Resource Intensity, Knowledge and Development: insights from Africa and Latin America
by LORENTZEN, J. (ed), 2008HSRC Press: Cape Town
Minerals economies often struggle to diversify their industrial base. Lorenzten considers opportunities for industrial diversification stimulated in resource based industries. This know-how can then migrate laterally to other industrial uses. The resource-based technology clusters programme of the Human Sciences Research Council and Mintek proposed that this could be an important way for minerals economies to…
read more >>Which Sectors Can Be Engines of Growth and Employment in South Africa? An Analysis of Manufacturing and Services
by TREGENNA, F. , 2007Research Report, Employment Growth & Development Initiative, Human Sciences Research Council
Tregenna investigates whether manufacturing still has the potential to be the engine of growth in South Africa, or whether services can play this role in future. International comparisons reveal that while the share of manufacturing value added in South Africa is high for the country’s level of income, the share of manufacturing employment is less…
read more >>Accounting for Changes in Manufacturing employment in South Africa
by TREGENNA, F. , 2007Globalization and Development: A Handbook of new perspectives, Oxford University Press, October
Tregenna assesses the components and possible causal determinants of changes in manufacturing employment in South Africa. She focuses on the relationships between capital stock, capacity utilisation, relative factor utilisation, and employment. Basic decomposition techniques are used to investigate the extent to which these factors account for changes in employment between 1970 and 2004. Although this…
read more >>Manufacturing Exports and Employment Growth
by DAVIES, R. , 2006Research Report, Employment Growth & Development Initiative, Human Sciences Research Council
Davies considers the role of manufacturing exports in creating employment. It looks at the potential and limitations of the sector itself, and also its interaction with other sectors. He assesses where export growth might occur, and the contribution of different sectors to such growth, given their labour intensity, backward and forward linkages, and export dependence….
read more >>Promotion of Secondary Industrial Development & Clustering in Mpumalanga: stainless steel and chemicals clusters
by ALTMAN, M., MAYER, M., STEYN, G., SLATER, D., GOSTNER, K., LETLAPE, L., DANIELS, R., and Blueprint Strategy & Policy, 2003Research report, Employment and Economic Policy Research, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria. Prepared for the Department of Economic Affairs, Gaming and Tourism, Mpumalanga Province
“Altman et al. assess the potential for the development of a stainless steel cluster in the Middleburg/ Witbank area and a general petrochemicals cluster in Secunda. They identify concrete opportunities that would provide a platform for the development of small and medium enterprises that will generate employment opportunities. They reveal opportunities for cluster development in…
read more >>What Theory and International Experience Suggest about the Role of Manufacturing in Good Employment Growth for South Africa
by BERRY, A. , 2006Research Report, Employment Growth & Development Initiative, Human Sciences Research Council
Although econometric evidence is not very strong, there seems no reason to doubt that parts of the manufacturing sector have been drivers of growth in many countries. Much microeconomic evidence attests to technological progress within manufacturing and a considerable spillover to other sectors. This spillover may be direct (manufacturing produces machinery and equipment that raise…
read more >>Manufacturing Employment and Import Dependence
by DAVIES, R. , 2006Research Report, Employment Growth & Development Initiative, Human Sciences Research Council
Prof Rob Davies assesses the potential of promoting South Africa’s manufacturing sector through reduced import dependence. He explores two versions of the argument. The first suggests that it would be beneficial to reduce the imported component of inputs into manufacturing production. Imported inputs into manufacturing rose from 13.0% of gross output in 1993 to 15.9%…
read more >>An overview of Industrial Policy and its Implications for HRD
by ALTMAN, M., MAYER. M., , 2003HRD Review 2003, Education, Employment and Skills in South Africa; Human Sciences Research Council Press. Chapter 3, pp 64-85
Altman and Mayer analyse the impact of South Africa’s industrial policy on the demand for labour. They show that industrial development has historically been driven by minerals extraction and import substitution, overlain by apartheid policies that excluded the majority of the population from the economy. This entrenched a growth path characterised by capital-intensive production processes,…
read more >>Employment and skills in South African Exports
by VAN SEVENTER, D.E.N, 2006Research Report. Centre for Poverty Employment and Growth, Human Sciences Research Council
Van Seventer reports on the labour absorption of South Africa’s exports, using a simple configuration based on a first-generation social accounting matrix (SAM). It compares the labour absorption of exports with that of domestic demand, and also discusses labour absorption by destination market. A distinction is made between full backward linkages and those where supply…
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