South African Managed Trade Policy: The Wasting of a Mineral Endowment

by Graham A. Davis

Overview

Since 1925, import substitution programs have diverted South Africa's mineral revenues away from efficient investments and into the creation of an uncompetitive manufacturing sector. Protection has recently been augmented by a General Export Incentive Scheme that was designed to increase manufacturing exports. A multisector general equilibrium analysis shows the export scheme is highly complex with unusual and undesirable structural effects, seeming little more than a continuation of social engineering of the past. This work provides a definitive analysis of past and present South African trade policy, using a methodology of interest to other trade and development researchers operating in similarly spare informational environments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275948146
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/25/1994
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.44(d)
Lexile:	1590L (what's this?)

About the Author

GRAHAM A. DAVIS is Assistant Professor in the Mineral Economics Department at the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Davis has lived and taught in South Africa.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Introduction
A Brief Review of the Trade Policy Debate
The History of Managed Trade in South Africa
A New Trade Policy: Out of the Pan and into the Fire
The General Export Incentive Scheme
The Regional Effects of the GEIS
Delimiting the Theory of Comparative Advantage: South Africa's Heckscher-Ohlin Goods
A Search for Unexploited Comparative Advantage in South African H-O Manufactures
The Empty Economics in South Africa's Industrial Policy
Summary and Conclusions
Appendix A: The General Export Incentive Scheme (GEIS)
Works Cited
Index

Editorial Reviews

Davis (mineral economics, Colorado School of Mines) investigates the premise that managed trade policy is necessary, and measures South Africa's factor endowments to indicate what the country's natural level of manufacturing exports might be. Provides a review of the trade policy debate and the history of managed trade in South Africa, and covers the General Export Incentive Scheme, the neo-liberal policy position, and the generalized law of comparative advantage. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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