A cooperative benefits framework in South Africa's land redistribution process: the case of sugarcane farmland transfers
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142922 , vital:38176 , DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2012.741207
- Description: A good indicator of successful land redistribution cases has to be the continuation of viable productivity rates in their post-transfer periods. Continued productivity benefits all the stakeholders that are involved in the process. Unfortunately, negative productivity levels have been reported in numerous South African land redistribution transfers in recent years. A game theoretic perspective is adopted to illustrate and argue that cooperation among key stakeholders, which could be enforced through long-term contracts between land buyers, sellers and new owners, may lead to maintenance and higher productivity levels and other benefits within the country's land redistribution process.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Farmers’ perceptions of the impact of legislation on farm workers’ wages and working conditions: an Eastern Cape case study
- Authors: Roberts, Tamaryn , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142911 , vital:38175 , DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2013.778464
- Description: The status of South African farm workers has changed significantly over the past five decades. Using data from three major surveys conducted between 1957 and 2008, an Eastern Cape district was used as a case study to assess farmers’ perceptions of the changes that had occurred, particularly as a result of legislation. Considering the changes, the impacts on the farm labour market and wage and non-wage working conditions are analysed. The legislation focused on includes the Extension of Security of Tenure Act 62 (ESTA) of 1997, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 (BCEA) of 1997 and minimum wage legislation. Farmers believed legislation had both positive and negative effects, which were compounded by changes in the political and economic contexts. The case study reveals that government has a role in improving the status of farm labourers, with education and healthcare services requiring special attention. However, caution is needed to ensure that further reductions in farm employment are restricted.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Institutions and economic research: a case of location externalities on agricultural resource allocation in the Kat River basin, South Africa. A Rejoinder
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143002 , vital:38184 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1080/03031853.2013.798069
- Description: In Mbatha and Antrobus (2008), an argument was put forward against an importation or adoption of universal models or general theorems to explain locally prevailing socio-economic conditions and predict outcomes in varied geographical contexts such as in the Kat River basin. In response to this argument a comment in this edition argues that our “results are caused by, metaphorically speaking, comparing apples and oranges. If, however, all of the relevant information is taken into account, a simple economic model may suffice to depict the situation within the KRV.” Here we illustrate that the comment comes from a misreading of basic details in the original discussion and in its construction and presentation of an alternative model of the KRV conditions the comment reiterates our original argument that general models and theorems are likely to fail to explain local intricacies primarily because they are not founded on local historical institutions.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Physical, political and local practice factors as barriers to agricultural development: a case of the Kat River valley, South Africa
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142947 , vital:38178 , DOI: 10.2174/1874923201104010091
- Description: The Kat River Valley, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, provided a case study against which propositions of determinants of economic development were tested. Physical location was found to matter in determining the level of development and economic leverage which Middle Kat farmers had compared to those downstream in accordance with Bromley's (1982) proposition. Physical location, however, was not a determining factor for farmers in the Upper Kat River who were the least developed. As predicted by Ostrom (1990), high transaction costs stemming from information asymmetries, selfish interests coupled with poor leadership, an unequal distribution of power and the flouting of formal agreements ensured the demise of a once successful Hacop project in the Upper Kat. Finally, Hirschman's (1960) much earlier line of argument was supported in that the nature of proposed development programmes and the compatibility with community values or ‘self images’ contributed to the lack of success of an externally initiated development effort. The findings and conclusion serve an important lesson to economic researchers and decision makers not to duplicate policies for implementation in all geographical and social contexts on the basis of their success elsewhere.
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- Date Issued: 2011
The experiences of Fringe producers at the South African National Arts Festival: production, profits and non-market benefits
- Authors: Snowball, Jeanette D , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143123 , vital:38203 , DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2009.9687901
- Description: Unlike the performing arts generally, festivals and special events have been growing in popularity worldwide: since the 1980s there has been an explosion of the number of festival of all types, not just arts festivals, but folk festivals, harvest festivals, food festivals, family festivals, carnivals, literary festivals – the list is long. It is estimated that there are more than 300 festivals in the UK (British Federation of Festivals 2004), 1300 in Australia (Johnson et al 2005) and more than 5000 in the US (Blumenthal 2002).
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- Date Issued: 2011
A Game Theoretic Framework for Cooperative Benefits in South Africa’s land redistribution process: a case of Northern Kwa-Zulu Natal Sugarcane Farmland Transfers (No. 308-2016-5118)
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142958 , vital:38180 , https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/96156/
- Description: A good indicator of successful farm redistribution cases has to be the continuation of viable productivity rates in their post transfer periods. Continued productivity benefits all the stakeholders that are involved in the process. Unfortunately negative productivity levels have been reported in numerous South African land redistribution transfers in recent years. A game theoretic perspective is adopted to argue that cooperation among key stakeholders, which could be enforced through long term contracts between a land buyer, sellers and new owners, would lead to higher productivity levels and other benefits. Additional benefits would, for example, include market related prices paid by a buyer.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
Institutions and economic research: a case of location externalities on agricultural resource allocation in the Kat River basin, South Africa
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142991 , vital:38183 , DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2013.798069
- Description: The Physical Externality Model is used to illustrate the potential limitations of blindly adopting formal models for economic investigation and explanation in varied geographical contexts. As argued by institutional economists for the last hundred years the practice limits the value and relevance of most general economic inquiry. This model postulates that the geographical location of farmers along a given watercourse, in which water is diverted individually, leads to structural inefficiencies that negatively affect the whole farming community. These effects are felt more severely at downstream sites and lead to a status quo where upstream farmers possess relative economic and political advantages over their counterparts elsewhere. In the study of the Kat River basin these predictions appear to be true only in as far as they relate to legal and political allocations and use of water resources.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Land price premiums in South Africa's land redistribution process: a case study of Northern Kwazulu-Natal sugarcane farms
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G , Van Rooyen, Jonathan
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142980 , vital:38182 , DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2010.491298
- Description: The desire to transfer 30 per cent of commercial farmland into the hands of black South Africans has progressed slower than anticipated. Politicians and government officials have blamed the market approach to the purchase of land for the challenges and failures in the process. An analysis of the transfer of sugarcane land in two districts in KwaZulu-Natal over the period 2000 to 2006 permitted a comparison of the prices paid to commercial farmers both in private transactions and in the case of sales to government. Data did not support the contention that the slow rate of transfer was due to a manipulation of land prices by landowners in an attempt to stall the process. It was concluded that the state lost most of its bargaining power in the land reform market due to the drawn out nature of the land valuation processes.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Promoting entrepreneurship in agriculture in the Eastern Cape:
- Authors: Antrobus, Geoffrey G , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143067 , vital:38198 , DOI: 10.1080/03031853.1994.9524779
- Description: Selected cases in developing entrepreneurship in small-scale subsistence and commercial agriculture in the Eastern Cape are examined, including the provision of marketing facilities, the training programme of the Africa Cooperative Action Trust (ACAT) in Ciskei, government sponsored irrigation projects and the farmer support programme. An attempt is made to draw general conclusions about the necessary ingredients for successful entrepreneurship and the formulation of proposals for further promoting entrepreneurship in agriculture in South Africa.
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- Date Issued: 2010
The commercial agricultural economy of the East Cape: Die kommersiële landbou-ekonomie van die Oos-Kaap
- Authors: Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143079 , vital:38199 , DOI: 10.1080/03031853.1991.9524228
- Description: The East Cape, and in particular the Smaldeel area, is used to exemplify some of the characteristics and problems of commercial farming over a period of about three decades to serve as a backdrop for the broader theme of normalising South African agriculture. The regional economy is dominated by Port Elizabeth-Uitenhage and East London which account for most of the population and three-fourths of the Gross Geographic Product (GGP). Agriculture accounts for only 10% of GGP, but is one of the most labour intensive sectors in a region with 24% of its population unemployed. The agricultural economy of the region is very diversified, but livestock farming plays the most important part in all areas contributing 72% of gross income. The chief changes which have occured in East Cape farming, as elsewhere, have been the decline in the number of farms and increase in farm size, greater capital investment, increased specialisation and declining employment.
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- Date Issued: 2010
The effects of economic incentives in controlling pollution in the South African leather industry: die uitwerking van ekonomiese insentiewe op die beheer van besoedeling in die Suid-Afrikaanse leerbedryf
- Authors: Mowat, Shaun P , Antrobus, Geoffrey G , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143057 , vital:38197 , DOI: 10.1080/03031853.1997.9523487
- Description: Pollution of the environment is becoming an increasingly serious problem. A large contributor to this is industry which generates effluent as a by-product of its production process. Two methods of controlling the pollution generated by industry are the so-called “command and control” techniques and economic incentives. In theory, economic incentives promise a more economically efficient and equitable means of pollution control. This paper sets out to ascertain whether this would hold in practice by applying environmental economic theory to the practical problem of controlling the effluent generated by one particular industry, viz the South African leather industry.
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- Date Issued: 2010
The role of processors, wholesalers and retailers in the marketing of food in South Africa:
- Authors: Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143090 , vital:38200 , DOI: 10.1080/03031853.1979.9524558
- Description: The importance of the middlemen of marketing was recently high-lighted with the publication of a thirty item 'food basket' for South Africa. While the producer's share of the foodbasket is usually of chief interest to the farmers of our country and often to agricultural economists, the field of traditional agricultural marketing takes in the whole area from farm gate to consumer's table.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Is economic impact a good way of justifying the inclusion of foreign students at local universities?
- Authors: Snowball, Jeanette D , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67470 , vital:29098 , http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v20i3.25593
- Description: Pre-print , In the debate surrounding the costs and benefits of having foreign students at South African universities, the financial contributions of foreign students to their host economies is sometimes cited. This article reports the results of a comparison between the economic impact on the Grahamstown economy of the spending of foreign and local students at Rhodes University. It finds that the spending patterns of both types of students are remarkably similar and that the somewhat higher economic impact of foreign students is largely as a result of their propensity to choose the more expensive residence accommodation, rather than as a result of greater average spending generally. We suggest that economic impact studies should be used with caution when making the case for continued public subsidy of goods with significant non-market values and that opportunity costs should also be considered.
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- Date Issued: 2006
Trade and the environmental Kuznets curve: is Southern Africa a pollution haven?
- Authors: Nahman, Anton , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143202 , vital:38210 , DOI: 10.1111/j.1813-6982.2005.00055.x
- Description: Evidence that the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) may be explained by trade patterns casts doubt on the oft‐stated conclusion that economic growth automatically leads to environmental improvement. Trends in net exports as a proportion of consumption for both USA and UK trade with SACU were examined for various dirty industries. Some evidence of pollution haven effects is found, although a similar trend for clean industries suggests that this effect is weak. However, even a general shift in manufacturing industries from North to South (as opposed to a shift in specifically dirty industries) may explain the EKC to some extent.
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- Date Issued: 2006
The economic impact of Rhodes University students on the Grahamstown economy
- Authors: Snowball, Jeanette D , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2005
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67475 , vital:29099
- Description: Publisher version , From Executive Summary: This study compares the spending patterns and economic impact of three groups of Rhodes University students: South Africans (SA), Other Africans and students from the Rest of the World (RoW). Data was collected via self-completion questionnaires and the final sample size was 163. Despite differences in spending patterns, total spending was found to be remarkably similar across groups, the major differences being between those students in university residence and those in digs (rented accommodation in town). Total monthly spending for those in residence was highest for SA students (R1034), then Other Africans (R850) and finally RoW (R777). For those in digs, total monthly spending was very similar, but again highest for SA students (R2495), then RoW (R2480) and then students from Other African countries (R2461). SA students have a considerably lower average unearned income than other groups, with students from the RoW having the highest unearned income (R1060 for those in residence and R2300 for those in digs). However, 55% of SA students, compared to 47% of foreign students, have sources of earned income, usually related to the university. Monthly income also tended to be higher for SA students (R654) than for other groups (Other Africa = R557; RoW = R575). The general conclusion that can be drawn is that there is very little difference in total spending between groups, although SA students have a somewhat higher average than others. A straight line ordinary least squares regression showed that, holding all else constant, SA students spent on average R169 more per month than foreign students (significant at the 10% level).
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- Date Issued: 2005
The environmental Kuznets curve: a literature survey
- Authors: Nahman, Anton , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2005
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143191 , vital:38209 , DOI: 10.1111/j.1813-6982.2005.00008.x
- Description: Literature on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is examined, focussing on the possibility that the EKC may be explained by trade patterns. If significant, this trade effect would cast doubt on the oft‐stated conclusion that economic growth automatically leads to environmental improvement. Research has been insufficient, although a number of promising approaches have been developed. Although evidence on the pollution‐haven hypothesis is mixed, there is enough to suggest that the EKC development path may not be available to today's developing countries. Other problems cast doubt on whether the EKC exists in any relevant sense at all.
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- Date Issued: 2005
Towards an economic valuation of biodiversity: freshwater ecosystems
- Authors: Antrobus, Geoffrey G , Law, Matt
- Date: 2005
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143013 , vital:38185 , http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.620.4217andrep=rep1andtype=pdf
- Description: The valuation of environmental resources and biodiversity as a whole has become an increasingly necessary topic of research as our understanding of the importance and benefits of the healthy functioning of the environment develops. A major shortcoming of current research is that there has been very little advance in the valuation of freshwater biodiversity. The paper examines the socioeconomic importance of biodiversity and outlines the fundamentals of economic valuation thereof. The difficulties associated with the valuation of freshwater ecosystems are outlined and the results of a study presented to the South African Water Research Commission incorporating resource economics into freshwater quality objectives is described. The valuation of freshwater biodiversity is an important and complicated task that needs close attention in future research.
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- Date Issued: 2005
Valuing the arts: pitfalls in economic impact studies of arts festivals
- Authors: Snowball, Jeanette D , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143145 , vital:38205 , https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2002.tb00067.x
- Description: Economic impact studies have been used to measure the value of a variety of public and mixed goods, such as arts festivals, sports facilities and educational institutions, partly to motivate for public funds. The attraction of this sort of study rests largely on the fact that it produces a quantifiable monetary measure of the value of a project as opposed to a less easily valued qualitative study. “Public officials, boosters and the media accept the ‘quantifiable’ which appears to represent reality in order to justify a desired project” (Johnson and Sack 1996:370).
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- Date Issued: 2002
Measuring the value of the arts to society: the importance of the value of externalities for lower income and education groups in South Africa
- Authors: Snowball, Jeanette D , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143134 , vital:38204 , https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2001.tb00034.x
- Description: Governments in many countries have cut their support of the arts on the grounds that it is the pleasure of the higher income, well educated members of society that they are sponsoring. In the 1980's government support of the arts, even in developed countries, fell by 30 per cent (Throsby 1994). While it is true that many studies have found that arts attenders represent the educated, prosperous minority of society (Morrison and West, 1986; Dobson and West, 1990; Hendon 1990), this paper argues that if the social as well as the more traditional economic measures of the value of the arts are considered, it can be shown that many of the positive externalties provided by the arts accrue to lower income and education groups.
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- Date Issued: 2001
The market for commercial farm land in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa as a means of redistribution:
- Authors: Antrobus, Geoffrey G , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 1999
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143024 , vital:38194 , DOI: 10.4314/rosas.v3i1.22991
- Description: The election promise of the majority party in the new South African government was to redistribute 30% of the agricultural land in the hands of Whites within a period of 5 years. Transfers of land in the Eastern Cape Province are examined as a case study. While 60% of the total number of Eastern Cape farms changed hands over 5 years, these constituted only 19% of the surface area. A large proportion of rural transfers were small (less than 5 hectares) peri-urban properties which cannot all be considered as viable farming units. At average prices about R1 to R2 billion would be required to establish new farmers on land with the necessary livestock, machinery and equipment. Resource poor new entrants would need a major state contribution to make initial entry and subsequent survival feasible. To achieve their goal through market transfers the government would need to either substantially lengthen its time horizon or lower its target.
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- Date Issued: 1999