South Africa has undergone a remarkable transformation since its democratic transition in 1994, but economic growth and employment generation have been disappointing. Most worryingly, unemployment is currently among the highest in the world. While the proximate cause of high unemployment is that prevailing wages levels are too high, the deeper cause lies elsewhere, and is intimately connected to the inability of the South African to generate much growth momentum in the past decade. High unemployment and low growth are both ultimately the result of the shrinkage of the non-mineral tradable sector since the early-1990s. The weakness in particular of export-oriented manufacturing has deprived South Africa of growth opportunities as well as of job creation at the relatively low end of the skill distribution. Econometric analysis identifies the decline in the relative profitability of manufacturing in the 1990s as the most important contributor to the lack of vitality in that sector. Copyright (c) 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation (c) 2008 The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
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Article provided by The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in its journal Economics of Transition.
Volume (Year): 16 (2008) Issue (Month): 4 (October) Pages: 769-797 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
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Hausmann, Ricardo & Hwang, Jason & Rodrik, Dani, 2006.
"What You Export Matters,"
CEPR Discussion Papers
5444, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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Ricardo Hausmann & Jason Hwang & Dani Rodrik, 2005.
"What You Export Matters,"
NBER Working Papers
11905, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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Hausmann, Ricardo & Hwang, Jason & Rodrik, Dani, 2005.
"What You Export Matters,"
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rwp05-063, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
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