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The dependency of the standard of living in Southern Africa on land as the main factor of GDP growth
Mukucha, Charlotte Prisca
The Southern African region is constantly in debate regarding land management and redistribution from the hands of colonisers who are the minority to the black majority, the argument behind being that it is empowerment and indigenisation of the locals. One of the most ‘famous’ land reform programmes occurred in Zimbabwe, 2000 which did not go so well as anticipated and planned. Yet some African leaders think that this was a bold move made by Africa’s longest serving president and oldest ( the late R.G.Mugabe), and intend to follow the same route while in some countries such as Namibia and Tanzania are slowing repossessing the land. This paper seeks to investigate if ever since land reforms began in the region if the countries have managed to achieve the most basic and important development as interpreted by the Millennium Development Goals that is reducing hunger and poverty by 50% throughout the life span of the MDGs. Simply put the goal is to asses if land is efficiently put to use as it is regarded the main source of living in developing countries. The literature review analysed what constitutes development, how it can be achieved and how it is measured. Studies have proved that agriculture is a vital part of the region and Africa at large. This study made use of secondary annual aggregated data from databases of international institutions. Unit roots tests were applied and regression analysis was applied to ascertain the importance of the agricultural sector in the region. The results show that despite the agricultural sector employing majority of the people it is failing to produce favourable economic results but rather worsening the situation. However the situation can be salvaged to improve the sector’s performance.
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The contribution of agriculture to the ghanaian economy
Ayeh, Elizabeth
The general purpose of this study is to determine the contribution of agriculture to the economy of Ghana. The country’s economy is characterised by the presence of high level of agriculture. Agriculture is the main economic activity for most people in Ghana. The study reveals that agriculture contributes about 18% to GDP, 40.65% of total employment, and about 34% of total exports of agricultural valued added goods and source of industrial inputs (raw materials) in the country. Nevertheless, agriculture in the country has faced the following challenges: low fertiliser uses and yield, pests and diseases, inadequate modern farm inputs and technologies, lack of financial support systems, rural-urban migration, agricultural extension services, land tenure system, poor road network, and low prices for agricultural products. The government should encourage more exportation of agricultural output this would concurrently, augment the country’s foreign exchange record in a positive direction and bolster the competitive qualities of the country’s products on the international front. Also, agricultural universities, if none exist, must be created and equipped with financial and technological capacities to carry out serious research and investigation into all facets of the agricultural economy; including; forestry, aquaculture, apiculture, diseases and pest, and crop production, not excluding post-harvest and marketing researches.
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Analysis of Unemployment in Russia: Spatial Analysis on Russian Regions
Provazník, Jan ; Cahlík, Tomáš (advisor) ; Bezhanishvili, Levan (referee)
This thesis analyses the regional labor markets of Russian Federation in terms of unemployment and Okun's law. Using Hodrick-Prescott filter, the potential GRP and natural rate of unemployment are calculated in order to be used for the estimation of Okun's law coefficient (OLC). The analysis reveals variation in OLC between regions as well as significant spatial correlation thereof (measured by Moran's I). For the examination of Okun's convergence, a new method is developed which consists in estimating a time trend in R-squared obtained by estimating Okun's law cross-sectionally, separately for each year. The results indicate that there is no regional Okun's convergence in Russia.
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What is the effect of income inequality on economic growth?
Ardeleanu, Dorian ; Baxa, Jaromír (advisor) ; Astapovich, Stanislav (referee)
The impact of income inequality on the level of economic growth is an impor- tant question, but the existing literature did not reach a consensus about the sign of its effect. This thesis studies the impact in 93 countries over the years 1995-2015. We apply two different methods: the fixed effects with Newey and West standard errors, and the first-difference generalized method of moments. The main findings emphasize that a widening wealth gap has an overall negative influence over the real GDP per capita growth. Besides that, the effect is stronger among low-income countries than among high- income ones. Moreover, we find that the impact of income inequality on economic growth depends on the governing party's doctrine. It is negative and statistically significant only in states with centrist governments. 1
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Foreign Workers and their impact on the Federal Republic of Germany
Kodýdková, Daniela ; Nigrin, Tomáš (advisor) ; Mlsna, Petr (referee)
Kodýdková Daniela, Ausländische Arbeitskräfte und ihre Bedeutung für die BRD Abstract This bachelor work with the title "Ausländische Arbeitskräfte und ihre Bedeutung für die BRD" (in English: Foreign Workers and their meaning for the Federal Republic of Germany) is dedicated in its theoretical part to the topic of the recruitment of foreign workers to the Federal Republic of Germany from economically weaker European countries like Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Yugoslavia, and later also from countries that neither geographically nor politically belong to Europe (Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia), in the period of time from the middle of the fifties until the recruitment ban in 1973, and also to its causes and consequences. The analytical section examines the meaning or benefit of the recruitment and presence of the foreign workers. However, there were not only positive aspects connected as was awaited at the beginning of the recruitment especially in the economic sphere. Not all the foreign workers wanted to return back to their home countries after earning expected living and these who stayed in Germany became, after the recruitment ban, real immigrants with the vision of a long-term stay. In the chapter entitled Schlussfolgerung there is the comparison of the positive and negative impacts of the foreign...
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Debt Relief and Growth: A Study of the HIPC Initiative
Kutman, Jan ; Cahlík, Tomáš (advisor) ; Pleticha, Petr (referee)
Debt relief is a form of development aid that began to gain importance in the last decade of the 20th century. In 1996 the World Bank and the IMF jointly launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, a comprehensive and structured program designed to provide debt relief for eligible low-income countries. The purpose of my thesis is to investigate, whether debt relief for developing countries over the period 1996-2015 affected economic growth in the recipient countries with particular attention being paid to the HIPC countries. I also investigate whether the impact of debt relief on growth varies conditional on institutional quality. I find that the low-income countries on average did not benefit from debt relief. However, I find that debt forgiveness has enhanced the growth rates in the countries in the HIPC initiative. Based on the results of my regression analysis I did not find evidence that the effectivity of debt relief in either group of countries depends on institutional quality.
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Analysis of Energy Economy to drive Ukraine's economic growth
Kariagina, Viktoriia ; Jakubík, Petr (advisor) ; Valíčková, Petra (referee)
This thesis investigates the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in 15 post- Soviet states with a primary focus on Ukraine over the time period 1991-2013. First, panel unit root tests are applied to the time series for energy use and GDP for each post-Soviet country, then cointegration tests are run to identify the relationship between the variables. The empirical strategy of the panel data analysis is based on a neoclassical growth model specification, which includes the gross capital formation and total labor force of each country as additional explanatory variables for economic growth, along with energy inefficiency, % fossil fuel use, liberalization of the energy sector, and several other variables. The dataset is analyzed using Pooled OLS, Fixed Effects and Random Effects models, with Fixed Effects being identified as the optimal estimator. The results of the analysis show that there is a positive, bidirectional causality relationship between economic growth and energy consumption for Ukraine (the "Feedback Hypothesis"). In addition, the results of the panel data analysis suggest that reducing energy inefficiency, increasing "own production" of energy (including renewable energy), and liberalizing the energy sector of Ukraine could all be valuable strategies for increasing the...
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Autocracy, democracy and economic growth: China vs. EU between 1979 - 2015
Gücklhorn, Jakub ; Procházka, Pavel (advisor) ; Ševčíková, Michaela (referee)
The bachelor thesis examines the role of the political system in optimizing economic policies on example of China and European Union in 1979-2015. The introduction of the theoretical part deals with the importance of economic growth. In the following are described basic approaches to economic growth, which include both the view of neoclassical economics and institutional economics. In the practical part is carried out a comparative analysis of several economic indicators influencing economic growth in order to find out, which political arrangement provides better background for economic growth. The paper concludes that a better background for long-term economic growth is a democratic political order.
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Prokletí přírodních zdrojů: případ Ruska
Belyakova, Elena ; Frömmel, Tomáš (advisor) ; Máslo, Lukáš (referee)
The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the problem of the natural resource curse, particularly in the Russian Federation, with respect to history, changes in oil prices and the situation in the world arena. With the hypothesis that the changes in oil prices affect the Russian GDP and the development of other non-oil based industries, two different regressions for two time periods are run. The results of the regressions and subsequent test confirm the hypothesis that Russian GDP depends on the oil prices and on changes on the world resource market. It is found, that in the Soviet period there was no dependence of Soviet economy on oil export and prices. The results are in support of the previous paper, written by Benedictow et al. (2010), that indeed Russian economy suffers from the natural resource curse.
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Alternative measures of GDP
Alizada, Tamerlan ; Chytilová, Helena (advisor) ; Slaný, Martin (referee)
The findings of the research reveal that GDP has a number of important flaws and shortcomings, and thus fails to serve effectively for the purpose of measuring the economic growth of countries and welfare of their population as of today. Based on the evaluation of the advantages and drawbacks of macroeconomic measures alternative to GDP such as the United Nations Human Development Index, the Social Progress Index, the Environmental Performance Index, the Happy Planet Index, the Legatum Prosperity Index, the OECD Better Life Index, the World Happiness Index, etc., the author comes to a conclusion that despite the growing use of alternative measures, as of today, they are not able to replace GDP, but might complement it quite effectively.
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