School of Accounting, Economics and Finance
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Item Natal's labour resources and industry in greater Durban.(1959) Burrows, John Raymond.; Burrows, John Raymond.; Horwood, Owen P. F.No abstract available.Item A socio-economic survey of the Indian community in the Tongaat-Verulam region.(1966) Maasdorp, Gavin Grant.; Horwood, Owen P. F.No abstract available.Item The association system of the European Economic Community and its impact on international trade policies.(1974) Matthews, Jacqueline Désirée.; van Waasdijk, T.; Trotter, George Jameson.No abstract.Item The migrant labour system and South African economic development 1936-1970.(1976) Nattrass, Jill.; Trotter, George Jameson.No abstract available.Item An investigation into the adequacy of retail facilities in Chatsworth in view of modern retailing trends.(1984) Poovalingam, Kasthuri.; Buijis, J.No abstract available.Item An investigation to determine the possible benefits that may accrue to South African investors pursuing international investment diversification.(1987) Bhana, Narendra.; Konar, Deenadayalen.; Van der Schyf, D. B.No abstract available.Item 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.Item South Africa's international financial relations, 1970-1987 : history, crisis and transformation.(1989) Padayachee, Mahavishnu.; Freund, William Mark.This thesis examines South Africa's relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and private international banks in the period 1970-1987. The thesis is written in the language, and uses the conceptual tools, of 'regulation theory', an approach whose emphasis on 'time-changing' empirically-grounded explanations of a country's global interactions, it is suggested, represents an advance over modernisation and dependency approaches. The thesis traces the altered circumstances of the international financial system since the early 1970s. It points to the struggle by the IMF to come to terms with these changes in harmonising a new international financial system. The IMF has, however, increased its supervisory power in relation to most countries in the developing world, especially after the oil-price hike of 1973. The basis for, and implications of, the explosion in private international bank lending in this period is also examined. This analysis is followed by an examination of the crisis in the South African political economy since the early 1970s and of the way this crisis was influenced by global events. It is argued that South Africa's international economic relations were transformed by both global and domestic forces and came to be dominated by issues of international finance. The second part of the thesis examines South Africa's relations with the IMF and private international banks. This relationship was supportive of the apartheid state's development strategy for most of the period 1970-1985. It is argued that until the 1980s, the relationship also benefited the western industrialised countries who profited both materially and strategically, from their economic relations with South Africa. However, in 1983, the US imposed restrictions on its support for IMF loans to South Africa. By mid-1985 a combination of political and economic changes within South Africa forced some foreign banks to withdraw their normal credit facilities to South Africa. These events precipitated a dramatic change for the worse in South Africa's international financial relations. It is argued that although there has been some improvement in these relations since 1987, the country's relations with the IMF and banks have not returned to their previous mostly supportive character. A combination of international, regional and domestic economic and political factors has ensured that the current crisis in South Africa's international financial relations is already deeper, more prolonged, and more damaging to growth prospects, than the crisis of the mid-1970s.Item An investigation into the investment decisions of small manufacturing firms in the Durban-Pinetown-Pietermaritzburg metropolitan area.(1989) Herbst, George.; Hamblin, A. R. P.No abstract available.Item Evaluation of Southern African transport routes : a regional distribution cost model.(1990) Kennedy, Thomas L.Item The changing nature of female labour supply and its effect on the South African labour market.(1991) Lalthapersad, Pinglawathie.; Brijlall, Deonarain.No abstract available.Item An investigation into consumer satisfaction with regard to medical care provided by private medical practitioners in the Durban magisterial district.(1991) Poovalingam, Kasthuri.; Hamblin, A. R. P.No abstract available.Item 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.Item A critical evaluation of resale price maintenance in South Africa: an efficiency interpretation.(1991) Smith, Andrew.; Oldham, George W.Abstract available in PDF.Item Secondary school accounting and accounting at university : with particular reference to an evaluation of the relevance of secondary school accounting in Natal to the first year accounting course at the University of Natal, Durban.(1992) Hall, Trevor William.; Seneque, P.This dissertation examines the teaching of Accounting in secondary schools under the auspices of the Natal Education Department (NED) and the influence that exposure to Accounting at high school then has on the performance of students in the first year Accounting course at the University of Natal (Durban). Teaching and examining methods in Accounting in Natal high schools have undergone notable revision since the introduction of the current Standard 10 syllabus in 1987. The nature of the revised methodology is assessed through surveys of the opinions of those individuals with a direct involvement in high school Accounting i.e. school pupils, prospective university students, the NED Subject Committee, school Accounting teachers, university lecturers and accountants in public practice. The major findings were that a significant majority of university students believed that previous exposure to the subject at high school level was a distinct advantage in Accounting I, while a significant majority of students who had not undertaken the subject up to matric level believed, in retrospect, that they should have done so. A number of universities are aware of the advantage enjoyed by students with previous exposure to the subject and have constructed their first year Accounting courses accordingly. The University of Natal, however, continues to treat its Accounting I group as a homogeneous unit, the implications of which are covered in the study. Data was collected over a three year period (1988 to 1990) in order to compare the performance of the two groups of students in Accounting I i.e. those with matric Accounting and those without. The statistical analysis revealed that students without matric Accounting have: * significantly higher drop-out rates (and drop-outs from this group were of relatively high academic ability) * significantly lower pass rates * significantly lower Accounting I marks, despite the fact that there is no apparent difference in the academic ability of the two groups of students. Whilst the study has focused on the relevance of high school Accounting towards further study at university, the point is made that the high school Accounting course needs to cater also for a majority of pupils who will choose alternative career options.Item Market concentration : a South African perspective.(1992) Brann, Grant Roderick.; Smith, Andrew.Abstract available in PDF.Item 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.Item 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.Item "The solidarity group programme: a mechanism for delivering credit to informal sector microenterprises".(1993) Naguran, Sinnivasan Nithianandan.; Lenta, Giuseppe.No abstract available.Item The evolution of migrant labour policy in South Africa.(1993) Winder, Hubert Manfred.; Lenta, Giuseppe.Abstract available in PDF file.