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The Impact of Import Competition from China on the Skill-Bias of Manufacturing Employment across South African Regions between 2001 and 2011
South Africa and China established their first official diplomatic ties in 1998. A decade later in 2008 China had become South Africa’s largest bilateral trade partner which presents both complementary and competitive outcomes for the South African labour market. This study explores the competitive...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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School of Economics
2020
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| _version_ | 1867613236052885504 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Matumba, Diana Mukovhe |
| author2 | Edwards, Lawrence |
| author_browse | Edwards, Lawrence Matumba, Diana Mukovhe |
| author_facet | Edwards, Lawrence Matumba, Diana Mukovhe |
| author_sort | Matumba, Diana Mukovhe |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | South Africa and China established their first official diplomatic ties in 1998. A decade later in 2008 China had become South Africa’s largest bilateral trade partner which presents both complementary and competitive outcomes for the South African labour market. This study explores the competitive outcomes, particularly the impact that China has had on the skill bias of manufacturing employment within South Africa’s local municipalities between 2001 and 2011. The study follows on from two theories of trade: the Heckscher-Ohlin theory with its Stopler-Samuelson theorem, and specific factor theories. The identification method employed in this study was developed by Autor, Dorn and Hansen (2013) and seeks to exploit variation across South African municipalities which stems from initial differences in industry specialisation and instrumenting for South African imports using changes in Chinese imports by other low- and middle-income countries. The data used in the current study is from the UN Comtrade as well as South African population census data from 1996, 2001 and 2011. This study makes two main contributions to the literature by looking at the impact that import competition has on manufacturing employment in local labour markets, and how this impact varies by skill set and gender. The main finding of the study was that Chinese import exposure was biased against low-skilled workers as it resulted loss of employment for the low-skilled workers, and had a minimal effect on the employment of high-skilled workers. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/31688 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:56.154Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | School of Economics |
| publisherStr | School of Economics |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/31688 The Impact of Import Competition from China on the Skill-Bias of Manufacturing Employment across South African Regions between 2001 and 2011 Matumba, Diana Mukovhe Edwards, Lawrence Lepelle, Refilwe International trade Skill bias South Africa China Local labour market South Africa and China established their first official diplomatic ties in 1998. A decade later in 2008 China had become South Africa’s largest bilateral trade partner which presents both complementary and competitive outcomes for the South African labour market. This study explores the competitive outcomes, particularly the impact that China has had on the skill bias of manufacturing employment within South Africa’s local municipalities between 2001 and 2011. The study follows on from two theories of trade: the Heckscher-Ohlin theory with its Stopler-Samuelson theorem, and specific factor theories. The identification method employed in this study was developed by Autor, Dorn and Hansen (2013) and seeks to exploit variation across South African municipalities which stems from initial differences in industry specialisation and instrumenting for South African imports using changes in Chinese imports by other low- and middle-income countries. The data used in the current study is from the UN Comtrade as well as South African population census data from 1996, 2001 and 2011. This study makes two main contributions to the literature by looking at the impact that import competition has on manufacturing employment in local labour markets, and how this impact varies by skill set and gender. The main finding of the study was that Chinese import exposure was biased against low-skilled workers as it resulted loss of employment for the low-skilled workers, and had a minimal effect on the employment of high-skilled workers. 2020-04-23T19:00:01Z 2020-04-23T19:00:01Z 2019 2020-04-23T18:59:21Z Master Thesis Masters MCom https://hdl.handle.net/11427/31688 eng application/pdf School of Economics Faculty of Commerce |
| spellingShingle | International trade Skill bias South Africa China Local labour market Matumba, Diana Mukovhe The Impact of Import Competition from China on the Skill-Bias of Manufacturing Employment across South African Regions between 2001 and 2011 |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The Impact of Import Competition from China on the Skill-Bias of Manufacturing Employment across South African Regions between 2001 and 2011 |
| title_full | The Impact of Import Competition from China on the Skill-Bias of Manufacturing Employment across South African Regions between 2001 and 2011 |
| title_fullStr | The Impact of Import Competition from China on the Skill-Bias of Manufacturing Employment across South African Regions between 2001 and 2011 |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Impact of Import Competition from China on the Skill-Bias of Manufacturing Employment across South African Regions between 2001 and 2011 |
| title_short | The Impact of Import Competition from China on the Skill-Bias of Manufacturing Employment across South African Regions between 2001 and 2011 |
| title_sort | impact of import competition from china on the skill bias of manufacturing employment across south african regions between 2001 and 2011 |
| topic | International trade Skill bias South Africa China Local labour market |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/11427/31688 |
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