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15 June 2004
The Mystery of South Africa's Ghost Workers in 1996: Measurement and Mismeasurement in the Manufacturing Census...
Absences can be as telling as presences, as Sherlock Holmes reminds us. Some times, however, it is difficult to know whether one is really dealing with an absence or not. In the case of South African labour economics some absences have attracted attention: the surprisingly small size of the informal…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Martin Wittenberg
- Countries and Regions South Africa
15 June 2004
Geography as Destiny: Considering the Spatial Dimensions of Poverty and Deprivation in South Africa
The persistence of geographical inequalities is an intriguing puzzle. Many explanations have been offered for why specific geographies flourish while other regions deteriorate.Some have highlighted the impact of natural constraints, like the limited availability of arable land,distance from the sea and the prevalence of disease. Others have stressed the importance…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Ronelle Burger; Servaas van der Berg; Sarel van der Walt; Derek Yu
- Countries and Regions South Africa
15 June 2004
The Dynamics of Job Search and the Microfoundations of Unemployment: Evidence from Duncan village
There is significant consensus that unemployment and more generally, exclusion from the labour market,is the central socio-economic problem in South Africa. Joblessness is strongly implicated in such socio-economic problems as crime, poverty, alcoholism, HIV-AIDS, and even poor educational outcomes and low skill levels (see for example Bhorat etal.2001; Fryer and…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) David Fryer
- Countries and Regions South Africa
During the nineties Rwandan households faced severe shocks of war and genocide. In addition, the structural problem of land scarcity remains unsolved. How did Rwandan households manage? This is an important question from a development perspective, but also from a security perspective, because uneven development raises the risk of renewed…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Marijke Verpoorten; Lode Berlage
15 June 2004
Implications of Genetically Modified Food
The first generation of genetically modified (GM) crop varieties sought to increase farmer profitability through cost reductions or higher yields. The next generation of GM food research is focusing also on breeding for attributes of interest to consumers, beginning with 'golden rice', which has been genetically engineered to contain a…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Kym Anderson; Lee Ann Jackson
In September of 2002 South Africa's roughly one million domestic workers - about 840,000 predominantly African and Coloured women who work as housekeepers, cooks and nannies, and another 180,000 men who work primarily as gardeners - were granted formal labor market protection, including the right to a written contract with…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Tom Hertz
- Countries and Regions South Africa
The conventional approach of economists to the measurement of poverty in poor countries is to use measures of income or consumption. This has been challenged by those who favour broader criteria for poverty and its avoidance. These include the fulfilment of 'basic needs', the 'capabilities' to be and to do…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Geeta Kingdon; John Knight
- Countries and Regions South Africa
This paper estimates the impact of trade liberalisation on factor returns in South Africa between 1988 and 2002. A particular contribution of the paper is that tariff data are explicitly used in the analysis. In addition, the paper models trade-induced technological change. The paper finds that tariff liberalisation from 1988…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Lawrence Edwards; Duncan Pieterse
- Countries and Regions South Africa
This paper investigates the relationship between foreign aid and population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using a panel of African countries over the last four decades, it demonstrates the positive effect of foreign aid on fertility and population growth in this region.
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Leonid Azarnert
- Countries and Regions Southern African Development Community (SADC)
The paper poses six questions about the determinants of subjective well-being in South Africa. Much of the paper is concerned with the role of relative concepts. We find that comparator income - measured as average income of others in the local residential cluster - enters the household - utility function…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Geeta Kingdon; John Knight
- Countries and Regions South Africa
This paper examines the performance of public works in addressing both micro and macroeconomic policy objectives relating to growth, employment and poverty reduction in South Africa. Survey data on the micro-economic impact of public worksprogramme participation is used alongside a social accounting matrix (SAM) for the South African economy which…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Anna McCord; Dirk van Seventer
- Countries and Regions South Africa
Uganda is one of the few African countries which has experienced quite substantial growth in the period since 1990. Growth of GDP has been estimated at 6.9% per annum for the period 1990-2002, compared to only 2.6% for all African countries and Ugandas own far weaker performance of 2.9% in…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Nathan Okurut; Andrie Schoombee; Servaas van der Berg
- Countries and Regions Southern African Development Community (SADC)
15 June 2004
Capital Flight from South Africa, 1980 to 2000
Capital flight is a serious problem for South Africa, which if not addressed will continue to impede its ability to deal with structural issues such as high unemployment and concentration of wealth. This paper presents an estimate of the wealth that left South Africa in the form of capital flight…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Seeraj Mohammed; Kade Finnoff
- Countries and Regions South Africa
Recent studies using South African household survey data have questioned the exogeneity of household size and composition from income flows and labour market outcomes. (Maitra and Ray, 2001, and Klasen and Woolard, 2000). Research on unemployment in South Africa has occasionally viewed the household as either an important source of…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Farah Pirouz
- Countries and Regions South Africa
Trade liberalisation has a significant impact on firm-market dynamics in a regional context. The purpose of this paper is to use an industrial organisation framework, focusing on the analytical units, the firm and the market, to assess the impact of trade liberalisation within the Southern African region, SADC. It is…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Martine Visser; Trudi Hartzenberg
- Countries and Regions South Africa
15 June 2004
Financial Intermediation and Access to Finance in African Countries South of the Sahara
This paper describes the status of financial systems for a number of African countries south of the Sahara, identifying various problems that hinder access to finance, especially for the poor, and subsequently those issues that deter economic performance and development. The countries surveyed were selected on the basis of a…
- Year 2004
- Author(s) Neren Rau
- Countries and Regions Southern African Development Community (SADC)
This document has two objectives. First, it endeavours to capture the domestic clothing sectors major market and production trends, as well as broader dynamics. Second, these foundational elements operate as a mechanism to identify current clothing sector constraints and opportunities…
Published in
Trade and Industry
The Motor Industry Development Program (MIDP) is widely regarded as a major success of South Africa's post-apartheid trade and industrial policies. The program was introduced in 1995, has been modified and/or extended several times, and is currently scheduled to continue…
Published in
Trade and Industry
This paper will identify differences in sector development in countries that have proceeded along various paths for sector reform. International experience demonstrates that economies adopting a more ambitious path for liberalization and market- friendly forms of subsidization perform better after liberalization. Economies that adopt both a policy of liberalization and…
- Year 2003
- Organisation DPRU
- Author(s) J. Riley Allen
- Countries and Regions Southern African Development Community (SADC)
Section 1 examines South Africa's comparative industrial performance over approximately the last two decades – manufacturing value added (MVA), manufactured exports in aggregate and exports of dynamic manufactured products, and industrial structure. Two “equity dimensions” of this performance that feature strongly in government's objectives for manufacturing are then outlined –…
- Year 2003
- Author(s) David Kaplan
- Countries and Regions South Africa