The paper aimed at isolating the direct productivity of economic infrastructure using a production function approach. Based on an extension of endogenous growth theory with public finance, infrastructure could have either a negative or positive effect on economic growth. The empirical analysis...

The modern theory of investment identities the importance of uncertainty to investment. A number of empirical studies have tested the theory on South African time series, employing political instability measures as proxies for uncertainty. This paper verifies that political instability measures...

We model cartel defection in markets with stochastic demand fluctuations as an investment timing problem. We show that (i) the optimal timing of cartel defection is pro-cyclical, suggesting higher probability of competitive pricing during booms; and (ii) the defection trigger is a positive...

This paper explores the trends in industry concentration of the South African manufacturing industry over the period from 1972 - 2001, with a primary focus on developments post 1996. Across all sectors of the manufacturing industry, concentration is found to have decreased. The analysis of...

This paper offers an alternative approach to the existence of sunspot equilibria. The economy has a single perishable good and fiat money within an overlapping generations framework with two possible extraneous events. The analysis uses the dynamic adjustment of market prices during voluntary...

Using new detailed tariff data, wages disaggregated by skill level and firm level information, this paper ascertains the relationships between trade, technology and labour demand and investigates the effects of tariff changes on factor prices in South African manufacturing. We find evidence that...

Recent cross sectional growth studies have found that ethnolinguistic fractionalization is an important explanatory variable of long-run growth performance. In the present paper we follow the call of earlier studies to conduct a more detailed clinical analysis of the growth experience of a...

This article explores the role of circulation, readership and reader demographics in the determination of advertising rates in South African consumer magazines. The study uses panel data collected between 2000 and 2003 to quantify the relationships by assigning implicit prices to various...

This paper analyses differences in the choice of health care facility by ill individuals in HIV/AIDS-affected households in the Free State province of South Africa. Secondary education, access to medical aid, and household income are significant determinants of choice, as are severity and type...

I compare the outcome when firms semicollude on advertising to the outcome in the Grossman and Shapiro (1984) model of informative advertising. I show that advertising is lower but prices and profits are higher under semicollusion on advertising. I also show that semicollusion on advertising is...