ii The role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in economic growth is well documented in the literature. Various studies have established that FDI contributes both directly and indirectly to economic growth of the host country, especially, in the developing countries. Despite the proven benefits of FDI to developing countries, Africa continues to account for less than six per cent of the global stock of FDI. To uncover why developing countries (especially countries in Africa) are less attractive to inflow of FDI, a number of studies have been conducted. In most of those studies, the role of macroeconomic fundamentals is presented as the major hindrance to the developing world in attracting FDI. However, the fact that some developing countries (particularly in Asia and South America) falter on these considerations and still manage to attract inflow of FDI begs the straightjacket validity and appropriateness of those postulations. This new line of thought motivates the interest in looking at other set of variables that are capable of influencing the attractiveness of countries (especially developing

Declare the following: 1. I understand what plagiarism entails and am aware of the University’s policy in this regard. 2. I declare that this assignment is my own, original work. Where someone else’s work was used (whether from a printed source, the Internet or any other source) due acknowledgement was given and reference was made according to departmental requirements. 3. I did not copy and paste any information directly from an electronic source (e.g., a web page, electronic journal article or CD ROM) into this document. 4. I did not make use of another student’s previous work and submitted it as my own. 5. I did not allow and will not allow anyone to copy my work with the intention of presenting it as his/her own work. ii Calendar effects have been extensively researched in developed and emerging markets. Observing a number of these effects in one study is limited, especially in a South African context. This study investigates the day-of-the-week, January and pre-holiday effects in nine listed stock market indices

Natural resource endowment, stock market development and economic growth in Africa

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) market development and Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Design/Methodology/Approach: The study investigated the relationship between independent variables: ASE market sectors on dependent variable i.e. Real GDP. The study used 14 years data from 1999 to 2012. Statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA test, correlation, simple and multiple regressions, stepwise regression, were employed. Findings/Results/Conclusions: Pearson correlation results showed that the four sectors of ASE market are strongly related to each other and are strongly related to ASE general indicator. Among the four ASE sector only industrial sector showed a strong relationship with GDP, while others did not show a significant relationship with GDP including ASE general indicator. Simple regression test showed that there is no effect of ASE general indicator on GDP. While multiple regressions showed that there is a strong effect of the ASE sectors together on GDP, but results did not show any significant effect of each sector when considering the four sectors together on GDP. Furthermore, first stepwise regressions model showed that there is a strong positive significant effect of industries sector on GDP, while second model showed that there is a strong positive significant effect of

ABSTRACT- This paper evaluates the need for the introduction of organized derivatives market in Nigeria. Derivatives play vital role in the development and growth of the economy through its crucial role of price discovery, market completeness, risk management and market efficiency. It attracts foreign capital flow, reduce cost of capital and will help to deepen the market if introduced. Although Nigeria is rich in natural resources such as oil and Gas and minerals, poor infrastructure, corruption and absence of robust financial and derivatives market has not helped in transforming the abundant resources to real economic gains and transformation. Nigeria’s economic transformation depends so much on developing a deep financial market, coupled with a dynamic derivatives market where most of her natural resources can be traded globally in a competitive and transparent manner.

Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA) is a research programme funded by the National

Submitted to the University of Hertfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the

The author begins the paper with a brief historical perspective of global capital flows to developing economies. He then presents the theoretical underpinnings and methodology employed during the research. This is followed by the review of the literature. Next, the researcher outlines his findings. He also analyzes economic strategies to attract global private capital flows and policy implications for decision makers in developing economies. The author ends the paper with some policy recommendations and the way forward for economic growth and sustainable development.

p.: ill.; cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN: 978-1-48434-453-8 1. Banks and banking – Africa, Sub-Saharan. 2. Economic development – Africa, Sub-Saharan. 3. Financial institutions – Africa, Sub-Saharan. 4. Africa, Sub-Saharan—Economic conditions. 5. Macroeconomics.