Enterprise development for job creation and growth

South Africa’s potential growth has fallen over the last 20 years for reasons that are not deeply understood. The work stream on Enterprise development for job creation and growth aims to increase the competitiveness, growth, and job creation of South Africa’s private sector through explorations of newly available firm-level data. This research will examine the many factors which influence firms’ performances, including value chains, whether larger businesses succeed at the expense of smaller businesses, infrastructure, resource availability, research and development, and credit access among many others, but with special attention to how these factors impact job creation and can be impacted by the policy environment.

While continuing to develop the tax administrative database, work stream 1 will also build capacity within South African institutions in the management and use of large micro-datasets for microeconomic research. Specifically, several research papers will be commissioned that rely on large microeconomic datasets to deepen knowledge in this important area, including papers on domestic and global value chains, market power, trade, multinationals, the knowledge economy, and the service sector.

Working paper
Lawrence Edwards and Ayanda Hlatshwayo
This paper uses detailed firm transaction data on manufactured exports to analyse the dilution of the real exchange rate-export relationship in South Africa over the period 2010 to 2014. Our empirical results show that firms...
February 2020
Enterprise development
Working paper
Ayanda Hlatshwayo, Friedrich Kreuser, Carol Newman, and John Rand
This paper uses matched employer-employee data from South Africa to examine the extent to which technology transfers between firms through the hiring of workers. Allowing for differential spillovers based on observable technology differences between sending...
February 2020
Enterprise development
Working paper
Hammed Amusa, Njeri Wabiri, and David Fadiran
Using comprehensive, anonymized tax administrative data for the 2008–14 period, we examine firm-level productivity in South Africa. Measures of firm-level productivity are included in a spatial autoregressive model that assesses spillovers from total factor productivity...
January 2020
Enterprise development
Working paper
Anmar Pretorius, Carli Bezuidenhout, Marianne Matthee, and Derick Blaauw
In South Africa, the manufacturing sector—important for growth and employment creation—has shown declining growth, poor productivity performance, decreased labour demand, and increased imports of intermediate goods (offshoring activities). Offshoring influences jobs and wages differently depending...
October 2019
Enterprise development
Working paper
by Mulalo Mamburu
This paper examines the distribution of firms by size and growth in the South African economy. It explores the relationship between firm size and firm growth over time, with a particular focus on the highest...
July 2018
Enterprise development
Working paper
by Andre Steenkamp, Mark Schaffer, Wayde Flowerday, and John Gabriel Goddard
This paper aims to enhance our understanding of the dynamics of innovation practice and technology absorption in South Africa at the firm level by estimating the returns to R&D expenditure in the manufacturing sector. This...
March 2018
Enterprise development
Working paper
by Angelika Goliger and Aalia Cassim
Since the start of sharp electricity tariff increases in 2008, South African household demand for electricity has not been significantly affected. However, the combination of economic realities and ongoing electricity tariff increases will eventually compel...
March 2018
Enterprise development