Tourism and climate change: a review of threats and adaptation strategies for Africa

The intersection of tourism and climate change has seen significant research over the past two decades, focusing particularly on issues of mitigation and adaptation in the global North. Research output has predominantly been centred on the Mediterranean and Nordic countries and number of localities in North America. The global South has seen significantly less investigation, despite having significantly lower adaptive capacity to the impacts of climate change, and numerous countries with rapidly growing tourism sectors. The African continent specifically has seen appreciably less research than other countries in the global South, despite arguably having the lowest adaptive capacity and projections of severe impacts of climate change to the tourism sector from temperature increases, changes in precipitation volume and sea level rise. This paper therefore presents a review of the existing literature on adaptation strategies of tourism sectors and participants in African countries. The crucial argument of this paper is in highlighting the need for an increase in research into the threats of climate change to tourism in African countries, identifying future research trajectories. The development of such knowledge would assist in the development of adaptation and mitigation strategies for these most vulnerable tourism economies.     

South African Capital Structure Decisions: A Survey of Listed Companies

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the factors that influence capital structure decisions in South Africa from the perspective of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The results of a survey of 33 CFOs of JSE listed companies find that South African CFOs are equally likely to follow the Pecking Order and Static Trade-Off theories. However, small companies are more likely to follow the Pecking Order theory while large companies are more likely to follow the Static Trade-Off theory. In addition, the results show that South African companies are more likely to follow the Static Trade-Off theory than companies in other emerging countries.     

PURCHASING POWER PARITY IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES: FURTHER EVIDENCE FROM FOURIER UNIT ROOT TESTS BASED ON LINEAR AND NONLINEAR MODELS

This paper examines the validity of purchasing power parity hypothesis for 33 African countries using recently developed Fourier unit root tests by Christopoulos and León‐Ledesma that account for the existence of multiple breaks in the real exchange rates. The results support the evidence of the PPP in 20 countries, showing that most of the real exchange rates in the selected countries are characterised by linear or nonlinear stationary around multiple temporary mean changes.     

FDI and income inequality in Africa

This paper tests the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on income inequality in a panel of 16 African countries from 1980 to 2013. We controlled for both non-linear effects and heterogeneity by using a Pooled Mean Group estimator. There is robust evidence that the relationship is non-linear and we document a U-shaped effect of FDI on inequality. The results reveal that FDI increases equality of distribution of income in the countries examined. However, this effect diminishes with further increases in FDI. Policy implications emanating from this study suggest that although FDI may be growth enhancing, FDI-induced growth may not necessarily translate into a reduction in inequality. FDI has to be structured in such way that the resulting skill-biased employed is mitigated. To address inequality, policy implications from this study imply that FDI has to target both ends of the labour market.     

试析国际工程承包行业的核心竞争力——以我国对非承包工程为例

核心竞争力已经成为一个企业在激烈竞争中取得成功、实现持续发展的关键。国际承包工程行业处在快速发展的阶段,面对国际市场的激烈竞争,只有提升核心竞争力,才能拓展经济发展空间,取得更大的发展和进步。本文以我国对非承包工程为例,根据波特五力模型来分析承包工程行业的核心竞争力,从降低成本、建立企业联盟、实现工程承包多样化,完善业务链、开拓业务领域注重人才培养方面提出提升我国对非承包工程的核心竞争力的方略。     

Catch-up strategies and the latecomer effect in industrial development

Since 2003, the West and Central African (WCA) cotton initiative in the World Trade Organization has stood as an ambitious case of Africa's desire to be integrated into the trading system and yet also receive reparations for past injuries. This article seeks to explore how and why the initiative debuted through close attention to the interdependence between power and language in diplomatic practice. It takes the concept of cognitive framing to explore the relationship between political legitimacy and mobilisation capacities. The genesis of cotton as ‘an issue’ is critically examined, focusing on how the WCA countries constructed a novel ‘competitive victim’ frame to define themselves and the problem. While this opening move was effective, it also featured tensions that were exploited by Northern actors who were threatened by the campaign. I argue that what followed was the introduction of a politically driven ‘counterframe’, which divided the problem into a ‘trade-related’ component and a ‘development-related’ component. It is important to understand why and how this distinction was constructed and monitored. By scrutinising the relationship between framing and institutional power, I suggest that the counterframe won over the original frame, leading to a re-positioning of the demanders and a re-calibration of their expectations.     

Financing enterprise development in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper examines some critical gaps in the financial infrastructurein sub-Saharan Africa, which have contributed to the poor performanceof productive investment by private agents. It first analysesthe performance of financial systems, encompassing both formaland informal financial sectors, in relation to the changingpolicy environment, and key features of the financial marketstructure. It then identifies those gaps in financial servicesthat have been particularly detrimental to private investment,enterprise growth and transformation. Finally, the paper considerspolicy implications drawn from East Asian experiences with respectto financial policies, institutional arrangements and marketintegration measures for financing enterprise development.