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In the discussion groups subjects will be taken up which are not dealt with in the lectures. The subjects to be taken up in the discussion groups of each week and the assignments relating thereto will be announced well in advance of the meetings.

On completion of the case study, students will understand the following learning objectives: the characteristics of quantitative easing (QE) and when it may be appropriate to implement QE; how QE differs from a conventional bond purchasing programme; the impact of direct financing of the fiscus by the central bank on its independence; how the macro-economic and political environments affect and influence national economic policy; the difference between traditional and unconventional monetary policies and potential implications for an economy like South Africa. The learnings from this case study can be used in other global economic environments, particularly in emerging markets. This case study provides valuable insights into decision-making, institutional independence, policy coordination, deficit financing, causes and consequences of price inflation, risks relating to monetary instability and the correct application of monetary policy.

After the announcement of the COVID-19-related lockdown in March 2020 and the subsequent slow-down of economic activity in South Africa, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) had to consider appropriate macro-economic tools to ensure both price and financial stability in South Africa. The macro-economic policy tools had to be considered in light of the South African economic context, which included acknowledgement of South Africa’s debt crisis and slow economic growth. The central bank responded by introducing the following measures: reducing interest rates to a record low of 3.5% to give consumers financial relief and to promote spending in the economy; purchasing government bonds in the secondary markets to stabilise financial markets; facilitating the loan guarantee scheme that was aimed at providing financial relief to small- and medium-sized enterprises; relaxing the capital and liquidity adequacy requirements that commercial banks are required to meet; and ensuring availability of liquidity to banks through facilities such as the weekly repo auctions. However, despite introducing these interventions, the SARB faced calls from politicians, analysts and academics to do more. Various commentators argued that the SARB could introduce QE and directly finance government spending by purchasing government bonds. Some commentators argued that the reluctance of the SARB to pursue these suggestions was a result of the close alignment and relationship between the SARB and National Treasury. The dilemma faced by Governor Lesetja Kganyago of the SARB was threefold, namely, whether it was appropriate for the central bank to pursue the initiatives and, if so, whether the bank could pursue them without compromising its independence, and if the introduction of those initiatives would not adversely affect the ability of the central bank to fulfil its mandate of price stability and financial stability. In this regard, the governor and his executive team were required to consider the long-term implications of introducing the initiatives on consumer price inflation, independence of the SARB and the appropriate use of monetary policy tools to fulfil the central bank’s mandate. But the question was: What policies should the governor favour?

This case study is based on various macro-economic theories. Therefore, it would be useful to teach this case study in macro-economic courses in the following programmes: master’s in business administration, bachelor of commerce, bachelor of economic sciences and business science studies, as well as on executive education programmes, which consider macro-economic policy. In general, students who undertake economics, business and general management, finance, legal, commerce and banking studies could learn from this case study.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The peoples’ movement was a movement to deepen citizenship and democracy by demanding actual participation in representative politics. It was a non-violent democratic movement based on independence from political parties, collective informal leadership and multi-level horizontal networking and coordination. It was strengthened by the activists from the student movement, trade unions and working-class parties. It foregrounded issues related to debt and development, Global North–South dynamics, narrowing of representative politics and the role of democratic social movements. The peoples’ movement, ‘Aragalaya’, illustrated that solidarity, cultivated across multiple cultural, economic and political differences, while engaging locally with a global sense, can influence authoritarian militarised governments. In effect, the struggle for democracy and citizenship aimed at transforming representative politics also accompanied alternative notions of well-being and pleasures involving ‘living well together with others’ in harmony with nature.

This paper aims to develop a compound measure, which is fiscal vulnerability index, provides early warning signals of fiscal sustainability problems for Türkiye's economy.

The index is constructed using twelve distinct fiscal indicators and applying the portfolio method, which considers the time-varying cross-correlation structure between the subindices.

Dynamics of the fiscal vulnerability index indicate that it accurately predicts to the well-known fiscal crisis occurring in Türkiye's recent history. As a result, such a compound measure should be used in the early identification of fiscal vulnerability in Türkiye.

The main contribution of this paper, relative to existing papers, is that a fiscal vulnerability index was constructed by employing the most contemporaneous method and evaluating its performance in terms of capturing historical stress periods.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of huge external debt with its servicing requirements on economic growth of the Nigerian economy so as to make meaningful inference on the impact of the debt relief which was granted to the country in 2006.

The neoclassical growth model which incorporates external sector, debt indicators and some macroeconomic variables was employed in this study. The paper investigates the linear and nonlinear effect of debt on growth and investment utilizing the ordinary least squares and the generalized least squares.

Among other things, the negative impact of debt (and its servicing requirements) on growth is confirmed in Nigeria. In addition, external debt contributes positively to growth up to a point after which its contributions become negative reflecting the presence of nonlinearity in effects.

Nigeria's external debt is analyzed in a new context utilizing a different but innovative model and econometric techniques. It is of tremendous value to researchers on related topic and an effective policy guide to policymakers in Nigeria and other countries with similar characteristics.

Considering the continuous rise in the public debt stock of developing countries (particularly Ghana) with the unstable economic growth rate for the past decades and the recent borrowing because of the impact of COVID 19, this paper aims to examine the causal relationships between public debt and economic growth over time.

The paper uses a dynamic multivariate autoregressive-distributed lag (ARDL)-based Granger-causality model to test the causal relationships between public debt and economic growth [gross domestic product (GDP)]. Annual time-series data that spanned 1978–2018 were sourced from the World Bank Development Indicator database and the IMF fiscal Affairs Department Database and WEO.

The results reveal that public debt has no causal relationship with GDP in the short-run but there is unidirectional Granger causality running from public debt to GDP in the long run. Again, investment spending has a negative bi-directional causal relationship with GDP in the short-run but they have a positive bi-directional causal relationship in the long run. Conversely, no short-run causal relationship exists between government consumption expenditure and GDP but long-run Granger causality runs from government consumption expenditure to GDP. Finally, public debt has a positive impact on the inflation rate in the short run.

The findings imply that government(s) must ensure high fiscal discipline to serve as a precursor for the effective and efficient use of recent borrowing, that is, the loans should be used for highly prioritized projects (preferably investment spending) that are well evaluated and self-sustained to add positively to the GDP.

This paper provides contemporary findings to augment extant literature on public debt and economic growth by using variables and empirical models, which prior studies could not sufficiently cover in a developing country perspective and affirms that public debt contributes to GDP only in the long run.

This chapter analyses the recovery of the Danish economy from the crisis of the 1980s, its elevation to a bit of an ‘economic miracle’ or at least an ‘employment miracle’ from 1995 to 2005 and its subsequent decline during the financial crisis, which revealed more long-standing problems that precluded a quick recovery. The solution of Denmark's structural balance of payment problems in the early 1990s paved the way for long-term prosperity, and Denmark managed the challenges of globalisation and deindustrialisation almost without social costs. However, an accumulation of short-term policy failures and credit liberalisation facilitated a credit and housing bubble, a consumption-driven boom and declining competitiveness. In broad terms, the explanation is political; this includes not only vote- and office-seeking strategies of the incumbent government but also ideational factors such as agenda setting of economic policy. Somewhat unnoticed – partly because of preoccupation with long-term challenges of ageing and shortage of labour – productivity and economic growth rates had slowed down over several years. The Danish decline in GDP 2008–2009 was larger than in the 1930s, and after the bubble burst, there were few drivers of economic growth. Households consolidated and were reluctant to consume; public consumption had to be cut as well; exports increased rather slowly; and in this climate, there was little room for private investments. Financially, the Danish economy remained healthy, though. Current accounts revealed record-high surpluses after the financial crisis; state debt remained moderate, and if one were to include the enormous retained taxes in private pension funds, net state debt would de facto be positive. Still, around 2010–2011 there were few short-term drivers of economic growth, and rather unexpectedly, it turned out that unemployment problems were likely to prevail for several years.

One of the several claims that Seligman makes for Rooke is that he should be accorded priority in the discovery of the correct, that is Ricardian, doctrine of rent:there seems little doubt that the doctrine of rent was developed practically simultaneously by Malthus, West, Torrens and Rooke in 1814, but so far as the priority of actual publication is concerned, the above list should be reversed. And in the interests of historical accuracy, Rooke and Torrens must hereafter be accorded the position which they deserve. (Seligman, 1903, p. 512)¹

J. Zijlstra was Dutch Minister of Economics (1952‐1958), Minister of Finance (1959‐1963, 1966‐1967), Prime Minister (1966‐1967), and President of the Central Bank of The Netherlands (1967‐1981). During his terms of office he followed a Keynesian policy that placed on the government the responsibility for sustaining full employment. His policy involved not only the finance of the public sector but also the maintenance of equilibrium between production and expenditure. To achieve this he introduced a standardization of budget policy ‐ structural finance. The essence of this budgetary policy, which the Dutch Government pursued from 1960 to 1978, was to manage the national expenditure in a designed manner. The article deals with this approach and suggests an explanation why it eventually failed to produce the expected results.