An overview of the impact of the commodity price boom on the SA economy

Ryan Hawthorne, Reena Das Nair and Keith Bowen of Johannesburg Economics presented this paper at the TIPS/DPRU/UNU-WIDER Forum 2005. It finds that there may be reasons other than high commodity prices for the general lacklustre growth in manufacturing output, the decline in manufacturing employment and the increase in employment in the skills-intensive sectors in South Africa. Factors such as capital, labour, trade and output market distortions and a lack of physical and human capital accumulation may be far more important sources of these trends.