South Africa's overall performance in high-technology products as measured by global export shares and registered patents has been weak in comparison to other developing countries and in comparison to other commodity producers. However, a number of high-technology South African companies in a...

The geography of innovation in the developing world is poorly understood, both because certain spatial economic data are difficult to access or do not exist at all and because the existing information is rarely submitted for analysis at subnational level, where the relevant literature would...

This paper attempts to explore the possible relationship between the characteristics of a National System of Innovation (NSI) and their impact on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) outcomes, particularly in developing countries. We employ a heuristic NSI-FDI conceptual framework linking the...

This paper is concerned with the influence of economic fluctuations on corporate financing decisions. Based on a sample of listed South African companies over the years from 1996 to 2005, our results confirm the existence of different transmission channels through which economic changes are...

Using panel data from 118 firms across a time period of 17 years and a battery of tests, this paper examines two research questions that pertain to the expected gains stemming from corporate information liberalisation through the adoption of international accounting (financial reporting)...

This paper reports on a study to provide insights into the magnitude of the shocks associated with the recent global economic crisis in macroeconomic terms in South Africa, the country’s capacity to withstand or cushion these shocks, and the extent of fragility in terms of poverty levels and...

This paper will have a closer look at the role of South African welfare programs on the labour supply decision across generations. From a theoretical point of view, a change in non-labour household income will affect the decision to participate in the labour market. Previous studies have focused...

International trade may influence income distribution. This study takes as a starting point the puzzling development of relative wages between skilled and unskilled labor in South Africa. Wage inequality decreased during the sanctions period and increased with trade liberalization post...

Rapid increases in educational attainment and the massification of secondary education in South Africa resulted in substantial differences in the supply and quality of educated workers across generations. This paper describes changes in the distribution of education across birth cohorts and how...

Teenage childbearing is considered a social problem with costs to the teenage mother, her child and society at large. In South Africa, media attention suggests a contemporary crisis in teen childbearing; often linking this to a fear that the Child Support Grant incentivises motherhood among...