Masters Degrees (Economics)

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Natal's labour resources and industry in greater Durban.
(1959) Burrows, John Raymond.; Burrows, John Raymond.; Horwood, Owen P. F.
No abstract available.
A socio-economic survey of the Indian community in the Tongaat-Verulam region.
(1966) Maasdorp, Gavin Grant.; Horwood, Owen P. F.
No abstract available.
An investigation into the adequacy of retail facilities in Chatsworth in view of modern retailing trends.
(1984) Poovalingam, Kasthuri.; Buijis, J.
No abstract available.
Intra-industry trade in South Africa.
(1987) Simson, Richard Andrew.
Intra-industry trade is a recent development in international trade theory. This study attempts, for the first time, to measure the extent of intra-industry trade in South Africa. It is found that approximately a one-third of total South African trade is of the intra-industry type. The first chapter places theoretical developments accounting for intra-industry trade in relation to the conventional models of trade. This chapter is followed by a detailed coverage of seven models that allow for intra-industry trade, in order to ascertain the major determinants of intra-industry trade. A third chapter examines the "existence problem" and discusses measures of intra-industry trade and a fourth chapter estimates the level of intra-industry trade in South Africa. Statistical analyses of the major determinants of intra-industry trade were generally successful, except for the poor performance of product differentiation proxies. A final chapter concerns the commercial policy and welfare aspects of intra-industry trade, concluding that there are gains to be had, from social and political changes within South Africa, if such changes lead to greater economic integration and cooperation in the Southern Africa region.
Evaluation of Southern African transport routes : a regional distribution cost model.
(1990) Kennedy, Thomas L.
The changing nature of female labour supply and its effect on the South African labour market.
(1991) Lalthapersad, Pinglawathie.; Brijlall, Deonarain.
No abstract available.
The Natal Land and Colonisation Company in colonial Natal, 1860 - 1890.
(1991) Edley, Jennifer Joyce Anderson.; Lumby, Anthony Bernard.
The Natal Land and Colonisation Company was incorporated in 1860 in London. Its capital was partly subscribed by City financiers, the rest being made up of land obtained from Natal land speculators in exchange for fully-paid-up shares. On the basis of very little research, it has been assumed that it was a land-speculation company which held its land against an expected rise in value and rack-rented to black squatters. The deduction has been that this kept land out of the reach of white settlers and thus retarded the development of the white economy. Study of the Company records has shown this view to be entirely erroneous. The primary objective of the Company was to borrow surplus capital in Britain at a low interest rate and invest it in Natal at a higher rate. The landholdings of the Company were used as collateral for raising funds on the London market or sold, when the market permitted to release capital for reinvestment. Only the profit on land sales was distributed to shareholders. This relatively straightforward plan of operation was modified between 1860 and 1890 in reaction to changing economic circumstances in Natal. The Company initially lent large sums on mortgage, but a severe depression between 1865 and 1869 led to large-scale defaulting on repayments and the Company was forced to foreclose. This vastly increased the Company's rural landholdings, and brought in several established plantations and a large number of urban properties. The Company invested unsuccessfully, in the plantation economy, was prevented by the colonial and imperial governments from investing in railway and coal-mining development and, owing to a poor land market, sold only a small proportion of its land. For income, it relied on leasing land to white settlers, renting urban properties and collecting hut-rents from black squatters. This last practice brought it into conflict with white settler interests as it gave blacks an alternative to wage-labour. The Witwatersrand gold discoveries stimulated economic development in Natal, particularly urban development, and the Company finally found a profitable and stable investment area in urban property.
A critical evaluation of resale price maintenance in South Africa: an efficiency interpretation.
(1991) Smith, Andrew.; Oldham, George W.
Abstract available in PDF.
Market concentration : a South African perspective.
(1992) Brann, Grant Roderick.; Smith, Andrew.
Abstract available in PDF.
The viability of regional monetary integration : the case of the Southern African common monetary area.
(1992) Stuart, John.; Holden, Merle Gwendoline.
Through mutual trade in goods and assets, economies become closer linked - integrated - and this changes the way these economies react to their own and each other's economic policy and disturbances. Recognising this, the countries may chose to enter into integration arrangements which facilitate goods and asset trade and may permit co-ordinated action in the policy sphere. A monetary integration arrangement unites more closely the monetary systems of a number of countries, and this may be in the absence or presence of a broader economic integration arrangement (for example a common market). This thesis examines aspects of the integration arrangement known as the Common Monetary Area (CMA), between South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Chapter 2 outlines theoretical considerations of the desirability of monetary integration, while Chapter 3 uses a model to analyse the effects of goods and asset market integration on the economic policy and disturbance transmission of two countries. Chapter 4 describes the institutional and historical setting of the CMA, as well as the reasons behind the changes made to the legal arrangement in 1986. Chapter 5 presents a critique of an attempt to analyse the CMA as an optimal currency area, while Chapter 6 analyses the state of broader economic integration over the CMA, and assesses its implications for monetary integration. Chapter 7 addresses empirically the question of the degree of asset and goods market integration and explains the implications for monetary integration, while chapter 8 analyses the situation of Botswana, a non-CMA member, to assess its importance for the CMA and its relation to the debate surrounding the continued existence of the CMA. The conclusion that is reached is that, given extant levels of goods and asset market integration, the members of the CMA (especially the smaller members) would benefit from greater joint policy making and policy co-ordination, i.e. greater monetary unification.
Factors determining the choice of technique in the manufacturing sector in the Pietermaritzburg economic region.
(1992) Jonker, Amanda Kate.; McGrath, Michael D.
Abstract available in PDF.
A quantitative analysis of the effect of the Group Areas Act on residential property prices in Pietermaritzburg.
(1993) Blades, Michael Alan.; Oldham, George W.
Abstract available in PDF.
"The solidarity group programme: a mechanism for delivering credit to informal sector microenterprises".
(1993) Naguran, Sinnivasan Nithianandan.; Lenta, Giuseppe.
No abstract available.
The evolution of migrant labour policy in South Africa.
(1993) Winder, Hubert Manfred.; Lenta, Giuseppe.
Abstract available in PDF file.
The structure and growth of the service sector in South Africa (1945-1990)
(1993) Teixeira, Carlos Antonio Batista.; McGrath, Michael D.
Abstract available in PDF.
Relevance of the Todaro model in explaining Black migration to and within the Durban Functional Region.
(1994) Christensen, Peter Richard.; Lenta, Beppe.; Bekker, Simon.
Until recently it was fashionable to describe Durban as one of the fastest growing cities in the world. For those who held this view, the proliferation of informal settlements in and around the city pointed to massive rural-urban in-migration from the rural areas. Migration, itself, it was conceived, was typically the outcome of a direct move from the rural areas, whereby the migrant simply arrived in the city and took to squatting on any available land he or she could find. In actuality, while research has pointed out that substantial rural-urban in-migration is indeed a feature of the urban landscape, little light has been shed on the extent and nature of such migration. The aim of this dissertation is therefore to elucidate on these two features of the migration phenomenon. Through the application of the Todaro model of migration it is hoped that an understanding of the driving force behind migration to and within the Durban Functional Region could also be achieved.
Productivity through goal setting.
(1995) Hunter, Clive Robert.; Van Uytrech, Paul.; Binnendyk, Case.
Abstract available in PDF.
An applied trancendental logarithmic cost function : economies of scale and elasticities of substitution in selected South African manufacturing sectors (1972-1990).
(1995) Cobbledick, John.; Hofmeyr, Julian. F.
Moll (1991) has criticised the proposal that demand restructuring should act as the impetus for economic growth in a post-apartheid South Africa on the grounds of, a lack of empirical support. The demand restructuring thesis is premised on two empirically testable assertions: firstly that realisable economies of scale are greater in labour-intensive wage goods sectors than in luxury goods and secondly that in manufacturing as a whole labour can easily substitute for capital. While a number of studies employing either the Cobb-Douglas (Cobb & Douglas, 1948) or Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) ( Arrow, Chenery, Minhas & Solow, 1961) functions have attempted to quantify these features of technology, their conclusions are potentially invalid. Both functions impose the maintained hypotheses of homotheticity, homogeneity and seperability a priori. As primary hypothesis tests regarding the magnitude of parameters depend on the validity of both the hypothesis being tested and the underlying maintained hypotheses, the plausibility of maintained hypotheses is an important consideration when choosing a functional form for econometric analysis. Homotheticity and homogeneity constrain the theoretical determinants of economies of scale and seperability. The theoretical determinants of substitution thus limit the contexts in which functions which embody these hypotheses are likely to be appropriate. The mathematical concept of duality has permitted the development of flexible, general functions, such as the Transcendental Logarithmic Cost Function (Christensen, Jorgensen and Lau, 1971, 1973), which rather than imposing, permits the testing of the most commonly imposed maintained hypotheses. By applying this function to three sub-sectors of South African manufacturing both the validity of the commonly imposed maintained hypotheses and the empirical premises of the demand restructuring position are assessed in this dissertation. This application indicates that not only are the hypotheses of homotheticity, homogeneity and seperability invalid but that the inappropriate imposition of homotheticity, homogeneity and seperability invalid but that the inappropriate imposition of homotheticity biases estimates of scale downwards. Evidence also emerges to challenge Moll's (1991) assertions regarding the empirical validity of demand restructuring.
An analysis of the impact that electrification has had on the rural domestic energy market in northern KwaZulu-Natal, 1989- 1993: implications for the marketing of strategic infrastructural services.
(1995) Crawford, Grant John.; McCarney, L.
Abstract available in PDF.
Real exchange rates and nontraditional exports in Ghana.
(1995) Kafe, Michael Kwes.; Kusi, Newman Kwadwo.
Abstract available on PDF.

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