Browsing by Author "Yu, Derek"
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Item A panel data analysis on the formal-informal sector linkages in South Africa(University of the Western Cape, 2017) Nackerdien, Moegammad Faeez; Yu, DerekThere are few studies on linkages between the formal and informal sectors in South Africa. This study explores the types of linkages between the informal and formal sectors with empirical research concentrating on labour churning (movements between the informal and formal sectors). Using National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS 2008-2014) data from four waves, individuals are classified into labour market statuses based on the Heintz & Posel (2008) methodology. This study conducts labour market transitional matrices and finds formal employment to provide the most stability in terms of employment. The main focus is on the following three groups of employed: working in the formal sector in all four waves; working in the informal sector in all four waves; moving between the formal and informal sectors across all four waves. For those always working in the formal sector, they are predominantly females and Africans. Those who always work in the formal sector are most educated, while those always working in the informal sector are associated with low educational attainment. The descriptive statistics are followed by econometric analysis: in terms of attaining employment, being male and a higher educational attainment significantly increase the probability of finding employment. In terms of sustaining work, the same two covariates significantly increase the probability of sustaining work. Being the head of household is also a key covariate in significantly increasing the probability in maintaining and sustaining employment. In terms of transitioning to formal employment, being male, an increase in education and living with a partner (married or unmarried) significantly increase the probability of moving to formal sector employment. In addition, multinomial logistic regressions are conducted, and the results indicate that being a male significantly increases the probability of working in the formal sector for all four waves. Africans are also significantly more likely to be employed informally for all four waves and an increase in the years of education significantly increases the probability of being formally employed for all four waves. The household-level variables reveal that being the head household significantly increases the probability of being employed (especially formally employed for all four waves) while having children has a negative impact on being employed for all four waves.Item Access in the South African public health system: factors that influenced access to health care in the South African public sector during the last decade(University of the Western Cape, 2014) Christian, Carmen Sue; Burger, Ronelle; Yu, DerekThe aim of this mini-thesis is to investigate the factors linked to access in the South African public health sector - using General Household Survey Data - in order to contribute to a better understanding of the role of access in achieving the National Department of Health’s primary goal of universal coverage. Even though the multi-dimensional interpretation of health system performance has gained acceptance and traction in recent years, much of the research linked to it remains supply-focused. The implicit truth is that demand-side health issues are largely ignored, under-researched and ominously absent from health policies. This is particularly true with regard to the access dimension of health performance, where research and policy focus almost exclusively on availability and affordability perspectives of access while neglecting demand-side aspects of health-seeking behaviour, such as acceptability. The study, therefore, pursues an in-depth exploration of access across its three dimensions - availability, affordability and acceptability - in the South African public health sector and aims to empirically investigate access to public health care from 2002 to 2012. It also identifies the underlying reasons for the observed trends, supplementing and reorienting the current understanding of access to public health care. The empirical findings reveal mixed results: it supports current literature by suggesting that equity has been achieved in terms of making public health care services more affordable, especially for the most vulnerable groups of South African society. However, acceptability and availability issues persist. It is safe to say that the availability of public health care – mainly a supply-side issue – is being addressed in the South African context with Government taking steps to address it. Unfortunately the same attention has not been given to issues of acceptability on the demand-side. Failure to fully understand the demand-side dimension of access and the role health-seeking behaviour plays in public health issues threatens to weaken health policies aimed at improving access. It is imperative that demand-side aspects of health-seeking behaviour and institutional responsiveness to health-demand occupy a more prominent role in South African public health debates, research and policy.Item Alternative definitions of informal sector employment in South Africa(Stellenbosch University, 2008) Yu, Derek; Essop, HassanBefore the introduction of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) in 2008, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has been using the same methodology to derive the informal sector employment throughout the years, focusing on the enterprise registration status to classify workers (which include both self-employed and employees) as either formal or informal sector workers. Although there are difficulties with attempting to provide any consistent trend data (Yu, 2007 & Essop & Yu, 2008), it is generally accepted that informal sector employment grew relatively more rapidly in the late 1990s, and then stabilized at about 2 million in the early 2000s before it increased (albeit more slowly) again since 2005. Nonetheless, recent papers by Devey, Skinner & Valodia (2006) as well as Heintz & Posel (2008) argue that the current classifications used by Stats SA hide a significant degree of informality in the formal economy, as some formal jobs are characterized by conditions that are typical of informal work. Therefore, they propose alternative definitions of informal sector employment, focusing on worker characteristics instead of enterprise characteristics. This paper aims to address the reliability or otherwise of these recent approaches, as well as to suggest better ways to define informal sector employment.Item The comparability of income and expenditure surveys 1995, 2000 and 2005/2006(Stellenbosch University, 2017) Yu, DerekThe Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) conducted by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) between September 2005 and August 2006 was the third of its kind, after similar surveys in October 1995 and October 2000. The main purpose of the IES is to collect and provide information on income and expenditure patterns of a representative sample of households, so as to update the basket of goods and services required for the compilation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Nonetheless, these surveys have also become an important source of information for poverty and inequality analysis, mainly because of the absence of other detailed datasets containing income and expenditure data. There are, however, important reasons why these datasets cannot be unquestioningly compared. This paper attempts to show why.Item The comparability of labour force survey (LFS) and quarterly labour force survey (QLFS)(Stellenbosch University, 2009) Yu, DerekStatistics South Africa (Stats SA) has been collecting labour market data since 1993 with the October Household Survey (OHS), which was conducted annually between 1993 and 1999, as well as the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which was a biannual survey introduced in 2000 to replace the OHS. In March 2005, consultants from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were appointed to revise all aspects of the LFS. All documents, processes and procedures relating to the LFS were reviewed, before a report on the findings was presented to Stats SA in June 2005. At the end, it was decided to re-engineer the LFS, and this took place in October 2005. Moreover, consultants were appointed in 2006 to help improve the survey questionnaire, sampling and weighting, data capture and processing systems. Eventually, Stats SA came up with a decision that the LFS would take place on a quarterly basis from 2008, i.e., the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) was introduced to replace the LFS.Item The comparability of the statistics South Africa October household surveys and labour force surveys(Stellenbosch University, 2017) Yu, DerekStatistics South Africa (Stats SA) has been collecting labour market data with household surveys and in a fairly comparable format since 1993. These datasets have been studied and compared extensively in order to better understand the workings of the South African labour market. Many of these studies compare household surveys of different periods in order to identify trends, but the validity of such trends is conditional on the comparability of the different datasets. Besides, the naïve comparisons of the different datasets have been questioned. Other problems include inconsistencies in questionnaire design, coding errors, changes in the sampling frame, the oversampling of agricultural workers in OHS1995, the oversampling of subsistence agricultural workers in LFS2000a and LFS2000b, as well as the oversampling of informal workers in LFS2001a. Most of these issues have received attention in papers by Burger and Yu (2006), Casale, Muller and Posel (2005), and Wittenberg (2004).Item Comparing the economic development in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces in South Africa since the advent of democracy(University of the Western Cape, 2024) Mfumu, Zahra; Swanepoel, Christie; Yu, DerekThere have been many studies investigating multi-dimensional poverty in South Africa since the descent of apartheid. Segregation created during the apartheid era left specific provinces vulnerable to multi-dimensional poverty. This study investigates the changes in multi-dimensional poverty, with a focus on the two disadvantaged provinces: Eastern Cape and Limpopo. Households in these two provinces were severely constrained during the apartheid era. Given this fact, this study examined the economic development in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo to measure changes between 2005 and 2021. This research could enable the drafting and implementation of policies that are appropriate to the realities faced by households in these provinces. This study used the 2005, 2013, and 2021 General Household Survey (GHS) data to investigate the relationship of the non-income welfare index within Eastern Cape and Limpopo. The indicators include dwelling type, energy for cooking, water access, refuse removal frequency; sanitation facility; wall material of dwelling; access to telephone and internet; ownership to motor vehicle, computer, fridge, satellite dish/decoder, and or television. In determination to derive a multidimensional non-income welfare index, the study uses the Principal Component Analysis approach as a method.Item Critical evaluation of possible policy options to reduce unemployment in South Africa(University of the Western Cape, 2016) Hendriks, Jeremy Francisco; Yu, Derek; Moses, MarianaSince the advent of democracy, one of the most serious economic problems facing the South African economy is the persistently high unemployment. Although employment has been increasing in general since the economic transition, the extent of such increase is not rapid enough to absorb the expanding labour force entrants, thereby causing both the level and rate of unemployment to increase. This is indicated by the fact that, despite the increase of employment number from 9.5 million in 1995 to 15.2 million in 2014, the number of unemployed increased from 2.0 million to 5.2 million during the same period, thereby causing the unemployment rate to rise from 17.6% to 25.4%. In fact, the labour market objective of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGISA) to reduce the unemployment rate to 15% by the end of 2014 is not achieved. The government has been trying to solve the unemployment problem by means of various policies, ranging from the “big” policies like the Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP), Growth, Employment and Redistribution Policy (GEAR), the aforementioned ASGISA, and the recently launched National Development Plan (NDP), to the more specific labour market policies such as the Expanded Public Works Program (EPWP), promotion of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) to the implementation of the Employment Tax Incentives Bill (also known as the Youth Wage Subsidy) since 1 January 2014. This study first provides a theoretical framework on various models of unemployment, before the main causes of unemployment in South Africa are discussed. A critical evaluation of the pros and cons of various policy options to alleviate unemployment would be looked at. Some of the policy options have already been implemented in South Africa for years and hence the possible success of these policies would be investigated in detail. Few policies have only been recently implemented (e.g. the Employment Tax Incentives Bill), while other possible policy options have not yet been implemented in South Africa (e.g. job-seeking transport subsidy) but have been adopted in other countries. Hence, the feasibility of these options for South Africa would be investigated, by examining the outcome of these policies in the other countries.Item Deconstructing ‘the foreign’: The limits of citizenship for explaining price competition in the Spaza sector in South Africa(Taylor & Francis, 2016) Piper, Laurence; Yu, DerekAn 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.Item Educational attainment and intergenerational social mobility in SA(World Bank Group, 2005) Yu, Derek; Louw, Megan; van der Berg, ServaasTo a large degree, the notoriously high levels of income inequality in\nSouth Africa have their roots in differential access to wage-earning opportunities in the labour market, which in turn are influenced by family background. This paper therefore investigates the role that parents’ education plays in children’s human capital accumulation. The study analyses patterns of educational attainment in South Africa during the period 1970-2001, asking whether intergenerational social mobility has improved. It tackles the issue in two ways, combining extensive descriptive analysis of progress in educational attainment with more a formal evaluation of intergenerational social mobility using indices constructed by Dahan and Gaviria (2001) and Behrman, Birdsall and Szekely (1998). Both types of analysis indicate that intergenerational social mobility within race groups improved over the period, with the indices suggesting that South African children are currently better able to take advantage of educational opportunities than the bulk of their peers in comparable countries. However, significant racial barriers remain in the quest to equalise educational opportunities across the board for South African children.Item The effect of affirmative action on the reduction of employment discrimination(University of the Western Cape, 2016) Fredericks, Fadwah; Yu, DerekSouth African labour relations are associated with a history of extensive discrimination and segregation, subject to various types of discrimination during the apartheid era, including employment discrimination. This study explores the effect of Affirmative Action on the reduction (if any) of employment discrimination since the advent of democracy. It investigates whether the extent of employment discrimination by race and gender has decreased, 20 years since the economic transition. The first part of the study gives an overview of the South African labour legislations, both discriminative legislations and statutes aimed at redressing the imbalances of the past. The empirical part of the paper employs a sample that represents the labour force (excluding informal sector workers, agricultural workers, domestic workers and self-employed) aged between 15 and 65 years. The methodology in this study firstly estimates probit models describing the labour force participation, employment and occupational attainment, followed by the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, using data from OHS 1997-1999, LFS 2000-2007, QLFS 2008-2014 and NIDS 2008-2012. The OHS/LFS/QLFS decomposition results show that the unexplained component of the White-Black employment probability gap does not reveal any strong downward trend overtime. Also, results on the occupational attainment gap indicate that there was an increasing occupational attainment probability gap between Whites and Blacks which was partially driven by an increase in the unexplained component. This implies that Affirmative Action was not successful in reducing racial discrimination in the South African labour market. Additionally, the unexplained component is most dominant in the male-female employment gap decomposition. This suggests employment discrimination against females is very serious. However, the male-female highly-skilled employment likelihood shows no clear trend over time. These results suggest that when it comes to employment discrimination against females, this may have taken place more seriously when it comes to the unskilled or semi-skilled occupations.Item Employed yet poor: Low-wage employment and working poverty in South Africa(University of the Western Cape, 2019) Feder, Jade Kimlyn; Yu, DerekWhilst paid employment has generally been considered as the predominant means of avoiding poor living standards, the past two decades has seen a rise in the complex phenomenon of employed poverty worldwide (Eardley, 1998; Nolan and Marx, 1999; Nolan et al., 2010; Cheung and Chou, 2015). Over time, low-wage employment has increased in both number and severity, resulting in or contributing significantly to household poverty (Nolan and Marx, 1999). While individuals are employed in paid work, salaries are too low for households to maintain “a reasonable standard of living” (Cheung and Chou, 2015 p. 318). Internationally, employed poverty has been a serious and well-researched problem in the United States of America (USA or US). More than 11% of the USA “population resided in poor households with at least one employed person” (Brady et al., 2010 p. 560). In Hong Kong, approximately 53.5% of the population living in poverty were working poor in 2012 (Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 2013). Closer to home, Sub- Saharan Africa’s working poor rate for 2016 was estimated at 33.1% for workers earning less than US $1.90 per day and 30% for those earning between US $1.90 and $3.10 per day (International Labour Organisation, 2016).Item Employed yet poor: Low-wage employment and workingpoverty in South Africa(Taylor and Francis Group, 2020) Feder, Jade; Yu, DerekWorking poverty exists worldwide and has shown an increase inprevalence over the past few decades. Over the years, there hasbeen an increase in the number and severity of low-wageemployment, which in turn contributes significantly to poverty.Whilst paid employment has generally been considered as thepredominant means to survivefinancially, salaries may be too lowto maintain reasonable living standards. South African research onlow-wage employment and working poverty in particular, are rare.Using data from thefirst four waves of the National IncomeDynamics Study, this studyfills the existing research gap byexamining low-wage employment, working poverty, and low-wage poverty. The empiricalfindings indicated that all threegroups are predominantly lowly-educated, middle-aged Africanfemale employees involved in elementary occupations in theinformal sector.Item Evaluating the impact of social assistance on poverty alleviation in South Africa(University of Western Cape, 2021) Mabongo, Sesethu; Yu, DerekIn the past two decades of liberal transformation the post-apartheid Republic of South Africa has been well described as an upper middle-income economy. Despite the country’s strong political and economic affiliations with other developed countries, the nation remains till present faced with socioeconomic impediments deeply rooted within the presence of ceaseless impoverishment, unemployment and inequality. Likewise, there are various factors that explain the nature of deprivation. The application of both the money-metric and non-moneymetric approaches in the conceptualization and measurement of poverty provides an in-depth understanding of efforts (or lack thereof) to establish an equal standard of living for all.Item Examining the economic impact of industrial action activities in South Africa, 2003-2014(University of the Western Cape, 2017) Williams, Megan Shimone; Yu, DerekWorkers' right to strike is embedded in the South African Constitution and this right generally reflects a sign of fairness. Strike activities form a vital part of collective bargaining and the supremacy liaison between employers and employees would be severely ruined if workers are not entitled the right to strike. Ever since the right to strike was documented in the South African Constitution, strike actions have been a collective occurrence in the country. Reasons for strikes in South Africa are multi-layered and their effects are harmfully disastrous. Workers are on strikes due to various reasons such as low pay, inequality, and unemployment as a result of union conflicts and the inequitable degree of labour relations. However, strikes would lead to various problems in the economy, such as reduced production, scaring off investors, labour replaced by capital, etc. This study first defines the various key concepts relating to industrial action, before reviewing the theories on strikes as well as the results of past local and empirical studies. The study moves on to use the Department of Labour's 2003-2014 Industrial Action Report data to provide descriptive statistics on strike activities in 1999-2014 by broad industry categories (examining the number of strikes, work hours lost, work days lost, time-loss ratios, principle causes of strikes, most active trade unions involved in strikes), before using a static approach to estimate the value of total production foregone as well as the value foregone as a proportion of gross value added (GVA) by industry in each year as a result of strikes. Finally, the older 1970-1998 strikes data from the International Labour Organization (ILO) is ‘merged’ with the abovementioned 1999-2014 data, to examine the econometric relationship between strikes and business cycles, and it is found that strikes are procyclical.Item Examining the labour market outcome of volunteer workers(University of the Western Cape, 2022) Fondling, Jaydro; Yu, DerekAs democracy cracked the gloom of Apartheid, South Africa has experienced economic transformations; however, unemployment is still an Achilles heel that cripples the labour market. This study examined the labour market outcome of volunteer workers. Overall, volunteering individuals have experienced changes on the employed and unemployed side. This study analysed the three (2010, 2014 and 2018) available waves of the under-utilised Statistics South Africa’s Volunteer Activities Survey (VAS) data, which is linked to the Quarterly Labour Force, to investigate the activities of the volunteers and their outcomes in the labour market.Item Examining the performance of the South African economics departments, 2005-2014(Wiley, 2017) Yu, Derek; Kasongo, Atoko; Moses, MarianaThis study examines the teaching and research activities of 17 Economics Departments in 2005-2014 by consulting the information from each university’s faculty prospectus, publication in accredited local and international peer-reviewed journals, Economic Society of South Africa conference participation, Economic Research Southern Africa working paper series and the National Research Foundation. The results indicate there is big variation in the departments’ teaching and research activities during the period. Nonetheless, research output increased, in particular publication in accredited international journals in both absolute and proportional terms.Item Examining the South African labour market outcomes during the coronavirus pandemic of 2019(University of the Western Cape, 2023) Botha, Jade Joy; Yu, DerekThe South African labour market is distinguished by dismally significant levels of unemployment and even higher levels of youth unemployment. The COVID-19 pandemic imposes the risk of adding further pressure on South Africa’s already exasperated labour market and thus contributing to greater unemployment levels amongst South Africans. To combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the South African government imposed lockdown levels to reduce socio-economic activities and thereby minimise the health effects and spread of the virus. The continuous lockdowns unfortunately placed constraints on business activities and led to increased levels of unemployment. The outcomes reveal that the burden of this unemployment resultant of the COVID-19 pandemic falls to minority groups, such as the youth, African women and lowly educated. This study analysed the 2020-2022 Quarterly Labour Force Survey data as well as the first five waves (also taking place in 2020-2021) of the National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM) panel data to investigate who were the hardest hit in the labour market by the COVID-19-driven economic lockdown. The specific focus was on the profile of people (e.g., gender, race, age cohort, province, area type, educational attainment, work characteristics) suffering the greatest increase of unemployment during the abovementioned period, with the aid of various statistical and econometric analyses. The QLFS data showed that low-educated Africans aged 25-44 years and those involved in low skilled occupation categories were most susceptible to job loss. In addition, the NIDS-CRAM data showed that for those who were still employed in February 2020, just over 50% worked in all five waves, 14% worked in four waves and 9% in three waves. Only 0.5% and 1.8% turned out to be unemployed and inactive in all five waves, respectively. Finally, for the February 2020 employed who lost their jobs and became unemployed in April 2020 (wave 1), 60% of them worked again but 22% remained unemployed in March 2021 (wave 5).Item Exploring student engagement practices at a South African university : student engagement as reliable predictor of academic performance(Higher Education South Africa (HESA), 2016) Schreiber, Birgit; Yu, DerekStudent engagement is one avenue to explore how the experiences within and beyond the classroom impact student persistence behaviours. This article contributes to the sparse research in South Africa on the correlates of student engagement with academic performance at a Historically Disadvantaged University. The results suggest that engagement practices at this university differ across race and gender and that given the South African history we are able to generalise onto the South African higher education system. Influences on persistence and academic success are complex and require a comprehensive approach which embraces the entire context into which student persistence behaviours are embedded. Student engagement patterns are reliable predictors of academic performance and the trends across race and gender suggest that engagement and academic performance remain differentiated along race and gender.Item Exploring student engagement practices at a South African university: student engagement as reliable predictor of academic performance(SUN, 2016) Schreiber, B.; Yu, DerekStudent engagement is one avenue to explore how the experiences within and beyond the classroom impact student persistence behaviours. This article contributes to the sparse research in South Africa on the correlates of student engagement with academic performance at a Historically Disadvantaged University. The results suggest that engagement practices at this university differ across race and gender and that given the South African history we are able to generalise onto the South African higher education system. Influences on persistence and academic success are complex and require a comprehensive approach which embraces the entire context into which student persistence behaviours are embedded. Student engagement patterns are reliable predictors of academic performance and the trends across race and gender suggest that engagement and academic performance remain differentiated along race and gender.