Comparative Analysis of the Determinants and Behaviour of Investment Demand between South Africa and Zimbabwe

The study investigates the determinants of private investment in South Africa and Zimbabwe employing annual data over the 1980-2010 periods. The influence of gross domestic product (GDP), government debt, inflation, and interest rate policies are considered. Applied vector autoregressive and error correction models are used to estimate long- and short-run relationships among variables. The results suggest that GDP has a positive effect on private investment. Government debt has a crowding out effect on private investment, and inflation is shown to negatively affect investment. Increases in interest rates discourage private investment in South Afric