Employment guarantee or minimum income?: workfare and welfare in developing countries

dc.contributor.authorSeekings, Jeremy
dc.date.accessioned2016-05-03T07:55:58Z
dc.date.available2016-05-03T07:55:58Z
dc.date.issued2006
dc.date.updated2016-05-03T07:54:54Z
dc.description.abstractIn many parts of the 'South' - i.e. the 'developing' countries of the world - widespread poverty is linked to landlessness and unemployment.? Two possible responses to such poverty are employment guarantee (or public works) programmes and cash transfers.? In general, low-wage job creation is the preferred option of both elites and citizens, but in South Africa, cash transfers through a minimum income programme might, perversely, be more viable politically and effective more broadly in terms of poverty alleviation.? This paper examines the dilemmas and choices facing South Africa, which experiences unusual levels of both deagrarianisation and unemployment.? The relative viability and efficacy of employment guarantees and cash transfers depends primarily on prevailing wages in the 'market'.? In a high-wage economy such as South Africa, the political power of organised labour is generally sufficient to prevent low-wage employment creation in public works programmes.? In the South African context - in contrast to low-wage settings such as India or Ethiopia - the extension of public welfare might be more viable than an employment guarantee, although the political obstacles should not be under-estimated.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationSeekings, J. (2006). <i>Employment guarantee or minimum income?: workfare and welfare in developing countries</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19345en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationSeekings, Jeremy <i>Employment guarantee or minimum income?: workfare and welfare in developing countries.</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR), 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19345en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationSeekings, J. (2006). Employment guarantee or minimum income? workfare and welfare in developing countries. Centre for Social Science Research: University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Working Paper AU - Seekings, Jeremy AB - In many parts of the 'South' - i.e. the 'developing' countries of the world - widespread poverty is linked to landlessness and unemployment.? Two possible responses to such poverty are employment guarantee (or public works) programmes and cash transfers.? In general, low-wage job creation is the preferred option of both elites and citizens, but in South Africa, cash transfers through a minimum income programme might, perversely, be more viable politically and effective more broadly in terms of poverty alleviation.? This paper examines the dilemmas and choices facing South Africa, which experiences unusual levels of both deagrarianisation and unemployment.? The relative viability and efficacy of employment guarantees and cash transfers depends primarily on prevailing wages in the 'market'.? In a high-wage economy such as South Africa, the political power of organised labour is generally sufficient to prevent low-wage employment creation in public works programmes.? In the South African context - in contrast to low-wage settings such as India or Ethiopia - the extension of public welfare might be more viable than an employment guarantee, although the political obstacles should not be under-estimated. DA - 2006 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2006 T1 - Employment guarantee or minimum income?: workfare and welfare in developing countries TI - Employment guarantee or minimum income?: workfare and welfare in developing countries UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19345 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/19345
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationSeekings J. Employment guarantee or minimum income?: workfare and welfare in developing countries. 2006 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19345en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentCentre for Social Science Research(CSSR)en_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/en_ZA
dc.titleEmployment guarantee or minimum income?: workfare and welfare in developing countriesen_ZA
dc.typeWorking Paperen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceResearch paperen_ZA
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