Using an overlapping generations production-economy model characterised by financial repression, purposeful government expenditures and tax collection costs, we analyse whether financial repression can be explained by the cost of raising taxes. We show that with public expenditures affecting...

This paper examines whether there necessarily exists a conflict between allocative and productive efficiency in small open economy markets. That productive efficiency favours market concentration is not in dispute, and the sole question we face is whether allocative efficiency suffers under high...

This paper empirically assesses whether banking regulation is effective at preventing banking crises. We use a monthly index of banking system fragility, which captures almost every source of risk in the banking system, to estimate the effect of regulatory measures (entry restriction, reserve...

Globalisation brought about worldwide changes, including economic and financial integration between countries. This integration implied, in business cycle theory, the emergence of a common business cycle. Most developed economies seem to follow the world business cycle most of the time. However,...

This research investigates the key elements that South African financial services firms consider before making foreign direct investments in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) markets. The results show that South African financial services firms are most strongly influenced by the political and economic...

This paper explores the degree to which imperfect information in the labour market regarding worker quality is likely to impact employment opportunities, as well as the wages associated with those opportunities. The primary purpose of this paper is to provide preliminary empirical evidence that...

Scholars have focused their efforts to explain poor growth and development in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, using arguments based on quality of institutions and geography and the structure and process of resource allocation and...

The purpose of the paper is to examine the impact of property rights on foreign direct investment (FDI) in Zimbabwe for the period 1964-2005. While the macroeconomic determinants of FDI have been analysed to a considerable extent in past empirical work, the role of institutional factors such as...

Studies of the wage effects of unions in South Africa have been concerned largely with the impact of union membership on the wages of African and White male workers. Consistent with findings in the international literature, these studies have concluded that unions compress the distribution of...

We examine the impact of financial development on earnings inequality in Brazil in the 1980s and first half of the 1990s. The evidence - based on panel time-series data and analysis - shows that financial development had a significant and robust effect in reducing inequality during the period....