BAYESIAN METHODS OF FORECASTING INVENTORY INVESTMENT

This paper develops a Bayesian Vector Error Correction Model (BVECM) for forecasting inventory investment. The model is estimated using South African quarterly data on actual sales, production, unfilled orders, price level and interest rate, for the period 1978 to 2000. The out-of-sample-forecast accuracy obtained from the BVECM over the forecasting horizon of 2001:1 to 2003:4, is compared with those generated from the classical variant of the Vector Autoregresssive (VAR) model and the VECM, the Bayesian VAR, and the recently developed ECM by Smith et al. , for the South African economy. The BVECM with the most-tight prior outperforms all the other models, except for a relatively tight BVAR which also correctly predicts the direction of change of inventory investment over the period of 2004:1 to 2006:3.     

DYNAMIC TIME INCONSISTENCY AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN RESERVE BANK

This paper derives the econometric restrictions imposed by the Barro and Gordon model of dynamic time inconsistency on a bivariate time-series model of consumer price index (CPI) inflation and real gross domestic product (GDP), and tests these restrictions based on quarterly data for South Africa covering the period of January 1960-April 1999, i.e. for the pre-inflation targeting period. The results show that the data are consistent with the short- and long-run implications of the theory of time-consistent monetary policy. Moreover, when the model is used to forecast one-step-ahead inflation over the period of January 2001-February 2008, i.e. the period covering the starting point of the inflation-targeting regime until date, we, on average, obtain lower rates of inflation. The result tends to suggest that the South African Reserve Bank perhaps needs to manage the inflation-targeting framework better than it has done so far.     

Technological Innovations in the Control of International Exchange: Lessons for Africa

Empirical studies on international trade highlight the role of innovation on international exchange but do not capture the effect of technological innovation when unobservable common factors (UCFs) are considered. This paper examines the long‐run relationship between technological innovation and international exchange using panel data for eight African countries over the period 1981–2013. The non‐stationarity and cointegration between technological innovation, international exchange, public investment, real gross domestic income and foreign direct investment were examined, controlling for cross‐sectional dependence and heterogeneity between countries. The results suggest that technological innovation in Africa remains low after controlling for UCFs, while public investment, real gross domestic product and foreign direct investment have significant impact on international exchange. Moreover, the results from the homogeneous and heterogeneous estimates, with and without UCFs, show that ignoring UCFs is likely to bias the coefficients. These findings reveal that African countries should invest more in public infrastructures and research and development to upgrade their capability To play an active role in the international market.     

MACROECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY AND AGGREGATE PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

This paper investigates the effects of time varying uncertainty on aggregate private fixed investment in South Africa. The GARCH generated measures of volatility of selected macroeconomic variables indicating five measures of uncertainty are used in the analysis. These are output growth uncertainty, uncertainty about changes in the real effective exchange rate, uncertainty about changes in the real interest rate, producer inflation uncertainty, and terms of trade uncertainty. The results of the estimation by an empirical ECM model of conventional investment determinants controlling for the effects of uncertainty indicated that, over all, time varying macroeconomic uncertainty significantly reduces private fixed investment.     

Asymmetric Inventory Management and the Direction of Sales Changes*

We study manufacturing firms' asymmetric inventory investment in response to sales changes. Focusing on the costs of resource adjustment and stockout that likely differ in sales‐increasing and sales‐decreasing periods, we predict and find that inventory investment declines less during periods with sales decreases than it rises during periods with sales increases. We validate this claim by showing that managers' expectations of future demand and desire to avoid inventory stockouts are important determinants of this asymmetry. In addition, we find that asymmetric inventory investment provides useful information for predicting future sales growth, and that both managers' and analysts' sales forecasts are positively associated with the asymmetry. Lastly, we document that forecasts of future sales growth that incorporate asymmetric inventory investment are associated with lower absolute forecast errors than benchmark forecasts. Overall, we highlight the importance of inventory information in understanding managers' resource adjustment and utilization decisions that have implications for forecasting future demand. Our findings on asymmetric inventory management provide new insights to fundamental analysis based on inventory signals.     

Methods of forecasting gross domestic product dynamics

Models for the operational and medium-term forecasting and monitoring of the dynamics of gross domestic product (GDP) indices in current and comparable prices depending on changes in factors that determine GDP volume are proposed. Key factors in the domestic market are the cash incomes of the population and permanent investment.     

The role of foreign direct investment (FDI) on domestic entrepreneurship in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This study examines the effect of foreign direct investment on domestic entrepreneurship in South Africa. With the focus on inward capital flows, the study specifically employed stock data and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor to measure the impact. The data set analysed is for the period 2000–18, and after testing a Threshold Vector Autoregressive model, it was established that there is a short-run and long-run nonlinear relationship between foreign direct investment and domestic entrepreneurship in South Africa. The key findings of the study were that foreign direct investment has a positive short-run and long-run influence on domestic entrepreneurship. The policy recommendations are for government to create an eco-system that supports entrepreneurship through the lowering of regulatory burden on new domestic firms and enact robust sector-specific localisation policies for big corporations.     

On Determinacy and Learnability in a New Keynesian Model with Unemployment

We analyse determinacy and stability under learning (E‐stability) of rational expectations equilibria in a new Keynesian model of inflation and unemployment, where labour market frictions due to costs of hiring workers play an important role. We derive results for alternative specifications of monetary policy rules and alternative values of hiring costs as a percentage of gross domestic product. We find that in general the region of indeterminacy and E‐instability in the policy space increases with hiring costs. Thus, higher hiring costs – consistent with European and South African “sclerotic” labour market institutions – seem to play an important part in explaining inflation and unemployment instability. Moreover, under lagged data‐based rules, the area where monetary policy delivers both determinacy and E‐stability shrinks. These rules also perform worse according to these two dimensions when hiring costs go up. Finally, under expectations‐based rules an additional explosive region is introduced. For South Africa, a rule based on current data – not unlike the original Taylor rule – works better than a forward‐looking rule.     

Intranational Consumption Risk Sharing in South Korea: 2000–2016

This paper examines consumption risk sharing among 16 regions in South Korea over the 2000–2016 period. The empirical results show that 91.8 percent of shocks to gross regional domestic product are smoothed in South Korea. Capital markets, the tax‐transfer system and credit markets absorb 29.9, 28.9 and 33.0 percent of shocks to gross regional domestic product, respectively. Most notably, South Korea relies more on credit markets for risk sharing than capital markets, an opposite pattern to advanced countries like the USA, Canada and Australia. Furthermore, the patterns of consumption risk sharing are different before and after the 2007–2008 global financial crisis, and differences in regional industrial structure and local development can influence these patterns. This paper attempts to infer the connection between these findings and both the rapid economic growth of South Korea and the Asian and global financial crises.     

DEMAND FOR MONEY AND EXPENDITURE COMPONENTS IN SOUTH AFRICA: ASSESSMENT FROM UNRESTRICTED ERROR-CORRECTION MODELS

The main aim of this study is to examine empirically the long‐run relationship of money demand and its determinants in South Africa. In contrast with existing studies on the subject, the present study considers various components of real income as determinants. The disaggregated components are final consumption expenditure, expenditure on investment goods and exports. The other determinants are domestic interest rate, yield on government bonds and the exchange rate. The results confirm that the different components of real income have different impacts on the demand for money in South Africa. The presence of long‐run equilibrium relationships between the demand for real M1, M2 and M3 and their determinants is confirmed based on the results of bounds testing.     

我国就业影响因素实证研究——基于JJ协整模型与ECM模型的分析

本文使用索洛模型为基础的变化模型研究我国就业量的影响因素,引入国民生产总值、城市化率、居民消费水平、历年全社会固定资产投资、第三产业增加值为解释变量做实证研究,建立时间序列分析模型,并通过各变量间的JJ协整关系模型与误差修正模型说明各因素对就业的长短期影响,结果表明长期内我国国内生产总值对就业总量有显著地正向拉动作用,城市化率与就业总量有显著地负相关关系,居民消费水平长期内与就业总量成正相关关系,第三产业增加值与就业总量有微弱的负相关关系,短期内我国就业总量受到自身滞后期的正向冲击且需要外力拉动。在此结论基础上本文尝试提出了相关政策建议。     

THE SOUTH AFRICAN PHILLIPS CURVE: HOW APPLICABLE IS THE GORDON MODEL?

Is there a Phillips curve relationship present in South Africa and if so, what form does it take? Traditionally the method to establish whether or not there is a relationship between the output gap and the change in inflation is merely to regress the latter on the former. This yields the well‐known augmented Phillips curve. However, Gordon has argued that this specification of the Phillips curve produces biased results. Instead, he puts forward and estimates successfully for several industrialised countries his so‐called triangular model that tests for hysteresis and inertia in the behaviour of inflation, as well as the impact on inflation of changes in the output level. This paper considers whether or not Gordon's triangle model is applicable to South Africa, i.e. are hysteresis and inertia present in South Africa? In addition, in an attempt to find a better estimation of the output gap, the paper also experiments with alternative ways to estimate the long‐run output level, including the standard HP‐filter, as well as a production function approach.     

国内服装制造企业库存管理的实证研究——基于沪深服装类上市公司1996-2008年的面板数据

文章对国内服装制造类上市公司库存水平的变动趋势及影响因素进行了实证研究。结果发现库存周转率与毛利率负相关,与固定资产比重正相关;销售下降时销售变动率对库存周转率的影响比销售增长更敏感。控制毛利率、固定资产比重、销售变动率及宏观经济因素后服装制造企业修正库存周转率逐年下降;公司绩效与库存周转率之间无相关关系,库存周转最慢和库存周转居中的公司投入资本报酬率高于库存周转最快的公司。     

Revisiting the Exchange Rate Pass‐Through to Inflation in Africa’s Two Largest Economies: Nigeria and South Africa

This paper revisits the exchange rate pass‐through (ERPT) to inflation in Nigeria and South Africa by incorporating structural breaks and using time series variables, namely the consumer price index, nominal effective exchange rate, gross domestic product, and crude oil price. Based on the Maki cointegration test and a flexible estimation approach of the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, our empirical evidence suggests that the long‐ and short‐run ERPT to inflation is complete for Nigeria, while for South Africa it is incomplete both in the long run and short run. This result indicates that prices are stickier in South Africa compared to Nigeria. The comparison between Nigeria and South Africa confirms the role of inflation targeting and central bank credibility on the ERPT. The results divulge further that output growth in Nigeria increases inflation in the long run while it is anti‐inflationary in the short run. For South Africa, the effect of output growth is negatively insignificant. In addition, the long‐run effect of oil price is negative and significant for Nigeria, while for South Africa the short‐run effect of oil price is positive and significant. Therefore, the findings of this paper will assist the monetary authorities to achieve monetary policy objectives.     

An Alternative Business Cycle Dating Procedure for South Africa

This paper applies a factor‐augmented Markov‐switching model to the South African economy to provide an alternative classification of the business cycle and its turning points. In the principal components step, 123 variables are used to establish the aggregate cyclicality in all sectors of the economy with the number of factors chosen using a modified Bai and Ng method. By exploiting the rich nature of the dataset, we provide a model with well‐defined statistical properties that compares favourably with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) dating points. Combining the results of the parametric approach followed in the Markov‐switching model and the non‐parametric approach followed by the SARB should allow for a robust turning point analysis. A Markov‐switching model of real gross domestic product is also estimated because this variable is commonly used in the literature and provides a benchmark for the factor models.     

Wages,Productivity and Labour's Declining Income Share in Post‐Apartheid South Africa

The Marikana incident in 2012, as well as the protracted strikes by platinum miners, metal and postal workers in 2014 suggest that not all is well in the South African labour market. Even though those in employment are better off than the unemployed poor, macroeconomic data indicate that labour's share in gross value added has declined significantly during the first two decades following the first democratic election in 1994. A falling share of labour in income also means, by definition, that average labour productivity growth outstrips real wages growth. Data for South Africa suggest that productivity has indeed increased faster than wages in South Africa. This article argues that financialisation and more aggressive returns‐oriented investment strategies applied by for instance large investment institutions translated into higher required rates of return on capital, which in turn caused an increased implementation of capital‐augmenting labour‐saving technology that reduces labour's share in income.     

SOUTH AFRICA'S POST‐LIBERALISED CAPITAL FLOWS AND BUSINESS CYCLE FLUCTUATIONS

This study used Christiano and Fitzgerald filtered correlation analysis to investigate the cyclical relationships between South Africa's post‐liberalised capital flows and domestic business cycle fluctuations. The results show that foreign direct investment inflows are counter‐cyclical and proactive, while the “hot” inflows are acyclical. Thus, South Africa's post‐liberalisation “hot” inflows have not been significantly associated with domestic business cycle fluctuations. In contrast, the capital outflows are found to be consistently procyclical and proactive, suggesting that the outflows are more significantly associated with domestic business cycle fluctuations than the capital inflows. In addition, it is found that the cyclical relationships between the capital inflows and the business cycle components of exports, household consumption and gross fixed investment are generally procyclical, except for portfolio inflows, which have a counter‐cyclical relationship with fixed investment. In contrast, the capital outflows are counter‐cyclically associated with exports and household consumption, and procyclically associated with fixed investment.     

Twenty-year review of South African fiscal policy: A tale of two sustainabilities

In 2014 democracy in South Africa was 20 years old. The democratic government in 1994 inherited both a high and increasing public debt/gross domestic product ratio and significant development backlogs. The government had to establish fiscal sustainability, yet also pursue development in a sustainable way. This article explores the government's performance in reconciling fiscal sustainability with sustainable development. The article shows that fiscal policy has been sustainable over the 20 years, with some risks appearing towards the end, and that the government pursued sustainable development through reallocating resources within the budget and by spending more in real terms. Three phases can be identified: 1994–2000, 2001–08 and 2009–13. However, poor service delivery and low levels of government investment during the 20 years threaten to undermine economic growth. Lower growth consequently threatens the sustainability of both fiscal policy and development, which, in turn, again undermines growth prospects. Hence, the article also identifies key future challenges.     

Improved cookstoves in Africa: Explaining adoption patterns

This article uses the case of 18 projects in 14 African countries to explore the adoption patterns of improved cookstoves and the factors that influence these patterns. Our results show that there is variation in the rate of adoption between countries and amongst rural and urban households. The combined effect of moderately good gross domestic product per capita, history of improved cookstove project implementation and adequate institutional support suggests that consumers in South Africa, Senegal and Lesotho tend to be more aware of the benefits of improved cookstoves and better able to afford them than consumers in countries such as Mali, Malawi and Mozambique. Within the countries, rural households seem to be less aware and capable of affording the stoves compared to urban consumers. These differences are a result of varying levels of income and literacy. The low literacy levels mean rural and mostly elderly individuals are less knowledgeable and appreciative of the benefits offered by improved cookstoves.     

Broiler production in South Africa: Is there space for smallholders in the commercial chicken coup?

It is agreed that agriculture provides avenues for impoverished households to produce and trade their way out of poverty. However, this requires market access and value chain integration of small-scale farmers. This paper explores the possibilities for integration of small-scale farmers into the mainstream commercial broiler value chain in South Africa. Production costs of small-scale producers are evaluated within the context of their commercial counterparts, with a case study approach. It revealed that small-scale producers pay more for inputs but also receive a substantial premium for sales of live birds in the informal market. This results in attractive gross margins for small-scale producers. There is, however, a production ceiling, due to demand and production considerations, associated with small-scale broiler production. This ultimately results in a dualistic industry with an informal (live sale) value chain at the one end of the spectrum and a sophisticated large-scale commercial value chain at the other. Given the salient production features and investment requirements associated with large-scale broiler production, organic growth from the small-scale value chain into the commercial value chain seems improbable. The dual nature of this industry should therefore be considered when developing policy geared towards development, poverty alleviation and value chain integration.