Economic evaluation of chemical and biological control methods on four aquatic weeds in South Africa
- Authors: Maluleke, Mary
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Invasive plants -- Biological control -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Introduced organisms -- Biological control -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Aquatic weeds -- Biological control -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Aquatic weeds -- Control -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Aquatic resources -- Management , Cost effectiveness , Net present value , Herbicides -- Cost effectiveness , Working for Water Programme , Water conservation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145953 , vital:38481
- Description: Invasive alien plants (IAPs) of various kinds pose a threat to ecosystems, biodiversity, conservation and overall economy. In a world experiencing exponential increase in IAPs – this issue has become endemic, especially for developing countries such as South Africa. South Africa is a water scarce country and IAPs increase water stress. Thus, South Africa must invest in a more realistic, environmentally and economically inclusive policy outlook on the management of IAPs including aquatic weeds. This is especially urgent when considering the changing global climate, which is predicted to further reduce the quantity and quality of potable water. The Working for Water Programme (WfW) in South Africa aimed at addressing the issue of IAPs in a way that protects the environment as well as produces maximum return to society through poverty alleviation. As such, the aquatic weeds management strategy put in place for four of South Africa’s aquatic weeds Pista stratiotes, Salvinia molesta, Azolla filiculoides and Myriophyllum aquaticum - should be one that is cost-effective, efficient and sustainable; yielding the best possible return on investment. Since these four weeds are already under complete biological control, in the absence of biological agents, the WfW programme would have used herbicides to control these weeds. As such, this thesis conducted a retrospective analysis of the relative herbicide cost-saving associated with the use of biological control. To do this, due to existing limitations, E. crassipes was used as a surrogate weed and its herbicide control costs were used as proxy for the herbicide control cost estimates of the four selected weeds; with reasonable conversion factors applied to cater for the biological difference of the five weeds. Using the cost benefit analysis (CBA) framework, the net present cost (NPC) of each control method was calculated to which the relative cost-saving was considered to represent the avoided cost of using biological control instead of chemical control on these weeds. The avoided cost was used as the main benefit component when deriving the relative benefit cost ratios (BCR). Two scenarios were used, one assuming no follow-up requirement and the other assuming one follow-up requirement for chemical control. Using an 8% discount rate, the study found that the estimated cost of the biological control method on all four aquatic weeds was about R7,843,205 while for chemical control the estimated costs would have costed R149,580,142, R268,264,838 and R881,711,738 for application by means of a boat, bakkie and knapsack. Chemical control cost estimates would have increased to about R164,538,052, R295,216,120 and R1,008,761,000 for boat, bakkie and knapsack approach respectively when including a possible follow-up programme. These would have led to positive BCRs of 90.24:1, 164.97:1 and 557.99:1 across the three chemical control approaches without a follow-up (with BCR of about 99.67:1, 182.00:1 and 631.56:1 for the boat, bakkie and knapsack approach respectively with the accepted follow-up programme). When running a sensitivity test with varying discount rates of 5% and 10%, these results remained robust. As such, failing to reject the dominant hypothesis in literature, the main conclusion of the study is that biological control is indeed the more cost-effective management option compared to chemical control with respect to herbicide cost-saving. Further, biological control is most-likely to produce more environmental cost-saving and water-saving over chemical control. The study recommends the continued use of the biological control investment on the four aquatic weeds under study as well as on emerging aquatic weeds such as Iris pseudacorus, Nymphaea mexicana and Sagittaria platyphylla in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Economic evaluation of chemical and biological control methods on four aquatic weeds in South Africa
- Authors: Maluleke, Mary
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Invasive plants -- Biological control -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Introduced organisms -- Biological control -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Aquatic weeds -- Biological control -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Aquatic weeds -- Control -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Aquatic resources -- Management , Cost effectiveness , Net present value , Herbicides -- Cost effectiveness , Working for Water Programme , Water conservation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145953 , vital:38481
- Description: Invasive alien plants (IAPs) of various kinds pose a threat to ecosystems, biodiversity, conservation and overall economy. In a world experiencing exponential increase in IAPs – this issue has become endemic, especially for developing countries such as South Africa. South Africa is a water scarce country and IAPs increase water stress. Thus, South Africa must invest in a more realistic, environmentally and economically inclusive policy outlook on the management of IAPs including aquatic weeds. This is especially urgent when considering the changing global climate, which is predicted to further reduce the quantity and quality of potable water. The Working for Water Programme (WfW) in South Africa aimed at addressing the issue of IAPs in a way that protects the environment as well as produces maximum return to society through poverty alleviation. As such, the aquatic weeds management strategy put in place for four of South Africa’s aquatic weeds Pista stratiotes, Salvinia molesta, Azolla filiculoides and Myriophyllum aquaticum - should be one that is cost-effective, efficient and sustainable; yielding the best possible return on investment. Since these four weeds are already under complete biological control, in the absence of biological agents, the WfW programme would have used herbicides to control these weeds. As such, this thesis conducted a retrospective analysis of the relative herbicide cost-saving associated with the use of biological control. To do this, due to existing limitations, E. crassipes was used as a surrogate weed and its herbicide control costs were used as proxy for the herbicide control cost estimates of the four selected weeds; with reasonable conversion factors applied to cater for the biological difference of the five weeds. Using the cost benefit analysis (CBA) framework, the net present cost (NPC) of each control method was calculated to which the relative cost-saving was considered to represent the avoided cost of using biological control instead of chemical control on these weeds. The avoided cost was used as the main benefit component when deriving the relative benefit cost ratios (BCR). Two scenarios were used, one assuming no follow-up requirement and the other assuming one follow-up requirement for chemical control. Using an 8% discount rate, the study found that the estimated cost of the biological control method on all four aquatic weeds was about R7,843,205 while for chemical control the estimated costs would have costed R149,580,142, R268,264,838 and R881,711,738 for application by means of a boat, bakkie and knapsack. Chemical control cost estimates would have increased to about R164,538,052, R295,216,120 and R1,008,761,000 for boat, bakkie and knapsack approach respectively when including a possible follow-up programme. These would have led to positive BCRs of 90.24:1, 164.97:1 and 557.99:1 across the three chemical control approaches without a follow-up (with BCR of about 99.67:1, 182.00:1 and 631.56:1 for the boat, bakkie and knapsack approach respectively with the accepted follow-up programme). When running a sensitivity test with varying discount rates of 5% and 10%, these results remained robust. As such, failing to reject the dominant hypothesis in literature, the main conclusion of the study is that biological control is indeed the more cost-effective management option compared to chemical control with respect to herbicide cost-saving. Further, biological control is most-likely to produce more environmental cost-saving and water-saving over chemical control. The study recommends the continued use of the biological control investment on the four aquatic weeds under study as well as on emerging aquatic weeds such as Iris pseudacorus, Nymphaea mexicana and Sagittaria platyphylla in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Sectoral co-integration and portfolio diversification benefits: a business cycle examination of South African equity sectors
- Authors: Hofisi, Tinashe S
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Portfolio management -- South Africa , Investments -- South Africa , Investments, South African , Stocks -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146379 , vital:38521
- Description: The onset of globalisation and simultaneous changes in financial technology and financial reforms dissipated hurdles once faced in financial transactions among stock markets. Hence, stock markets around the world became increasingly integrated because there was a free flow of cross border investments. Consequently, international diversification diminished thereby undermining the ability of investors to diversify investments across borders. For that reason, recent literature on portfolio diversification is urging investors to shift their focus to domestic portfolio diversification as an alternative. On that account, this study aims to examine the co-integration and dynamic causalities between South African equity market sectors in order to ascertain the sectoral diversification opportunities available to domestic investors over time. The study was examined over the different phases of the business cycle as well as the full sample, i.e. 2004 – 2018, with a view to shedding light on the inter-sectoral diversification opportunities of domestic investors over the South African business cycle. The phases of the business cycle applied are a| expansion and boom; b| recession and recovery phase and c| stagnation phase. The Johansen co-integration and Granger-causality tests were employed. The hypothesis of the study is that, if sectors are not cointegrated, then diversification benefits can be reaped by constructing a portfolio that combines stocks from the respective sectors. On the whole, the findings of this study show that there are both long-run and short-run diversification opportunities across the different phases of the South African business cycle as well as the full sample. However, there are lesser diversification opportunities in the recession and recovery phase over both the long-run and short-run. These results indicate that domestic sectoral portfolio diversification is least effective when it is needed the most (i.e. in a period of heightened volatility such as recession and recovery phase). This study will contribute to the existing literature in two ways; firstly, to investors who intend to diversify their portfolios domestically rather than internationally and, secondly, after reasonably thorough research it was evident that there is scant literature on domestic sectoral diversification in South Africa. As a result, the study attempts to address this gap. Additionally, the essence of the business cycle in this study is to make investors aware of potential diversification opportunities when positioning their portfolios for the next shift in the business cycle.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Hofisi, Tinashe S
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Portfolio management -- South Africa , Investments -- South Africa , Investments, South African , Stocks -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146379 , vital:38521
- Description: The onset of globalisation and simultaneous changes in financial technology and financial reforms dissipated hurdles once faced in financial transactions among stock markets. Hence, stock markets around the world became increasingly integrated because there was a free flow of cross border investments. Consequently, international diversification diminished thereby undermining the ability of investors to diversify investments across borders. For that reason, recent literature on portfolio diversification is urging investors to shift their focus to domestic portfolio diversification as an alternative. On that account, this study aims to examine the co-integration and dynamic causalities between South African equity market sectors in order to ascertain the sectoral diversification opportunities available to domestic investors over time. The study was examined over the different phases of the business cycle as well as the full sample, i.e. 2004 – 2018, with a view to shedding light on the inter-sectoral diversification opportunities of domestic investors over the South African business cycle. The phases of the business cycle applied are a| expansion and boom; b| recession and recovery phase and c| stagnation phase. The Johansen co-integration and Granger-causality tests were employed. The hypothesis of the study is that, if sectors are not cointegrated, then diversification benefits can be reaped by constructing a portfolio that combines stocks from the respective sectors. On the whole, the findings of this study show that there are both long-run and short-run diversification opportunities across the different phases of the South African business cycle as well as the full sample. However, there are lesser diversification opportunities in the recession and recovery phase over both the long-run and short-run. These results indicate that domestic sectoral portfolio diversification is least effective when it is needed the most (i.e. in a period of heightened volatility such as recession and recovery phase). This study will contribute to the existing literature in two ways; firstly, to investors who intend to diversify their portfolios domestically rather than internationally and, secondly, after reasonably thorough research it was evident that there is scant literature on domestic sectoral diversification in South Africa. As a result, the study attempts to address this gap. Additionally, the essence of the business cycle in this study is to make investors aware of potential diversification opportunities when positioning their portfolios for the next shift in the business cycle.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
The current nature of intra-regional trade in the proposed tripartite free trade area
- Authors: Chibuta, Chisengele
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Customs unions -- Africa, Southern -- Economic integration , Africa, Southern -- Economic policy , Africa, Southern -- Economic integration , Africa, Southern -- Economic conditions , Tripartite Free Trade Area , Free trade -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146744 , vital:38553
- Description: This thesis examines and analyses the current nature of intra-regional trade between member states of the proposed Tripartite Free Trade Area in order to contribute to an understanding of the potential for intra-regional trade within the region to increase. Trade Complementarity Indexes were used to determine how well the structures of the three founding blocs’ major imports and exports match. The results show that there is a high degree of trade complementarity in the trade of the top 5 major products traded between the regional groups. With the proposed TFTA in place, high trade complementarity could lead to increased trade between the regional groups. Trade Intensity Indexes were used to determine how intensively the three founding blocs trade with one another. Results from the indexes help determine the extent to which the blocs currently view each other as important trading partners and the implications of this for the proposed TFTA. Results show that EAC and SADC as well as EAC and COMESA viewed each other as significant trading partners while SADC and COMESA did not for the majority of the years from 2001 to 2018. With the TFTA in place, intra-regional trade could be strengthened among the members who currently trade intensively because tariffs between them would be progressively eliminated as required by the TFTA Agreement. Revealed Comparative Advantage Indexes were used to gain insights on whether member states have any comparative advantage in their top 5 exports. Results from the indexes were used to determine whether member states have comparative advantage in similar or dissimilar major exports and the implications of this for the proposed TFTA. Results show that member states have revealed comparative advantage in similar products and these products present opportunities for joint-production among member states as well as sectors for product development once the proposed TFTA is in place. Revealed Trade Barrier Indexes were used to gain insights into the extent of ease of market access into each regional bloc’s market. Results from the indexes indicate whether major products imported from each other receive possibly discriminatory or preferential treatment. The results indicate that the majority of the top 5 imports sourced from each region receive preferential treatment. This indicates that there is ease of market access for the top 5 imports sourced from each other and this could promote increased intra-regional trade among member states in these product categories because tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade will be progressively eliminated once the TFTA is in place.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Chibuta, Chisengele
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Customs unions -- Africa, Southern -- Economic integration , Africa, Southern -- Economic policy , Africa, Southern -- Economic integration , Africa, Southern -- Economic conditions , Tripartite Free Trade Area , Free trade -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146744 , vital:38553
- Description: This thesis examines and analyses the current nature of intra-regional trade between member states of the proposed Tripartite Free Trade Area in order to contribute to an understanding of the potential for intra-regional trade within the region to increase. Trade Complementarity Indexes were used to determine how well the structures of the three founding blocs’ major imports and exports match. The results show that there is a high degree of trade complementarity in the trade of the top 5 major products traded between the regional groups. With the proposed TFTA in place, high trade complementarity could lead to increased trade between the regional groups. Trade Intensity Indexes were used to determine how intensively the three founding blocs trade with one another. Results from the indexes help determine the extent to which the blocs currently view each other as important trading partners and the implications of this for the proposed TFTA. Results show that EAC and SADC as well as EAC and COMESA viewed each other as significant trading partners while SADC and COMESA did not for the majority of the years from 2001 to 2018. With the TFTA in place, intra-regional trade could be strengthened among the members who currently trade intensively because tariffs between them would be progressively eliminated as required by the TFTA Agreement. Revealed Comparative Advantage Indexes were used to gain insights on whether member states have any comparative advantage in their top 5 exports. Results from the indexes were used to determine whether member states have comparative advantage in similar or dissimilar major exports and the implications of this for the proposed TFTA. Results show that member states have revealed comparative advantage in similar products and these products present opportunities for joint-production among member states as well as sectors for product development once the proposed TFTA is in place. Revealed Trade Barrier Indexes were used to gain insights into the extent of ease of market access into each regional bloc’s market. Results from the indexes indicate whether major products imported from each other receive possibly discriminatory or preferential treatment. The results indicate that the majority of the top 5 imports sourced from each region receive preferential treatment. This indicates that there is ease of market access for the top 5 imports sourced from each other and this could promote increased intra-regional trade among member states in these product categories because tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade will be progressively eliminated once the TFTA is in place.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Asymmetric price transmission: an empirical analysis of the relationship between UG-2 chrome ore, charge chrome, nickel and Chinese domestic 304 stainless steel cold rolled coil
- Authors: Le Roux, Simon Petrus
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Pricing , Chromium ores -- Prices -- South Africa , Nickel -- Prices -- South Africa , Austenitic stainless steel-- Prices -- China , Steel -- Prices -- South Africa , Non-Linear Autoregressive Distributive Lag (NARDL)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/171336 , vital:42049
- Description: The goal of this study was to determine whether asymmetric price transmission (APT) exists between the prices of South African UG-2 Chrome ore, Charge Chrome, Nickel and Chinese Domestic 304 Stainless steel Cold Rolled Coil prices. Monthly time series data for the period January 2009 to July 2019 was analysed. The Non-Linear Autoregressive Distributive Lag (NARDL) model was applied to test for the presence of price asymmetry between the four variables. Firstly, it was observed that the four variables are cointegrated in the long-run. Secondly, no evidence of price asymmetry was found to be present within the Stainless steel supply chain. The reason for this is most likely due to the extremely close-knit and highly concentrated nature of this industry at each level within the supply chain. The industry can be very opaque to external observers even though the distribution of pricing information is very efficient for participants within the industry.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: Le Roux, Simon Petrus
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Pricing , Chromium ores -- Prices -- South Africa , Nickel -- Prices -- South Africa , Austenitic stainless steel-- Prices -- China , Steel -- Prices -- South Africa , Non-Linear Autoregressive Distributive Lag (NARDL)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/171336 , vital:42049
- Description: The goal of this study was to determine whether asymmetric price transmission (APT) exists between the prices of South African UG-2 Chrome ore, Charge Chrome, Nickel and Chinese Domestic 304 Stainless steel Cold Rolled Coil prices. Monthly time series data for the period January 2009 to July 2019 was analysed. The Non-Linear Autoregressive Distributive Lag (NARDL) model was applied to test for the presence of price asymmetry between the four variables. Firstly, it was observed that the four variables are cointegrated in the long-run. Secondly, no evidence of price asymmetry was found to be present within the Stainless steel supply chain. The reason for this is most likely due to the extremely close-knit and highly concentrated nature of this industry at each level within the supply chain. The industry can be very opaque to external observers even though the distribution of pricing information is very efficient for participants within the industry.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
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