College of Economic & Management Sciences

Stellar research in macroeconomics

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Prof Mandla Makhanya (Principal and Vice-Chancellor) and HE Thabo Mbeki (Chancellor of Unisa) congratulate Dr Sin-Yu Ho (College of Economic and Management Sciences) (centre) on her 2019 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research.

Coming from Hong Kong, China, where she witnessed how the stock market had experienced phenomenal growth in the city,  Dr Sin-Yu Ho from Unisa's College of Economic and Management Sciences (CEMS) was inspired to conduct research on identifying factors leading to stock market development in Hong Kong and other emerging countries. For this research, Ho was one of the recipients of the 2019 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research in the recent 2020 Research & Innovation Awards.

Sharing her joy over the accolade, Ho said, "I feel very honoured to receive the 2019 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research. This award not only serves as a recognition of my research work, but also motivates me to strive to be an exemplary scholar in my field of study."

Ho’s main research interest is macroeconomics, in particular the empirical application of macroeconomic theories in various countries. Her primary research focus is stock market development in emerging markets. In this area, she researched topics such as determinants of stock market development and country-specific reviews on stock market development. On the empirical side, she focused on identifying the determinants of stock market development in some Asian countries and South Africa

Dr Sin-Yu Ho

Her secondary research focus is on the area of international economics in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The topics she examined include the nonlinear effects of exchange rate changes on trade balance, the relationship between exchange rate uncertainty and investment, the impact of exchange rate volatility on consumption, the relationship between monetary uncertainty and demand for money, and the impact of 2008/9 global financial crisis in SSA countries.

As a stellar researcher, the quality of Ho’s publications has been confirmed by both international and institutional awards. In 2018, one of her publications, namely, Determinants of stock market development: A review of the literature, was selected and recognised as the Highly Commended Paper by the editorial team of the 2018 Emerald Literati Awards.

In terms of institutional recognition, she received the Women-in-Research Emerging Researcher Award (2018) from Unisa in 2019.  Adding to her international recognition, in 2017-2019, Ho was invited to be a reviewer by a number of accredited international journals including International Economics (2017), African Development Review (2017), Economic Modelling (2018), Journal of Developing Areas (2019), International Journal of Finance and Economics (2019a, b), Financial Innovation (2019), Sage Open (2019) and Heliyon (2019a, b), and the review panel of the 7th International Conference on Financial Services (2019) hosted by Unisa. In terms of international ranking, she was ranked among the top 23% of authors in South Africa and the top 12% authors in Africa by an internationally recognised database: Research Papers in Economics (RePEc).

Ho has been credited with outstanding achievements for her significant research to the advancement of the Economics field. Her award for excellence in research is therefore fitting and a source of inspiration to her and her peers for her contributions to Unisa and the international academic stage. Be inspired!

* By Tshimangadzo Mphaphuli, Senior Journalist, Department of Institutional Advancement

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Publish date: 2020/03/18

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