Empirical analysis of the dynamics of the South African rand (Post-1994)

Thesis (Ph.D. (Economics))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic & Business Sciences, 2016.The objective of this thesis is to investigate the recent historical dynamics of the four major nominal bilateral spot foreign exchange rates and the fifteen currency-basket nominal effective exchange rate of the South African rand (hereafter referred to as the rand). The thesis has been organised as three separate studies that add to the advancement of the knowledge of the characteristics and behaviour (causal effects) of the rand. The common thread that holds the individual chapters together is the study of the dynamics of the rand. In particular, the study establishes whether the apparent nonstationarity of the exchange rate is a product of unit root test misspecification (a failure to account for structural change), considers the connexions between the timing of the identified structural shifts and important economic and noneconomic events, and analyses rand volatility and the temporal effect of monetary policy surprises on both the spot foreign exchange market returns and volatility of the rand. In order to do this, low- and high-frequency data are employed. With regard to exchange rate modelling, the theoretical economic-exchange rate frameworks are approached both from the traditional macro-based view of exchange rate determination and a micro-based perspective. The various methodologies applied here tackle different aspects of the exchange rate dynamics. To preview the results, we find that adjusting for structural shifts in the unit root tests does not render any of the exchange rates stationary. However, the results show a remarkable fall in the estimates of volatility persistence when structural breaks are integrated into the autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) framework. The empirical results also shed light on the impact of modelling exchange rates as long memory processes, the extent of asymmetric responses to ‘good news’ and ‘bad news’, the consistencies and contrasts in the five exchange rate series’ volatility dynamics, and the timing and likely triggers of volatility regime switching. Additionally, there are convincing links between the timing of structural changes and important economic (and noneconomic) events, and commonality in the structural breaks detected in the levels and volatility of the rand. We also find statistically and economically significant high-frequency exchange rate returns and volatility responses to domestic interest rate surprises. Furthermore, the rapid response of the rand to monetary policy surprises suggests a relatively high degree of market efficiency (from a mechanical perspective) in processing this information. Keywords: Exchange rate, expectations, long memory, monetary policy surprises, repo rate, structural breaks, volatility; unit root. JEL Code: C22, E52, E58, F31, F41, G14 and G1

"New Leadership", Leader-Member exchange And Commitment To Change: The Case Of Higher Education In Malaysia.

Human resource management faces challenges of bringing better fitted workers into the organizations and of meeting the workers' needs and expectations

Testing The Multi-Dimensional Nature Of “New Leadership” In A Non-Western Context: The Case Of Malaysia

Past researchers in leadership studies have observed a shift in the dimensions of new leadership behavior such as transformational and transactional styles. For the past few decades, leadership styles continue to be one of the most exciting issues for organizations. Many studies have attempted to explore its effect on work outcomes such as employee’s commitment, job satisfaction, turnover intention, and performances. Leadership styles exhibited by the managers have often been known as the essence of leaders’ behavior which is the major driving force behind this continuous recognition of employees’ behavior in the management literatures. Hence, a better understanding of the dimensionality of leadership styles is needed to facilitate further theoretical development and practical measurement of the construct. The purpose of the research reported here was to test empirically and to validate a conceptualization of two forms of leadership styles known as transformational and transactional, that consists of four and five dimensions, respectively. Data was gathered through a survey using a structured questionnaire to employees in Malaysia with a total of 146 respondents. A series of tests such as factor analysis, correlation, and reliability analysis was conducted to confirm that the instrument is valid (content, construct, convergent, discriminant and nomological) as well as reliable. Implications regarding the value of conducting validity and reliability test for practitioners and researchers are discussed

Relationship between Transformational and Transactional Leadership Styles and commitment to Change : The case of Higher Education in Malaysia

This paper hypothesized that the leadership styles of supervisors was anchored on four types of commitment to change of the subordinates. Transactional and transformational were conceptualized as 4-and 3-dimensional constructs, respectively. The research uses a sample of 19 public universities located in Malaysia. Findings suggested that individualized consideration, idealized influence, and inspirational motivation were found to have positive relationship with personal goals arousal and context belief dimensions of commitment to change. Contingent reward and passive management by exception were found to be positively related to capacity belief and personal goals arousal dimensions of commitment to change. Implications of the findings, potential limitations of the study, and directions for future research were further discussed

Patterns of Pain and Functional Improvement in Patients with Bone Metastases after Conventional External Beam Radiotherapy and a Telephone Validation Study

Patients experiencing lower body pain resulting from bone metastases have greater levels of functional interference than those with upper body pain. The purpose of this study was to assess the levels of interference caused by pain after treatment with conventional radiotherapy using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and to validate this tool for telephone use. After radiotherapy, a total of 159, 129, and 106 patients completed the BPI over the telephone at months 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Cronbach's alpha, confirmatory factor analysis, and discriminant validity tests were performed to assess the validity of the BPI. One-way ANOVA was used to compare BPI scores. There was no statistically significant difference in functional interference among patients after treatment. Internal consistency of the BPI was high. Functional interference may be inherently higher in patients with pain in the lower body. Telephone use of the BPI is reliable and recommended in this population

Empirical Legal Studies Before 1940: A Bibliographic Essay

The modern empirical legal studies movement has well-known antecedents in the law and society and law and economics traditions of the latter half of the 20th century. Less well known is the body of empirical research on legal phenomena from the period prior to World War II. This paper is an extensive bibliographic essay that surveys the English language empirical legal research from approximately 1940 and earlier. The essay is arranged around the themes in the research: criminal justice, civil justice (general studies of civil litigation, auto accident litigation and compensation, divorce, small claims, jurisdiction and procedure, civil juries), debt and bankruptcy, banking, appellate courts, legal needs, legal profession (including legal education), and judicial staffing and selection. Accompanying the essay is an extensive bibliography of research articles, books, and reports