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

By Arvind Subramanian, Trevor Serge Coleridge Alleyne

October 1, 2001

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Arvind Subramanian, and Trevor Serge Coleridge Alleyne. What Does South Africa's Pattern of Trade Say About its Labor Markets?, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2001) accessed October 6, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

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.

Subject: Capital productivity, Consumption, Exports, International trade, Labor, National accounts, Production, Trade balance

Keywords: Africa, Capital productivity, Consumption, Disaggregated trade data, Exports, Factor intensity, Industry trade, Intensity of trade and production, Manufac tured goods, Merchandise trade account, Mi fontweight, Production structure, South Africa, South Africa's net export, South Africa's trade, Trade, Trade balance, Trade pattern, WEFA South Africa, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

25
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2001/148
Stock No:

WPIEA1482001
ISBN:

9781451856828
ISSN:

1018-5941

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