Imraan Valodia

• Dean at University of the Witwatersrand

Policy interventions to address widening inequality have focused on fiscal-based redistributive measures as governments remain less inclined directly to intervene in shaping outcomes within the production system itself. However, low and stagnating tax rates and contractions in social spending have reduced the quantum of resources available to addre...

While South Africa shares some characteristics with other middle-income countries, it has a unique economic history with distinctive characteristics. South Africa is an economic powerhouse with a significant role not only at the southern African regional and continental levels, but also as a member of BRICS. However, the country faces profound deve...

While South Africa shares some characteristics with other middle-income countries, it has a unique economic history with distinctive characteristics. South Africa is an economic powerhouse with a significant role not only at the southern African regional and continental levels, but also as a member of BRICS. However, the country faces profound deve...

In 2019, South Africa implemented a national minimum wage (NMW) for the first time. This is an important intervention, given that the South African labour market continues to generate some of the highest levels of income and wealth inequality in the world. The minimum wage is intended as a structural intervention to transform the labour market by s...

Este artigo apresenta as diretrizes de uma abordagem da desigualdade que seja apropriada para países do Sul Global do ponto de vista conceitual, metodológico e empírico. Buscamos inicialmente criticar os enfoques convencionais e, em seguida, apresentamos estudos que contribuem para entender as causas multidimensionais da desigualdade nesses países,...

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated inequalities in South Africa. The question posed in this article is whether the pandemic and its associated responses offer the opportunity for a more egalitarian society in South Africa, or a more intensively unequal society. The future is contested. On the one hand, there is the consolidation...

In the years following the end of Apartheid, South Africa introduced the Employment Equity Act as part of legislation designed to address entrenched racial and gender inequalities. Through section 27 of the Act, firms are required to report on the representation and remuneration of their workers by gender and population group. In this study, unprec...

The paper examines the challenges and opportunities for developing countries that may emanate from the fourth industrial revolution. The paper argues that there is very little concrete evidence to suggest that the new artificial intelligence and machine learning based technologies will necessarily destroy large number of jobs. In fact, the evidence...

This volume locates the international debates on competition and corporate power in the critical issue of inclusive growth, which has become an important policy goal for the economies of southern and eastern Africa. As such, the concept and its implementation and development require and deserve rigorous and empirically based investigation and analy...

We seek to provide a more detailed understanding the dynamics of change of firms in the post-apartheid era through the examination of the results of two firm-level surveys in the eThekwini Metro area. This paper aims to fill a gap in the South African labour market literature: our understanding of the demand side of the labour market. We examine th...

The period since the early 1990s has seen the emergence and consolidation of competition and regulation authorities in a number of countries across the African continent. This volume aims to play a role in critically analysing key competition issues and considering the interface of competition and a range of economic policy questions. The papers we...

In June 2016, the South African Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, noting that the social partners at NEDLAC had reached consensus on the introduction of a national minimum wage (NMW), and had moved on their proposal for the level of the first national minimum wage for South Africa, it had proved difficult to reach an agreement on the level. It was...

The idea of dualism in the South African economy, characterised by a ‘first’ and ‘second’ economy, has come to dominate government thinking in recent years. Using the panel component of the Labour Force Survey (LFS), we explore linkages between the formal and informal economy. Our analysis suggests that there is a high level of interaction between...

The idea of dualism in the South African economy, characterized by a “first” and “second” economy has come to dominate government thinking in recent years. Using the panel component of the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the authors explore linkages between the formal and informal economy. Their analysis suggests that there is a high level of interacti...

The socio-economic transformation of South Africa is necessary for the consolidation of its democracy. This can only be fully realised when poor people's voices are heard in the corridors of power. Voices of Protest documents the first post-apartheid initiatives of poor people to mobilise and organise themselves. It analyses social struggles and mo...

The literature on the linkages and economic relationships between the formal and informal economy remains underdeveloped, especially in relation to short-term labour market relationships and relationships of economic behaviour Drawing on data in South Africa, this article suggests that, among workers that earn low wages, there is a significant leve...

While gender-budgeting has grown in prominence gender activists and policymakers have paid insufficient attention to the taxation side of public finance. Drawing on a three-year eight-country study this Profile outlines why gender activists should be concerned about the revenue side of the budget, shares the conceptual approach, methodology and som...

Transformation has, over the years, published a significant number of pieces on economic policy in South Africa. Focussing on contributions specifically on the nature of economic policy, Transformation published as far back as the issue 5 (1987), when the first signs of the unravelling of apartheid were beginning to emerge, Stephen Gelb’s “Making s...

Utilizing time use data for exploring the issue of employment (or lack thereof) – a critical pathway for increased incomes for the poor - has received little attention in economic analysis. Using data from the 2000 South African national time use survey, this paper examines the value of time use data in policy discussions related to understanding p...

This paper attempts to address the paucity in micro-level research on the impact of trade liberalisation on manufacturing firms in South Africa. Using data from a survey of manufacturing firms in the Durban area, the second largest concentration of manufacturing activity in South Africa, we explore how firms are responding to trade liberalisation....

Abstract: The idea of a ‘second economy’ has become a feature of recent government economic policy. In this paper we focus on one important element of the second economy – the informal economy. We analyse the nature of the informal economy in South Africa, providing some descriptive statistics and analysis to highlight the nature and extent of the...

This paper forms one component of a larger project of the Human SciencesResearch Council (HSRC) to assess the state of knowledge of the labourmarket in South Africa, and to identify research gaps. Our paper has twoprimary objectives: to outline the extent and incidence of low-wagedemployment in South Africa and to review the literature on informale...

The labour market landscape has changed dramatically over the first decade of democratic governance in South Africa. Of course, the most obvious change is extremely high and rising rates of open unemployment. This was partly caused by restructuring and capital intensification in traditional resource-based industries, without a concomitant growth in...

What, then, are the principal findings of and lessons emanating from the preceding studies? What is the impact of contemporary social movements on the political and socioeconomic scene in South Africa? What is their impact on the country's development trajectory and the future of its democratic political system? These questions, and the answers to...

The objective of this article is to provide a broad framework for situating social movements in post-apartheid South Africa. The discussion begins with a brief review of approaches to the study of social movements and then turns to the challenges presented by globalization. South African democratization coincided with its increasing economic, socia...

This paper examines the response of the city government of Durban to the growth of the informal economy. It argues that, unlike the national government of South Africa, Durban's government has been creative in designing policies that favor informal economy workers, particularly women. These progressive policies are the result of an innovative local...

This article analyses one aspect of export promotion that has come to be an important mechanism for public sector implementation of export promotion, namely trade promotion organisations. Drawing on the export experiences of firms in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, we explore the possible role of a trade promotion organisation (TPO) in...

Caroline Skinner and Imraan Valodia analyse how South African clothing firms are reconfiguring their production processes through subcontracting and discuss the implications for collective bargaining.

This article examines the gender dimensions of the growth in informal and flexible work in South Africa and the government’s policy response to this. It outlines the growth in informal and flexible work practices and, as illustrative examples, analyses how trade and industrial policies and labour market policies are impacting on the growth of infor...

The South African economy has been undergoing a process of fundamental economic transformation as a result of policies promoting global integration within the global economy. CAROLINE SKINNER and IMRAAN VALODIA suggest that women are bearing the brunt of the costs associated with this transformation. They examine some of the gender dimensions of th...

IMRAAN VALODIA, TERENCE SMITH AND DEBBIE BUDLENDER write that although explicit gender biases in the tax system have been removed, South African women continue to be discriminated against by tax regulations

This article examines the gender dimensions of the growth in informal and flexible work in South Africa and the government's policy response to this. It outlines the informal and flexible work practices and, as illustrative examples, analyses how trade and industrial policies and labour market policies are impacting on the growth of informal and fl...

South Africa continues with supply-side policies for growth and employment generation though these policies have not been successful over the past decade. Inflation targeting is the new feature of the budget.

The theoretical argument in support of trade liberalisation is based, in part, on exports that foster dynamic efficiency gains primarily through learning and technological upgrading. Using data collected in the motor vehicle components industry, the article explores whether there is any evidence in the South African manufacturing sector to support...

Now that he is president, will Thabo Mbeki be able to stick to the fundamentals of the growth, employment and redistribution (GEAR) macro-economic strategy widely known to have been authored by him in his effort to speed up the delivery of development to the poor? And if he does, will GEAR still receive support from market players worldwide?.

Prior to 1994, there were two broad views on potential inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) into South Africa. The one view expected that large inflows would quickly follow the resolution of the political conflict, while the other took a more skeptical view on potential FDI, emphasizing the mobilization of domestic savings and the restructuri...

Drawing on South African experiences, this paper provides a critical evaluation of the World Bank's 1997 World Development Report, 'The State in a Changing World'. The paper sets out the Bank's conception of a 'good' state as it emerges from the Report. We then evaluate this conception of the state in the context of two domains of state activism, s...

Using research conducted for the Women's Budget Initiative (WBI) in South Africa, this paper examines the impact of government expenditure on women. The paper uses the budget of the South African Department of Trade and Industry to assess how this department's activities impacts on women. The paper shows the government budgets are a useful mechanis...

Conventional economic and risk-based considerations do not explain the surge of Malaysian investments in;South Africa. Rather, political considerations such as Malaysia's history of support for the anti-apartheid struggle, and more specially a strong perception by party political and business elites in both countries that they share a common challe...

Incl. abstract, bibl.