Special economic zones as an instrument to stimulate export production and economic growth within South Africa

The opening up of export markets and the consequent shift towards export‐oriented economic growth, in contrast to the previous focus on import substitution and protectionist policies, raise the question of the most appropriate strategy to be followed to attain this objective. In view of the protracted and extensive protection of local industry in the past. It could be expected that the manufacturing sector will not immediately be able to compete in international markets. This premise therefore excludes the introduction of an economy‐wide reduction in the level of protection in an effort to increase economic efficiency in general to enable South Africa to compete in foreign markets. This article then explores a second‐best option, namely the introduction of special economic zones (SEZs) as a mechanism whereby demarcated areas or individual firms are exempted from customs duties, import taxes and controls without exposing the entire protected domestic economy to the possible disruption of free international trade. The article specifically elaborates on what type of SEZs are the most appropriate for South Africa's circumstances, comparing the advantages and disadvantages of export processing zones (EPZs) with export processing units (EPUs).     

Political instability, policy uncertainty, and economic growth: An empirical investigation

This paper elaborates upon the effect of political stability on economic growth using a novel approach. Unlike the literature on growth that emphasizes the turnover of decision makers, this paper focuses on the volatility of economic policies as the relevant indicator of stability. The literature on growth ignores the microeconomic instability associated with frequent changes of government policies. The empirical results of this paper indicate that the effect of political instability on economic growth is not conclusive. Most of the commonly used proxies for political instability have failed to explain growth differences across countries. The political instability indices have no significant effect on growth when a reasonable set of core variables is also included in the regression equation. The results also show that almost all of the policy uncertainty variables are significantly and negatively correlated with economic growth. However, the instability of economic policies has no significant impact on the accumulation of capital.     

Special economic zones and quotas on imported intermediate goods: a policy proposal

A novel, very general and global approach to the analysis ofthe welfare effects of the establishment of special economiczones in a small open economy with tariffs on trade in finalgoods and binding quotas on the imports of intermediate goodsis developed. It is proven that there generally exist allocationsof binding quotas to the domestic and special economic zoneswhich improve welfare. Then it is shown that the abolition ofthe quotas on imports into the special economic zone may reducewelfare. Finally the welfare effects of abolishing the quotasalso in the domestic zone are analysed.     

Export performance and economic growth causality: An empirical analysis

The cointegration and causal relationship between export growth and economic growth is investigated for the Nordic economies. On the basis of Johansen's technique and the augmented Granger causality tests, the evidence shows that these macroeconomic aggregates are causally related in the long run for each economy. Granger causality is unidirectional, running from economic growth to export growth in Denmark, and bidirectional in Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The established bidirectional causality suggests that the expansion of exports is an integral part of the economic growth process.     

Forces of economic growth in China,India, and other Asian countries

This paper applies different approaches to modelling sources of economic growth from time series and panel data sets for 10 Asian countries over the period 1970–2010. After being subjected to fragility tests, the cross‐country estimates indicate that investment, together with policy variables and openness to trade, explains about 90 per cent of the estimated 3.2 per cent steady‐state growth rate for the region. Regional growth policy points to expanding trade, supporting financial development, and maintaining sound investment environments. Although country‐specific growth effects vary, the results imply that different estimation methods, combined with fragility tests, can help establish stronger links between growth theory and policy advice.     

国际资本流入与经济增长的关系--来自中国和印度的比较研究

本文以中国和印度为研究对象，从资本总量和结构上考查了国际资本流入对两国经济增长的影响，通过理论分析和计量模型检验得出结论；在中国，外商直接投资与经济增长同向变动，外国证券投资与经济增长反向变动；在印度，外商直接投资与经济增长之间的关系不稳定，外国证券投资以及外债等其他投资与经济增长有稳定的同向变动关系，外资在两国经济增长过程中发挥作用的途径有明显区别，中国主要通过吸引外商直接投资，提高企业竞争力，刺激出口来拉动经济增长；印度主要是通过借外债和吸引外国证券投资，补充本国资金不足，增加本国的消费和投资，刺激内需来拉动经济增长。     

The pattern and causes of economic growth in India

This paper presents the broad macro parameters of the growthof the Indian economy since the nation's independence and across-country evaluation of where India stands, drawing outthe patterns discernible in these aggregative statistics. Thepaper gives an overview of the on-going debate on the componentsof the Indian growth and the relative importance of the differentpolicies in the 1980s and 1990s. It contributes to this debateby identifying the landmark years, and analysing the politicsbehind some of the economics. The paper also analyses the factorsbehind the changes in India's savings rate and the relationbetween growth and development, on the one hand, and the natureof labour market regulation, on the other.     

Resource abundance and economic growth in China

This paper revisits the resource curse phenomenon in China and differs from the previous studies in four respects: (i) City-level data is used; (ii) A spatial variable is constructed to estimate the diffusion effect of natural resources among cities in the same province; (iii) The impact of resource abundance on economic development is investigated not only at the city level but also at the prefectural level in China; (iv) We use a functional coefficient regression model to deal with city-specific heterogeneity and, at the same time, analyze the transmission mechanism of the resource curse phenomenon. Our empirical results show that there is no significant evidence to support the existence of a resource curse phenomenon in China. On the other hand, we find that the degree of natural resource abundance in a city has a positive diffusion effect on the economic growth of neighboring cities within the same province at the city level, but not at prefectural levels. We attribute this to the urban bias policy.     

Financial development and economic growth: Evidence from China

This paper investigates the relationship between financial development and economic growth for the case of China over the period 1952–2001. After considering the time series characteristics of the dataset, a multivariate vector autoregressive (VAR) framework is used as an appropriate specification and the long-run relationship among financial development, growth and other key growth factors is analyzed in a theoretically based high dimensional system by identification of co-integrating vectors through tests of over-identifying restrictions. The empirical results suggest that there exists a unidirectional causality from economic growth to financial development, conclusions departing distinctively from those in the previous studies.     

Targeted poverty investments and economic growth in China

In the mid-1980s, the Chinese government launched its ambitious poor area development policy, which was centered around a series of grant, credit, and Food-for-Work programs. Ironically, for the remainder of the 1980s rural poverty remained at about 90 to 100 million, or approximately 10% of the rural population. The lack of progress cannot necessarily be blamed on ineffective poor area policies, since much of the agricultural economy was mired in a deep recession between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. By the mid-1990s substantial additional poverty reduction had been achieved. Even in the late-1980s, farmers in many poor counties did better than the national average in terms of income growth. After accounting for the effects of macroeconomic elements, what factors can help explain the differences in performance among poor regions and between poor areas and rich ones? Can part of these differences be accounted for by poor area policies, in general, or by the way local and regional officials allocate their poor area investment funds, in particular?The overall objective of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of Chinese poor area policy. Specifically, the paper seeks to meet three objectives. First, we want to understand the evolution of poor area policy since the mid-1980s, trying to deduce the true goals of central and regional poor area officials, as well as how these policies have been implemented in the provinces. Next, we want to understand the magnitude and scope of investment into poor areas, and examine if changes in these policies have affected the uses of the investment funds. Finally, we want to determine the effectiveness of the investment of poor area funds, analyzing which types of investments have generated growth, and which ones have not.     

特区大学生就业意向调查统计分析

1999年高校扩招以来,高校毕业生的数量迅速增加,大学毕业生的就业问题成为社会关注的焦点,在这个阶段,特区大学毕业生同样受到了就业压力的冲击,及时了解特区大学生的就业意向及就业心理,对于特区学校制定正确的就业指导方向具有重要的意义,是深化以就业为导向的高等教育改革,培养合格就业人才的重要依据。     

Spatial spillover and regional economic growth in China

This paper investigates the spatial structure of the provincial economic growth and the spatial spillover in China from 1998 to 2008. First, we apply Moran's index to detect the positive spatial autocorrelations across the provinces of China. Second, we build a new economic geography model and the role of market potential in promoting regional income growth is highlighted. Third, two measures of market potential are constructed and a spatial error model is adopted to obtain the estimations, considering spatial autocorrelation. Controlling for major inputs, such as labor, capital, and human capital, the market potential continues to promote substantial regional growth. On average, an increase of 10 percentage points in the market potential increases the regional GDP per capita growth by 3–5 percentage points.     

The productivity–wage relationship in South Africa: an empirical investigation

This article investigates the relationship between labour productivity, average real wages and the unemployment rate in South Africa at the macroeconomic level, using time‐series econometric techniques. There is strong evidence of a structural break in 1990, after which time all three variables rose rapidly. The break appears to have negatively affected the level of employment in the first instance, and subsequently fed through into per worker wages and productivity. A long‐term equilibrium (cointegrating) relationship was found between real wages and productivity, but unemployment was apparently unconnected to the system, which lends support to the insider–outsider theory. A long‐term wage–productivity elasticity of 0,58 indicates that productivity has grown more rapidly than wages, which is consistent with the finding that labour's share of gross output has been shrinking over the past decade. These trends may be explained plausibly by the adoption of job‐shedding technology and capital intensification.     

The economic impact of irrigation agriculture: Methodological aspects and an empirical application

This article considers the regional economic impact of irrigation development by means of a case study. Theoretical aspects of irrigation development are discussed, followed by a brief overview of methodological alternatives for the determination of the economic impact of irrigation development. A case study of the south‐western Orange Free State is used to test some of the theoretical principles that have been put forward. First the deduction of a regional input‐output table is discussed. This is followed by the determination of the economic impact of irrigation agriculture in the south‐western Orange Free State. The article concludes with a discussion of the major findings.     

The evolution of institutions in India and its relationship with economic growth

This paper examines the evolution in a few public institutionsover time in India. It presents three types of evidence: oninstitutional outcomes (such as losses in power generation,backlogs in disposal of court cases); on perceptions-based measuresof governance, some going back to the 1960s; and, finally, oncustoms administration and whether it has been more effectiveat detecting evasion over time. All the evidence suggests thatinstitutional quality has not improved over time. It then addressesthe two-way relationship between growth and institutions interms of two apparent paradoxes. The first is why growth hasturned around so dramatically in India despite the relativelylimited nature of reforms, especially compared with other countries.The second paradox is why, despite nearly 30 years of rapidgrowth, institutions have not improved. The paper offers someexplanations that might help explain these paradoxes.