south africa’s international cost competitiveness and

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1、42SouthAfrica’sInternationalCostCompetitivenessandExportsinManufacturingRevised,March2004LawrenceEdwardsandStephenS.GolubLawrenceEdwardsSchoolofEconomicsUniversityofCapeTownSouthAfricaStephenS.GolubDepartmentofEconomicsSwarthmoreCollegeUSAEmail:sgolu

2、b1@swarthmore.eduFax:1-610-328-8103Tel:1-610-328-029442AbstractThenewSouthAfricangovernmenthasembracedglobalization,withmixedresultstodate.ControversiescenteronSouthAfrica'sinternationalcostcompetitivenessandwhetherSouthAfricanexportsrespondtochanges

3、incompetitiveness.Wemeasurecompetitivenessbyrelativeunitlaborcosts.WefindthatSouthAfricanrelativeunitlaborcostsdeclinedinthe1990s,butarestillhighrelativetootherdevelopingcountries.Econometricanalysisrevealsastrongeffectofrelativeunitlaborcostsonexpor

4、ts.KeywordsAfrica,SouthAfrica,relativeunitlaborcosts,internationalcompetitiveness,globalization,export-ledgrowth.42AcknowledgementThisarticleisbasedinpartonresearchconductedfortheSouthAfricanNationalTreasury,withfundingfromUSAIDandNathanAssociates.Fo

5、rthecompleteversionofthisreport(EdwardsandGolub2003),contacttheauthors.WewouldliketothankMatthewSternandChrisLoewaldfortheirsupportandencouragement.Alltheviewsexpressedarepersonal.421.INTRODUCTIONUponassumingpowerin1994,thenewdemocratically-electedSo

6、uthAfricangovernmentmadeanimportantbreakwithitsownpriorideologyaswellaspreviousSouthAfricaneconomicpolicies.Inplaceoftheinward-lookingandinterventionistpoliciesoftheApartheideraandtheviewsofmanysupportersoftheAfricanNationalCongress,theMandelaadminis

7、trationembracedglobalizationandneoclassical—somewouldsayneo-liberal—economicpolicies.Thenewgovernmentcommitteditselftoliberalizationandprivatization,reprioritizedpublicexpendituretowardspublicgoodsandincomedistribution,allwhilemaintainingprudentmacro

8、economicpolicies.Therestrainedfiscalpoliciesmeantthatthegovernmentplaceditsbetsonexportsandtheprivatesectorastheengineofgrowth.Theliberalizationofinternationaltradeanddomesticmarketsisintendedtospuroutputandemploymentthroughexport-ledgrowthandhigherf