Browsing by Author "Fourie, J."

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Cliometrics in South Africa
    (Bureau for Economic Research, 2018) Fourie, J.
    Arican economic history is experiencing a renaissance, and South African economic history likewise. Combining newly transcribed large historical datasets with econometric techniques now standard in the economics literature, economic historians have greatly improved our understanding of South Africa’s development over the centuries. Yet many questions remain. This paper reviews the most recent contributions, several of which are published in this special issue, and surveys the road ahead.
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    Psychiatric research in South Africa : a systematic review of Medline publications
    (AOSIS Publishing, 2001-09) Fourie, J.; Flisher, A. J.; Emsley, R. A.; Stein, D. J.
    Background - There is debate about the future path that medical and psychiatric research in South Africa should take. In particular, there have been calls to make research more relevant to the needs of the population. There is, however, little systematically collected data on the nature, strengths, and flaws of past psychiatric research in this country. Methods - We undertook a MEDLINE search to gather all manuscripts that fell under the umbrella of psychiatric research and published by South Africa-based authors during the years 1966-1997. Several kinds of data were collated from each of the articles, including information about the authors and the journal, as well as information on the focus and type of article. Results - While publications from South Africa continue to grow in number, relatively few involve collaborative research groups and few authors write more than one paper. Many papers relevant to psychiatry were published in general medical journals and many were from general medical departments. While blacks and females have been included in research, a number of important areas have received little attention. Conclusions - Psychiatry research in South Africa requires additional fostering, including additional resources for research training and arguably additional development of subspeciality focuses. Given the limited resources, and the nature of modem research, increased emphasis on collaboration seems advisable. A number of areas in psychiatry deserve particular attention from future researchers.
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    Public finances under private company rule : the Dutch Cape Colony (1652–1795)
    (North-West University, 2013-12) Fourie, J.; Jansen, A.; Siebrits, K.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : This paper provides an overview of the public finances of the Cape Colony in the period during which it was governed by the Dutch East India Company (1652–1795). Using information from secondary sources, the paper discusses the expenditures and revenue sources of the Company at the Cape; in addition, it reports findings on the composition and distribution of the tax burden derived from an analysis of the “opgaafrolle” (the annual censuses that were undertaken to determine tax obligations). It shows that the Company’s expenses exceeded its revenues throughout the period under review and that the tax system was broadly progressive. While the Dutch East India Company invested little in the economic development of the Cape Colony, it did not use the fiscal system to extract as much surplus as possible.
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    Why local context matters : property rights and debt trading in colonial South Africa
    (Bureau for Economic Research, 2018) Swanepoel, C.; Fourie, J.
    For economic transactions, including debt transactions, to occur in a market system, property rights are essential. The literature has focussed on finding empirical proof of the effect of property right regimes, noting differences between de jure and de facto property rights. We use a novel combination of data on wealth and demographics to investigate the effects of property right regimes on economic outcomes at the individual level. At the Cape, de jure property rights between freehold and loan farms differed. Historians, however, suggest that de facto property rights between these two property types were the same. We exploit the random variation of the birth order, specifically being the eldest son, to estimate whether the type of farm and therefore the type of property rights, mattered for economic activity, in our case, debt transactions. Our results suggest that historians were correct: loan farms were as secure in their de facto property rights, despite differences in de jure property rights. Our results confirm that the local context in which property right regimes are embedded is at least as important as the property right regime itself.