Zur Ökonomik von Spitzenleistungen im internationalen Sport

Sport - in particular high-performance sport - is a fascination that is used as a platform for societal concerns. This is the base for different interests in active and passive sports and the state's interest in top-class sport. In most countries, top-class sport is a national concern: states train their athletes in national training centres, support their sports associations in international competitions or promote applications for major sporting events.The articles in this volume provide a well-founded insight into the organisation of high-performance sport and show the different paths of selected countries

Dollarization and macroeconomic instability in Ghana

A Doctoral Thesis Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, The Graduate School of Business Administration, University of the Witwatersrand February 2016The liberalization of foreign exchange markets occasioned by the widespread acceptance of floating exchange rate systems brought about prevalent acceptance of foreign currency (usually U.S. dollars) in many developing and transition economies. Facing both domestic and foreign imbalances, a number of developing economies have embraced foreign currencies as a store of value (asset substitution), and in some instances as a medium of exchange for domestic transactions (currency substitution). This thesis examines dollarization/currency substitution, its impact on macroeconomic fundamentals, and the challenges it poses for effective formulation and transmission of monetary policy in Ghana. The entire thesis is organised into five empirical essays, each touching on a specific subject within the broad theme of dollarization and economic instability. The first essay explores the macroeconomic determinants of financial dollarization. The evidence establishes that exchange rate depreciation and financial development drive dollarization. Additionally depreciation of the domestic currency increases demand for foreign currencies, while a more developed financial sector tends to curtail dollarization. The second essay models a long-run money demand function for Ghana within the portfolio balance framework. The results indicate that, although foreign interest rates and expected exchange rates (either separately or jointly) are relevant elements in the money demand function, there evidence is more in support of capital mobility and not currency substitution. The third essay provides evidence on how financial dollarization affects the volatility of nominal and real Ghana cedi/U.S. dollar exchange rates. The study showed that the effect of financial dollarization on nominal exchange rate volatility in Ghana is positive, thus, as demand for U.S. dollars becomes more extensive, the cedi/dollar exchange rate becomes more volatile and unstable. The fourth essay investigates the role of dollarization in the dynamics of inflation and inflation uncertainty. Contrary to common logic, the results indicate that dollarization has not played a significant role in the dynamics of inflation volatility. The study posits that, although there is no significant impact of dollarization on inflation volatility, inflation targeting affects the inflation-inflation uncertainty relationship in Ghana. The last essay considers the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission in Ghana and examines whether the degree of dollarization hinders or facilitates that process by accounting for the role of the inflation targeting. The results show that credit and exchange rate channels dominate the transmission mechanism, with the former assuming a more significant role in the inflation targeting period. Moreover, the contribution of dollarization has diminished in the post-inflation targeting era, suggesting that monetary authorities have paid more attention to the effects of dollarization in the current monetary regime. A number of policy prescriptions arising from the thesis are presented to guide domestic authorities in smoothing the path of the instability in the economy.MB201

Proceedings: Voice Technology for Interactive Real-Time Command/Control Systems Application

Speech understanding among researchers and managers, current developments in voice technology, and an exchange of information concerning government voice technology efforts are discussed

Zur Ökonomik von Spitzenleistungen im internationalen Sport

Sport - in particular high-performance sport - is a fascination that is used as a platform for societal concerns. This is the base for different interests in active and passive sports and the state's interest in top-class sport. In most countries, top-class sport is a national concern: states train their athletes in national training centres, support their sports associations in international competitions or promote applications for major sporting events.The articles in this volume provide a well-founded insight into the organisation of high-performance sport and show the different paths of selected countries

The effects of external shocks on economic growth in South Africa

External shocks are defined as unexpected changes in an economic variable which can influence economies either positively or negatively. Examples of such shocks can include oil price and terms of trade shocks. Globalisation has increased the susceptibility of economies worldwide to economic shocks emanating from developed countries, due to the existing trade and financial links between various countries around the world. The objectives of this study are to investigate the effects of external shocks on economic growth in South Africa and to develop policies which could be used to prevent or soften the negative effects of external shocks in South Africa. Since the beginning of democracy in 1994, the South African economy has been opened to the world market. However, there have not been substantial gains in terms of economic growth. A possible explanation for this is that the dynamics of large economies influence the average demand, average supply, economic activities, and price changes in small open economies. South Africa’s dependence on foreign trade and attracting foreign savings to drive domestic investment increases the country’s vulnerability to the effects of external shocks. In this study, the South African economy is proxied by one key measure of economic performance, economic growth rate. The purpose of the study is to advance the understanding of the effects of external shocks on economic growth in South Africa. The study uses the structural VAR model. As South Africa is a relatively small open economy, the structural VAR model is theoretically consistent with countries of similar ilk. This study concludes that South Africa’s economic growth is significantly affected by commodity price index, U.S. GDP, and oil rents. In addition, this study concludes that South Africa is contemporaneously and positively affected by oil rents shocks and terms of trade shocks. Furthermore, it shows that economic growth in South Africa is contemporaneously and negatively affected by capital inflow shocks, nominal vi exchange rate shocks, and CPI shocks. Further SVAR estimates support the finding that capital inflows adversely affect South African economic growth. A possible reason for this outcome is that the number of domestic producers is reduced as a result of domestic producers being negatively affected by the capital inflow shocks. To combat the adverse effects of capital inflows, the study recommends that South Africa enforces more measures to protect domestic producers. The implementation of protectionist policies is one way in which this could be accomplished. These policies would promote domestic producers and ensure the production of domestic goods and services is increased.Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Business and Economic science, 202