The Employment Creation Potential of Recycling in South Africa
Lowitt assesses the job creation potential of South Africa’s recycling industry and whether government could promote employment in this area. The first section of the paper reviews the debate on the role of recycling in industrial production and the options available to governments for strategically positioning such activities in the short and long run. This…
read more >>Exchange rates and employment: critical issues
The analysis of exchange rates and employment has received scant attention in development economics. This is surprising, since there appears to be a number of well-defined transmission channels through which exchange rates impact on employment. In South Africa this is particularly important given the rand’s higher volatility relative to other emerging economies. The main focus…
read more >>What are the Policy Implications of the Informal Sector Becoming the Informal Economy?
Altman considers the meaning of informality and related policy implications. She sees the concept of the ‘informal sector’, which often refers to micro, unregistered enterprise, as a narrow construct that is not really a sector at all. Instead, Altman is concerned with the character of precariousness in the broader workforce. ‘Informality’ is seen to entail…
read more >>Industrial Strategy, Offshoring, and Employment Promotion in South Africa
South Africa has an extremely high rate of unemployment, but also substantial capacity in the service industries. Business process outsourcing and offshoring (BPO&O) is a rapidly expanding global opportunity through which the country might generate many jobs in traded activities. It is essentially a new activity, enabled by the diffusion of broadband and Internet services…
read more >>Employment and Income Distribution Experiences of Minerals Exporters and of Countries Achieving Growth Acceleration: Executive Summary
Many but not all minerals-dependent countries have performed badly in spite of the apparent advantage such an endowment gives them. Various institutional weaknesses have been identified in cross-country analyses as contributors to this outcome. Indonesia and Chile have been able to avoid such negative impacts on growth. Indonesia, which invested much oil revenue in smallholder…
read more >>The challenge of employment creation in South Africa
Altman reviews trends in employment, unemployment and working poverty, as well as the employment scenarios developed by the Human Sciences Research Council. Central questions relate to which sectors might create jobs, the role of government in direct job creation, the connection between employment and poverty reduction, and the need for social protection. Many of South…
read more >>Development Paths and Employment
Intensive growth is defined as growth driven by productivity improvements. Productivity improvements are essential for rising incomes and poverty reduction, but can also have the effect of reducing employment ratios. Greater understanding of the role of productivity in development and growth is needed.Davies and van Seventer explore the meaning of intensive and extensive growth paths…
read more >>The potential of social grants expenditure to promote local economic development and job creation
South Africa’s publicly funded social safety net, which consists of multiple conditional cash grants, has expanded considerably since a child support grant was added to the old age pensions and disability grants in 2002. Jacobs et al draw together local and global evidence on the developmental potential of social grants, including a typology of social…
read more >>Policy Options to Leverage the System of Social Grants for Improved Access to Economic Opportunity
The distribution of social grants in South Africa expanded considerably between 2001 and 2007. However, in a context of high unemployment, there is concern that unemployed household members depend on grants that are meant to target children, the aged or disabled. Thus grants are spread thinly, dramatically reducing their contribution to the intended beneficiaries. Moreover,…
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