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What Does South Africa's Pattern of Trade Say About its Labor Markets?

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  • Mr. Arvind Subramanian
  • Mr. Trevor Serge Coleridge Alleyne

Abstract

This paper examines the factor intensity of South Africa's trade. The conclusion is that South Africa is revealed though its trade pattern to be capital abundant (relative to labor). Surprisingly, this result holds especially for South Africa's trade with its high income partners, which should presumably have been more capital-rich than South Africa. Moreover, this revealed capital intensity of South African production was not reversed during the 1990s after the dismantling of apartheid. This favoring of capital use, against the background of high and rising under-utilization of the country's labor resources, raises questions about the functioning of South Africa's labor market institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. Arvind Subramanian & Mr. Trevor Serge Coleridge Alleyne, 2001. "What Does South Africa's Pattern of Trade Say About its Labor Markets?," IMF Working Papers 2001/148, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2001/148
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. By Gunnar Jonsson & Arvind Subramanian, 2001. "Dynamic Gains from Trade: Evidence from South Africa," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 48(1), pages 1-8.
    2. Ms. Dalia S Hakura, 1999. "A Test of the General Validity of the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem for Trade in the European Community," IMF Working Papers 1999/070, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Leamer, Edward E, 1980. "The Leontief Paradox, Reconsidered," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(3), pages 495-503, June.
    4. Harry P. Bowen & Leo Sveikauskas, 1992. "Judging Factor Abundance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 599-620.
    5. Deardorff, Alan V., 1984. "Testing trade theories and predicting trade flows," Handbook of International Economics, in: R. W. Jones & P. B. Kenen (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 10, pages 467-517, Elsevier.
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    Cited by:

    1. Nathan Nunn & Daniel Trefler, 2010. "The Structure of Tariffs and Long-Term Growth," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 158-194, October.
    2. Rhys Jenkins, 2006. "Globalization and the labour market in South Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(5), pages 649-664.
    3. J. Paul Dunne & Lawrence Edwards, 2006. "Trade Technology and Employment: A case Study of South Africa," Working Papers 0602, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    4. Farah Hani & Miguel Angel Santos, 2021. "Diagnosing Human Capital as a Binding Constraint to Growth: Tests, Symptoms and Prescriptions," CID Working Papers 144a, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    5. Lawrence Edwards & Robert Lawrence, 2008. "South African trade policy matters Trade performance and trade policy," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 16(4), pages 585-608, October.
    6. Nathan Nunn & Daniel Trefler, 2006. "Putting the Lid on Lobbying: Tariff Structure and Long-Term Growth when Protection is for Sale," NBER Working Papers 12164, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Kochhar, Kalpana & Kumar, Utsav & Rajan, Raghuram & Subramanian, Arvind & Tokatlidis, Ioannis, 2006. "India's pattern of development: What happened, what follows?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 981-1019, July.
    8. Rhys Jenkins, 2006. "Contrasting perspectives on globalization and labour in South Africa," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 6(3), pages 185-200, July.
    9. John Whalley & J. Clark Leith, 2003. "Competitive Liberalization and a US-SACU FTA," NBER Working Papers 10168, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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