Academic Seminar and Brownbag Series

First Semester 2011

All Seminars are held in EMS, Room 4-4, at 12:30 on Mondays, unless otherwise stated. Depending on the availability, seminar papers will be uploaded in the links provided below. For more information, contact Manoel Bittencourt and Rangan Gupta.

Brownbags are held Wednesdays at 12:30, also in EMS, Room 4-4. Generally, no paper will be made available. For more information, contact Manoel Bittencourt and Rangan Gupta.  The idea is that we discuss academic issues over lunch - each brings his own!

Other presentations in connection with the Economics program are also listed on this schedule. Locations are noted if not held at EMS 4-4.

This schedule is continuously updated, so do check regularly!
 

Seminars (For Brownbags, please scroll down further.)

Date	Presenter, Affiliation and Topic
Monday, January, 31	Prof. Nicolas Depetris Chauvin (Dubai School of Government and Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies) "Market Competition in Export Cash Crops and Farm Income."
Monday, February, 28	Dr. Shakill Hassan (University of Cape Town) "The Rand as a Currency Speculation Target."
Monday, March, 7	Mr. Andrew Duncan (University of Johannesburg) "Volatility Spillovers across South African Asset Classes during Financial Crises."
Tuesday, March, 8	Prof. Robert Lawrence (Harvard University) "AGOA: Promoting Trade without Development."
Thursday, March, 10 - Friday, March, 11 (SARB Conference Centre)	ERSA and University of Pretoria Workshop "Monetary Economics and Macroeconomic Modelling."
Monday, March, 14	Dr. Asha Sundaram (University of Cape Town) "Estimating the Impact of Export Deterrents: An Analysis of US High-technology Export Controls."
Monday, March, 28	Dr. Lukasz Grzybowski (University of Cape Town) "Determinants of Retail Margins on Fuels in the European Union."
Monday, April, 4	Dr. Julius Agbor (University of the Western Cape) "How Does School Education Matter for Conflict Mitigation in Africa?"
Monday, April, 11	Mr. Seedwell Hove (University of Cape Town) "Terms of Trade Shocks and Inflation Targeting in Emerging Market Economies."
Monday, April, 18	Dr. Alfredo Cuevas (International Monetary Fund) "SACU Transfer Volatility."
Tuesday, May, 3	Dr. Admasu Shiferaw (University of Goettingen) "Which Firms Invest Less Under Uncertainty? Evidence from Ethiopian Manufacturing."
Monday, May, 9	Prof. Neil Rankin  (University of Witwatersrand) "No Chinese Jackets Required: Clothing Quotas, Consumer Prices and Import Quality in South Africa".
Monday, May, 16	Mr. Volker Schoer (University of Witwatersrand) "Wage Effects of Social Contact Involvement at Different Stages of the Matching Process."
Monday, May, 23	Dr. Sandeep Mahajan (World Bank) "Politically Realistic Solutions to South Africa's Unemployment and Service Delivery Problems."
Monday, May, 30	Dr. Ronelle Burger (University of Stellenbosch) " Receive Grants or Perish? Investigating Survival Prospects of African NGOs."
Friday, June, 17 (11:00)	Dr. Jonathan Munemo (Salisbury University) "Foreign Aid, Domestic Private Investment, and Welfare in Africa."
Thursday, July, 7 (10:00-12:00)	Dr. Dimitris Korobilis (Center for Operations Research and Econometrics, Universite Catholique de Louvain ) "Large-Scale Time Varying Models for Analysis of Monetary Policy and Forecasting."

Brownbags

Date	Presenter, Affiliation and Topic
Thursday, February, 10 (Leadership Center, 11:00, Ph.D. Defense)	Mr. Albert Makochekanwa (University of Pretoria) "Gravity Approach for Modeling Botswana's Export Trade Flows."
Wednesday, February, 16	Mr. Dylan van Wyk (University of Pretoria) "The Role of Psychic Distance in Financial Crises."
Wednesday, February, 23	Quantec: Data Decsription
Wednesday, March, 2	Dr. Jaques Kibambe (University of Pretoria) "Some Advances in Marshallian Modeling with Application to the U.S. Science Sector."
Wednesday, March, 16	Prof. Niek Schoeman (University of Pretoria) "The Budget."
Wednesday, March, 30	Dr. Ruthira Naraidoo (University of Pretoria) "Asymmetric Preferences in a New Keynesian Model of Unemployment."
Wednesday, April, 6	Ms. Mampho P. Modise (University of Pretoria) "South African Stock Return Predictability in the Context of Data Mining: The Role of Financial Variables and International Stock Returns."
Wednesday, April, 13	Prof. Nicola Viegi (University of Pretoria) "Business Cycle Accounting in South Africa."
Wednesday, April, 20	Dr. Stefano Colombo (University of Insubria) "Taxation and Predatory Prices in a Spatial Model."
Thursday, April, 21 (11:00, Ph.D. Defense)	Ms. Maylene Damoense-Azevedo (University of Pretoria) "Economic Analysis of Intra-Industry Trade: The Case of South Africa's Automotive Industry".
Wednesday, May, 4	Ms. Annari de Waal (University of Pretoria) "A VECX* Model for South Africa."
Wednesday, May, 11	Dr. Manoel Bittencourt (University of Pretoria) "Financial Development, Inflation and the Informal Economy: Some Evidence."
Thursday, May, 19	Prof. Renee van Eyden (University of Pretoria) "The Predictive Ability of Competing Models for South African Business Fixed Investment Spending."
Tuesday, May, 24 (Leadership Center, 12:30, Ph.D. Defense)	Mr. Leroi Raputsoane (University of Pretoria) "Monetary Policy Preferences and Inflation Targeting Rules."
Wednesday, May, 25	Prof. Rangan Gupta (University of Pretoria) "Reconsidering the Welfare Cost of Inflation."
Thursday, June, 23 (13:00, Ph.D. Defense)	Mr. Kasai Ndahiriwe (University of Pretoria) "Analysis of Monetary Policy Rules for South Africa."
Monday, July,11 (Ph.D. Defense)	Mrs. Roula Inglesi-Lotz (University of Pretoria) "A Sectoral Benchmark-and-Trade System to Improve Electricity Efficiency in South Africa."