Department of Economics

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https://univendspace.univen.ac.za/handle/11602/1951

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Browsing Department of Economics by Author "Dafuleya, G."

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    Analysis of Financial Literacy amongst University of Students: A Case Study of the University of Venda
    (2018-05-18) Mudzanani, Ronewa Victor; Gyekye, A. B.; Dafuleya, G.
    This study assesses the level of financial literacy and its impact on financial decision making exercised by the tertiary students in South Africa, using the University of Venda (Univen) as a case study. The study does this in three steps. First, it provides the financial literacy levels of students at Univen assessed through an evaluation score that the sampled students responded to. Second, it analyses the relationship between the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of students and their financial literacy levels. Third, it assesses the possible effects of financial literacy on financial decision making among students using correlation and regression analysis. The study uses primary data gathered by the author from the University of Venda registered students in the form of questionnaires. A stratified random sampling method was used to identify the students to form the sample of the study, which is 373. Percent slightly above 50 per cent of these students were found to be financially literate and there were more female students who were financially literate compared to male counterparts. Using the odds ratios, the study compared the financial literacy levels of all schools to the school of Management Sciences, respectively. Only students in Environmental Sciences and Law have higher literacy levels, which are statistically significant, compared to the students in the school of Management Sciences. The results also show that the age and the parent’s educational background have a statistically significant relationship with the student being financial literate. Furthermore the results indicate that there is a statistically significant relationship on good financial decision making (that is, budgeting, savings and investments) and being financial literate, compared to being financial illiterate. This result is not true when borrowing is used as a measure of financial decision making.
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    Foreign direct investment and economic growth in SADC countries: A panel data analysis
    (2017-09-18) Mugowo, Onias; Gyekye, A. B.; Dafuleya, G.
    The study aimed to empirically examine the impact of foreign direct investment on economic growth in the Southern African Development Community countries for the period 1980-2015. The relation between foreign direct investment and economic growth has been a subject of extensive discussion in the economic literature. The debate revolves around the growth implications of foreign direct investment. The extraordinary increase in global FDI flows in the last three decades triggered an interest to investigate the growth implications of such huge amounts of cross-border capital movements. Owing to this surge in foreign direct investment flows and the effort countries are putting forth to attract it, it would seem straightforward to argue that foreign direct investment would convey net positive effects on economic growth of a host country. From a theoretical standpoint foreign direct investment has been shown to boost economic growth through technology transfer and diffusion. In light of the expected benefits of foreign direct investment, many empirical studies have been conducted on this subject matter. While the explosion of foreign direct investment flows is distinctive, the evidence accumulated on the growth effects remains mixed. Using fixed effect panel data analysis, on the overall, the findings of the study show a negative effect of FDI on economic growth in the SADC countries for the period 1980 to 2015. The findings are not in tandem with theoretical predictions from growth theorists and some empirical studies carried out on the same topic. The findings of the study imply that FDI does not seem to have an independent effect on economic growth for the panel of countries in the SADC region. This maybe because FDI flows to Africa and into the SADC countries, in particular, are channelled mainly to the extractive sector with little to no linkages with the other sectors of the host country economy. The findings of the study also show that the growth-enhancing potential of FDI is higher in middle-income countries than low-income countries in the SADC region.
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    Investigating consumer willingness to pay for improvements in water service attributes in and around Vuwani Town, South Africa
    (2023-10-05) Rasimphi, Mokgadi Grace; Dafuleya, G.; Dagume, M. A.
    Water scarcity is a major problem in South Africa given the country’s classification as “water stressed” and the thirtieth driest country in the world. Moreover, and like many other developing countries, the country faces severe challenges with the reliability of water supplies. These challenges includes but are not limited to, the frequency of water supply, low water pressure and poor water quality among other challenges. Although these challenges impose difficulties in the country in general, they impose a severe burden in rural settings and outlying towns such as Vuwani town and the surrounding villages in Limpopo. To this end, this study investigates the willingness to pay (WTP) by households of the Vuwani town and surrounding villages in respect of potential improvements of attributes of a water service. The study also sought to uncover potential heterogeneity in the preferences for improvements of attributes of a water service. Using the Conditional and Mixed Logit models, and a sample of 230 households, the study’s findings indicated evidence of respondents expressing willingness to pay for improvements in the attributes of a water service in Vuwani. The results also demonstrated strong evidence of preference heterogeneity among the respondents as well. Since the findings of the study makes it possible to estimate the potential benefits of an improved water service in Vuwani, the results of the study should provide local policy makers with evidence based information of one component of a potential cost – benefit analysis study necessary to inform the potential level of investments required to improve water services in rural settings.
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    Investigating consumer willingness to pay for improvements in water service attributes in and around Vuwani Town, South Africa
    (2023-10-05) Rasimphi, Mokgadi Grace; Dafuleya, G.; Dagume, M. A.
    Water scarcity is a major problem in South Africa given the country’s classification as “water stressed” and the thirtieth driest country in the world. Moreover, and like many other developing countries, the country faces severe challenges with the reliability of water supplies. These challenges includes but are not limited to, the frequency of water supply, low water pressure and poor water quality among other challenges. Although these challenges impose difficulties in the country in general, they impose a severe burden in rural settings and outlying towns such as Vuwani town and the surrounding villages in Limpopo. To this end, this study investigates the willingness to pay (WTP) by households of the Vuwani town and surrounding villages in respect of potential improvements of attributes of a water service. The study also sought to uncover potential heterogeneity in the preferences for improvements of attributes of a water service. Using the Conditional and Mixed Logit models, and a sample of 230 households, the study’s findings indicated evidence of respondents expressing willingness to pay for improvements in the attributes of a water service in Vuwani. The results also demonstrated strong evidence of preference heterogeneity among the respondents as well. Since the findings of the study makes it possible to estimate the potential benefits of an improved water service in Vuwani, the results of the study should provide local policy makers with evidence based information of one component of a potential cost – benefit analysis study necessary to inform the potential level of investments required to improve water services in rural settings.
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    The relationship between household consumption expenditure, disposable income and indebtedness in South Africa: An application of the vector error correction approach
    (2021-04) Khangale, Azwifarwi Richard; Dagume, M. A.; Dafuleya, G.
    In a demand-led economy like South Africa, household consumption expenditure is a major source of economic development. The availability of consumer credit has allowed consumption spending to play a more active role. This, however, is followed by a disconnect between household spending and disposable income. One potential cause of the observed disconnect, according to the relative income hypothesis, is households' proclivity to imitate contemporary consumption expectations set by others. The difficulties that have resulted from the disconnection influence the factors that affect household consumption expenditure. The aim of this study was to use time series data to empirically analyse the South African household consumption function. For this analysis, the variables chosen were household spending expenditures, disposable income, and debt service burden for the years 1969 to 2019. The thesis was carried out using the Vector Error-Correction technique. The Augmented Dick-Fuller (ADF) and Philips-Perron (PP) tests were used to determine stationarity. Consumption expenditure and disposable income were found to be nonstationary at levels, they became stationary after first differencing. To assess the long-run relationship and assess the roles played by the three variables in achieving equilibrium after a shock, the Johansen Cointegration approach was used. Both disposable income and debt burden have a positive relationship with consumption spending. Furthermore, according to the findings, consumption spending does all the adjusting after a shock and does so slowly. The positive, though weak, relationship between consumption expenditure and debt burden is a noteworthy outcome. In South Africa, disposable income was found to have a positive impact on household consumption spending. As a result, the study suggests that the South African government consider implementing a basic income grant to help relieve the effects of high unemployment and poverty. Given that most people invest a substantial portion of their discretionary income on consumption, the government's revenue in the form of taxation would help to alleviate the fiscal burden