Business Report - 22 August 2012

Read more...

Abstract

Using data from two surveys evaluating South Africa's investment climate that were administered by the World Bank, I found evidence suggesting that there exists a relationship between perceptions of managers with regard to labour regulations and firm performance. Firms whose managers perceived labour regulations to be burdensome performed worse than other firms. They grew more slowly and were less likely to invest their profits in the establishment than other firms.
There is also evidence suggesting that where firms perceive labour regulations to be burdensome, they will substitute away from the conventional employment contract (regular or permanent contract) towards more atypical employment contracts (temporary or part-time contracts) which have a lower regulatory burden. There is evidence that also suggests firms are not limited in their ability to substitute towards this atypical employment despite limits imposed by South Africa's labour legislation. I found no evidence to suggest that firms who find labour regulations to be burdensome will choose to substitute away from labour towards capital.

About the Speaker

Dinga Fatman is an economist at TIPS. He joined TIPS in 2011 to provide research assistance in the industrial development pillar. He is in the process of completing his Master's degree in Economics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. His Masters dissertation topic was entitled: “Labour Regulations and Firm Performance in South Africa”. Dinga's general research interests involve South Africa's investment climate issues.

TIPS has the pleasure to invite you to a follow-up workshop discussing the impact of China on South Africa. The main objective of the workshop is to engage in a discussion on the impacts of bilateral trade with China on the domestic economy (in terms of employment, wages, output and productivity) and the impact of Chinese competition in third markets on South African exports of manufactures.

About the Project Leaders
Professor Rhys Jenkins is Professor of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia. Rhys is an economist interested in international development issues, but particularly those related to trade, foreign investment and industrialization. Rhys has worked closely with UNCTAD, UNIDO and with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) as well as for the Department of International Development. Rhys' current research focuses on the impact of the growth of China on other developing countries, especially Latin America. Rhys has published extensively. Some of his published books include Transnational Corporations and Uneven Development (Methuen), Environmental Regulation in the New Global Economy (Edward Elgar), Industry and Environment in Latin America (Routledge) and Corporate Responsibility and Labour Rights (Earthscan). Amongst his long list of journal article publications is a recent piece for Revista CEPAL on “'The Chinese Effect' on the Price of Basic Goods and on the Value of Exports from Latin America” (2011), “Measuring the Competitive Threat from China for other Southern Exporters” in World Economy (2008), "The Impact of China on Latin America and the Caribbean" (with others) for World Development (2008).

Lawrence Edwards is an Associate Professor in the School of Economics, University of Cape Town. Lawrence's research falls within the field of international trade with a specific focus on international trade and labour, the determinants of trade flows and economic adjustments to trade liberalisation. He has published in a number of international and local journals including World Development, Journal of International Development, South African Journal of Economics and Journal of Studies in Economics and Econometrics. He has also consulted widely with the World Bank, the National Treasury, the Department of Trade and Industry and was recently a member of the South African Growth Project managed by the Centre of International Development at
Harvard University.

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) announces the first South African Economic Regulators Conference.

On 21-22 August 2012 the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) will host the Economic Regulators Conference to be held at Emperors Palace, Johannesburg, South Africa.

The purpose of the conference is to establish and advance an intellectual discourse in economic regulation in South Africa (SA). Moreover the conference aims to:

• To share knowledge and best practice among economic regulators in SA with the participation of invited international economic regulators.
• To generate cross- fertilization of ideas among economic regulators, intellectuals, academics and others working in the era of economic regulation.
• To attract interest among students, academics, practitioners in economic regulation and the like to the area of economic regulation.
• To provide an environment for dialogue between practitioners in economic regulation, researchers, policy-makers and other stakeholders around economic regulation issues. Read more

"How can South Africa's economic regulators contribute to cost-effective delivery of essential infrastructure in the face of key financial, social and environmental imperatives?"

Online Registration now open! Closing date: 10 August 2012!

Stephen Timm is a South African policy researcher and journalist who has written on small business and entrepreneurship for almost 10 years. Between 2003 and 2010 he wrote for Big news, a free sheet newspaper aimed at small business owners. He has since also written on small business for a number of other business publications, including Business Day, Business Report and Entrepreneur magazine. He currently writes for the government's news agency BuaNews, where he reports from Parliament. He has also travelled to four emerging countries in the last two years to research programmes and policies that the South African government can learn from to bolster support to small enterprises. Earlier this year he presented a research report, funded by the Department of Trade and Industry and economic think-tank Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) on what South Africa can learn from Chile and Malaysia to boost support to small businesses. The report was a follow up to a research report he presented last year for TIPS titled, How to boost support from small business: Lessons from Brazil and India. Timm also won the Africa SMME Award for Journalist of the year in 2005. He has a higher diploma in journalism from Rhodes University and a History Hons from UCT. He lives in Cape Town.

As Public Employment Programmes (PEPs) gain popularity as social safety nets the world over, there is very little that speaks to the problem of measuring their impact on local economic development (LED), yet this is a key part of the policy case for programmes such as the Community Work Programme in South Africa.

On further examination, this lack of methodological clarity seems to apply to impact evaluation of LED interventions in general – and is not confined to the context of public employment programmes.

This paper provides a scoping study of a range of methodologies currently in use, and assesses their strengths and weaknesses in relation to different dimensions of local economic development.

Please join us to discuss the paper and to contribute to the debate on this issue.

Ellen Hagerman has nearly 10 years of experience working on regional economic development issues including trade, infrastructure, food security and governance. She has worked for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for 13 years as a Program Manager and Senior Analyst and has covered a diversity of other issues including corporate social responsibility and global environmental issues. While at the Canadian High Commission in South Africa representing CIDA's regional program for Southern and Eastern Africa, she was responsible for managing CIDA support to the African Peer Review Mechanism, the African Capacity Building Foundation, Southern African Trust and Southern African AIDS Trust. She also led two donor working groups on HIV/AIDS and food security and was the donor representative on two working committees linked to the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP). Ellen is also a professional facilitator and has facilitated sessions on human rights, gender equality and intercultural communications as well as recent meetings on HIV/AIDS, health and food security. Ellen recently completed a research paper on the challenges to regional infrastructure in Africa for DBSA and is working as a research fellow at TIPS providing advice and undertaking research on issues related to regional economic development.

Glen Robbins is a part time Researcher at the School of Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal and freelance consultant specialising in regional and local economic development with a focus on regional and city economic development strategies, infrastructure planning and financing and trade and industrial policy. Previously he headed up the Economic Development and City Enterprises functions in the eThekwini Municipality (Durban). Since 2003 he has been involved in teaching and research at the School of Development Studies and has contributed journal articles and book chapters on subjects ranging from municipal infrastructure investment to industrial policy and local economic development. He has also authored and co-authored reports for the Cities Alliance, UNCTAD, ILO and other multi-lateral bodies. In recent years he has worked with UNCTAD on a range of research projects in Southern and Eastern Africa and has recently completed a report, together with David Perkins, on infrastructure and mining investment in Tanzania and Mozambique for the Making the Most of Commodities Project coordinated at the University of Cape Town and the Open University (UK).

Francis Fay is Deputy Head of Unit in DG Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission, in the unit for Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific, G20/G8 and FAO. He has been closely associated with the development of agricultural product quality policy, including the protection in the EU of geographical indications. Francis is also part of the EPA negotiation teams with each African region. He formerly worked on the US and Cabada desk in agriculture. He has a background in agri-environment policy and read law at Trinity College, Dublin in Ireland.