Firm Dynamics, Job Outcomes, and Productivity : South African Formal Businesses, 2010-14

Aterido, Reyes ; Hlatshwayo, Ayanda ; Pieterse, Duncan ; Steenkamp, Andre

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: JOB CREATION;    PRODUCTIVITY;    ALLOCATIVE EFFICIENCY;    FIRM DYNAMICS;    PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8788
RP-ID  :  WPS8788

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The formal private sector has a key roleto play in fostering growth and reducing unemployment inSouth Africa—strengthening its performance is thereforecritical. This paper looks at firm behaviour, firm entry andexit, job outcomes, and productivity dynamics usingfirm-level administrative data for South Africa. It is thefirst paper to benchmark employment and productivitydynamics against various comparator countries for whichsimilar analysis has been undertaken. The paper finds thatSouth Africa has an aged private sector with low firmdynamism and characterized by large firms that hold a largeshare of employment and revenue, although they are not asproductive as micro firms and pay lower wages on average.The paper also finds that job creation is concentratedpredominantly in incumbent firms, which are old and large,and job creation from entry and exit is negligible. Thestatic and dynamic productivity decompositions raise aconcern that although productive efficiency is gained, it isat least in part at the expense of labor. Large firms arenot exploiting economies of scale, and particularlyunproductive large firms may drive the weak performance ofthe private sector. Relatively high wages in South Africacould be partly explained by the inefficient use of laborand negative correlation between productivity and size.Likewise, these larger firms could be responsible for thenegative direct impact on jobs of firms raising productivity.