Employment creation in mineral exporting economies

Background

Minerals economies, such as South Africa, have generally experienced slower growth rates, lower levels of employment and higher rates of inequality. This presentation compares a select number of minerals economies to identify why some have been successful, and others not, in generating employment and achieving acceptable rates of income equality. This discussion focuses on the experience of Indonesia, Chile, Nigeria, and Venezuela. Prof Berry identifies the main sectors of job creation and offers preliminary views on how some countries managed to succeed in promoting employment, as part of their growth strategies. Their implications for South Africa will be discussed.

The findings presented in this seminar arise from a larger project that Prof. Berry is undertaking for EGDI: he is preparing ten case studies of high growth developing economies to identify sources of employment creation and contributors to income distribution outcomes. This is a contribution to EDGI’s work on ‘evidence-based’ scenarios for employment absorbing growth.

Prof. Albert Berry

Albert Berry is Professor Emeritus of Economics and Research Director of the Programme on Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of Toronto’s Center for International Studies. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University. His main research interests, with a focus on Latin America, are labour markets and income distribution, employment policy, agrarian structure, the economics of small and medium enterprise, and the impacts of and international economic integration. Apart from his academic positions at Yale University, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Toronto, he has worked with the Ford Foundation, the Colombian Planning Commission and the World Bank.

Recent edited publications include Critical Issues in International Financial Reform (with Gustavo Indart) (Transactions Press, 2003); Labor Market Policies in Canada and Latin America: Challenges of the New Millennium, (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000) and Poverty, Economic Reforms, and Income Distribution in Latin America (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998). He recently directed an analysis of economic policy for Pakistan over the next 15 years. He is currently concluding a research programme to design an employment strategy for Paraguay.

The HSRC has established the Employment, Growth and Development Initiative to specifically focus on developing high-level evidence based scenarios as well as supportive work on employment monitoring and policy formulation. The three year Initiative will operate in a manner resembling a “think tank” model: involving a ‘hub and spokes’ model of research coordination with an emphasis on drawing together the best available knowledge in the HSRC, in South Africa and globally.