A panel data analysis of nonlinear financial growth dynamics in a macroprudential policy regime was conducted on a panel of 10 African emerging countries from 1985–2021, where there had been a non-prudential regime from 1985–1999 and a prudential regime from 2000–2021. The paper explored the validity of the inverted U-shape hypothesis in the prudential policy regime as well as the threshold level at which excessive finance boosts growth using the Bayesian Spatial Lag Panel Smooth Transition Regression (BSPSTR) model. The BSPSTR model was adopted due to its ability to address the problems of endogeneity and heterogeneity in a nonlinear framework. Moreover, as the transition variable often varies across time and space, the effect of the independent variables can also be time- and space-varying. The results reveal evidence of a nonlinear effect between finance and growth, where the optimal level of financial development is found to be 92% of GDP, above which financial development decreases growth. The findings confirmed the Greenwood and Jovanovic hypothesis of an inverted U-shape relationship. Macroprudential policies were found to trigger the finance–growth relationship. The policy recommendation is that the financial sector should be given adequate consideration and recognition by, for example, implementing appropriate financial reforms, developing a suitable investment portfolio, and keeping spending on technological investment in Africa’s emerging countries below the threshold. Again, caution is needed when introducing macroprudential policies at a low level of the financial system.
Changes in population structure can have a great impact on savings rates. This study investigated the relationship that exists between the aging population and the savings rate in South Africa. The gross savings of South Africa from 1995 to 2017 was analysed. A fixed effect model and a random effect model were used as baselines for arbitrary correlations between unobserved heterogeneity and independent variables. The Hausman test was utilized to find a more efficient and consistent model that produces consistent results. The argument of the Lice Cycle Hypothesis developed by Modigliani (1970) and those previous research findings in which the rising older population has a tendency to decrease the rates of savings were followed in this paper. The findings revealed that an increase in old-age dependency does not cause the level of savings to decline but will rather lead to an increase in savings. The findings agree with the bequest theory, which states that old people save up their money for their upcoming generation. Due to the findings obtained in this paper, economic policies that aim to increase savings through demographics might not be relevant and are therefore not suggested.
The attitude that employees have towards their job is well believed to have an influence on their performance. This study investigated the influence of job satisfaction on employees’ performance. Herzberg’s two-factor hygiene and motivation theory was used to explain employees' motivation for best performance. A cross-sectional survey design in the form of a structured questionnaire was used to randomly sample one hundred (100) employees of the University of Zululand, South Africa. Descriptive and correlation analysis were used to analyze the collected data. The findings indicate that job satisfaction does not influence employees’ performance. The study concludes that UNIZULU employees enjoy their roles despite the unsatisfactory benefits attached. In spite of the unsatisfactory level of benefits, they perform their duties effortlessly. This research contributes to research-based knowledge that will assist universities’ management in identifying the factors that will enhance employees’ performance.
Tobacco consumption contributes to a substantial amount of household expenditures, which might lead to decreased spending on other essentials. This study examines household head tobacco expenditures in various inequality settings. In this study, we investigated the impact of gender, race, and educational inequality and the substitution effect of tobacco expenditure on essentials such as children’s education and household food. We looked at how much of the resources household heads spend on tobacco in different inequality settings that replace households’ essentials. The panel setting of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), South Africa’s first nationally representative household panel survey, is used as a data collection source for this study. These are household surveys conducted by the Presidency’s Office of Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation. The panel data are subject to attrition in longitudinal research. We compared the conditional expenditure shares of various types of households using econometric models such as moment quantile regression. A negative and statistically significant estimated coefficient of tobacco expenditure and the coefficient of the interacted term (inequality and tobacco expenditure) demonstrated the substitution effect. The findings reveal that low-income households whose heads smoke tobacco invest less in their children’s education, while well-educated heads of high-income households’ place as much value on their children’s education as they do on cigarette expenditure. The study also points out that the share of income spent on cigarettes by black household heads is negatively connected to their children’s education across all quantiles compared to non-blacks. We conclude that low-income households are more likely to experience the substitution impact than high-income households. This study recommends, among other things, that low-income households should prioritize needs over non-essentials in order to maximize household satisfaction, and government should implement policies that will limit tobacco consumption expenditure.
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