UNU Wider: Employer Characteristics and Youth Employment
Abstract
This study aims to explore, with the aid of company tax data, what types of employers are currently employing youth and also by providing evidence of the types of employers who are not employing youth. Based on this analysis the study will then identify possible policy interventions which may be helpful in addressing youth unemployment. The ultimate aim of the proposed study is to obtain insights as to where efforts to intensify youth absorption into decent employment should be focused. This study???s uniqueness lies in the application of econometric techniques to tax micro-data to investigate how firm or employer characteristics impact on youth employment outcomes in South Africa. Previous studies have investigated how firm characteristics affect outcomes such as: export activity , corporate social responsibility expenditure , employment subsidy effects , accessibility of finance , gender earnings gaps , firm relocation , and participation of firms in production networks , amongst others. However, to our knowledge, no study has considered how firm or employer characteristics impact on youth employment outcomes in South Africa.
The use of national company tax data will also enable us to provide results which are nationally representative of firms in the formal sector ??? something that would not be possible using Labour Force Survey data which focus on employees rather than employers
