OUR ECONOMY
eMPloyMent, incoMe distriBUtion and inclUsiVe growth
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wide-ranging critical survey and meta-analysis of almost all research on unemployment in the past 15 to 20 years highlighted that the debate on unemployment and poverty is fragmented. The survey, conducted by Frederick Fourie, found that experts on labour markets, poverty and macro-economics all seem to deal with unemployment in some way, but rarely talk to each other, nor are they aware of each other’s work. An integrated and multi-disciplinary
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approach to the problem of unemployment (which, in turn, is related to inequality and poverty) is required. A similar fragmentation is evident in the policy debate and in government. An integrated grasp of the coherence between unemployment, poverty and inequality is largely absent in policy design and, as a result, most policy proposals are flawed and uncoordinated. As a result of this research, a large multi-year project, funded by the National Treasury, has been launched, involving researchers from a number of universities. The Research Project on Employment, Income Distribution and Inclusive growth will be an important component of the next Carnegie investigation into poverty and inequality, which is being undertaken in collaboration with the National Planning Commission. Prof Fourie has been appointed as the research coordinator of the project, which will be administratively based at the University of Cape Town.
frederick fourie department of economics
Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences Email: fouriefc@ufs.ac.za