Do developing countries gain by participating in global value chains? Evidence from India

Review of World Economics - Is it in the interest of a developing country to promote strong local linkages for domestic industries or to participate in global value chains (GVCs) wherein linkages...     

Does backward participation in global value chains affect countries’ current account position?

Review of World Economics - This paper addresses the impact of countries’ backward participation in global value chains (GVCs) on their current account balances. Our results, based on a large...     

‘Growing’ social protection in developing countries: Lessons from Brazil and South Africa

The rapid expansion of social protection in the South provides a rich diversity of experiences and lessons on how best to reduce poverty and ultimately eradicate it. Knowledge on how best to ‘grow’ social assistance, understood as long-term institutions responsible for reducing and preventing poverty, is at a premium. This article examines the expansion of social assistance in Brazil and South Africa, two of the middle income countries widely perceived to have advanced furthest in ‘growing’ social protection. It examines three aspects: the primacy of politics in explaining the expansion of social protection and assistance, the tensions between path-dependence and innovation in terms of institutions and practices, and the poverty and inequality outcomes of social assistance expansion. The article concludes by drawing the main lessons for other developing countries.     

Mineral wealth – ‘in the name of morafe’? Community control in South Africa's ‘Platinum Valley’

Direct control of mineral resource wealth by communities in resource-endowed regions is advocated as a panacea to conflict and fundamental towards attainment of self-determination and local autonomy. Based on the study conducted in Royal Bafokeng and Bakgatla Ba Kgafela, the two prominent, platinum-rich traditional communities in South Africa's North West Province, this article reveals that, although mineral wealth in South Africa's platinum-endowed communities such as Royal Bafokeng is reportedly distributed ‘in the name of morafe’ (‘community’ in Setswana), inadequate participation produces polarised local priorities and tensions at the grassroots level. Community control of mineral wealth is thus likely to paradoxically generate conflict and exclusion at the traditional community level, particularly in contexts where participation in mineral wealth-engendered community development is championed by traditional leaders through customary-derived spaces of local engagement.     

Are ‘Albergo Diffuso’ and community-based tourism the answers to community development in South Africa?

Conventional mass tourism shortcomings have facilitated the origin of alternative forms of tourism such as community-based tourism (CBT). Lately, another form of tourism known as ‘Albergo Diffuso’ (AD) has also been mentioned as a possible strategy to revive depressed specific local contexts, such as townships, villages and small towns. This article’s aim is twofold: first to contextualise the concept of AD in the South African milieu and secondly to investigate the possible relationship and role that CBT and AD could have. In this context, specific characteristics and similarities between CBT and AD are explored. The article’s main contribution concerns the exploration of the AD concept as an alternative form of tourism related to local community development. This is the first time that this concept has been presented in a South African context.     

Deconstructing ‘the foreign’: The limits of citizenship for explaining price competition in the Spaza sector in South Africa

An important component of the informal economy in South Africa, the Spaza sector is portrayed as dominated by foreign nationals who outcompete South African shopkeepers on price. Indeed, this business competition from foreign nationals is a key reason given to explain xenophobia in South Africa. This article sets out to interrogate this widely held assumption. Drawing on evidence from over 1000 Spaza shops from South Africa’s three main cities, the article makes the case that business competitiveness does not correspond with ‘foreign’ or South African identities in a simple way. Firstly, while citizenship or nationality is a factor, it is not captured by the labels of ‘foreign’ versus South African, as there are significant differences by nationality within the ‘foreign’. Secondly, not all foreign nationalities out-compete South Africans on price. Thirdly, place matters too, not only because we find different nationalities in different cities, but also because there are different patterns of price competition by nationality in each place. Lastly, there are product-specific dynamics that impact on price more profoundly than nationality. For example, regardless of nationality, milk is cheaper in Cape Town and bread is cheaper in Johannesburg.     

A historical irony in the making? State,private sector and land reform in the South African wine industry

This article traces the development of the land distribution policy of the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) of South Africa. Despite the DLA ‘s political commitment to land reform by way of restitution, redistribution and tenure reform, to date no small‐scale wine farmers have been settled in South Africa by virtue of this policy. Three case studies describe how agricultural labourers have successfully gained access to this lucrative sector through private sector intervention. It is also argued that the small farm versus large farm debate masks the real opportunities for land reform in the wine industry.     

Global competition and cooperation in the electronics industry: the case of X-ray equipment, 1900–1970

The electronics industry is often regarded by scholars as an example of a sector driven by endless technological innovation and major competition between a few large companies, thus embodying the common view whereby the free market leads firms to innovate. On the other hand, some business historians have also emphasised that, since the beginning of the twentieth century, most of these companies were engaged in various international cartel agreements. The business and economic history literature on this industry reveals a clear-cut divide between the inter-war years and the post-war era. In this paper, however, we argue that technical and commercial cooperation between large electronics companies continued in various forms despite the spread of anti-trust policies after 1945. In this case study, we explore the global X-ray equipment industry from its beginnings around 1900 to the advent of the CT scanner in the early 1970s. The paper focuses on Siemens and Philips, the two largest manufacturers of radiological equipment. It demonstrates that both companies pursued their commercial and technical cooperation at least until the 1970s, although it was much less overt as during the interwar years.     

From land rights to environmental entitlements: Community discontent in the ‘successful’ Dwesa-Cwebe land claim in South Africa

This paper discusses the inability of successful land claimants to enjoy livelihood benefits from their newly acquired land rights. Based on long-term field observation, interviews and analysis of secondary material, the paper uses a case study of the Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa to explore why it is that an agreement, as part of the land claim settlement, to allow local villagers regulated access to natural resources is not being implemented. The paper draws from the environmental entitlements framework to argue that full land rights that could allow livelihood benefits to be enjoyed are restricted by ineffective and conflicting institutional arrangements, such as the Land Trust, the Communal Property Association and traditional authorities. The paper calls for the empowerment of institutions to deliberately benefit local livelihoods.     

Women's work and wages in the sixteenth century and Sweden's position in the ‘little divergence’

We use a unique source from the Swedish royal demesnes to examine the work and relative wages of women in sixteenth-century Sweden, an economic laggard in the early modern period. The source pertains to workers hired on yearly contracts, a type more representative of historical labour markets than day labour on large construction sites, and this allows us to observe directly the food consumed by workers. We speak to the debate on the ‘little divergence’ within Europe, as women's work and gender differentials in pay is a key indicator of women's relative autonomy and seen as a cause for the economic ascendency of the North Sea region during the period. We find small gender differentials among both unskilled and skilled workers, indicating that Sweden was a part of the ‘golden age’ for women. We argue that despite superficial equality, women's economic outlooks were restrained in many other ways – including their access to higher-skilled work and jobs in the expanding parts of the economy – adding important nuance to the discussion about the relationship between women's social position and economic growth in the early modern period.     

The problem of defining ‘community’: Challenges for the land reform programme in rural South Africa

This article argues that the use of the term ‘community’ in South Africa's land reform programme has both positive and negative effects on the beneficiaries. Effects are positive when they help focus policy on the needs of poor people, but negative when they force conflicting groups together in a manner which results in the rights of a weaker group being trampled on by the actions of a more powerful group. The article briefly reviews different ways of looking at the concept ‘community’, and then analyses in detail a case from the Wild Coast, where a Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) has raised questions about who should benefit from land reform and economic development. It is concluded that a detailed understanding of local reality, even if it takes time to develop, should be seen as essential to both land restitution and the rights enquiry processes which government policy proposes to employ for resolving conflicting and overlapping claims to tenure rights     

China’s macroeconomic trends in downward pressures: the ‘micro stimulus’ effects and steady growth

This study reports China’s macroeconomic trends in downward pressures and discusses the effects of the ‘micro stimulus’ on the growth performance of Chinese economy. It appears that economic growth rebounds significantly in the short term every time ‘micro stimulus’ is applied, but the economy slows down again once the stimulus dwindles. China’s economic growth thus exhibits a pattern of significant ‘stimulus-dependence’. When facing economic downturn, China has only resorted to stimulus policy to sustain growth. Not surprisingly, our findings indicate that ‘micro stimulus’ cannot realize the strategic intent of growth stabilization and structural adjustment, and may even lead to more structural chaos. One problem that can be attributed to the near-sighted strategy is the worsening productivity performance since the financial crisis of 2008. Therefore both improvement in social security systems and social programs designed for maintaining long run growth are needed in order to improve productivity performance on the one hand and to facilitate structural adjustments on the other.     

Ebb and flow: Structural and spatial change in Victoria's brewing industry, 1870–1900

The brewing industry has undergone profound structural and spatial change over the last 150 years. We examine how consolidation began in Victoria's brewing industry using a historical GIS approach. We argue that industry restructuring was shaped by four interlocking dynamics between 1870 and 1900: (1) structural economic change; (2) railway development; (3) technological innovation; and (4) regulatory reform. We show that the ebb and flow of these interacting dynamics generated a non-linear process of change. Similar to North America and Europe, the industry became highly concentrated. However, this process was complicated by local factors such as climate, economy, and distance.     

The banks and the financing of industry in Sweden,c. 1900–1927

Abstract

In the recently published third volume of Fagerstabrukens Historic, Professor E. F. Söderlund has given a detailed and penetrating account of the formation in 1927 of the Fagersta concern, resulting from the amalgamation of five leading Swedish iron works. ¹ Cf. Professor B. Boëthius' article above. pp. 174. His analysis offers a most useful background for a discussion of certain general problems of industrial finance and ownership, and of banking, in Sweden during the First World War and the 1920s. To provide such a discussion is the purpose of this article, and to that end it will be necessary to summarise Professor Söderlund's narrative. As, however, the story is in all essential respects the same for each of the works, a brief resume of the main facts in the history of one of them, Fagersta Bruk, will suffice.     

Resource conflict in Kenya’s titanium mining industry: Ethno-ecology and the redefinition of ownership,control, and compensation

The literature on community-mining enterprise conflict is currently dominated by discourses on equity, compensation, land ownership, and environmental degradation. While much debate has dwelled on whether mining is a curse or a blessing, little attention has been given to highlight the meanings that communities attach to the assets being fought over, and the need therefore to review existing laws on mining, and practices to reflect these realities.

The displacement of over 3000 residents in Kwale, Kenya to make way for the mining of titanium has raised serious concerns over indigenous resource ownership and control in Kenya’s mining industry, calling for a fresh look at the Kenyan mining law. Using an ethno-ecological approach, this article explains how a community’s loss of land assets can induce a sense of vulnerability which can prefigure conflict. The conflict demonstrates the need for a more sensitive approach to community resource ownership and indigenous mineral control.     

Land tenure in Mhala: Official wisdom ‘locked up’ in tradition and people ‘locked up’ in development∗

One of the main objectives of development in Gazankulu is the economic utilisation of the area's resources. A dominant perception underlying development in the region is that land as a resource is ‘removed from productive use’ because it is ‘locked up’ in the traditional tenure system.

However, what is officially taken to be traditional patterns of land use, actually has very little to do with tradition. Current patterns of land use in rural areas of Gazankulu are directly related to the history of the creation and the development of the national entity. In Mhala it is indeed not a question of ‘land locked up in tradition’ as official wisdom holds, but of people ‘locked up’ in development.