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

25 Pages Posted: 31 Jan 2006

See all articles by Trevor Alleyne

Trevor Alleyne

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Arvind Subramanian

International Monetary Fund (IMF); Center for Global Development

Date Written: October 2001

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.

Keywords: South Africa, trade, factor intensity

JEL Classification: D2, F1, F2, J0, J4

Suggested Citation

Alleyne, Trevor and Subramanian, Arvind, What Does South Africa's Pattern of Trade Say About its Labor Market? (October 2001). IMF Working Paper No. 01/148, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=879956

Trevor Alleyne (Contact Author)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) ( email )

700 19th Street NW
Washington, DC 20431
United States

Arvind Subramanian

International Monetary Fund (IMF) ( email )

700 19th Street NW
Washington, DC 20431
United States

Center for Global Development

2055 L St. NW
5th floor
Washington, DC 20036
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
145
Abstract Views
1,490
Rank
362,717
PlumX Metrics