Describing and decomposing post-apartheid income inequality in South Africa

This paper describes the changes in inequality in South Africa over the post-apartheid period, using income data from 1993 and 2008. Having shown that the data are comparable over time, it then profiles aggregate changes in income inequality, showing that inequality has increased over the post-apartheid period because an increased share of income has gone to the top decile. Social grants have become much more important as sources of income in the lower deciles. However, income source decomposition shows that the labour market has been and remains the main driver of aggregate inequality. Inequality within each racial group has increased and both standard and new methodologies show that the contribution of between-race inequality has decreased. Both aggregate and within-group inequality are responding to rising unemployment and rising earnings inequality. Those who have neither access to social grants nor the education levels necessary to integrate successfully into a harsh labour market are especially vulnerable.     

Defining and measuring informal employment in South Africa

There is limited consensus on how to define informal employment in South Africa, but in the South African and international literature the three most common ways of capturing informal employment are the enterprise, employment relationship and worker characteristics approaches. This paper reviews the methods used by Statistics South Africa to measure informal employment before and after the introduction of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, and other recently proposed methods. It then investigates the congruence, if any, between five measures of informality used in 2009. It finds that 94.7% of the self-employed are informal according to at least one definition, but only 62.6% according to all five combined. In addition, these two proportions are only 67.7% and 6.9% respectively in the case of informal employees. Econometric analysis is conducted to further investigate the differences between these measures.     

论西部地区经济发展的国家政策导向

改革开放以来,中国经济一直保持高速发展,然而地区经济发展不平衡加剧,东西部经济发展差距不断扩大,西部大开发实施的效果不如人们的预期,国家经济政策导向在促进东西部经济发展缩小差距、实现地区经济均衡发展并最终实现共同富裕的过程中日益必要。本文就西部地区经济发展中国家的经济政策导向进行探讨,并提出了具体的政策建议。     

Dutch and Danish agricultural exports during the First World War

Abstract

The Danish agricultural sector continued to maintain agricultural exports to Great Britain during the First World War, even when higher prices ruled on the German market. Dutch agricultural exporters, 011 the other hand. continued to sell to the highest bidder; until, in 1916, British pressure forced them to do otherwise. It was not the Danish government but the Danish cooperatives who were responsible for Danish agricultural export policy, especially in the first years of the war. More than was the case with the Dutch exporters, the Danes were highly dependent on the British market. The strong Danish cooperatives (in contrast to the weaker Dutch agricultural organizations) forced the Danish government to support their strategy in order not to lose their suppliers to the newly establishedfirms who were exporting to Germany.     

Labour Market Policy and Welfare Reform: Meeting Distribution and Efficiency Objectives

Alongside the growth in overall employment and the steady rise in average real incomes over the 1990s, many developed countries experienced a concentration of low labour market attachment and low pay among certain groups in society. In response, the focus of welfare policy shifted towards targeted making work pay programs. This paper considers the validity of the arguments underlying this shift in welfare policy. It examines two broad classes of policies: active labour market programs and earned income tax credits.     

How social security policies and economic transformation affect poverty and inequality: Lessons for South Africa

This article examines how various characteristics of social and economic policy frameworks affect poverty and inequality levels in developing countries, principally in Botswana and Mauritius. The research findings suggest that poverty and inequality are lower in countries with generous and broad-based – rather than pro-poor – social security policies, and where social policies are complemented by economic policies promoting economic transformation rather than mere economic growth. While South Africa's challenges of combating poverty and inequality are shaped by its own historical context, the lessons from other countries offer the opportunity to reflect on the social consequences of various social and economic policy mixtures. In particular, it may be worth considering how to bridge the divide between the economically productive contributors to social security policies and the economically marginalised beneficiaries of such policies.     

Determinants of Indonesian rural secondary school enrolment: gender,neighbourhood and school characteristics

In recent years the school enrolment rates of children aged 13–15 and 16–18 years have increased sharply in Indonesia, not only in urban but also in rural areas. Using various data sets spanning the years from 1993 to 2007, this paper investigates changes in factors associated with the enrolment of secondary school aged children in rural areas. It sheds light on the roles of gender and of neighbourhood and school characteristics, which have rarely been examined in the Indonesian context. The study finds that the disappearance of a gender gap in secondary enrolments between 1993 and 2007 contributed significantly to the rise in the overall enrolment rate. The findings also show that children living in wealthier communities and communities with a high proportion of enrolled children are more likely to attend school. Finally, various school characteristics are shown not to be strongly or consistently correlated with school enrolment.     

Fiscal policy in monetary unions: Implications for Europe

This paper analyzes how the feasible mix of government expenditure and financing arrangements may change with the establishment of a monetary union such as that planned by members of the European Community. We find that a monetary union reduces the feasible divergence across countries in their present discounted levels of fiscal spending. Wide differences across countries in their present and future time patterns of spending are still possible, however. Examination of the empirical evidence suggests that the movement toward greater exchange rate fixity associated with the EMS and participation in quasi monetary unions havenot been accompanied by significant fiscal convergence. The experience of member states of several existing monetary unions, however, suggests that a more effective constraint to budgetary discipline arises within full-fledged unions in operation over long periods, even in the absence of binding central rules on government deficit and debt positions.     

如何应对我国经济转型的阵痛

2008年,我国经济面,临一系列困难,其中通货膨胀成为经济发展中最值得关注的问题,这与外部环境变化有很大的关系,短期因素起了很大作用,也是经济发展到一定阶段后,传统发展模式导致瓶颈的一种表现,是经济向新型工业化模式转型过程中必须面对的问题。对此,我们不能仅仅从周期角度分析,而应从深层次问题着手,为长远发展扎扎实实地做好基础性工作。     

The Chinese State Enterprise Sector: Labour Market Reform and the Impact on Male–Female Wage Structure

The paper examines the wage structure in the Chinese state enterprise sector between 1981 and 1987. This period is of particular interest given the introduction of major labour market reforms in China during the early 1980s. In essence the reforms represented a movement away from administratively determined prices towards a market–oriented system combined with a relatively flexible system of labour allocation. The Juhn, Murphy and Pierce (1991) decomposition is employed to shed light on the role of changing labour market institutions over the period.
JEL classification : J 31; J 16     

市场经济与不平等——关于社会公平与国家治理的国际与历史观点

文章剖析了后工业时代社会全球化的历史性变化,包括其如何在风险与不平等的条件下发展并影响人们的日常生活,如何在世界范围内改变社会福利保障的状况及影响公共政策的制定。随着贫富分布不均以及社会阶层化等现象的出现,整个社会的结构正在重新构建,迅速成长的自由市场带动相关经济力量的发展,并伴随着关于理性化、标准化、商品化或是世俗主义思想的扩散。在经济下滑以及劳动力市场的软化的情况下,在全球范围内寻求更完善的社会保障措施的呼声越来越高。如今,原有的20世纪的福利国家形式已被21世纪一种更有竞争力的形态所取代,即所谓“非主权权力”,其在全球范围内越来越受到关注,但在各种社会势力（例如NGOs非政府组织）中对日常生活的影响仍旧较弱。尽管在国际经济发展与社会政策制定之间存在着滞后性,国家政权在跨国公司利益主导的世界范围内还是具有重要的管理功能。在全球化已经影响了社会契约的情况下,社会福利的未来虽难以抉择,但终究是要向着商品化的社会服务方向发展。鉴于公正与治理带来的挑战,文章认为,如今市场经济的走向必须由反映人的根本价值的道德原则来指导,而社会福利保障等概念则需要重新定义和延伸。     

Revisiting the Impact of Consumption Growth and Inequality on Poverty in Indonesia during Decentralisation

This article analyses the consumption growth elasticity and inequality elasticity of poverty in Indonesia, with a particular focus on the decentralisation period. Using provincial panel data, we show that the effectiveness of growth in alleviating poverty across provinces was greater during decentralisation—that is, between 2002 and 2010—than at any other point since 1984. The growth elasticity of poverty since 2002 is estimated to have been –2.46, which means that a 10% increase in average consumption per capita would have reduced the poverty rate by almost 25%. However, we also find that rising income inequality negated a quarter to a third of the 5.7-percentage-point reduction in the headcount poverty rate. This increasing inequality has contributed to a lower level of pro-poor growth than that maintained in Indonesia before decentralisation.     

Economic Causes and Cures of Social Instability in China

China＇s leaders have often expressed concerns about social instability, viewed as a threat both to the political order and to continued rapid growth. Slower growth might, in turn, further undermine social stability. Using survey data, the present paper examines the economic determinants of social instability. Four main determinants are identified.＇past and expected growth of income, income inequality, economic insecurity and misgovernance. The paper then considers possible policies to reduce social instability, examining each of the determinants in turn.     

The performance of business incubators and their potential development in the north east region of england

The creation of incubators is viewed by many local and regional strategic bodies in the UK and abroad as an effective way of nurturing and facilitating the success of new technology-based companies. Drawing on a survey of 17 incubators operating in the North East of England, based on original findings, this paper empirically examines the crucial role of existing incubators in the local economy in enterprise creation and attempts to identify areas of good practice that can be used as benchmarks for the creation of future Incubators.