Managing Global Transitions

Abstracts in Slovene

2024-09-27

Does Digitalization Increase Economic Growth? Evidence from SADC Countries

Simbarashe Mhaka — 2024-09-27

The fourth industrial revolution has contributed significantly towards the growing global technological transfers that enhance productivity, employment and standard of living. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has undeniably disrupted lives globally; however, it enhanced technological transformation by causing an abrupt shift towards digital technology usage. The development and diffusion of digitalisation is expected to drive economic growth as we move towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. This study examines the impact of digitalisation on economic growth for 14 Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries from 2000 to 2020 employing the Fixed Effects model. Results reveal that all digitalisation indicators employed tend to have a positive impact on economic growth. A percentage change in individual usage of information communication technologies (ICTs), fixed broadband subscriptions, and mobile cellular subscriptions leads to a 0.17%, 0.11% and 0.12% increase in GDP per capita, respectively. Therefore, usage of and access to digital technologies stimulate economic growth in the SADC region. Public policies should seek to stimulate private sector investments in technological infrastructure and liberalise the telecommunications and innovation market. This accelerates digitalisation and consequently leads to higher economic growth and development in the SADC region.

Research Synthesizes in Pro-environmental Behavior in Education: A Text Mining Approach

Chowdhury Noushin Novera — 2024-09-27

There have been many academic investigations on promoting human behaviour in favour of environmental sustainability through education. Yet only a limited number of review papers are found which have summarized the key findings of this vital area. This study uses both bibliometric and text mining approaches to examine pro-environmental behaviour in education literature for the first time. Through bibliometric analysis, different networks in contemporary literature are highlighted. These networks reveal the influence of social welfare on pro-environmental behaviour, highlighting the value of human innate connection to raise environmental consciousness. Additionally, using posterior probability and Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), text mining identifies 12 different topic models by log-likelihood estimation, addressing a variety of topics related to environmental education and behaviour, such as how visitors and sustainability in environmental education affect pro-environmental behaviour, how education towards sustainability is provided in schools and universities, how the theory of planned behaviour is applied, how education and pro-environmental behaviour are related, and how sustainable education and travel are explored through different channels.

The Effect of Exchange Rate Volatility on Trade between South Africa and her Top Trading Partners: Fresh Insights from ARDL and Quantile ARDL Models

Mashilana Ngondo — 2024-09-27

We investigate the impact of exchange rate volatility on exports and imports between South Africa and its main trading partners, namely the United States and China, across 22 import and export industries. The study employs the quantile autoregressive distributive lag (QARDL) model using quarterly data from the period spanning from 1994Q1 to 2022Q4. Our initial ARDL estimates establish that currency volatility does not significantly harm most trade sectors with both countries. In fact, many industries exhibit an insignificant or positive correlation with currency volatility. Nevertheless, upon re-estimating the regressions using the QARDL model, we uncover ‘hidden cointegration’ relationships existing at quantiles beyond the mean and median estimates, which are undetectable
by traditional ARDL models. By considering these location-based asymmetries, we conclude that trade activities with China benefit more from exchange rate volatility compared to those with the United States. Overall, our findings imply that monetary authorities may not need to intervene in currency markets to stimulate trade with the top trading partners, as firms appear to be willing to bear the currency risks associated with the volatile Rand exchange rate.

The Shadow Economy, Mobile Phone Penetration and Tax Revenue in Sub-Saharan Africa

Isaac Bentum-Ennin — 2024-09-27

This study investigates the effect of the shadow economy on tax revenue and the moderating effect of mobile phone penetration in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using data on 26 SSA countries over 11 years and employing the system General Method of Moments (GMM) approach, the study reveals that the shadow economy has a significant negative effect on tax revenue in SSA, whereas mobile phone penetration has a significant positive effect on tax revenue. Again, mobile phone penetration plays a moderating
role in the shadow economy–tax revenue nexus in SSA. Governments in the SSA region need to update their tax administration systems, construct and enhance infrastructure linked to emerging mobile technology, and implement best practices in tax regulations. Lastly, governments and telecommunications companies should implement some kind of consumer
education in the informal sector to raise awareness of the advantages of using mobile phones for business transactions and the simplicity of paying taxes using a mobile device.