Arbeitspapier

Offshoring within South African manufacturing firms: An analysis of the labour market effects

In South Africa, the manufacturing sector - important for growth and employment creation - has shown declining growth, poor productivity performance, decreased labour demand, and increased imports of intermediate goods (offshoring activities). Offshoring influences jobs and wages differently depending on the type of industry and worker. We provide a nuanced view of offshoring in South Africa, using firm- and employer-employee-level data to disentangle its impact on the labour market in terms of capital- and labour-intensive industries and skilled and unskilled workers. Contrary to previous findings in developed countries, we find that offshoring generally lowers employment in manufacturing firms, and seems to increase the percentage of unskilled workers and lower the percentage of skilled workers. There are indications that increased narrow offshoring increases the cohort of unskilled workers, particularly in ultra-labour-intensive industries. As offshoring gains momentum, worker-level earnings increase in capital- and labour-intensive industries but decrease in ultra-labour-intensive industries.

ISBN
978-92-9256-709-5
Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: WIDER Working Paper ; No. 2019/75

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Empirical Studies of Trade
Trade and Labor Market Interactions
Thema
offshoring
firm-level data
employer-employee data
employment
skills
wages

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Pretorius, Anmar
Bezuidenhout, Carli
Matthee, Marianne
Blaauw, Derick
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
(wo)
Helsinki
(wann)
2019

DOI
doi:10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2019/709-5
Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Pretorius, Anmar
  • Bezuidenhout, Carli
  • Matthee, Marianne
  • Blaauw, Derick
  • The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)

Entstanden

  • 2019

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