Earnings and Employment Dynamics for Africans in Post-apartheid South Africa: A Panel Study of KwaZulu-Natal

[Excerpt] The labour market is central in determining individual and household well-being in South Africa. Therefore, an understanding of earnings and employment dynamics is a key policy issue. However, the absence of panel data has constrained empirical work addressing these issues. This paper makes use of a regional panel data set for KwaZulu-Natal to begin the study of earnings and employment dynamics. The authors find that, on average, working-aged Africans in KwaZulu-Natal experienced large gains in earnings during the period 1993–8. These gains were progressive in nature, with the highest quintile of 1993 earners and those originally employed in the formal sector actually experiencing zero or negative growth in their average earnings. The average gain in earnings varied substantially depending on the employment transitions experienced by labour force participants. Obtaining formal sector employment is found to be an important pathway to growth in earnings, yet not exclusively so. The majority of those who get ahead do so by retaining employment in a given sector or moving into the informal sector. The dynamism of the informal sector over this period is shown to be an important contributor to the progressive growth in earnings. Government policies that seek to increase employment and earnings in the informal as well as formal sectors are recommended. Understanding the constraints preventing the vast number of unemployed from engaging in informal employment is shown to be a key issue for future work

For Richer or For Poorer? Evidence from Indonesia, South Africa, Spain, and Venezuela

We analyze household income dynamics using longitudinal data from Indonesia, South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal), Spain and Venezuela. In all four countries, households with the lowest reported base-year income experienced the largest absolute income gains. This result is robust to reasonable amounts of measurement error in two of the countries. In three of the four countries, households with the lowest predicted base-year income experienced gains at least as large as their wealthier counterparts. Thus, with one exception, the empirical importance of cumulative advantage, poverty traps, and skill-biased technical change was no greater than structural or macroeconomic changes that favored initially poor households in these four countries

What happened to real earnings in Egypt, 2008 to 2009?

Nominal earnings in Egypt did not respond to the increase in inflation between February 2008 and February 2009, resulting in a 12.3 (9) percent decline in average (median) real earnings among 25 to 60 years old workers. Changes in earnings differ significantly by groups: (i) those with higher initial earnings (reported and predicted) suffered the largest declines in earnings; (ii) men lost more than women but after controlling for initial earnings, women lost considerably more than men; (iii) those who were initially in agriculture also had greater declines despite rising food prices

(Re) conceptualising poverty and informal employment

There are roughly 839 million working poor in developing countries who survive on less than $2/day and about 80 per cent are employed in the informal economy. The conventional poverty approach therefore tends to frame the informal economy as a problem to be solved rather than as an important source of household income or a critical base of the modern economy. This chapter aims to reframe the link between informal employment and income poverty by examining the role of informal employment in reducing poverty. To explore the potential for measuring the link between informal employment and poverty reduction, the chapter presents the results of a poverty decomposition analysis using household survey data from South Africa. The findings suggest that a focus on low earnings in the informal economy belies the important contribution of this income to keeping workers and their households above the poverty line. The chapter concludes by considering whether or how policies might look different when they recognise and support the role of earnings from informal employment in the households of the working poor

Economists versus the Street: Comparative Viewpoints on Barriers to Self-employment in Khayelitsha, South Africa

What prevents the unemployed in Khayelitsha, South Africa from trying self-employment? Perceptions of a small group of academic economists are presented and compared to the perceptions of unemployed Khayelitsha residents themselves

Perceived Barriers to Entry into Self-employment in Khayelitsha, South Africa: Crime, Risk, and Start-up Capital Dominate Profit Concerns

In South Africa, the broad unemployment rate for Africans has remained near or above forty percent for most of the last ten years. One critical reason is the relatively low level of employment in small-scale entrepreneurial work. This paper explores the factors that constrain individuals from engaging in self-employment activities in a large township in Cape Town. Crime is perceived to be the dominant hindrance to entering the micro-enterprise sector. A number of other hindrances, including capital constraints, transportation costs, and community jealousy, are on par or surpass concerns over profitability or government regulation. These findings are robust to a series of alternative ranking scheme

Corporate governance in regulated and unregulated industries

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Department of Finance, 2000Includes bibliographical references (pages 121-125

Lenguaje, comunicación y Diseño

El artículo propone un recorrido histórico sobre la relación problemática entre diseño, comunicación y lenguaje. Se parte de la consideración sobre los lenguajes que hacen lasvanguardias artístico-políticas de principios del siglo XX para acceder a una primera tensión –moderna- entre lenguaje y comunicación. Por su parte, el análisis de lo desarrollado en Bauhauspermite comprender la relación entre comunicación y diseño. Luego de esta primera parte, eltexto avanza hacia los problemas comunicacionales que se presentan en la inmediata posguerra yel modo en que el diseño comienza a asimilar concepciones provenientes de la teoría cibernéticade la comunicación. En este punto, el artículo repasa los avances que en términos comunicacionales se han operado en las últimas décadas y que, en no pocas ocasiones, colisionan con eluniverso proyectual donde se ubica el diseño.The article proposes an historical review on the relation between design, communication and language. The author starts with the artistic-political vanguards of principles ofthe Xxth century to reach the first modern tension between language and communication. Onthe other hand, the analysis of the Bauhaus allows to understand the relation between communication and design. After this first part, the text goes towards the communicational problemsthat appear in the immediate postwar period and the way in which design begins to assimilateconceptions of the cybernetics theory of the communication. In this point, the article reviewsthe advances in communicational concepts in the last decades that, sometimes collide withprojects universe where the design is located.O artigo propõe um percurso histórico sobre a relação problemática entre design, comunicação e linguagem. O ponto de partida é a consideração sobre as linguagens que fazem asvanguardias artístico-políticas de princípios do século XX para acceder a uma primeira tensão-moderna- entre linguagem e comunicação. Por outro lado, a analise do desenvolvido em Bauhaus permite compreender a relação entre comunicação e design. Depois, o texto avança até osproblemas comunicacionais que se apresentam na imediata posguerra e a maneira em que odesign comenza a assimilar concepções que vêm da teoria cibernética da comunicação. Nesteponto, o artigo repassa os avanços nas comunicações nas últimas décadas e que, em ocações,chocam com o univertso projetual onde se ubica o design

Latinoamérica en la trama del Diseño. Entre la utopía y la realidad

En el ensayo de Gustavo Valdés de León se realiza un profundo análisis de las interrelaciones teóricas y pragmáticas del Diseño como disciplina emblemática de la Modernidad con la realidad -histórica, económica, cultural y política- de Latinoamérica. Para armar esta idea su autor realiza la operación de desarmar metafóricamente una gran caja llena de conceptos que es necesario comprender en profundidad para llegar a pensar en el diseño latinoamericano. Por este motivo, e intentando presentar en todo momento un recorrido por el diseño de América latina, hace referencia al diseño en sí, a Latinoamérica, su nombre y su historia, la relación entre resistencia e hibridación, como se pasa de una etapa de resistencia a otra caracterizada por la imitación.The essay of Gustavo Valdés de León develops a deep analysis of the theoretical and pragmatic interrelations of Design like emblematic discipline of modernity with the historical, economic, cultural and political reality of Latin America. In order to build this idea the author conducts the metaphorical disassembly of a great full box of concepts that is necessary to understand in depth to get to think about the Latin American design. For this reason, and trying at any moment to display a route by the design of Latin America, it makes reference to design in itself, to Latin America, its name and its history, the relation between resistance and hybridization and the change of a resistance stage into other one characterized by imitation.No ensáio de Gustavo Valdés de León realiza-se uma profunda analisse das interrelações teóricas e pragmáticas doDesign como disciplina emblemática da modernidade com a realidade - histórica, económica, cultural e política - deLatinoamérica. Para armar esta idéia seu autor realiza a operação de desarmar metafóricamente uma grande caixa cheia de conceitos que é necessario compreender em profundidade para chegar a pensar no design latinoamericano. Por este motivo, e procurando apressentar em todo momento um percurso pelo design em se, a Latinoamérica, seu nome e sua história, a relação entre resistência e hibridação, como se passa de uma etapa de resistência a outra caracterizada pela imitação

Rural livelihoods in South Africa: complexity, vulnerability and differentiation

The livelihoods of South Africa’s rural African poor have long been characterized by diverse activities, and intertwined with urban opportunities. This paper examines the interlinked nature of land, employment and rural livelihoods within contemporary South Africa, in order to examine aspects of how the rural poor survive. Drawing on a body of livelihood and poverty-oriented enquiry, several vignettes from South Africa’s former ‘homeland’ communal areas are presented and discussed. Contemporary rural livelihoods are not only located in migratory networks and diverse livelihood activities, they are considered here as constituted in terms of four broad domains. First, they are forged within various land-based and agrarian activities. Second, they are often supported by small-scale, informal economic activities, both farm and non-farm. Third, they are frequently shaped by South Africa’s comparatively well-developed system of state cash transfers and, fourth, they are patterned by culturally inscribed patterns of mutuality and social reciprocity. The complexity and vulnerability that typically characterize rural lives are examined in terms of these four domains, along with constellations of social differentiation with which they are intertwined.Web of ScienceWeb of Scienc