peers.

The paper examined the effect of corporate taxation on the profitability of some selected firms in Nigeria from 2007 to 2016 using secondary data which was sourced from various publications of the firms’ financial report. The study employed pooled ordinary least square as the estimation technique. The analytical results revealed that the coefficient of corporate tax on profit after tax was positive with the value of 2.418830 and its P-values were 0.0000, the coefficient of value-added tax was 14.51298 and its p-value was 0.0000. Equally, the coefficient of withholding tax was positive with the value of 7.256489 with p-value 0.0000. Furthermore, education tax result depicts that the coefficient is 36.28245 and it p-value is 0.0000. However, the study concluded that corporate tax rate and education tax as the major taxes paid by companies have positive and significant effects to influence profit after tax. It is also clinched that value-added tax rate and withholding tax being used as other variables that could have effects on profit after tax equally revealed positive and significant effects on profit after tax. Therefore, the study recommended that the government and relevant tax authorities should improve in the administration of corporate taxes to avoid non-compliance

The rapid development of internet, mobile information technologies and communications keep offering unprecedented concepts in the way people use new technology and communicate information. This also applies to Malaysia where this study was performed. The main objective of this paper is to investigate which factors affect the use of smartphone advertising most. For this purpose, four main services providers, namely, U-mobile, Maxis, DiGi and Celcom, were selected for data collection. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed through a convenience sampling to 400 smartphone users in a pre-defined area of Malaysia. Three hundred and forty usable questionnaires were used for the purpose of the data analysis. First, descriptive analysis is undertaken followed by a reliability test and exploratory factor analysis. Second, a two-step structural equation modelling approach is adopted where confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted followed by hypotheses testing. The results indicate that perceived usefulness has a stronger impact on attitude towards smartphone advertising followed by subjective knowledge. Furthermore, attitude towards smartphone advertising also resulted in a significant influence on the use of smartphone advertising. The findings of this study not only contribute to the knowledge but could also assist policymakers with informed decisions about market penetration.

There has been an increase in the number of governments that adopted public-private partnership (PPP) as an infrastructure delivery model. However, there are still misgivings about the role PPPs play in developing countries’ economies. The objective of this study is to address the question of whether the PPP model really benefits the public. This study follows a qualitative approach based on international review of literature on PPP experiences around the world. The results of the study indicate that, the PPP model can be a good vehicle for delivering public infrastructure projects in developing countries. However, for PPPs to meet the expectations of the public sector and the citizens there are certain aspects that need to be in place i.e. transparency, accountability, optimum risk allocation/sharing, and increased competition to name just a few. If a country implements its PPP programme properly, there are massive benefits compared to the public procurement approach that may accrue to consumers and the economy as a whole. Such benefits include reduced prices, which may also increase access to services. The study has elucidated valid from invalid arguments about PPPs and has established whether the PPP model is indeed the right vehicle for delivering infrastructure projects.