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The impact of the European Union-South Africa free trade area agreement on factor returns in South Africa: much ado about nothing?
The notion that the returns of unskilled labour in developed countries are adversely affected by growth in trade with developing countries as a result of trade liberalisation has received a great deal of attention. What underpins this notion is the standard trade theory which posits that trade is de...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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School of Economics
2023
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| _version_ | 1867613174694412288 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Chauke, Thabo |
| author2 | Edwards, Lawrence |
| author_browse | Chauke, Thabo Edwards, Lawrence |
| author_facet | Edwards, Lawrence Chauke, Thabo |
| author_sort | Chauke, Thabo |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The notion that the returns of unskilled labour in developed countries are adversely affected by growth in trade with developing countries as a result of trade liberalisation has received a great deal of attention. What underpins this notion is the standard trade theory which posits that trade is determined by factor endowments; hence, trade liberalisation will benefit the relatively abundant factors of production. Since developed countries are relatively abundant in capital and skilled labour, the theory predicts that capital and skilled labour will benefit from trade liberalisation whilst the returns of the scarce factor, unskilled labour, would decline in relative terms. This will increase inequality in the returns of capital and labour or skilled- and unskilled-workers in developed countries. The converse will prevail in developing countries where trade liberalisation stands to reduce wage inequality. What becomes germane to the discussions is that trade liberalisation gives rise to winners and losers. Thus for trade liberalisation to be of mutual benefit, winners must compensate losers for their loss. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38279 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:31:56.645Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| 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:11427/38279 The impact of the European Union-South Africa free trade area agreement on factor returns in South Africa: much ado about nothing? Chauke, Thabo Edwards, Lawrence economics The notion that the returns of unskilled labour in developed countries are adversely affected by growth in trade with developing countries as a result of trade liberalisation has received a great deal of attention. What underpins this notion is the standard trade theory which posits that trade is determined by factor endowments; hence, trade liberalisation will benefit the relatively abundant factors of production. Since developed countries are relatively abundant in capital and skilled labour, the theory predicts that capital and skilled labour will benefit from trade liberalisation whilst the returns of the scarce factor, unskilled labour, would decline in relative terms. This will increase inequality in the returns of capital and labour or skilled- and unskilled-workers in developed countries. The converse will prevail in developing countries where trade liberalisation stands to reduce wage inequality. What becomes germane to the discussions is that trade liberalisation gives rise to winners and losers. Thus for trade liberalisation to be of mutual benefit, winners must compensate losers for their loss. 2023-08-24T13:31:23Z 2023-08-24T13:31:23Z 2007 2023-08-21T08:20:17Z Master Thesis Masters Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38279 eng application/pdf School of Economics Faculty of Commerce |
| spellingShingle | economics Chauke, Thabo The impact of the European Union-South Africa free trade area agreement on factor returns in South Africa: much ado about nothing? |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The impact of the European Union-South Africa free trade area agreement on factor returns in South Africa: much ado about nothing? |
| title_full | The impact of the European Union-South Africa free trade area agreement on factor returns in South Africa: much ado about nothing? |
| title_fullStr | The impact of the European Union-South Africa free trade area agreement on factor returns in South Africa: much ado about nothing? |
| title_full_unstemmed | The impact of the European Union-South Africa free trade area agreement on factor returns in South Africa: much ado about nothing? |
| title_short | The impact of the European Union-South Africa free trade area agreement on factor returns in South Africa: much ado about nothing? |
| title_sort | impact of the european union south africa free trade area agreement on factor returns in south africa much ado about nothing |
| topic | economics |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38279 |
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