Employment, earnings and vulnerability in the South African labour market : an empirical investigation based on official survey data

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dc.contributor.advisorVan der Berg, Servaasen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorBhorat, Haroonen_ZA
dc.contributor.otherStellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Economics.en_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2012-08-27T11:35:27Z
dc.date.available2012-08-27T11:35:27Z
dc.date.issued2003-03
dc.descriptionThesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2003.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractENGLISH ABSTRACT: The welfare challenge that faces South Africa in the post-apartheid period is, at its core, defined by the high levels of poverty and inequality in the society. The labour market, as a provider of wages to individuals and ultimately households, remains the key transmitter of these poverty and inequality outcomes in the society. This specific line of reasoning is the underlying intellectual thrust of this thesis: namely that the state of poverty and inequality in a society is mirrored by, and perhaps more strongly - determined and shaped - by the state of its labour market. The thesis therefore focuses in the first instance on employment trends in South Africa since 1970, across two discrete time periods. The intention is to sketch the changing patterns of labour demand in South Africa, with a particular focus on how these patterns have yielded differential gains for different occupation, race, gender and education cohorts. Ultimately, these uneven employment patterns remain one of the most significant factors shaping South Africa's poverty and inequality challenges. The inequality challenge, so often thought of in terms of households only, is analysed here purely in terms of the employed. The starting point once again, is that it is precisely these earnings that contribute to the extraordinarily high inequality levels in South Africa. This analysis imparts information about the manner in which intra-employed wage inequality is structured and furthermore, how South Africa compares in the international context. A major contribution of the thesis is to, through more formal measures of poverty, apply these to labour market-defined individuals, rather than households, which is the norm in the literature. The point of departure is of course that poverty, or vulnerability, expresses itself through individuals in the labour market, and is thereby transmitted at the household level. Hence a significant component of the dissertation attempts a formal measurement and modelling of the degree of poverty and vulnerability in the South African labour market. These welfare challenges for a society though, should not only be analysed, but rather solved as well. Hence the final two chapters of the dissertation attempts to examine two very recent policy options mooted in South Africa, and through using simulation techniques, attempts to estimate both the costs and benefits of instituting these two alternatives which are explicitly aimed at reducing poverty, vulnerability and inequality in the society.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractAFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suid-Afrika se welvaartsvraagstuk in die na-apartheidsperiode word deur die hoë vlakke van armoede en ongelykheid in die samelewing bepaal. Die arbeidsmark, as voorsiener van lone aan individue en uiteindelik ook huishoudings, is die belangrikste bepaler van die oordrag van armoede- en ongelykheidsuitkomste in die samelewing. Die sleuteluitgangspunt van hierdie proefskrif is dat die stand van armoede en ongelykheid in 'n samelewing in sy arbeidsmark weerspieël en selfs daardeur bepaal en gevorm word. Die proefskrif fokus daarom veralop Suid- Afrikaanse indiensnemingstendense sedert die sewentigerjare, in twee diskrete periodes. Die doel is om die veranderende Suid-Afrikaanse arbeidsvraagpatroon te skets, veral die ongelyke voordele wat hierdie patrone vir verskillende beroeps-, rasse-, gestags- en opvoedkundige groepe meegebring het. Hierdie ongelyke indiensnemingspatrone is uiteindelik belangrike determinante van Suid-Afrika se armoede- en ongelykheidsvraagstuk. Hierdie analise verskaf inligting omtrent die struktuur van loonongelykheid onder werkendes en hoe Suid-Afrika internasionaal vergelyk. 'n Belangrike bydrae is die toepassing van formele armoedemaatstawwe op individue in die arbeidsmark, eerder as die konvensionele toepassing op huishoudings. Die uitgangspunt is natuurlik dat armoede of weerloosheid in die arbeidsmark op die vlak van die individu ervaar word, en dat dit daarna na die huishouding oorgedra word. Daarom is 'n groot deel van die proefskrif op die formele meting en modellering van die omvangvan armoede en weerloosheid in die Suid-Afrikaanse arbeidsmark toegespits. Hierdie welsynsvraagstukke moet natuurlik nie net ontleed word nie, maar ook opgelos word. Daarom poog die laaste twee hoofstukke om die implikasies van twee onlangse beleidsvoorstelle te ontleed. Deur simulasietegnieke word probeer om die kostes en voordele van hierdie twee alternatiewe beleidsvoorstelle gemik op die vermindering van armoede, ongelykheid en weerloosheid in die samelewing te beraam.af_ZA
dc.format.extent214, [2] p.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/53405
dc.language.isoen_ZAen_ZA
dc.publisherStellenbosch : Stellenbosch Universityen_ZA
dc.rights.holderStellenbosch Universityen_ZA
dc.subjectLabor market -- South Africaen_ZA
dc.subjectWages -- South Africaen_ZA
dc.subjectPoverty -- South Africaen_ZA
dc.subjectWage differentials -- South Africaen_ZA
dc.subjectPoverty -- Government policy -- South Africaen_ZA
dc.subjectDissertations -- Economicsen_ZA
dc.subjectTheses -- Economicsen_ZA
dc.titleEmployment, earnings and vulnerability in the South African labour market : an empirical investigation based on official survey dataen_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA
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