Youth unemployment in South Africa is high. We investigate whether one of the reasons may be that the wages young people want or need are above those that they could reasonably expect to earn given their characteristics. Unlike previous work on the relationship between reservation wages and...

There is a popular perception that recent trade liberalisation in South Africa has been bad for jobs. This paper examines this by investigating the relationship between tariffs, both levels and changes, and wages in the manufacturing sector. This is done through matching individual labour force...

Inflation, a macroeconomic variable, is underpinned by microeconomic data. This paper uses a large microdata sample at the unit level of South Africa’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the period 2001m12 to 2007m12 to begin to understand price setting conduct in South Africa. An understanding of...

Policies to stimulate export growth and diversify the composition of exports in South Africa are now high on the government’s agenda. In order to understand exporting and its impact on job creation, one needs to understand how firms function, what determines, or constrains, exporting at the...