Download or read book Economics of South African Townships written by Sandeep Mahajan and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2014-08-25 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Countries everywhere are divided within into two distinct spatial realms: one urban, one rural. Classic models of development predict faster growth in the urban sector, causing rapid migration from rural areas to cities, lifting average incomes in both places. The situation in South Africa throws up an unconventional challenge. The country has symptoms of a spatial realm that is not not rural, not fully urban, lying somewhat in limbo. This is the realm of the country’s townships and informal settlements (T&IS). In many ways, the townships and especially the informal settlements are similar to developing world slums, although never was a slum formed with as much central planning and purpose as were some of the larger South African townships. And yet, there is something distinct about the T&IS. For one thing, unlike most urban slums, most T&IS are geographically distant from urban economic centers. Exacerbated by the near absence of an affordable public transport system, this makes job seeking and other forms of economic integration prohibitively expensive. Motivated by their uniqueness and their special place in South African economic and social life, this study seeks to develop a systematic understanding of the structure of the township economy. What emerges is a rich information base on the migration patterns to T&IS, changes in their demographic profiles, their labor market characteristics, and their access to public and financial services. The study then look closely at Diepsloot, a large township in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Area, to bring out more vividly the economic realities and choices of township residents. Given the current dichotomous urban structure, modernizing the township economy and enabling its convergence with the much richer urban centers has the potential to unleash significant productivity gains. Breaking out of the current low-level equilibrium however will require a comprehensive and holistic policy agenda, with significant complementarities among the major policy reforms. While the study tells a rich and coherent story about development patterns in South African townships and points to some broad policy directions, its research and analysis will generally need to be deepened before being translated into direct policy action.

Download or read book The Oxford Companion to the Economics of South Africa written by Haroon Bhorat and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-11-27 with total page 573 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1994 South Africa saw the end of apartheid. The new era of political freedom was seen as the foundation for economic prosperity and inclusion. The last two decades have seen mixed results. Economic growth has been volatile. While inequalities in public services have been reduced, income inequality has increased, and poverty has remained stagnant. As the twentieth anniversary of the transition to democracy approaches in 2014, the economic policy debates in South Africa are in full flow. They combine a stocktake of the various programs of the last two decades with a forward looking discussion of strategy in the face of an ever open but volatile global economy. Underlying the discourse are basic and often unresolved differences on an appropriate strategy for an economy like South Africa, with a strong natural resource base but with deeply entrenched inherited inequalities, especially across race. This volume contributes to the policy and analytical debate by pulling together perspectives on a range of issues: micro, macro, sectoral, country wide and global, from leading economists working on South Africa. Other than the requirement that it be analytical and not polemical, the contributors were given freedom to put forward their particular perspective on their topic. The economists invited are from within South Africa and from outside; from academia and the policy world; from international and national level economic policy agencies. The contributors include recognized world leaders in South African economic analysis, as well as the very best of the younger crop of economists who are working on the study of South Africa, the next generation of leaders in thought and policy.

Download or read book The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report written by Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and published by Cosimo, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.

Download or read book Why South Africa Will Survive written by L. H. Gann and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-10-05 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1981, this book took a position which was unpopular within the academic establishment at the time of its publication. It argued that the extraordinary social and economic changes that came over South Africa in the 20th Century gave the country great stability. The authors believed that change would come from within the ruling white oligarchy rather than from Liberation Movements and that the greatest solvent of apartheid was to be found in the working of a free market economy. The book provided novel data for sociological, political and strategic reassessment of South Africa. The approach was unusual in that the book represented neither a conventional defence of apartheid nor one of the customary attacks on South Africa.

Download or read book Six Energy Policies To Save The Planet written by Neil A C Hirst and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2024-05-10 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a Foreword by Dr Fatih BirolHirst provides a wide-ranging account of international energy strategies designed to counter climate change. He argues that six policies hold the key to addressing this global problem: accelerating action on renewables and energy efficiency; making bold investments in new technologies; persuading the public to adapt; taking firm regulatory action; supporting the developing world; and raising the level of global cooperation.Six Energy Policies to Save the Planet takes stock of the situation today, reviews the potential of available technologies, and examines the interlocking roles of business, public opinion, and government. It considers the geopolitics of climate change, in particular the relations between rich and poor countries and between China and the West. Additionally, it outlines the perspectives of some of the key decision makers, including an increasing number located in the developing world. The final chapters assess the current state of international energy governance and propose reforms.Encouraging us to understand underlying trends and significant levers for change, this book is a topical and fresh insight into one of the most pressing issues we face today.

Download or read book Sub Saharan Africa written by World Bank and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 3. Investing in people.

Download or read book Yield Gaps and Potential Agricultural Growth in West and Central Africa written by Nin-Pratt, Alejandro and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2011 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: West and Central African nations face major obstacles to achieving the Millennium Development Goal of cutting poverty and hunger in half by 2015, not least among them the fragile state of their agriculture. Although most regional economies depend on agriculture for employment, national income, and export revenues, farm productivity tends to be low, owing to relatively little use of chemical fertilizers, improved seeds, and other modern technologies. Yield Gaps and Potential Agricultural Growth in West and Central Africa responds to this problem by identifying potential areas of growth in the agricultural and livestock sectors. Using data on the soil, water availability, and weather in different parts of West and Central Africa, the authors find significant gaps in different locations between the potential and actual yield of various agricultural products. They then use an economywide multimarket model to simulate the future economic effects of closing these yield gaps. In coastal nations, crops such as cassava, cereals, and yams have the greatest yield gaps, whereas, in the Sahel, livestock, rice, coarse grains and oilseeds (groundnuts) have more room for growth. Although identifying these yield gaps does not guarantee that they can be closed, it does provide a focus for development efforts in the region. The authors conclude, moreover, that if such efforts involve transnational cooperation in agricultural research, marketing, and other areas, they could produce significant benefits across West and Central Africa. This study's findings will be of interest to policymakers, researchers, and others concerned with African development.

Download or read book OECD Economic Surveys South Africa 2010 written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2010-07-19 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: OECD's periodic review of South Africa's economy. This edition features chapters covering moving beyond the crisis and finding a sustainable growth path, strengthening the macroeconomic policy framework, and closing the labour utilisation gap.

Download or read book South Africa written by and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 720 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Is There a Shortage of Saving in South Africa written by P. J. Mohr and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book From Servants to Workers written by Shireen Adam Ally and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past decade, hundreds of thousands of women from poorer countries have braved treacherous journeys to richer countries to work as poorly paid domestic workers. Scholars and activists denounce compromised forms of citizenship that expose these women to at times shocking exploitation and abuse.In From Servants to Workers, Shireen Ally asks whether the low wages and poor working conditions so characteristic of migrant domestic work can truly be resolved by means of the extension of citizenship rights. Following South Africa's "miraculous" transition to democracy, more than a million poor black women who had endured a despotic organization of paid domestic work under apartheid became the beneficiaries of one of the world's most impressive and extensive efforts to formalize and modernize paid domestic work through state regulation. Instead of undergoing a dramatic transformation, servitude relations stubbornly resisted change. Ally locates an explanation for this in the tension between the forms of power deployed by the state in its efforts to protect workers, on the one hand, and the forms of power workers recover through the intimate nature of their work, on the other.Listening attentively to workers' own narrations of their entry into democratic citizenship-rights, Ally explores the political implications of paid domestic work as an intimate form of labor. From Servants to Workers integrates sociological insights with the often-heartbreaking life histories of female domestic workers in South Africa and provides rich detail of the streets, homes, and churches of Johannesburg where these women work, live, and socialize.

Download or read book South African Digest written by and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 840 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Housing Finance System in South Africa written by Vuyisani Moss and published by UN-HABITAT. This book was released on 2008 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Do We Face a Global capital Shortage written by Zia Qureshi and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: October 1995 A severe global capital squeeze and a big increase in global real interest rates (which some fear) are unlikely if industrial countries continue fiscal consolidation -- especially the reform of social security systems. Without such consolidation, global real interest rates could rise well above already high recent levels (about 4 percent), with adverse consequences for all countries. Qureshi assesses the medium- to long-term outlook for global demand and supply of capital. He reaches the following conclusions: * The demand for investment funds in developing countries will remain strong, but most increased demand will likely be met by domestic savings. Investment's share in GDP will probably rise in these countries, but so will savings' share, so their net claim on industrial countries' savings is likely to remain small. Of course, savings will not rise automatically. It is essential that policies, institutions, and the economic environment be conducive to saving. * Financial liberalization and integration of international capital markets will continue to give developing countries as a group improved access to private foreign capital. But whether specific countries attract and sustain such inflows will depend on their economic prospects and policies, including conditions that promote domestic saving and investment (to both attract foreign capital and help limit it to sustainable levels). Investment needs in developing countries are great, but effective demand for foreign capital will remain limited by the countries' perceived creditworthiness and viability. Despite the sharp rise in aggregate private capital flows to developing countries in the 1990s, only a dozen or so of them receive significant amounts of private capital. * Most low-income countries will continue to depend mainly on official capital for some time. But official capital will likely be increasingly scarce, so these countries must intensify their domestic resource mobilization and accelerate the policy reform needed to attract private investment. * The critical factor in alleviating pressure on global interest rates will be progress on fiscal consolidation in industrial countries, especially the reform of social security systems. Net capital flows from industrial to developing countries are much smaller than the budget deficits in industrial countries. In 1994, for example, lowering the industrial countries' budget deficit by about 20 percent would have freed up enough money to finance the entire net capital flow to developing countries. * International capital markets will tend to remain tight in the coming decade, but a severe global capital squeeze and a big increase in global real interest rates (which some fear) are unlikely if industrial countries continue fiscal consolidation. Without such consolidation, global real interest rates could rise well above already high recent levels of about 4 percent, with adverse consequences for all countries. This paper -- a product of the International Economic Analysis and Prospects Division, International Economics Department -- is part of a larger effort in the department to analyze major trends and issues in the global economic outlook and their implications for developing countries.

Download or read book Foreign Commerce Weekly written by and published by . This book was released on 1940-10 with total page 654 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book White Stones and Little Crosses written by Ronnie Hammond and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2012-02-27 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the making of South Africa as we know it.

Download or read book Marketing in South Africa written by Urath Gibson and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: