A PAIRWISE UNIT-ROOT-TEST BASED APPROACH TO INVESTIGATING CONVERGENCE OF HOUSEHOLD DEBTS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE UNITED STATES

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Ntebogang Dinah Moroke

https://doi.org/10.22495/jgr_v4_i2_c1_p7

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to test convergence of household debts in the United States and South Africa taking a pairwise unit root tests based approaches into account. Substantial number of studies dealt with convergence of several macroeconomic variables but to my knowledge no study considered this subject with respect to household debts of the identified countries. Quarterly data on household debts consisting of 88 observations in the South Africa and United States spanning the period 1990 to 2013 was collected from the South African and St. Louis Federal Reserve Banks. Focused on the absolute value of household debts, this study proved that South Africa is far from catching-up with the United States in terms of overcoming household debts for the selected period. The findings of this study can be used by relevant authorities to help improve ways and means of dealing with household debts South Africa.

Key Words: Convergence and Divergence, Household Debts, Neoclassical Theory, Stationarity, Time Series Data

How to cite this paper: Moroke, N. D. (2015). A pairwise unit-root-test based approach to investigating convergence of household debts in South Africa and the United States. Journal of Governance and Regulation, 4(2-1), 141-147. https://doi.org/10.22495/jgr_v4_i2_c1_p7