scholarly journals A comparative analysis of returns of various financial asset classes in South Africa: a triumph of bonds?

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-195
Author(s):  
R Vivian ◽  
C Auret
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Risk Measures ◽  
Sharpe Ratio ◽  
The Other ◽  
Financial Asset ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Popular View ◽  
Asset Classes

There is a popular view that equities always outperform other financial asset classes; especially bonds. This study investigates the performance of three common asset classes to determine whether or not this view is validated in South Africa. Conceptually, the popular view is irrational. If one class consistently and materially outperforms other asset classes, in the absence of other reasons, the other asset classes would disappear. Accordingly, rationally, in the long run and on a risk-adjusted basis, returns on all asset classes should conceptually more or less converge. The results from this study, which concentrates on equities, bonds and cash, show that in South Africa, even before adjusting for risk, there was no material difference between the returns of equities over long bonds over the 27-year period covered by this study (1986–2013). This is equally true for other shorter fixed periods with the end-date (28 February 2013) being the focal point. It is even more evident that bonds outperform equities when a system of rolling periods is used. On a nominal basis (before adjusting for risk), over any randomly selected rolling period, bonds outperform equities in six of the seven categories. This study does not take tax into consideration. After adjusting for risk using the Sharpe ratio or other risk measures, bonds outperformed equities.

scholarly journals Is Socially Responsible Indices Weak Form of Efficient Market? Evidences from Developing Economies

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Sabyasachi Mondal ◽  
Ranjit Singh
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Weak Form ◽  
The Other ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Augmented Dickey Fuller ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Test Of Randomness ◽  
Daily Returns

The study is an attempt to identify the presence of randomness in the socially responsible indices (SRI) of the stock markets of developing countries. Five developing economies are considered for the test of randomness on daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and semiannual return of socially responsible indices and their benchmark indices. Shapiro-Wilk test is used to test the normality of the data whereas Runs test and Augmented Dickey-Fuller test are used depending on the randomness of the data. It is observed that India, Arab and Egypt show non-randomness whereas Brazil and South Africa show randomness in daily returns. Weekly returns on the other hand are random in Brazil, Arab, South Africa, and non-random in India and Egypt. Monthly and quarterly returns show randomness in India, Arab, Egypt, South Africa and non-randomness in Brazil whereas semiannual returns show randomness for all economies. It is also observed that most socially responsible indices resonate the randomness patterns of their benchmark indices. Most of the non-randomness is seen in short-run indicating inefficiency in the market. However, in long-run, the market goes random or efficient which is an indication that more than average profit can be earned by resorting to technical trading in the short run. Moreover, the similarity in randomness between socially responsible indices and their benchmark indices indicates that similar trading strategy can be applied by traders in both these indices to garner profit.

scholarly journals Investigating the Need to Reintroduce a Ballot Requirement for a Protected Strike in South Africa

Obiter ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mlungisi Tenza
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Meaningful Role ◽  
Counter Argument

The issue of violent and protracted strikes has been a source of debate on many labour platforms in South Africa. Unions believe that if a ballot is introduced as one of the requirements for a protected strike in South Africa, it will be abused by employers and manipulated as was the case under the old Labour Relations Act. A counter- argument is that no one can take away a right in the Bill of Rights unless the prescribed procedure in the Constitution is followed. A right in the Bill of Rights can also not be limited unless the limitation is in terms of section 36 of the Constitution. Of particular importance to this issue is not the number of strikes in South Africa but their nature (which has been violent) and their duration (which has been unreasonably long). The violent nature of strikes is a major concern for employers, society and non-striking employees. Violent and lengthy strikes are dangerous to both employers and employees. The employer suffers loss of profit and loss of clients with the possibility of reducing its workforce or closing its business. Employees, on the other hand, face retrenchments if the business is not making a profit. The article argues that the reintroduction of a ballot requirement will play a meaningful role in reducing the number of strikes and their duration. Balloting employees prior and during the course of a strike will help test whether employees have the appetite for the strike. The article further argues that if long strikes can be reduced through ballots, dismissal on the basis of operational requirements could be avoided. In the long run, poverty arising from high levels of unemployment could be avoided.

scholarly journals A comparative analysis on the entrepreneurial ecosystem of BRICS club countries: practical emphasis on South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adisu Fanta Bate
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Development Effort ◽  
Risk Capital ◽  
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Technology Absorption

AbstractThe effectiveness of entrepreneurial activities is not only determined by the quality of entrepreneurs but also by the ecosystem of entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) that nurtures low-quality “moppets” to highly impactful “gazelles” is being widely debated and on-demand in literature. This study, therefore, is aimed to advance the discussion and make a comparative analysis of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, which has been given a little attention, of BRICS club countries with an especial focus on South Africa, Brazil, and India. Various entrepreneurship-economic growth-related measures including Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI), Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), Index Economic Freedom (IEF), and Legatum Prosperity Index (LPI) are used to compare the countries’ entrepreneurial ecosystem. Especially, the data set (2012–2018) of GEI was utilized for the analysis. According to GEI and GCI of 2018, China is leading BRICS club in terms of growth and entrepreneurial ecosystem. On the other side, LPI, IEF, and GEI put South Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem in a favorable position as compared to Brazil and India. South Africa performs poorly in startup skills, while both the latter ones are better and stand at the same level. This shows that South Africa’s tertiary education, coupled with low skill perception, is less effective in equipping the population to be entrepreneurs as compared to India and Brazil. Whereas Brazil and India are at their worst in internationalizing the country’s entrepreneurs and technological absorption, respectively. South Africa is more like India in product innovation and risk acceptance. On the other side, it is more like Brazil in risk capital, technological absorption, opportunity perception, and in their sluggish economic growth. Overall, South Africa (57th/140 as of 2018) is categorized among those poorly performing countries in terms of start-up skills, networking, technology absorption, human Capital, and risk capital pillars. The government of South Africa needs to primarily work on these bottle-neck pillars to improve its EE. To increase GEI by 5%, it should invest 77% of its extra resource on start-up skills, 18% on risk capital, and 5% on technology absorption. Applying GEI set up, this paper claims to have uniquely contributed to how to make a country comparison on the EE. Further empirical research can be done including all BRICS countries to bolster their development effort and on how to promote EE by tackling the underlying bottlenecks.

The World Economic Forum Principles on "Climate Governance on Corporate Boards": can soft law help to face climate change around the world?

2020 ◽  
pp. 37-55
Author(s):  
Sabrina Bruno
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Boards Of Directors ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Corporate Boards ◽  
World Economic Forum ◽  
Financial Factor ◽  
The World ◽  
World Economic

Climate change is a financial factor that carries with it risks and opportunities for companies. To support boards of directors of companies belonging to all jurisdictions, the World Economic Forum issued in January 2019 eight Principlescontaining both theoretical and practical provisions on: climate accountability, competence, governance, management, disclosure and dialogue. The paper analyses each Principle to understand scope and managerial consequences for boards and to evaluate whether the legal distinctions, among the various jurisdictions, may undermine the application of the Principles or, by contrast, despite the differences the Principles may be a useful and effective guidance to drive boards' of directors' conduct around the world in handling climate change challenges. Five jurisdictions are taken into consideration for this comparative analysis: Europe (and UK), US, Australia, South Africa and Canada. The conclusion is that the WEF Principles, as soft law, is the best possible instrument to address boards of directors of worldwide companies, harmonise their conduct and effectively help facing such global emergency.

The Final ‘Thank You’

Derrida Today ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-36
Author(s):  
Grant Farred
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
The Other ◽  
World Cup ◽  
The Core ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Black President ◽  
The Moment

‘The Final “Thank You”’ uses the work of Jacques Derrida and Friedrich Nietzsche to think the occasion of the 1995 rugby World Cup, hosted by the newly democratic South Africa. This paper deploys Nietzsche's Zarathustra to critique how a figure such as Nelson Mandela is understood as a ‘Superman’ or an ‘Overhuman’ in the moment of political transition. The philosophical focus of the paper, however, turns on the ‘thank yous’ exchanged by the white South African rugby captain, François Pienaar, and the black president at the event of the Springbok victory. It is the value, and the proximity and negation, of the ‘thank yous’ – the relation of one to the other – that constitutes the core of the article. 1

An Econometric Analysis on the Relationship between Globalisation and Inequality in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-89
Author(s):  
Jacques de Jongh
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Causality Analysis ◽  
Global Integration ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The World ◽  
Distribution Of Resources ◽  
Short Run ◽  
The Impact

Globalisation has had an unprecedented impact on the development and well-being of societies across the globe. Whilst the process has been lauded for bringing about greater trade specialisation and factor mobility many have also come to raise concerns on its impact in the distribution of resources. For South Africa in particular this has been somewhat of a contentious issue given the country's controversial past and idiosyncratic socio-economic structure. Since 1994 though, considerable progress towards its global integration has been made, however this has largely coincided with the establishment of, arguably, the highest levels of income inequality the world has ever seen. This all has raised several questions as to whether a more financially open and technologically integrated economy has induced greater within-country inequality (WCI). This study therefore has the objective to analyse the impact of the various dimensions of globalisation (economic, social and political) on inequality in South Africa. Secondary annual time series from 1990 to 2018 were used sourced from the World Bank Development indicators database, KOF Swiss Economic Institute and the World Inequality database. By using different measures of inequality (Palma ratios and distribution figures), the study employed two ARDL models to test the long-run relationships with the purpose to ensure the robustness of the results. Likewise, two error correction models (ECM) were used to analyse the short-run dynamics between the variables. As a means of identifying the casual effects between the variables, a Toda-Yamamoto granger causality analysis was utilised. Keywords: ARDL, Inequality, Economic Globalisation; Social Globalisation; South Africa

‘Wisselbare Woorde’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrol Clarkson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
The Other ◽  
Frantz Fanon ◽  
Politics Of Representation ◽  
Black Consciousness ◽  
Nadine Gordimer ◽  
Contact Zones ◽  
Critical Problems ◽  
Ethics And Politics

Carrol Clarkson’s chapter wrestles with the contentious question of Coetzee’s relation to the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa of the 1970s and early 1980s, which took its philosophical bearings from Frantz Fanon and found expression in the writings of Steve Biko. Clarkson focuses on the ways in which Coetzee departed from the ideas about writing and resistance that were circulating in his contemporary South Africa, particularly as articulated by novelist Nadine Gordimer. Clarkson discusses two related literary-critical problems: an ethics and politics of representation, and an ethics and politics of address, showing how Coetzee explores a tension between freedom of expression and responsibility to the other. In the slippage from saying to addressing we are led to further thought about modes and sites of consciousness—and hence accountabilities—in the interlocutory contact zones of the post-colony. The chapter invites a sharper appreciation of what a postcolonial philosophy might be.

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