VOLUME / UITGAWE 67
No. 2, June 1999
Nr. 2, Junie 1999
ABSTRACTS OF ARTICLES /
SAMEVATTING VAN ARTIKELS
Volume 67, No. 2, June 1999
Uitgawe 67, Nr. 2, Junie 1999
THE STATE
AND INDUSTRIALIZATION IN KOREA AND BRAZIL
J.M. LUIZ
The article explores the process
through which the economic development is affected by the interrelationship among social
classes, the state (including state-labour and state capitalist), and the political
system. These dynamics are analysed within the context of the South Korean and
Brazilian industrialisation experiences. The role of the state in these two cases is
appraised and its efficacy, or lack thereof, is explained in terms of a model of
development state. It warns that state capacity cannot be taken for granted and that
when states over-extend themselves the consequences can be dire.
THE
COMPETITION ACT, 1998: AN ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE
W.D. REEKIE
The Competition Act 1998 will
introduce radical reforms in SA competition law. Unfortunately, the Act contains
criteria which are not relevant to competition such as politically correct or
journalistically attractive targets such as "international competitiveness".
This encourages uncertainty as to interpretation. When the Act moves from
ill-defined, non-pertinent objectives towards promoting competition it heads towards a
prescriptive, structural or behaviourilistic per se prohibitive stance. In other
words, it displays inappropriate understanding of competition. Competition is all
about surprise. Its essence is that entrepreneurs do the unpredictable.
Presumptions and definitions of the "public interest" may simply exclude, before
the event, behaviour which, after the event, would be seen as competitive. In the
short run this damages competition, in the long run it discourages investment.
What is required is not that all
aspects of monopoly control should be expressed in universally applicable laws and
regulations. Rather a sustained effort to build up a coherent body of decisions and
of guidelines for them should be made. A disappointment is the Act's use of broad
economic terms such as "net again" or "discrimination" without
rigorously defining them. Rigour demands that policy concern itself with the
economy's smallest units - individual consumers and their welfare..
CONCENTRATION,
LABOUR, QUALITY AND WAGES
IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN MANUFACTURING SECTOR
F.C.v.N. FOURIE and A. SMITH
Do concentrated industries pay higher
wages because they employ more productive workers or because they exhibit non-competitive
labour market behaviour? This paper analyses the theoretical debate on the nature of
the relationship between product market concentration, labour market quality and wages as
part of the broader debate on the causes of inter-industry wage differentials. In
addition, it empirically explores the relative impact of industrial structure variables
and labour force characteristics on wages in the South African manufacturing sector.
The empirical results provide evidence that industry of employment could be an
important determinant of wage levels in the South African manufacturing sector. |
