How Much Labor Do South African Exports Contain?
Like many emerging economies, South Africa has identified exports as an engine for more inclusive, job-intensive growth. However, employment growth did not follow the substantial export growth that South Africa experienced in the 2000s. This paper...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/544181493128206993/How-much-labor-do-South-African-exports-contain http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26474 |
| id |
okr-10986-26474 |
|---|---|
| recordtype |
oai_dc |
| spelling |
okr-10986-264742021-06-08T14:42:45Z How Much Labor Do South African Exports Contain? Cali, Massimiliano Hollweg, Claire H. LABOR COMPENSATION GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN LABOR CONTENT EXPORT DIVERSIFICATION INCLUSIVE GROWTH JOB-INTENSIVE GROWTH LABOR INPUTS SKILLED LABOR Like many emerging economies, South Africa has identified exports as an engine for more inclusive, job-intensive growth. However, employment growth did not follow the substantial export growth that South Africa experienced in the 2000s. This paper uses a newly developed World Bank database -- the Labor Content of Exports -- to show that the composition of South Africa's export growth helps to understand the weak relationship between export and employment growth. Minerals exports, which propelled export as well as wage growth, are not job intensive and as a result supported far less job growth. Minerals have also increasingly become an enclave sector with few backward linkages to the domestic economy. In contrast, manufacturing exports support jobs and wages primarily in input-providing sectors, where indirect manufacturing employment is nearly 4.5 times greater than direct manufacturing employment. The paper also documents a shift in the labor content of global value chain–intensive manufacturing sectors away from direct manufacturing to indirect services. Such a shift has been biased toward skilled labor. As a results of these trends, labor in services sectors has been the main beneficiary of South Africa's export growth, absorbing more than half of the growth in wage income from exports over the 2000s, primarily by supplying inputs to other sectors' exports. 2017-04-26T22:34:23Z 2017-04-26T22:34:23Z 2017-04 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/544181493128206993/How-much-labor-do-South-African-exports-contain http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26474 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8037 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa South Africa |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
LABOR COMPENSATION GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN LABOR CONTENT EXPORT DIVERSIFICATION INCLUSIVE GROWTH JOB-INTENSIVE GROWTH LABOR INPUTS SKILLED LABOR |
| spellingShingle |
LABOR COMPENSATION GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN LABOR CONTENT EXPORT DIVERSIFICATION INCLUSIVE GROWTH JOB-INTENSIVE GROWTH LABOR INPUTS SKILLED LABOR Cali, Massimiliano Hollweg, Claire H. How Much Labor Do South African Exports Contain? |
| geographic_facet |
Africa South Africa |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8037 |
| description |
Like many emerging economies, South
Africa has identified exports as an engine for more
inclusive, job-intensive growth. However, employment growth
did not follow the substantial export growth that South
Africa experienced in the 2000s. This paper uses a newly
developed World Bank database -- the Labor Content of
Exports -- to show that the composition of South
Africa's export growth helps to understand the weak
relationship between export and employment growth. Minerals
exports, which propelled export as well as wage growth, are
not job intensive and as a result supported far less job
growth. Minerals have also increasingly become an enclave
sector with few backward linkages to the domestic economy.
In contrast, manufacturing exports support jobs and wages
primarily in input-providing sectors, where indirect
manufacturing employment is nearly 4.5 times greater than
direct manufacturing employment. The paper also documents a
shift in the labor content of global value chain–intensive
manufacturing sectors away from direct manufacturing to
indirect services. Such a shift has been biased toward
skilled labor. As a results of these trends, labor in
services sectors has been the main beneficiary of South
Africa's export growth, absorbing more than half of the
growth in wage income from exports over the 2000s, primarily
by supplying inputs to other sectors' exports. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Cali, Massimiliano Hollweg, Claire H. |
| author_facet |
Cali, Massimiliano Hollweg, Claire H. |
| author_sort |
Cali, Massimiliano |
| title |
How Much Labor Do South African Exports Contain? |
| title_short |
How Much Labor Do South African Exports Contain? |
| title_full |
How Much Labor Do South African Exports Contain? |
| title_fullStr |
How Much Labor Do South African Exports Contain? |
| title_full_unstemmed |
How Much Labor Do South African Exports Contain? |
| title_sort |
how much labor do south african exports contain? |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2017 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/544181493128206993/How-much-labor-do-South-African-exports-contain http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26474 |
| _version_ |
1764462073999261696 |