Doctoral Degrees (Economics)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Economics) by browse.metadata.advisor "Burger, Rulof P."

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    An empirical investigation into the gendered informality and job search in the South African labour market
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04) Makaluza, Nwabisa Nangamso; Burger, Rulof P.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Economics.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : The dissertation sets out to understand the ways in which gender inequality is maintained when women are disadvantaged in terms of access to better informal sector jobs, benefits from economic recovery and active job search. I present evidence of a heterogeneous informal sector in which substantial part provides jobs for people who need employment to meet basic household needs in the absence of alternative sources of income. Within the informal sector, a smaller portion of more desirable jobs in growth-oriented enterprises exists, but accessing those jobs requires overcoming financial and human capital barriers. Furthermore, heterogeneity within the informal sector is gendered, meaning that most jobs in the survivalist tier are carried out by women, while many of the jobs in growth-oriented microenterprises are carried out by men. The study also investigates the gender divergence in informal sector employment that emerged at the end of the financial crisis. As the economy recovered from the global financial crisis, the growth of male informal sector employment outpaced that of female informal sector employment. I investigate the mechanisms behind this divergence and find that this is partly due to men benefitting from working in informal sector industries with a higher employment elasticity. I developed a novel decomposition technique that can identify the importance of an initial gender imbalance and industry-specific employment elasticities in driving gender differences in the cyclicality of informal sector employment. Finally, the chapter also identifies the importance of social norms and household factors that preclude vulnerable women from reaping the benefits of economic growth. Lastly, I use the novel time use survey to study the constraints on job search. Diary entries from the dataset revealed that some respondents who self-identify as discouraged job seekers engage in active job search. The analysis reveals just how infrequent active job search is in the South African labour market. This is especially concerning given the problem of large-scale and open unemployment. Despite the low frequency of search, the data show that active job search tends to be intensive, with job seekers spending long periods of time looking for work. Again, household characteristics were confirmed to be closely linked to the behaviour of women in the labour market. The unemployed who came from households with lower levels of income were more likely to participate in and allocate more time towards active search. This dissertation draws attention to a proportion of people who are trying, despite the odds, to actively search for work while they cope with conditions of poverty and unemployment. It also contributes to the literature that seeks to understand why most of these searchers are unsuccessful in their endeavours, and why so few find employment in the informal sector. Women are most disadvantaged in the labour market. They have less access to the growth-oriented tier in the informal sector, are less likely to work in informal sector industries that are more responsive to upswings and are subject to social norms that restrict their ability to search for employment.