Manufacturing has made an important contribution to raising living standards in many parts of the world. Concerns about premature deindustrialization have made some observers skeptical about the potential for manufacturing to play this role in Africa. But employment in African manufacturing has grown rapidly over the past 20 years. These employment gains have been accompanied by: (i) large increases in the number of small manufacturing firms; (ii) limited employment gains in large firms; and (iii) robust labor productivity growth in Africa's large firms. Limited employment growth in Africa's large manufacturing firms is partly a result of the capital intensity of the manufacturing subsectors in which African countries are most engaged—the processing of resources—and partly a result of rising capital intensity in manufacturing. The potential for manufacturing to raise living standards in Africa depends on indirect job creation by large firms through backward and forward linkages and increasing labor productivity in small firms.
Increases in the minimum wage can substantially reduce earnings inequality. To demonstrate this, we combine administrative and survey data with an equilibrium model of the Brazilian labor market.
We assess South African workseekers' skills and disseminate the assessment results to explore how limited information affects firm and workseeker behavior.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is considered by policymakers as an important driver of local economic development. For example, foreign investors may establish supply chain linkages with domestic firms, enhancing their productive capacities (e.g.
Increases in the minimum wage can substantially reduce earnings inequality. To demonstrate this, we combine administrative and survey data with an equilibrium model of the Brazilian labor market.
Africa has some of the highest rates of unemployment globally, yet there is limited understanding of the sources of labor market frictions due to data scarcity.
This article investigates the contributions of real productivity, firm-size rationalization, and net-entry effects to aggregate labour productivity (ALP) growth using a panel dataset from Eswatini’s manufacturing sector.