Unemployment in South Africa is so widespread that it demands an explanation. This paper examines two questions about South African unemployment. Firstly, why do the unemployed not enter the informal sector, as is common in other developing countries? Secondly, why do the unemployed not enter...

Broadly and narrowly measured unemployment rates differ very markedly in certain countries, and the measure chosen to be the ‘official’ unemployment rate affects perceptions about the extent of the problem. The appropriate measure of the unemployment rate depends on whether jobless persons...

A large amount of recent evidence finds a negative relationship between local unemployment and wages in OECD countries, a relationship christened a ‘wage curve’. This contradicts the conventional model of the labour market in which high unemployment regions have higher wages to compensate...

This paper argues that the labor transfer process outlined by the Lewis model (1954) can give rise to surplus labour - in the sense than the marginal product of labour is less that the wage - in the public part of the modern sector and that this may deprive the modern sector of its dynamism....

type="main" xml:id="twec12215-abs-0001" <title type="main">Abstract</title> <p>The paper examines the notion of a ‘developmental state’ and shows that China possesses the relevant characteristics. It explains the political economy which generated such a state in China. It analyses the institutions and methods that were...</p>

This study examines the impact of a mobile phone technology enhanced services on agricultural extension services delivery system in India. An impact analysis is carried out based on randomised survey data taking into account of potential systematic selection bias through double difference...

This paper examines the determinants of open innovation as a response to the constraints and risks of innovation that firms face in emerging economies. A recent national firm-level survey of 1,400 firms in the manufacturing sector is used as the basis of the analysis. We find that institutional,...

This paper analyses the growth of production and employment in China during the period 1978 to the early 1990s. It argues that the Chinese experience with export-led growth provides an excellent case study of the phenomenon of a vent for surplus resources provided by exports, identified by Adam...