Browsing by Author "Morris, Michael"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    A Qualitative Analysis of the South African Just Transition
    (2021) Monteith, Struan; Morris, Michael
    The threat of climate change has been identified as one of the leading challenges facing humanity. As such, there is a necessary global transition to lower-carbon economies and societies to reduce the harmful emissions caused by human activities to mitigate the growing climate crisis. Yet, there are fears that there will be job losses and economic hardships as the world transitions away from the carbonheavy dependence of the past. The Just Transition principle has emerged globally as a framework of ensuring these potential job losses and economic hardships are planned for, and the people inherently at risk in the transition are protected. The Just Transition is built on the acknowledgement that climate change must be averted, but it must be done so justly. In South Africa, there is a particular need for the Just Transition, based on the country's historic dependence on coal, the broad socioeconomic challenges and the country's vulnerability to climate change. This thesis explores hundreds of qualitative views from numerous stakeholders around the country on what the Just Transition will mean for South Africa. It analyses the current Mineral Energy Complex and climate change situation in South Africa, and examines the stakeholder determined vision for the country for 2050. Synthesised from views from across South Africa, this thesis furthermore established the four interrelated and stakeholder determined pathways which could facilitate the South African Just Transition – namely an Energy Transition, Restoring Land Resources, providing Safe Water for All, and utilising Green Growth.
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    The changing dynamics of the South African clothing value chain and the role for industrial policy : a case study of the China quotas
    (2012) Reed, Lyn; Morris, Michael
    In 2001 the South African clothing sector was reintegrated into the global economy and became exposed to the icy winds of globalisation. The fundamental changes from developments that had been playing out in global clothing markets and from which, as an import - substitution economy with high levels of protection, it had previously been shielded, were brought heavily to bear on the South African clothing industry. By all accounts, it did not adjust well to the new globalised environment. The once thriving industry withered under the combined impact of domestic and international factors . The negative impact of this transformation was manifest in a declining relative contribution to total manufacturing output, falling productivity levels, lack of capital investment, a large and significant contraction in sector employment and stagnant export performance, all of which occurred in the context of rapidly expanding domestic demand for clothing, which was increasingly fed by imports.
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    Country programmable aid : differences, divergences and contradictions between donor aid strategies and beneficiary country developments plans
    (2016) O'Riordan, Alexander; Morris, Michael
    Aid has a significant impact on governance and public spending in sub-Saharan Africa. In Mozambique (amongst others) aid accounts for more public spending than domestic revenues do. Even in countries less dependent on aid, international donors influence policy making by investing in a technical competitive advantage over domestic policy makers in sectors ranging from climate financing to resilience and public financial management. This doubly affects South Africa both because South Africa is a large recipient of international donor aid and because South Africa is an international donor in its own right in sub-Saharan Africa. The problem is that how international donors set their priorities and allocate their aid at country level is not sufficiently answered in the literature. International donors are seen by many as unpredictable even though they have an outsized influence on domestic policy and spending and are not accountable to the sub-Saharan voters. This research project contributes to the literature on the political economy of donor allocations of aid in sub-Saharan Africa. The research approach focuses on country programmable aid, EU joint programming and donor country strategy papers. The foundation is comparing and contrasting international donors stated policies on 'country programmable aid' with what transpires in practice. Key entry points were the relationship between donor country strategies and the beneficiary country's national development plan, and the extent to which donors made use of political economy and or context analysis and analysis of sector strategies. The key findings are that there are (and what might even be predictable) patterns in how donors programme their aid at country level, not explained by the particular context nor accounted for in the beneficiary country's national development plan. These patterns relate to a tendency to decontextualize aid programming accompanied with a narrative of donor moral and technological superiority and unrealistic programming objectives. The finding is important because it implies that these patterns result from implicit rules governing how international donors allocate aid, thus making them predictable features of an aid relationship, wanted or unwanted consequences of giving aid.
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    Cryptonetworks - The incentive-based Economics of Blockchain
    (2021) Hennessy, Seamus; Kaplan, David; Morris, Michael
    Blockchain technology has the novel ability to ‘create' trust in a decentralised environment. With this technology, third-parties and middlemen are no longer necessary to enforce transactions. Instead, blockchain uses decentralised consensus protocols and embedded logic to enforce contracts. The applications of blockchain are vast and include cryptonetworks, the culmination of blockchain and crypto tokens. Cryptonetworks can have an impact on the business models of firms, both in terms of cost structure and value creation. By blending the functionality of centralised platforms with the community-orientated nature of the original open protocols of the internet, cryptonetworks enable value creation to be correctly assigned to the actual content creators through tokens. The work of Ronald Coase illustrated the need for firms to overcome the transaction costs of operating within the market. Cryptonetworks, however, provide an alternative ‘middle ground' option to the firm and the market, allowing both to benefit from reduced transaction costs and incentive maximisation of the market. In addition, the implementation of economics in today's cryptonetworks, often referred to as ‘cryptoeconomics', remains conventional and conservative, placing a limit on the potential of cryptonetworks. By revaluating and reconstructing today's value measurement criteria, cryptonetworks have the potential to move beyond a single ‘Hayekian price' and instead incorporate multiple other indexes that better measure and capture value creation as it pertains to wider social issues of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Finally, this thesis incorporates a case study on the MakerDAO stablecoin as a practical illustration of a cryptonetwork.
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    Does mining alleviate or exacerbate poverty: Are local community grievances really 'Much Ado about Nothing'?
    (2017) Nxele, Musawenkosi; Morris, Michael
    This study sets out to evaluate the impact of industrial mining on local economies, within a context of a developing country with a strict procurement policy on its extractive industry. It contributes empirical evidence on two main ideas on the impact of mining on local communities. The one idea is that mining has a positive impact on local communities because it creates economic activity through economic linkages with local markets; and thus contributes to local industrialisation, economic development, and poverty reduction. The other idea is that mining harms local economies through negative impacts on the environment; which hurts local agriculture and health, leading to an increase in local poverty. By evaluating a case study of a poor rural economy driven by mining and agriculture, this study measures the net average impact of the opening and expansion of mining on local income poverty. Using ward level data combined with firm data, the study essentially uses a difference-in-differences estimation procedure, by exploiting a local input demand shock from large industrial mines, as well as changes in distance to a mine, as sources of variation. The study finds that the opening of a mine is associated with poverty reduction in surrounding communities, while the impact from an expansion of a mine depends on the type of commodity mined. Unpacking these results by commodity gives insight into the concentration of labour and community unrest in the platinum and gold mining sectors in South Africa. The findings of this study remain robust to different indicators of mine expansion, and checks for alternative explanations such as selective migration and sample checks. The study uses the Limpopo Province of South Africa as a suitable case study.
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    Gender dynamics in the South African apparel value chain: a case study on the Western Cape province
    (2016) Vika, Lutho; Morris, Michael
    Since the early 2000s, South Africa's once thriving sector started to whither due to a combination of domestic and international factors. The result was a sharp decline in manufacturing output, low productivity levels, factory closures and massive job losses across the sector. The blow to the industry was exasperated by the surge of cheap imports, both legal and illegal, primarily coming from China. The poor performance and consequent contraction of the industry had a profound impact on the predominately female workers. In recent years, however, the clothing industry has started to stabilise and is beginning to show positive trends in terms of performance and competitiveness. This paper therefore examines whether female workers have gained from the changes that have taken place in the industry, looking specifically at the Western Cape region. It finds that although the Western Cape clothing industry was the most severely hit by the challenges of global competition, it is now doing relatively well. Furthermore, it argues that the sector is upgrading and providing increased opportunities for women in terms of employment and skills development. This can be attributed to the changes in policy approach by government as well as new and improved production methodologies that are being adopted by firms. Moreover, it argues that the Cape Clothing and Textiles Cluster (CCTC) has played a critical role in driving these processes in the industry primarily through high level trainings and the exposure of executives to the latest industry developments, both nationally and internationally.
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    Production upgrading and skills development in the Western Cape clothing sector: are industry requirements being met by institutional policy implications?
    (2016) Christie, Zara Danielle; Morris, Michael
    This research paper presents an overview and analysis of skills development in the Western Cape clothing sector in the context of production upgrading. The analysis touches on the broader South African skills development framework and industrial policy towards the clothing sector, notably the shift from mass production towards the adoption of Lean Production and the Quick Response retail model. As clothing firms based in the Western Cape evolved their production strategies and moved up the value-chain and towards Lean Production methods and Quick Response capabilities, skills requirements also evolved. As such, suitable skills development initiatives are required to support this evolution and industry innovation. Skills development institutions such as SETAs are unable to provide the necessary training required by these firms to successfully transition to the new production methods and retail supply model, with skills gaps and shortages occurring both at a technical and managerial level. Due to publicly funded institutions not providing the required associated training, a number of manufacturing firms are privately funding training programmes for their workers in an attempt to resolve this problem, but many cannot afford this intervention. While privately provided skills training may be a short-term transitional solution, it is not sustainable to ensure overall industry development, growth and success as firms undertake the implementation of evolved production methodologies and implement the Quick Response retail model.