High road or common neoliberal trajectory? Collective bargaining, wage share, and varieties of capitalism
- Mpuku, Mutale Natasha Muchule
- Authors: Mpuku, Mutale Natasha Muchule
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Collective bargaining , Globalization , Labor union members , Wages Statistics , Income distribution , Economic development , Neoliberalism , Capitalism
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/357611 , vital:64760
- Description: Wage shares have been falling since the 1980s across developing and developed countries. There has also been a downward trend with labour market institutions in these countries, with a few exceptions. This thesis analyzes these trends using firstly an extended literature review and secondly an econometrics analysis of a panel of 36 countries over 39 years. The extended literature review identified two broad competing narratives surrounding this topic: the mainstream and the alternative growth narratives. They both focus on two different growth regimes, the former, posits that growth is profit-led and the latter that growth is wage-led. Both are not ‘zero sum’ processes and seem to offer the same end result (growth and development). However, profit-led growth seems to have two problems. First, at least in the medium run, there is a trade-off between growth and income distribution. And secondly, profit-led growth is contradictory at the global level. Wage-led growth, which offers a ‘high road’ approach, seems far more appealing. Furthermore, several authors, including in South Africa, have claimed that regime-switching (to wage-led growth), is possible, and it seems that labour market institutions may play an important role in facilitating such a switch. However, the empirical literature, especially regarding middle- and low-income countries, is sparse and inconclusive. The panel data analysis provided by this thesis was not conclusive in establishing whether the wage-led, high road path is still viable for countries like South Africa. However, it did not find strong evidence of the contrary. The thesis concluded that there is scope for further research in this field and makes certain suggestions in this regard. , Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
- Authors: Mpuku, Mutale Natasha Muchule
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Collective bargaining , Globalization , Labor union members , Wages Statistics , Income distribution , Economic development , Neoliberalism , Capitalism
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/357611 , vital:64760
- Description: Wage shares have been falling since the 1980s across developing and developed countries. There has also been a downward trend with labour market institutions in these countries, with a few exceptions. This thesis analyzes these trends using firstly an extended literature review and secondly an econometrics analysis of a panel of 36 countries over 39 years. The extended literature review identified two broad competing narratives surrounding this topic: the mainstream and the alternative growth narratives. They both focus on two different growth regimes, the former, posits that growth is profit-led and the latter that growth is wage-led. Both are not ‘zero sum’ processes and seem to offer the same end result (growth and development). However, profit-led growth seems to have two problems. First, at least in the medium run, there is a trade-off between growth and income distribution. And secondly, profit-led growth is contradictory at the global level. Wage-led growth, which offers a ‘high road’ approach, seems far more appealing. Furthermore, several authors, including in South Africa, have claimed that regime-switching (to wage-led growth), is possible, and it seems that labour market institutions may play an important role in facilitating such a switch. However, the empirical literature, especially regarding middle- and low-income countries, is sparse and inconclusive. The panel data analysis provided by this thesis was not conclusive in establishing whether the wage-led, high road path is still viable for countries like South Africa. However, it did not find strong evidence of the contrary. The thesis concluded that there is scope for further research in this field and makes certain suggestions in this regard. , Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
The trade and poverty nexus in South Africa: investigating the transmission mechanism and the associated challenges
- Authors: Bhebhe, Nonceba Fikile
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Commerce , Free trade , International trade , Poverty South Africa , Poverty Prevention , South Africa Economic conditions 1991-
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/357515 , vital:64750
- Description: International trade plays an essential role in economic development strategies. In literature, foreign trade is identified as a driver of economic growth. In recent times there has been an expansion in the scope of investigations around the role of international trade to include its links with poverty alleviation. Poverty alleviation is explicitly identified as the first goal on the 2030 agenda for sustainable development under the Sustainable Development Goals and implicitly defined in goal 10. International trade is seen as the engine behind achieving the goal. South Africa records excessive poverty and inequality levels by international standards for a middle-income country. The most recent Poverty Trends Report for 2006 - 2015 reports 55.5% of the population living in poverty. Inequality statistics reported a per capita expenditure Gini coefficient of 0.65 in 2015, evidence that the country has high levels of inequality. The country's severe poverty, unemployment, and inequality prompt policymakers to formulate developmental policies around the underlying structural challenges. Trade openness has increased since the end of the Apartheid era. Despite the increased trade openness, economic growth has been insufficient in reducing the high unemployment and poverty levels, presenting a challenge for economists, who argue that trade openness is pro-growth and pro-poor. In the South African case, the lack of change in the structural challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality has raised concerns over whether the trade policy reforms made since 1994 interfere with development objectives. This study aims to investigate the impact of trade liberalisation on poverty, using the three channels, namely enterprise, distribution, and government that have been researched within the McCulloch, Winters and Cirera framework. Specifically, it investigates the linkages via the transmission mechanism in which trade affects poverty in South Africa by mapping the transmission mechanisms from trade liberalisation to poverty alleviation, whilst identifying the possible challenges to the transmission mechanisms and lastly, analysing the stylised facts around trade and poverty in South Africa. To answer the question of this study, quantitative data from National Income Dynamic Study (NIDS) was merged longitudinally and aggregated with the industry tariff data sourced from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) statistics. A path analysis was undertaken to map the transmission mechanism, whilst descriptive statistics were used to identify the possible associated challenges. The results show that the most significant channel of transmission are the enterprise and distribution channel. However, the effects are of a small margin and a more comprehensive trade policy yield a higher margin of poverty alleviation. , Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
- Authors: Bhebhe, Nonceba Fikile
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Commerce , Free trade , International trade , Poverty South Africa , Poverty Prevention , South Africa Economic conditions 1991-
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/357515 , vital:64750
- Description: International trade plays an essential role in economic development strategies. In literature, foreign trade is identified as a driver of economic growth. In recent times there has been an expansion in the scope of investigations around the role of international trade to include its links with poverty alleviation. Poverty alleviation is explicitly identified as the first goal on the 2030 agenda for sustainable development under the Sustainable Development Goals and implicitly defined in goal 10. International trade is seen as the engine behind achieving the goal. South Africa records excessive poverty and inequality levels by international standards for a middle-income country. The most recent Poverty Trends Report for 2006 - 2015 reports 55.5% of the population living in poverty. Inequality statistics reported a per capita expenditure Gini coefficient of 0.65 in 2015, evidence that the country has high levels of inequality. The country's severe poverty, unemployment, and inequality prompt policymakers to formulate developmental policies around the underlying structural challenges. Trade openness has increased since the end of the Apartheid era. Despite the increased trade openness, economic growth has been insufficient in reducing the high unemployment and poverty levels, presenting a challenge for economists, who argue that trade openness is pro-growth and pro-poor. In the South African case, the lack of change in the structural challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality has raised concerns over whether the trade policy reforms made since 1994 interfere with development objectives. This study aims to investigate the impact of trade liberalisation on poverty, using the three channels, namely enterprise, distribution, and government that have been researched within the McCulloch, Winters and Cirera framework. Specifically, it investigates the linkages via the transmission mechanism in which trade affects poverty in South Africa by mapping the transmission mechanisms from trade liberalisation to poverty alleviation, whilst identifying the possible challenges to the transmission mechanisms and lastly, analysing the stylised facts around trade and poverty in South Africa. To answer the question of this study, quantitative data from National Income Dynamic Study (NIDS) was merged longitudinally and aggregated with the industry tariff data sourced from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) statistics. A path analysis was undertaken to map the transmission mechanism, whilst descriptive statistics were used to identify the possible associated challenges. The results show that the most significant channel of transmission are the enterprise and distribution channel. However, the effects are of a small margin and a more comprehensive trade policy yield a higher margin of poverty alleviation. , Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
- «
- ‹
- 1
- ›
- »