IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ldr/cssrwp/049.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An Overview of the Performance and Potential of Public Works Programmes in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Anna McCord

Abstract

In this paper simple models are used to estimate the impact and fiscal feasibility of 'expanded' public works programmes using the limited data available. The employment creation potential of a R1.2 billion investment in labour intensive construction over three-years is found to represent a maximum of 0.5% of unemployed workdays per annum. The cost to the fiscus of an expanded public works programme able to offer part time employment to a significant number of workers (3.2 million) is found to be between R17 and R28 billion per annum.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna McCord, 2003. "An Overview of the Performance and Potential of Public Works Programmes in South Africa," SALDRU/CSSR Working Papers 049, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    • Handle: RePEc:ldr:cssrwp:049
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.opensaldru.uct.ac.za/handle/11090/636
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lawrence HADDAD & Michelle ADATO, 2002. "Maximizing benefit transfers to the poor: Evidence from South African employment programmes," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 141(3), pages 203-223, September.
    2. Anna McCord, 2002. "Public Works as a Response to Labour Market Failure in South Africa," SALDRU/CSSR Working Papers 019, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    3. Thurlow, James, 2002. "Can South Africa afford to become Africa's first welfare state?," FCND discussion papers 139, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. M. Adato & L. Haddad, 2002. "Targeting Poverty through Community-Based Public Works Programmes: Experience from South Africa," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 1-36.
    5. Haroon Bhorat, 2003. "Estimates for Poverty Alleviation in South Africa, with An Application to a Universal Income Grant," Working Papers 03075, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    6. Charles Meth & Rosa Dias, 2004. "Increases in poverty in South Africa, 1999-2002," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 59-85.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Barrientos, Armando & Nino-Zarazua, Miguel, 2010. "Social Assistance in Developing Countries Database Version 5.0," MPRA Paper 20001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Maia Green & University of Manchester, 2006. "Reresenting Poverty and Attacking Representations: Some Anthroplogical Perspectives on Poverty in Development," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-009, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    3. Anna McCord & Kate Wilkinson, 2009. "Assessing the Incidence of Public Works Programmes: Using Propensity Score Matching Techniques to Assess the Poverty Targeting of Employment in Two Public Works Programmes in South Africa," SALDRU Working Papers 31, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    4. Andrea Buch & Alan B. Dixon, 2009. "South Africa's working for water programme: searching for win-win outcomes for people and the environment," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 129-141.
    5. Maia Green, 2006. "Representing poverty and attacking representations: Perspectives on poverty from social anthropology," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(7), pages 1108-1129.
    6. Anna McCord, 2008. "Recognising Heterogeneity: A Proposed Typology for Public Works Programmes," SALDRU Working Papers 26, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthias Finger & Rolf W. Künneke (ed.), 2011. "International Handbook of Network Industries," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12961.
    2. Wodon, Quentin & Zaman, Hassan, 2008. "Rising food prices in Sub-Saharan Africa : poverty impact and policy responses," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4738, The World Bank.
    3. David Coady, 2015. "Designing and Evaluating Social Safety Nets: Theory, Evidence, and Policy Conclusions," Working Papers id:7496, eSocialSciences.
    4. Coady, David P., 2004. "Designing and evaluating social safety nets," FCND discussion papers 172, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Catarina Figueira & David Parker, 2011. "Infrastructure Liberalization: Challenges to the New Economic Paradigm in the Context of Developing Countries," Chapters, in: Matthias Finger & Rolf W. Künneke (ed.), International Handbook of Network Industries, chapter 27, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Charles Meth, 2006. "What was the poverty headcount in 2004 and how does it compare to recent estimates by van der Berg et al?," SALDRU Working Papers 1, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    7. repec:wbk:wbpubs:13079 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Quentin Wodon, 2012. "Poverty and the Policy Response to the Economic Crisis in Liberia," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13080, December.
    9. Mats Lundahl & Lennart Petersson, 2009. "Post-Apartheid South Africa: An Economic Success Story?," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2009-56, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Aguero, Jorge M. & Carter, Michael R. & May, Julian, 2006. "Poverty and Inequality in the First Decade of South Africa's Democracy: What Can be Learned from Panel Data?," Staff Papers 12621, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    11. Backiny Yetna, Prosper Romuald, 2013. "Politiques publiques et pauvreté : trois études de cas d'évaluation des performances de ciblage et d'analyse d'impact," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/11794 edited by De Vreyer, Philippe.
    12. Backiny-Yetna, Prospere & Wodon, Quentin & Zampaglione, Giuseppe, 2012. "Impact of Labor-Intensive Public Works in Liberia: Results from a Light Evaluation Survey," MPRA Paper 38556, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Bruce Rhodes & Tamlyn McKenzie, 2018. "To what extent does socio-economic status still affect household access to water and sanitation services in South Africa?," Working Papers 738, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    14. Rob Davies & James Thurlow, 2010. "Formal–Informal Economy Linkages And Unemployment In South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 78(4), pages 437-459, December.
    15. Geeta Kingdon & John Knight, 2007. "Unemployment in South Africa, 1995--2003: Causes, Problems and Policies," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 16(5), pages 813-848, November.
    16. Pa Black, 2004. "Poverty At The Household Level," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 72(3), pages 413-436, September.
    17. Kalie Pauw & Liberty Mncube, 2007. "Expanding the Social Security Net in South Africa: Opportunities, Challenges and Constraints," Research Report 8, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    18. Faraaz Shahaboonin & Oladipo Olalekan David & Abigail Van Wyk, 2023. "Historic Spatial Inequality and Poverty along Racial Lines in South Africa," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 13(1), pages 102-111, January.
    19. Mashele RAPATSA, 2015. "Poverty: A socio-economic threat to sustainable development as envisioned by South Africa’s transformative regime," EuroEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 2(34), pages 41-48, November.
    20. Megbowon Ebenezer Toyin, 2018. "Multidimensional Poverty Analysis of Urban and Rural Households in South Africa," Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Oeconomica, Sciendo, vol. 63(1), pages 3-19, April.
    21. Gregory John Lee & Gareth Rees, 2016. "Give and Take Between Households and the State: Development and Application of A Benefaction–Contribution Ratio," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62(2), pages 362-379, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ldr:cssrwp:049. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Alison Siljeur (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sauctza.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.