Masters Degrees (Economics)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Economics) by Subject "Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Western Cape -- Economic conditions"

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    An approach to human development in rural Western Cape with specific reference to farm workers
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2005-12) Tregurtha, Norma; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Economics.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Using the conceptual framework of the human development approach as proposed by Amartya Sen, this dissertation attempts to measure the absolute and relative development status of Western Cape farm workers for 1996 and 2001. The dissertation begins by presenting a critical analysis of the traditional neo-classical model of development, and goes further to demonstrate how, from the early 1970s, the validity of this model was increasingly questioned by the broader development fraternity and eventually supplanted by the human development approach in the 1990s. The human development approach is based on two conceptual roots namely; social exclusion theory and the capability model of Amartya Sen. Social exclusion theory identifies important themes such as gender and culture which the neo-classical development approach failed to reflect in its theoretical and methodological structures while the capability model establishes the philosophical and theoretical foundations of human development. More specifically it clarifies the question: 'what is wellbeing, how do we measure it and how is it linked to development and poverty? From the perspective of the human development approach, wellbeing is about being able to exercise economic, social and political choice or freedom. These freedoms are labelled capabilities and are they are derived from functioning choices. A functioning represents different aspects of the state of a person, and can either be an activity such as working or a state of existence such as being educated. A functioning is an achievement whereas a capability is the possible options or choices open to a person. It is on the basis of a person's capability set that an evaluation of their level of wellbeing is possible. The human development approach therefore measures development in terms of capabilities The key methodological challenges related to measuring development in terms of human capabilities are numerous. The theory of human development does not specify which capabilities to include when measuring poverty or wellbeing, in addition it provides no method to rank capabilities. Capabilities can simultaneously expand in some areas while contract in others. Because there is no method of ranking capabilities it is impossible to conclude whether on balance, development has taken place. Finally on a practical level the data requirements to measure wellbeing in a multivariate way are significant and are more often than not based on detailed household socio-economic surveys that are not easily replicated over time. For these reasons, while development economists endorse the theory of human development on an ideological and strategic level, methodologically there is still a tendency to measure it in terms of income levels. Despite these challenges a number of empirical applications of the human development approach have emerged in recent years and a cross-section of these studies is described as part of this dissertation. The main methodological issues that have to be confronted when operationalising the human development approach are also documented while the appropriateness of using the theory of fuzzy sets to measure vague concepts such as poverty and wellbeing, is emphasized. Drawing on data from the 1996 and 2001 Population Census this dissertation confronts these measurement challenges and by limiting the analysis to 6 functionings namely; housing, housing services, education, health, social relations, employment and economic achievements, attempts to measure the overall development status of Western Cape farm workers. By comparing this result with the achievement of other labour groups such as the unemployed and workers employed elsewhere in the economy it is also possible to conclude on their relative development status. With respect to functioning achievement (measured as fuzzy scores), in 2001 farm workers scored the lowest of all the labour groups in terms of housing services, social relations and education achievement. In terms of their access to economic resources, while farm workers individual and household monthly income levels exceeded that of the unemployed - their fuzzy score was roughly half of that achieved by workers in other sectors. These various functionings were weighted and aggregated to arrive at an overall wellbeing indicator, and almost no difference could be detected in the score achieved by farm workers and the unemployed. This result was found to be relatively insensitive to the weight assigned to a particular functioning. While there is almost no difference in the overall level of human development "enjoyed" by farm workers and the unemployed, a large difference was found between farm workers and other workers in the economy. It can be argued that this discrepancy is indicative of the high concentration of unskilled workers found in the agricultural sector. However when occupation was brought into consideration, a relatively large discrepancy in development levels between farm workers and employed unskilled workers, could still be detected. In terms of gender, overall women farm workers scored slightly higher than men, however in terms of personal income they scored considerably lower than men. This difference could not be attributed to differences in the number of hours worked per week and confirms the findings of other studies that showed that women farm workers do not receive equal wages for equal work effort. In terms of development status, the results generated by the 1996 population census, were consistent with 2001 however, here farm workers scored poorly in terms of the housing, housing services, education and social relations functioning. It was only with respect to the employment and economic resources functionings that farm workers ranked above the unemployed. By applying the frequency-based membership functions generated for 1996 to the 2001 data set, it was possible to detect absolute changes in development status that took place between 1996 and 2001. Relative to the other labour groups, farm workers consistently exhibited the highest rate of progress. Education, social relations and housing services functionings scores in 2001, were 20% higher than 1996 levels. Key Words: Poverty, development, wellbeing, human development approach, capabilities, functionings, fuzzy sets, Western Cape, Western Cape agriculture, farm workers