Growth, employment and distribution impacts of minerals dependency: four case studies
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2008
TITLE AUTHOR(S): A.Berry
KEYWORDS: AGRICULTURE, CHILE, EMPLOYMENT, INDONESIA, MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY, NIGERIA, POVERTY
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 5157
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/5526
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/5526
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
Cross-country evidence on the direct and indirect impacts of minerals dependency on growth suggests that the typical effect may be negative, and the experience in some countries implies large negative effects. Countries heavily endowed with exportable natural resources cannot take it for granted that this will assist them on the path to development. This study focuses on four countries, Indonesia, Chile, Venezuela and Nigeria - and looks at how they have handled export bonanzas and focuses on the employment as well as the growth fall-out. The big policy question is: what is the best way for the country to get where it wants to go, and is there a significant role for industrial strategy or can markets do a better job relatively unimpeded? The four case studies reviewed here suggest a number of hypotheses, including that, depending on the specifics of the country, promising new comparative advantages could emerge in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, while the role of service tradables should not be discounted. It is intriguing that the great majority of minerals-dependent countries to achieve sustained growth have also made serious progress in manufacturing. However, in a world that now looks less positively on trade protectionism, the exchange rate can be a powerful tool to provide more neutral incentives for new tradables; indeed, one of the most striking features of the two success stories related here has been these countries - timely use of devaluations to achieve highly competitive exchange rates. The experiences of these countries further confirm the risks of focusing on capital-intensive industries in labour-surplus countries, as well as the risk of lodging such activities in the public sector.-
Related Research Outputs:
- Chronic poverty and employment
- Visit to Italy for the purpose of attending 18th Symposium of the International Farming Systems Association at the Salesianum, Rome
- The contribution of manufacturing and services sectors to growth and employment in South Africa
- Communication environment of South Africans: quarter 9 report
- Analysing intersectoral outsourcing in South Africa
- What theory and the international experience suggest about the role of manufacturing in good employment growth for South Africa
- Manufacturing employment and import dependence
- Manufacturing exports and employment growth
- Issues of growth and employment concerning the manufacturing and service sectors in South Africa
- Scenarios for livelihood creation in agriculture
- Revisiting South African employment trends in the 1990s
- Employment creation and economic growth in South Africa: an analysis of manufacturing and services
- Interactions between universities and firms: results of the survey of Nigerian manufacturing firms
- South Africa's agro-food sector and the global economic downturn
- Would halving unemployment contribute to improved household food security for men and women?
- Agricultural market reforms and the rural poor in South Africa
- The significance of African vegetables in ensuring food security for South Africa's rural poor
- African vegetables and food security for poor agrarian households in Limpopo province: effective but neglected indigenous knowledge under threat
- Effect of climate change on resource-poor small farmers
- Water use and nutrient content of crop and animal food products for improved household food security: A scoping study