TY  - JOUR
AU  - Banerjee,Abhijit
AU  - Galiani,Sebastian
AU  - Levinsohn,Jim
AU  - McLaren,Zoë
AU  - Woolard,Ingrid
TI  - Why Has Unemployment Risen in the New South Africa
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13167
PY  - 2007
Y2  - June 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13167
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13167.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Abhijit Banerjee
MIT
Department of Economics
E52-252d
50 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02142-1347
Tel: 617/253-8855
Fax: 617/253-1330
E-Mail: banerjee@mit.edu

Sebastian Galiani
Department of Economics
University of Maryland
3105 Tydings Hall
College Park, MD 20742
Tel: 301/405-3518
E-Mail: galiani@econ.umd.edu

James A. Levinsohn
Yale School of Management
PO Box 208200
New Haven, CT  06520
Tel: 734/763-2319
Fax: 734/764-2769
E-Mail: James.Levinsohn@yale.edu

Zoe McLaren
School of Public Health
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI  48109
E-Mail: zmclaren@umich.edu

Ingrid Woolard
University of Cape Town
Department of Economics
PO Box 15494
Emerald Hill 6011
South Africa
E-Mail: Ingrid.Woolard@uct.ac.za
AB  - We document the rise in unemployment in South Africa since the transition in 1994.  We describe the likely causes of this increase and analyze whether the increase in unemployment is due to structural changes in the economy (resulting in a new equilibrium unemployment rate) or to negative shocks (that temporarily have increased unemployment).  We conclude the former are more important. Our analysis includes a multinomial logit approach to understanding transitions in individual-level changes in labor market status using the first nationally representative panel in South Africa.  Our analysis highlights several key constraints to addressing unemployment in South Africa.
ER  -