Happy in the informal economy? A case study of well-being among day labourers in South Africa
- Blaauw, Phillip, Botha, Ilse, Schenck, Rinie, Schoeman, Christie
- Authors: Blaauw, Phillip , Botha, Ilse , Schenck, Rinie , Schoeman, Christie
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Day labouring , Well-being , Happiness , Informal economy
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5532 , ISSN 1535-0754 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/13943
- Description: Past research provided evidence of the negative effect that individual unemployment can have on subjective well-being. The persistent high levels of unemployment and poverty in South Africa have been well documented. Many people are forced into the informal economy, where they engage in a variety of survivalist activities such as day labouring. As o previous study has been conducted on the well-being of day labourers, the aim of this paper is to investigate the determinants of the well-being of South African day labourers. Objective and subjective functions are compared to determine the role of income and other variables in the well-being of day labourers. The determinants are categorised according to economic, comparison and attitudinal variables. The objective function uses income and the subjective function uses the binary measure of experiencing a good week in terms of wages as dependent variables. The results showed that attitudinal variables are important determinants for the subjective measure of well-being. The economic variables were important in both functions. The findings of this paper confirm other research findings showing that personal income is important for well-being in a poor community. The difference between these functions indicates that the subjective and objective measures of well-being both capture valuable characteristics of subjective well-being (SWB) in a poor community.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Blaauw, Phillip , Botha, Ilse , Schenck, Rinie , Schoeman, Christie
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Day labouring , Well-being , Happiness , Informal economy
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5532 , ISSN 1535-0754 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/13943
- Description: Past research provided evidence of the negative effect that individual unemployment can have on subjective well-being. The persistent high levels of unemployment and poverty in South Africa have been well documented. Many people are forced into the informal economy, where they engage in a variety of survivalist activities such as day labouring. As o previous study has been conducted on the well-being of day labourers, the aim of this paper is to investigate the determinants of the well-being of South African day labourers. Objective and subjective functions are compared to determine the role of income and other variables in the well-being of day labourers. The determinants are categorised according to economic, comparison and attitudinal variables. The objective function uses income and the subjective function uses the binary measure of experiencing a good week in terms of wages as dependent variables. The results showed that attitudinal variables are important determinants for the subjective measure of well-being. The economic variables were important in both functions. The findings of this paper confirm other research findings showing that personal income is important for well-being in a poor community. The difference between these functions indicates that the subjective and objective measures of well-being both capture valuable characteristics of subjective well-being (SWB) in a poor community.
- Full Text:
Labour conflict and the persistence of macro underemployment in South Africa
- Schoeman, Christie, Botha, Ilsé, Blaauw, Philip F.
- Authors: Schoeman, Christie , Botha, Ilsé , Blaauw, Philip F.
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Underemployment - South Africa , Labour conflict - South Africa , Labour market - South Africa
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5536 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/13948
- Description: Something must be structurally wrong in a labour market when a well developed economy like that of South Africa is not able to absorb and allocate an accumulating surplus of labour over a period of 20 years or longer but has instead moved to the use of more capital-intensive technology. The objective of this paper is to analyse the role labour conflict plays in the persistence of macro underemployment in South Africa. For the analysis two models identified from the literature were used. In these models labour conflict originates from an over-regulated labour market where labour appropriates capital and bad or hostile labour relations. In both models the switch to technology leads to underemployment. It was found that bad labour relations contribute to the persistence of underemployment in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Schoeman, Christie , Botha, Ilsé , Blaauw, Philip F.
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Underemployment - South Africa , Labour conflict - South Africa , Labour market - South Africa
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5536 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/13948
- Description: Something must be structurally wrong in a labour market when a well developed economy like that of South Africa is not able to absorb and allocate an accumulating surplus of labour over a period of 20 years or longer but has instead moved to the use of more capital-intensive technology. The objective of this paper is to analyse the role labour conflict plays in the persistence of macro underemployment in South Africa. For the analysis two models identified from the literature were used. In these models labour conflict originates from an over-regulated labour market where labour appropriates capital and bad or hostile labour relations. In both models the switch to technology leads to underemployment. It was found that bad labour relations contribute to the persistence of underemployment in South Africa.
- Full Text:
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