Browsing by Subject "Agricultural sector"

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    Open Access
    Minimum wages as a mechanism for gender pay equity: the role of gender in predicting labour market outcomes from the minimum wage in south Africa's retail and agricultural sectors
    (2025) Nicklin, Jessica; Bhorat, Haroon
    Do minimum wages promote greater equity in pay in a developing country context? This paper seeks to answer this question through employing two difference-in-difference (DID) regression techniques to uncover the gendered impact of South Africa's Sectoral Wage Determinations (‘sectoral minimum wages' hereafter) on real hourly wages over the period 2001-2007 and establish whether these minimum wage laws reduced gender pay gaps among covered workers. The gender-specific effects of minimum wages on employment, hours worked, and written contract coverage are also explored. The sectors analysed are the retail and agricultural sectors both of which employ a fairly equal share of men and women, who are similar across several characteristics. Furthermore, examining these two sectors offers a unique opportunity to investigate whether a more “blanket” minimum wage is better suited to reducing gender pay discrepancies compared to multiple minimum wage schedules determined by various factors. For the agricultural sector, sectoral minimum wages were only set according to area (resulting in 2 minimum wage schedules), while for the retail sector, minimum wages were established according to occupation, hours worked, firm size and area (resulting in a total of 96 minimum wage schedules over the period of analysis). This paper finds that sectoral minimum wages had no significant impact on the employment of men or women in the retail and agricultural sectors. Descriptive results indicate that the gender wage gap marginally increased among retail workers following the implementation of minimum wages. The regression analysis reflects this finding, as men experience greater gains in wages relative to women in areas where the median wage falls further below the minimum wage (i.e., where the minimum wage is more binding). In contrast, the descriptive findings suggest that the gender wage gap reduced significantly among agricultural workers. The regression results mirror these results – one DID specification reveals that women in the agricultural sector reap significant improvements in their wages, while no significant effect is found for men. The other DID specification indicates that both men and women in areas where the minimum wage is more binding experience greater improvements in their wages; however, women experience slightly greater increases. No significant effect is shown for women using this specification. In terms of hours worked, men in the retail sector experience significant improvements in their working hours, whereas women endure significant declines. The opposite holds true for the agricultural sector. The above findings possibly suggest that a more “blanket” minimum wage may contribute to fostering greater gender equity in pay. Conversely, minimum wages set according to factors such as occupation may lead to the exacerbation of gender pay disparities. Nevertheless, there may be other differences between the retail and agricultural sectors that explain the disparities in the impact of sectoral minimum wage laws. While minimum wage violation (both in terms of incidence and depth) appears to be fairly similar among men and women (although slightly higher for women) – non-compliance rates are staggeringly high, especially among agricultural workers. This finding underscores the need for stricter monitoring and enforcement of minimum wages in South Africa.
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    Open Access
    The impact of FDI on economic growth in South Africa: Does the sector matter?
    (2024) Keleme, Mamontshi Gwendoline; Biekpe, Nicholas
    Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is crucial for wealth-creating economic growth. Conceptually, FDI could bridge the investment gap and raise much-needed revenue for South Africa's financial requirements. However, much of the existing evidence on the effects of FDI on economic growth is at the macro level, with scant attention focused on the impact of FDI on economic growth at sector levels in South Africa. Consequently, this study aimed to examine the impact of agricultural, manufacturing, mining, construction, finance, and transport FDI on economic growth for the period 1993 to 2019 in South Africa. The study used panel data to estimate the relationship between the FDI-to-GDP ratio and economic growth. The Panel ARDL results revealed that the effect of sectoral FDI on national GDP was positive but insignificant in the long- and short-run. In addition, the results revealed that domestic investment had a negative and significant effect on growth in the long and short run, at 5% and 10% significant levels, respectively. In line with previous studies, all other variables, such as human capital, trade openness, and total consumption expenditure, had excepted signs in the short run. However, all variables were statistically significant in the long run and had unexpected signs. The short-run PMG result shows that FDI inflows into the construction, mining, and transport sectors had a significant positive relationship with the economic growth rate. In contrast, the FDI inflow in the agriculture, finance and manufacturing sectors had a significant negative relationship with economic growth.