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This paper investigates the effect of foreign ownership on firm performance in the South African informal sector. Using the data of 1097 informal businesses sourced from the World Bank Enterprises Survey conducted in four Township provinces in South Africa (Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape) in 2020, the paper aims to address two issues: what is the effect of foreign ownership on performance in the South African informal sector and what factors drive foreign-ownership gap in the South African informal sector if it exists? The empirical analysis uses the multivariable decomposition technique and finds a performance gap between locally and foreign-owned businesses in the South African informal sector. A decomposition of factors shows that differences in endowments can explain the bulk of the gap. Discriminatory/unexplained factors, likely capturing the business culture, also play a significant role. Caution is given when seeking to curb foreign business participation in the informalsector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 crisis has been one of the most significant events in recent history. Informal traders who depend on a thriving tourist market have been especially vulnerable to COVID-19. The resultant travel bans affected South Africa's tourism-related informal economic activities. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of the pandemic on informal traders' livelihoods and resilience in Cape Town, South Africa. Tourists have always constituted a large proportion of informal traders' customer base. They are often willing and able to spend more than locals. The impact of travel bans on traders' income, profit margins, and livelihoods has been disastrous. However, many traders have shown commendable resilience. There were obviously limits to the effectiveness of their mitigating strategies. There is an urgent need (from a social justice and a pure economic perspective) for further relief and assistance to supplement street traders' efforts to survive as international tourism recovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship on social entrepreneurship primarily reduces social enterprises in the Global South to geographic variations of an idealized concept of combining commercial imperatives with social missions. In the article, I see social enterprise practice in economies of the Global South, namely India and South Africa, as channels to engage in the ongoing theorization of the field. The article draws on the frame of actually existing neoliberalism, moving beyond macroperspectives and policy imperatives on social entrepreneurship to show how neoliberal rationalities are mobilized and regulated by emancipatory rationalities and agendas. The empirical focus is on social enterprises mediating enterprise formation to address employment concerns in the informal, noncapital domains of India and South Africa. I draw on data from the ethnographic fieldwork on mediating social enterprises collected during my doctoral research. The lived realities of practice of the two intermediaries considered in the article, Dhwani in India and EntShare in South Africa, show mediating social enterprises in ongoing negotiations with capital and noncapital domains. Understanding the negotiations explains the convergences and divergences in how neoliberal economic rationalities align with progressive and emancipatory agendas and values across India and South Africa. In doing so, the article provides an opportunity to enrich conceptual registers of postcolonial economic geography by tracing and articulating mediation processes between neoliberal and nonneoliberal rationalities not solely from one site but across contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research analyses the precarious and non-precarious work practices within the informal sector. Labour in the informal sector and in regions without strong labour relations is not uniformly precarious but is categorised by a bimodality of incomes, citizenships and conducts. This creates opportunities for insurgent modes of counter-conduct in the interstices of regulations and social conventions, but has also resulted in exclusive local citizenships and revanchist strategies. From numerous in-depth interviews, the study found that the Covid-19 lockdown and economic recession led to a new dialectical relationship between long-term residents and a precariat in-group of non-propertied actors, recent migrants and immigrants in the informal sector. Long-term residents with local citizenship aggregated formal and informal incomes and secondary incomes within the household, elevating them out of precariousness, although primarily active in the informal sector. These included strategies of adverse incorporation and revanchist conducts to maintain incomes for non-precarious workers. Marginalised precarious workers shifted to modes of counter-conduct, hiding the true nature of the business, evading strict social conventions on local trade and pursuing new inter-ethnic citizenships based on strategic partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the productive work of Black women when they became entrepreneurs in the informal sector to create sustainable livelihoods for themselves under precarious conditions. The urban setting of South Africa is the site of the study. The economy of this African country provides little hope for the working class to survive, and Black women are at the bottom of every human development index in this context. However, these working-class Black women have decided not to take these characterisations about themselves lying down. They have risen up and decided to become street vendors to make ends meet. We also show that this form of entrepreneurship is not only survivalist, as some scholarship tends to postulate, but it is also sustainable and investment-savvy. Stokvels, in this case, are one of the investment arms that these Black women street vendors have created to grow their collective earnings. We utilise a Marxist-Feminist framework as our eyepiece to look through the study, and the critical narrative interpretation approach helps us to elucidate our data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deepening levels of poverty in Zimbabwe have resulted in high numbers of Zimbabwean women migrating to South Africa in the hopes of securing better wages and job security. Most of these migrants end up working in the informal sector with limited income, high levels of insecurity, and a lack of protection against gender-based violence and xenophobia. Regardless of the adversities that these women encounter, they often display resilience and adaptability. Based on semi-structured interviews with 22 Zimbabwean migrant women, this article documents how these migrant women navigated some of the vulnerabilities and challenges they encountered. Instead of always being constrained by different structures of violence, this article unpacks the women's strategies to ensure their survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the promotional activities embraced by informal clothing manufacturing micro-enterprises (CMMEs) in the informal economy of an emerging market. Informal micro-enterprises are both income and job-generating alternatives for unemployed people in South Africa's townships. Recent research has highlighted the need to develop unique marketing strategies to address challenges in emerging markets and help CMMEs realize their true potential. A qualitative case study, which included personal interviews with 13 CMME owners and observations at a workshop with five participating CMMEs, was undertaken at a business incubation hub. The findings from this study suggested the prevalence of opportunistic self-started promotional activities and assisted promotional activities. CMMEs selectively embrace some of the methods and activities contained in the conventional, innovational and fashion entrepreneur promotional mix strategies. The opportunistic use of promotional methods resulted in the survivalist promotional mix particular to the informal CMME in an African context. This paper makes a theoretical contribution to the knowledge base of marketing literature within the informal economy context, and literature about informal clothing micro businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa's major cities are periodically wracked by large-scale xenophobic violence directed at migrants and refugees from other countries. Informal sector businesses and their migrant owners and employees are particularly vulnerable targets during these attacks. Migrant-owned businesses are also targeted on a regular basis in smaller-scale looting and destruction of property. There is now a large literature on the characteristics and causes of xenophobic violence and attitudes in South Africa, most of it based on quantitative and qualitative research in the country's major metropolitan areas. One of the consequences of big-city xenophobia has been a search for alternative markets and safer spaces by migrants, including relocating to the country's many smaller urban centres. The question addressed in this paper is whether they are welcomed in these cities and towns or subject to the same kinds of victimization as in large cities. This paper is the first to systematically examine this question by focusing on a group of towns in Limpopo Province and the experiences of migrants in the informal sector there. Through survey evidence and in-depth interviews and focus groups with migrant and South African vendors, the paper demonstrates that xenophobia is also pervasive in these smaller centres, in ways that both echo and differ from that in the large cities. The findings in this paper have broader significance for other countries attempting to deal with the rise of xenophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that (semi-)peripheral societies might follow developmental pathways distinct from those prescribed by globalization has been explored at length in the last twenty years by scholars such as G. G. Alcock, Rem Koolhaus, Jane Guyer, AbdouMaliq Simone, Achille Mbembe, and Sarah Nuttall. For scholars who have celebrated these kinds of sociality, the informal economy—as Keith Hart has called it—represents Gordimer's "space that lies between camps": an alternative social velocity to both the corrupt or "can't do" state and global capitalist modernization. But more and more South African writers are using their work to interrogate the idea that living in the interstices of institutions such as the state, traditional community, and capital is in fact liberatory or counter-hegemonic. In this article I argue that Masande Ntshanga's 2014 novel The Reactive is the paradigm of the "disaffection" of present fiction—as Ivan Vladislavić describes it—with contemporary South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related policy measures on livelihoods in urban South Africa. Using qualitative research methods, we analyse two rounds of semi-structured phone interviews, conducted between June and September 2020 in the township of Khayelitsha, Cape Town. We contextualise these by presenting a snapshot of the nationwide dynamics using quantitative panel data. Our findings describe how the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the economic vulnerability which preceded the crisis. Survivalist livelihood strategies were undermined by the economic disruption to the informal sector, while the co-variate nature of the shock rendered social networks and informal insurance mechanisms ineffective, causing households to liquidate savings, default on insurance payments, and deepen their reliance on government grants. In addition, the impact of the pandemic on schooling may deepen existing inequalities and constrain future upward mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informal business sector in many developing economies is often seen as a driver of economic growth due to the role that this sector plays in the creation of employment opportunities, increasing the social activities of its communities, and providing business opportunities for rural entrepreneurs. The informal economy has been known to be insulated from macro-economic volatility in the global markets, but this could be an oversight on the part of the national government as they have not taken this sector into account when determining GDP or strategic imperatives to bolster the economy. The COVID-19 pandemic showcased how unprepared many economies were in the face of harsh government-imposed lockdowns and the resultant job losses that occurred due to individuals being unable to go to work. The South African government, whilst acknowledging the informal sector and the subsequent economic and social role it plays, lacks the necessary policy framework and enablement of this sector, as well as a platform that enables the continuation of business practices for informal traders that will protect them from the daunting impacts of a pandemic or another global catastrophe. The purpose of this study is to comprehend and analyse the socio-economic ramifications of the COVID-19 epidemic and its impact on the informal economy in South Africa. To do so, the study utilises discourse analysis and which is carried out using a secondary data collection approach. Theses for master's and doctoral degrees, papers presented at conferences, policy documents, government gazettes, statistical data from governments, and reports from international organizations are all taken into consideration. Articles published in scientific journals that have been subject to the process of peer review are also taken into account. According to the findings of the study, in order to protect the informal sector from unforeseen disasters in the future, it is recommended that policies and protection mechanisms be put into place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western-centric studies on opportunity-based entrepreneurship have dominated the literature on female entrepreneurs. Existing research has also tended to focus on the experiences of women in the formal rather than the informal sector. In this article, we examine female necessity entrepreneurs' experiences of learning financial and business skills in the informal street trade in South Africa. The theoretical framework for this research, which was located within a critical feminist paradigm and used a feminist phenomenological design, drew on African feminisms, resilience, and informal learning. Phenomenological, in-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of twelve women in the informal street trade in the Durban area of KwaZulu-Natal, to capture the essence of their experiences of running their businesses. The main findings showed that poor black women, especially those trading without permits in the informal street trade, faced multiple challenges, but were able to learn some of the financial and business skills necessary for survival. However, this learning was reactive, problem-centred, observation based, imitative, and partial. These findings emphasised the need for these entrepreneurs to upgrade their financial and business skills in order for their businesses to remain sustainable. The study recommended various targeted policy initiatives to support female necessity entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown regulations caused enormous changes in all business sectors because many businesses were not allowed to operate. Only a few were regarded as essential businesses, such as pharmacies and grocery shops, and allowed to operate. Lockdown regulations negatively affected the South African informal sector. As a result, it is difficult to provide accurate statistics on the entrepreneurs affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. There are no official statistics from the informal sector. This paper aims to examine how the informal sector was affected by the lockdown down restrictions within South Africa. The paper adopts a systematic review methodology using Google Scholar and Web of Science or Scopes to search for articles on informal entrepreneurship, COVID-19, and South Africa to draw a conclusion from the analysed data. The findings indicated that most of the businesses in the informal sector were negatively affected, including workers because some of them lost their jobs and others did not receive their usual salaries due to limited working hours. There were disruptions in the supply chain and pricing of goods and services, and people could not have sustained their income during the lockdown in South Africa. In conclusion, the informal sector is one of the most vulnerable sectors that lacks access to appropriate risk management structures, and most people live on a hand to mouth basis. COVID-19 has negatively affected the informal sector, mainly through distribution and marketing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African street food industry is essential in elevating the socioeconomic standing of sellers. However, most studies on street food vending focused on perception, safety, consumption, and handling of street food. Therefore, it is necessary to fill this gap. The study explores street food vending contribution on poverty and unemployment in the Mahikeng Local Municipality. The study's goal was accomplished by using a mixed research methodology. A sample size of 401 respondents were selected for the study and data was obtained using structured, semi-structured and unstructured questionnaires. The study found that street food vending creates jobs not only for the people involved in the trade, but also for people who would otherwise be unemployed, for example, those who are retrenched. In addition, street food distribution has become a cornerstone for vendors to generate income to supplement family income that improved the standard of living of the vendors. Additionally, some vendors were able to acquire assets such as livestock and landed property from the profit made from the business, contributing to reducing poverty incidence among traders in the area. The paper concludes that street food vending has contributed in creating jobs thus, reducing poverty incidence. However, the street food industry continues to confront obstacles such as lack of cash and credit and location-based business restrictions. Therefore, in order for SFV to be effective, steps must be taken to minimise the difficulties affecting the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resumen: En el presente artículo se examina cómo han evolucionado las funciones reguladoras de la legislación laboral en la región de la Comunidad de África Meridional para el Desarrollo (SADC) y se señalan casos de segmentación legal del mercado de trabajo. Los autores explican las características demográficas de la economía informal en los Estados miembros de la SADC y concluyen que, a pesar de la constitucionalización del derecho del trabajo, los mecanismos de legislación laboral de la región contribuyen sustancialmente a la segmentación legal de la economía. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informal economy is very crucial when managing local economic growth but its effectivity seems to be reluctant in South Africa despite efforts from the locals. This study seeks to design a framework for the contributions and constraints of the informal economy on domestic economic growth in the Thembisile Hani local municipality in South Africa. The current study follows a quantitative approach to investigate on the research variables that impact the expansion of the domestic economic growth. It uses a Likert scale type of questionnaire for data assemblage. The SPSS version 22 was used for the statistical analysis of research data. The reliability and validity of the research variables and the used instrument were confirmed with a Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of .979. Research findings revealed that 96.1% of the domestic economic growth is explained by the behaviour of the employment opportunities, government support, convenient regulations and infrastructures, conducive local municipality and poverty solution. The correlation and the regression analysis showed that relationship between the domestic economic development and its variables was positive and significant with a P-value of .000 at the significance level of 1%. The study proposed an informal sector management framework that include constraints of the informal economy, the imperfectly defined guiding framework in addition to the indifferent state approach towards informal economy. Findings showed that constraints of the informal economy include the limited access to funding, trading infrastructure, skills development as well as the lack of state recognition besides the extension of shopping malls to the townships and villages. The revised framework comprises an additional section for the positive implications such as the employment creation, poverty reduction, investment prospects and a vibrant local economic development once the restrictions of the informal economy are relieved by the local municipality and the government. The revised framework therefore constitutes a legitimately defined tool for the effective implementation of the informal economy as foundation for a sustainable local economic development in the South African municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative research sought to explore sustainable livelihoods for the international female migrant youth in South Africa by using a narrative theory. South Africa has a number of the international female migrant youth coming from countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) who migrated to the country for better standards of living and sustainable livelihoods. Studies reveal that during their quest to seek a better life, female migrants face various challenges which impede their successful adaptation in South African communities. There are no studies specifically conducted in Musina to allow female migrant youth to narrate strategies for their sustainable livelihoods given the challenges they face. Thus, nine female refugees in a selected church in Musina were conveniently and purposefully selected as a case study to pursue the aim of the current research. Data was collected through semi-structured face to face interviews and were analysed thematically with the assistance of the Nvivo software. Findings reveal that female migrants find it difficult to secure jobs in South Africa because of their undocumented status. For their sustainable livelihoods, female migrant youth employ different strategies to mitigate hunger and unemployment which include street vending, setting up hair salons and doing menial jobs such as cleaning, washing for South African households. The study has also found that female migrant youth have an entrepreneurial mind as they have established certain strategies to survive under extreme hardships. It can thus be concluded from this study that female migrant youth in South Africa are faced with unpleasant challenges upon their arrival leading them to making tough decisions on how they are going to survive, hence their involvement in the informal sector. Skills based programmes to empower immigrants should be established in order to assist those who cannot find employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experience with urban social protection programmes is relatively limited in the Global South. Extensions or duplicates of rural social assistance programmes do not reflect the distinct vulnerabilities of the urban poor, who face higher living costs and more precarious employment, and are not reached by social insurance schemes that are designed for formally employed workers. Neither the Sustainable Development Goals nor the New Urban Agenda reflect a specific focus on urban social protection. COVID-19 has exposed this major gap in coverage, given the disproportionate impact of lockdowns on the livelihoods of the urban poor. To 'build back better' post COVID-19, we propose rights-based national social protection systems with two components: categorical social assistance for non-working vulnerable groups (children, older persons, persons with disability) and universal social insurance for all working adults (formal, informal or self-employed), financed out of general revenues rather than mandatory contributions by employees and employers. These ideas are explored in the case of South Africa, which has comprehensive social assistance but inadequate social insurance for urban informal workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal waste reclaimers are a key part of South Africa's recycling economy, being responsible for around 51% of all paper and packaging waste collected in South Africa in 2017. Active in the waste and recycling landscape for more than three decades, their activity predates the earliest voluntary paper and packaging Extended Producer Responsibility schemes. However, these voluntary schemes have been instrumental in scaling South Africa's recycling economy. Investment by brand owners, retailers, converters and recyclers has helped develop local end-use markets, creating a demand for paper and packaging recyclables and a resultant increase in their collection. An analysis of tonnage and price data shows that the mean estimate of money paid by the private sector to the informal waste sector through the purchase of recyclables at intermediaries such as buy-back centres, was ZAR625 million in 2012, increasing to ZAR872 million in 2017. This private sector 'investment' in the local recycling economy has led to direct and indirect job creation and improved livelihoods, particularly for a large, well-established and effective informal waste sector, and has indirectly funded municipal waste diversion strategies, saving municipalities in both the collection and disposal of waste. Significance: * Informal waste reclaimers make a significant contribution to the diversion of paper and packaging recyclables from landfill to recycling in South Africa. * Limited information exists on the earnings of informal reclaimers. * This paper provides new insights on the annual financial payments made by the private sector to informal reclaimers tor the collection of recyclables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the evidence that has been documented on the impact of demographic factors on innovation has primarily focused on large businesses, and there has been little focus on small businesses. The literature continues to confirm that innovation is a key success factor for any type and size of business, especially for small businesses in emerging economies. This current research focuses on exploring the topic of small accommodation businesses (SABs) with evidence from two developing economies, the Free State province in South Africa and Manicaland in Zimbabwe. The research adopted a survey design where primary data were retrieved from a sample of 278 randomly selected individuals with origins in the two economies. The results of the study showed: (i) innovativeness in SABs is influenced by the age and experience of the managers or owners in one of the countries and when the scores of the two countries are aggregated; (ii) Younger owner and managers were found to be more creative and innovative than their older counterparts who were more experienced. It is, therefore, necessary that owners of SABs continue to employ and invest in young people. Their energy, education, and ability to innovate make them an invaluable investment to ensure the competitive advantage and long-term sustainability of SABs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa lags behind among other developing and emerging market economies on business start-ups. Businesses that fail in a year is averaging between 50% and 60%, a figure quite high for a country struggling with achieving sustainable economic growth to reduce unemployment, inequality and poverty. This study identifies issues hurting SMMEs that need attention from both businesses themselves as well as from policymakers. The objective of this study is to identify key business success determinants using cross-sectional data that was randomly collected from informal businesses in Johannesburg/Pretoria in South Africa from 390 informal SMMEs. Using assets ownership as a yardstick for success in an ordered logistic regression, the study finds education status, income, employment growth, centre of operation, financial inclusion, experience, financial literacy and advertising budget were significant in explaining assets ownership (success) in South Africa. This study recommends that the government through its various institutions that deal specifically with small businesses come up with radical business training programmes so as to improve the finance literacy among small business. Also, small business owners should budget to fund their advertising budgets since it is found that advertising has a positive impact of firm success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is rapidly urbanising and urban food systems are being transformed. Some have argued that this transformation is driven by a supermarket revolution akin to that in North America, Europe and Latin America. Others suggest that the supermarket revolution model oversimplifies complex African realities and that urban food systems are experiencing uneven supermarket penetration in the face of resilient informal food sectors. This paper focuses on Windhoek, Namibia, showing that the city's food system is dominated by South African and local supermarket chains. Since the end of apartheid, South African supermarket chains have expanded their operations into Namibia. Supermarket domination of Windhoek's urban food system is a function of proximity of South Africa and integration into South African supply chains. In other African countries, supermarket penetration has been much slower and is even being reversed. Explanations for uneven penetration in different countries require greater contextualisation and more case study research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing pool of evidence showing that cash transfers can promote livelihood activities. Yet there has been limited empirical studies that explore how financial support influences beneficiaries' decision-making in the construction and operation of livelihood activities in an urban context. This study presents findings from qualitative research conducted in a poor urban community in South Africa. Structuration theory provides an analytical tool to understand how cash transfers enable decision-making of beneficiaries in livelihood activities. The study finds that beneficiaries make different types of initial and ongoing decisions to improve their socio-economic condition. Among the contributions of this paper is that it counters the cynicism that is usually attached to cash transfers. The study's implications include the incorporation of both social and economic goals in the design of social protection policies as well as the need for greater recognition of the role of the informal economy in eradicating poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the domains of economics and public policy studies, there has been a sturdy increase in the literature on the role played by immigrants (within the premise of this study, unskilled immigrants) in the development of South Africa, especially from an economic perspective. Examining literature related to African migrants in South Africa and their economic contribution, this paper sought to understand whether (un)skilled immigrants contribute to South Africa's economic development. Amongst the findings of the paper, it was revealed that despite the contribution of (un)skilled immigrants to the South African economy, especially since the fall of apartheid (evident by the different types of informal businesses they run: barbershops, restaurants, vehicle repair shops and salons, to mention a few), their constant struggle to navigate the xenophobic sentiments within South African society is hindering their integration within their respective communities. Nonetheless, despite these challenges, informal businesses by unskilled migrants have become an economic lifeline for those making a living in the informal sector. Central to this has been that they create employment and partake in the transfer of skills and business acumen to their South African employees. Despite their contribution, the role of migrants within the premise of economic contribution has not been welcomed, rather immigrants have been associated with crime and drug smuggling. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to understand how migrants contribute to South Africa's socio-economic development despite the many challenges they encounter in their quest to integrate within South African society. The study argues that immigrants have contributed to the growth and development of South Africa's informal sector and with their contribution, contrary to the popular belief that they steal jobs, has created employment and allowed for the transfer of skills to their South African employees. The study, however, acknowledges that from a government perspective, more needs to be done to assist migrants to integrate within South African society and with the development of their businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informal sector is an integral part of several sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and plays a key role in the economic growth of these countries. This article used a comparative systematic review to explore the factors that act as drivers to informality in South Africa (SA) and Nigeria, the challenges that impede the growth dynamics of the informal sector, the dominant subsectors, and policy initiatives targeting informal sector providers. A systematic search of Google Scholar, Scopus, ResearchGate was performed together with secondary data collated from grey literature. Using Boolean string search protocols facilitated the elucidation of research questions (RQs) raised in this study. An inclusion and exclusion criteria became necessary for rigour, comprehensiveness and limitation of publication bias. The data collated from thirty-one (31) primary studies (17 for SA and 14 for Nigeria) revealed that unemployment, income disparity among citizens, excessive tax burdens, excessive bureaucratic hurdles from government, inflationary tendencies, poor corruption control, GDP per capita, and lack of social protection survival tendencies all act as drivers to the informal sector in SA and Nigeria. Several challenges are given for both economies and policy incentives that might help sustain and improve the informal sector in these two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working poverty exists worldwide and has shown an increase in prevalence over the past few decades. Over the years, there has been an increase in the number and severity of low-wage employment, which in turn contributes significantly to poverty. Whilst paid employment has generally been considered as the predominant means to survive financially, salaries may be too low to maintain reasonable living standards. South African research on low-wage employment and working poverty in particular, are rare. Using data from the first four waves of the National Income Dynamics Study, this study fills the existing research gap by examining low-wage employment, working poverty, and low-wage poverty. The empirical findings indicated that all three groups are predominantly lowly-educated, middle-aged African female employees involved in elementary occupations in the informal sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is considerable policy interest in supporting township economies at present. This is important considering their history of marginalization and the extent of unemployment and poverty. However, the short-term injection of additional resources could simply leak out unless more conducive conditions are created for enterprises to grow and develop locally. The paper examines the framework of government laws, regulations and administrative procedures that inhibit township economic development. Inappropriate standards and onerous approval systems make it difficult for firms with growth aspirations and potential to formalize their operations and expand. The current situation oscillates between laissez-faire neglect and enforcement of punitive regulations, which creates uncertainty and opportunities for abuse. The paper concludes with some recommendations to create a more enabling environment, emphasizing the need for local experimentation and learning from reforms to different elements of the regulatory framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste pickers are widely regarded as among the most marginalised groupings in the informal economy. Theoretically, this can have a negative impact on the evaluation of their well-being. The aim of the research was to investigate possible determinants of subjective well-being in South Africa's informal economy, using a case study of waste pickers on landfill sites in the Free State province of South Africa. The data were sourced from structured interviews with 420 waste pickers on landfill sites in the three major municipalities in the Free State province in 2012. A mixed method research design was used in the research. The standard quantitative data analysis was supplemented with a qualitative analysis to provide deeper insight into the research question. The results are reported in context with the broader perspective of the labour market in South Africa. The results indicate the importance of location and size of the landfill in explaining the subjective well-being of the waste pickers. Further research is needed among other marginalised groups to gain a clearer understanding of the lives and livelihoods of those involved in the informal economy of South Africa. Society will then be better placed to value the contribution of informal waste pickers in the waste economy and policy makers will be better equipped to integrate them in the formal waste management strategies of municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major limitation to improved waste management in South Africa lies in the paucity of reliable waste data and the exclusion of the contribution of the informal sector from reporting. Due to the disparity in the provision of formal waste management services across households in South Africa, omission of the quantified contribution of informal management practices leads to an inaccurate representation of waste management practices in existing waste data repositories. Given the potentially adverse social and environmental consequences of unregulated waste management practices, a lack of representation thereof has the potential to underestimate impacts. As of 2015, 31% of households are reported as lacking a basic refuse removal service; however, this number cannot necessarily be applied directly to waste quantities, given the regional and socio-economic differences that occur in per capita waste generation rates. The total quantity of domestic waste in South Africa and fraction disposed informally are estimated here, taking into account differences in waste generation rates based on income and settlement type. The characterisation and quantification of unregulated waste streams is beneficial in assessing the magnitude of the problem and, where necessary, identifying mitigation action. The results obtained show that 29% (3.67 million tonnes per annum) of domestic waste generated is not collected or treated via formal management options. Of this waste, the majority (85%) is generated in rural areas. The most common waste management option for unserviced households is a private dump. An estimated 94% of households in unserviced rural areas make use of private dumps, while in unserviced urban and metro areas this decreases to 74% and 71% of households, respectively. Illegal dumping is the next most common waste management option for unserviced areas. The proportion of household waste disposed of via illegal dumping ranges from an estimated 5% for unserviced rural households to 27% in metro areas with the balance made up by ‘other’ disposal/treatment options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, the informal sector, including food vending, is either criminalized or ignored. This is despite the fact that it plays an important role in the economy in terms of employment, income generation, food distribution and livelihoods for the urban poor. This paper assesses the nature, operations, strategies and challenges of the informal food sector in Cape Town. Data was collected through a survey of over 1000 informal food vendors in the city. Most of the enterprises were single-owner businesses, financed from personal savings and started by owners seeking employment, independence and improved financial security for their families. Most businesses had little or no access to finance from government agencies, banks and micro-finance lenders. Entrepreneurs faced various challenges ranging from insufficient sales, competition, changing consumer food needs and rising stock prices. To survive in a challenging economic environment, they adopt various innovative strategies including changing the types of foods they sell, increasing food stock variety, monitoring formal food retailing prices and negotiating with suppliers for favourable stock prices. Despite the various challenges being experienced, the informal food sector has become an integral and indispensable component of the food system of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The BRICS have waste policies, but they are in very different stages and application. • South Africa and Brazil have an accommodation relation between formal e informal. • Russia has incompatible goals between formal and informal institutions. • China has compatible goals between formal and informal institutions. • India has an informal sphere that is complementing formal policy. The world population is becoming more urbanized, wealthier but also more wasteful. The resolution of the problem of ever increasing amounts of solid waste is not yet a priority in many developing countries where informal organization has managed to partially tackle the problem. In this article we explore the interface between formal and informal waste management in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). The aim of this article is to comparatively evaluate the main challenges of urban solid waste management for the BRICS from an institutional point of view. Based on a literature review, interviews with experts on the BRICS and a search for relevant legislation and formal institutions, evidence of informal institutions and the informal economy's role following New Institutional Economics was considered. The results indicate that while in Brazil and South Africa there is a state incentive to formalize scavenging for more efficient outcomes, Russia shows a significant blind-spot on the issue, China apparently awaits a technological solution to the problem, and India's cultural, ethnic and caste-based divide of society make recent policies aimed at improving waste pickers' conditions challenging to enforce. This research has shown that it is not as much an issue of enforcement of the (often recent) legislations, but rather one of cultural and informal organizational factors, that play into the issue of continued problems concerning waste management. For achieving waste management policy goals, we suggest a more open multi-stakeholder approach to the inclusion of informal organizations in public waste management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent listeriosis outbreak in South Africa brought food safety concerns to the fore in terms of both policy and practice. These concerns encompass both health and nutrition aspects, as well as the economy, because the food system in South Africa contributes significantly to economic growth and food security. However, the food sector is challenged with food safety risks, such as foodborne diseases, food fraud and a general lack of effective enforcement of regulation. The inability of government to effectively regulate the food sector is a contributing factor to increased food safety risks. Focusing on the formal sector, which is subject to regulation, this review provides an overview of the current state of food safety policies and regulations, food safety challenges, and food safety practices in the food system, after the listeriosis crisis of 2017 and 2018. This study used a systematic process to review three sets of data in South Africa: food safety related public policies and regulations, company reports (2013–2018) and media articles (May 2017–May 2018). Food safety policies were selected from a food system policy database created by the research team. The company reports were retrieved from their websites. Factivia was used to search for the media articles. The data were thematically analyzed. The analysis framework was informed by the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) food safety risk analysis. Activities related to food safety risk analysis: risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication were searched for in each material included in the study. Seventy-four documents made up of 13 policies, 47 media articles and 15 company reports were reviewed. Food safety is regulated by three governments departments: Department of Health (DOH), Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through bylaws and regulations. The departments are directly (DAFF) or indirectly (DOH through municipal or metro Environmental Health Professional) involved in food safety enforcement, surveillance, and education. The enforcement of different regulatory processes is often poorly coordinated. Responding to this regulatory environment, food safety activities of the food retail industry include a self-regulatory system reliant on internal and third-party food audits, worker training, external testing, and consumer education. Given this fragmented framework and the lack of interaction, it is clear that the governance of the South African food safety system is not "fit for purpose" in that there is a gap in the effectiveness of government regulation and the self-regulation of the formal sector, and a growing risk from an inability to regulate the large informal sector. Food safety challenges identified in our analysis included disease outbreaks, concerns over mislabeling, and lack of regulation for food handling and distribution. The findings suggest that there should be a combination of responsibility from all levels of stakeholders in the food retail sector in order to improve food safety and prevent food safety breaches. In addition, strong governance of the food safety system is required to enable effective legislation and enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the exchange rate pass‐through (ERPT) to inflation in Nigeria and South Africa by incorporating structural breaks and using time series variables, namely the consumer price index, nominal effective exchange rate, gross domestic product, and crude oil price. Based on the Maki cointegration test and a flexible estimation approach of the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, our empirical evidence suggests that the long‐ and short‐run ERPT to inflation is complete for Nigeria, while for South Africa it is incomplete both in the long run and short run. This result indicates that prices are stickier in South Africa compared to Nigeria. The comparison between Nigeria and South Africa confirms the role of inflation targeting and central bank credibility on the ERPT. The results divulge further that output growth in Nigeria increases inflation in the long run while it is anti‐inflationary in the short run. For South Africa, the effect of output growth is negatively insignificant. In addition, the long‐run effect of oil price is negative and significant for Nigeria, while for South Africa the short‐run effect of oil price is positive and significant. Therefore, the findings of this paper will assist the monetary authorities to achieve monetary policy objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present study investigates the presence of self‐selection among internal and international migrants in Gauteng, South Africa and further disentangles the effects of observed and unobserved characteristics in the self‐selection of migrants by conducting Oaxaca‐Blinder decomposition on overall employment and self‐employment outcome variables. Our analysis, based on system‐GMM analysis of pseudo‐panel data, indicates that international migrants experienced markedly higher levels of employment than both locals and internal migrants driven by higher rates of informal and self‐employment. International migrants were also found to outperform their South African‐born counterparts on various variables indicative of well‐being like total household income, per capita household income, higher life satisfaction, and lower debt levels. Even though international migrants did not have higher levels of education, the Oaxaca‐Blinder decomposition provided evidence of the positive selection of international migrants to Gauteng, based on unobservable characteristics, to achieve higher levels of employment and self‐employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In settings where abortion is legally restricted, or permitted but not widely accessible, women face significant barriers to abortion access, sometimes leading them to seek services outside legal facilities. The advent of medication abortion has further increased the prevalence of informal sector abortion. This study investigates the reasons for attempting self-induction, methods used, complications, and sources of information about informal sector abortion, and tests a specific recruitment method which could lead to improved estimates of informal sector abortion prevalence among an at-risk population.Methods: We recruited women who have sought informal sector abortion services in Cape Town, South Africa using respondent driven sampling (RDS). An initial seed recruiter was responsible for initiating recruitment using a structured coupon system. Participants completed face-to-face questionnaires, which included information about demographics, informal sector abortion seeking, and safe abortion access needs.Results: We enrolled 42 women, nearly one-third of whom reported they were sex workers. Thirty-four women (81%) reported having had one informal sector abortion within the past 5 years, 14% reported having had two, and 5% reported having had three. These women consumed home remedies, herbal mixtures from traditional healers, or tablets from an unregistered provider. Twelve sought additional care for potential warning signs of complications. Privacy and fear of mistreatment at public sector facilities were among the main reported reasons for attempting informal sector abortion. Most women (67%) cited other community members as their source of information about informal sector abortion; posted signs and fliers in public spaces also served as an important source of information.Conclusions: Women are attempting informal sector abortion because they seek privacy and fear mistreatment and stigma in health facilities. Some were unaware how or where to seek formal sector services, or believed the cost was too high. Many informal methods are ineffective and unsafe, leading to potential warning signs of complications and continued pregnancy. Sex workers may be at particular risk of unsafe abortion. Based on these results, it is essential that future studies sample women outside of the formal health sector. The use of innovative sampling methods would greatly improve our knowledge about informal sector abortion in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global reports on illnesses and deaths related to food consumption continue to raise concern in most countries. This has led to diligent efforts to improve the manner in which food is handled. Hygienic handling of carcasses after slaughter is critical in preventing contamination and ensuring meat safety in both formal and informal meat trading sectors. However, in the informal sector, regulations as prescribed in the Meat Safety Act No. 40 of 2000, which have been set to protect consumer health, are not always adhered to. Although these regulations are put into practice in the formal sector, meat safety challenges associated with meat handling during distribution continue to raise concern. The distribution stage is the most critical period, during which the quality of meat can easily be compromised. Furthermore, meat inspection at the abattoir covers only visual assessment, without considering microbiological tests. Meeting food safety requirements set by government regulations remains a challenge to almost all food processors. This paper reviews the impact of post-slaughter handling on carcass quality and its implications for meat safety during the distribution stage in the formal and informal sectors in South Africa. It also details how meat handling in the informal meat trade exposes consumers to high health risks and recommends that governments create legislation that would be applicable to carcasses produced in the informal sector to align this sector with the regulations governing food production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores informal markets as spaces of socialisation. Informal markets are important given the increase in migrants seeking a better life in cities and the need to formulate appropriate development policies. The methodology used involved a literature study that focused on social adaptation, and fieldwork done at an informal market in South Africa. The results show that informal traders are able to adapt to difficult circumstances by using informal networks, and also that they can remain victims trapped in poverty if they accept their powerless situations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In April 2015, a Whatsapp text message instructed millions of African immigrants in South Africa to go home. The message drew on xenophobia and afrophobia to criminalise African immigrants in South Africa. Broadly, immigrants are seen as breaking the law by illegally crossing a sovereign border and becoming illegal foreigners. Having entered the country without authorisation (‘papers’), these foreigners become perceived as drug dealers, traffickers of children, squatters, facilitators/exploiters of an informal economy, and thieves stealing opportunities from South Africans. This article identifies three principle techniques of criminalising immigrants: 1) immigrants being compelled to purchase immigrant documents through illicit means to stay legally in South Africa; 2) the South African Police Service conducting raids such as Operation Fiela and arresting foreigners; 3) the South African Police Service, along with the Department of Home Affairs officials, illegally detaining immigrants. Together, these techniques contribute to the criminalisation of African foreign nationals. These techniques are increasingly characteristic of governance in the global south and explain how a Whatsapp message can reverberate throughout South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The notion of an inclusive green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication requires an approach that engages with the informal economy. However, the informal economy is generally ignored or undervalued in discussions on the green economy. This paper set out to bolster this argument by identifying the ways in which the green economy and the informal economy may be connected by establishing the extent to which policies and plans relating to green economy connect with the informal economy, and recognising several informal green activities. The barriers and opportunities for connecting the two spheres were also explored as well as possible ways in which such activities may be supported at different levels of organisation. In the case of South Africa, many informal green activities that contribute to sustainable livelihoods are recognised. However, issues pertaining to procedure, process and participation hinder the transition to a truly inclusive green economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare conditions in informal day-labor markets in South Africa and the USA to better understand the nature of worker vulnerabilities in this market, as well as the economic conditions that have contributed to the growth of day labor. The conclusion considers interventions that are underway in the two countries to improve conditions in day-labor markets. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on national surveys of day laborers in South Africa and the USA. A random sample of day laborers seeking work at informal hiring sites was undertaken in each country. The paper presents key findings, compares conditions in South Africa and the USA, and analyzes the relationship between economic change, labor-market dynamics, and worker vulnerability. Findings – Day-labor work is characterized by low pay, hazardous conditions on the job, and tremendous income insecurity. The day-labor markets in South Africa and the USA perform somewhat different functions within regional economies. Within South Africa, day labor can be regarded as a survival strategy. The growth of day labor in South Africa over the past decade is a manifestation of a formal labor market that is incapable of absorbing the structurally unemployed. Here, day labor is the employment of last resort, allowing workers to subsist on the fringes of the mainstream economy, but offering few pathways into the formal sector. In the USA, the day labor workforce is a largely undocumented-immigrant workforce. Workers seek work at informal hiring sites, maintaining a tenuous hold on jobs in the construction industry. There is evidence of some mobility into more stable and better paying employment. Practical implications – This paper documents the need for policies and programs to increase employment opportunities for day laborers and to better enforce labor standards in the informal economy. Originality/value – This paper summarizes findings from the only two national surveys of day laborers that have been conducted, and it compares for the first time the dynamic within growing day-labor markets in a developed- and emerging-market context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, in the face of volatile economic conditions at home, there has been an influx of Zimbabweans into South Africa looking for work and a better life. Many of these jobseekers have moved into the day labourer market, offering their services on street corners and other pickup points in the main metropolitan areas. While their working and living conditions leave much to be desired and their pay is very uncertain, Zimbabwean day labourers – with better education – often are the preferred candidates for the limited jobs on offer and earn more than their counterparts in South Africa. Not surprisingly, South African day labourers often resent Zimbabwean workers in the country. This study is the first of its kind in that it delves into the hopes, fears and daily routines of Zimbabwean day labourers, and offers new perspectives on this important economic segment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In early 2012, South Africa's Western Cape Province enacted new alcohol control legislation amid mounting concern with the costs of alcohol-related harms. This has focused on urban shebeen closure to control the informal, unlicensed trade and the harms it generates through crime, violence and injury. In contrast to policy discourse, this paper contends that rather than existing outside regulation, the city's shebeeners embrace multiple (self and collective) regulatory strategies to manage the inherent risks of their own informality. Drawing on novel empirical data including a ‘business census’ and interviews with the police and liquor traders across four Cape Town case study sites, the paper adds new depth to contemporary engagements with the appropriate and equitable regulation of the South African informal liquor trade. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The prevention of lead exposure continues to constitute a major public health challenge in developed countries. In well-resourced countries major lead exposure reduction interventions have resulted in significant improvements in childhood blood lead distributions. In developing countries on the other hand, while lead exposure and poisoning remain serious public health concerns, a range of prevailing factors and circumstances, such as poverty, a large informal sector, competing public health challenges, low levels of awareness of lead hazards and weak capacity to enforce legislation, contribute to an increase in the scale and intensity of the challenge, and limit the prospects of comparable success in the foreseeable future. This paper collates available information to illustrate that despite some progress, a wide range of sources of lead exist in South Africa, and that certain settings and groups continue to be at high risk of lead exposure. Lead exposure in relation to paint, mining, lead melting in subsistence fishing communities, the consumption of Ayurvedic medicines and food production is described, and discussed with regard to the key factors hindering efforts to prevent lead poisoning and exposure in South Africa and many other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artisanal, or small-scale mining, is widely recognised as a key, but often controversial, survival strategy adopted by low-income communities in the global South. This paper examines how members of one community in South Africa, that of Indwe, in a desperate effort to create self-employment, have initiated micro-level coal-mining enterprises, which have had the downstream effect of supporting local transportation and brick-making operations. Government concerns over the legality of these activities overlie the recent depletion of the local resource and the involvement of a mining corporate in the region. In terms of the way forward, the paper explores the uneasy compromise which has emerged between the corporate's social responsibility initiatives and the suspicions of the artisanal miners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a decade of unsuccessful efforts to migrate informal businesses to South Africa's formal economy there remains little understanding of the dynamics in this sector, especially as regards micro-enterprises. International literature discusses ‘exit’ and ‘exclusion’, holding that poor law enforcement is the reason for the persistence and growth of the informal economy. Through examining the informal liquor retail (shebeen) sector, we demonstrate that enforcement actually produces informality in this sector. Illustrated with examples from one of our sites in Delft South, Cape Town, the article describes key aspects of shebeen business practice, including the responses to greater law enforcement. Notably, instead of closing shop or facing the hurdles of compliance, the great majority of shebeens continue to evade the law by downscaling their activities. This finding has implications not just for liquor policy in South Africa, but for understanding both theories of formalisation and theories of the informal economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of tools for development has evolved from the industrial revolution over time. The late 18th and 19th centuries saw the increased use of machines and developments in the mining industries; in the 20th century, there was increased use of information and technology; and major breakthroughs sparked the evolution of the information and knowledge society of the 21st century. The basis of the information and knowledge society revolves around technology's increased assimilation and diffusion in human society, particularly information and communication technologies and their rapid growth and use in the exchange of information and knowledge. This society offers many opportunities and benefits to people in terms of the facilitation of information creation, distribution, diffusion, access and use for growth and development in various spheres of life. In this paper we discuss the role of the information and knowledge society (IKS) for informal sector women entrepreneurs (ISWEs) and focus on what there is in the IKS that could benefit ISWEs, analyse the criteria, indicators and benefits of IKS and explore the challenges and opportunities of IKS. At the end of the paper we provide recommendations for the development of IKS for the benefit of rural women. The paper is informed by recent doctoral work on the role of the information and knowledge society in poverty alleviation and the economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs in South Africa's informal sector. We find that by using criteria and indicators of an information and knowledge society to assess whether or not South Africa meets these requirements, South Africa indeed meets some of the criteria. However, it does not, in many instances, satisfy other criteria, and thus cannot be regarded unconditionally as an information and knowledge society. We recommend that South Africa should work toward achieving and meeting the criteria of the information and knowledge society by assessing itself against the criteria and indicators of such a society. Doing so would enable informal sector women entrepreneurs to reap the opportunities presented by the information and knowledge society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored entrepreneurial values in Johannesburg's informal sector. Using responses to open-ended questions in a survey of 359 informal traders, the author analysed the way Western and indigenous (African) values mix to form hybrid values. The resulting understanding of hybridity makes it apparent that these traders exhibit both kinds of value in varying forms. In this paper the implications of the emergence of hybrid values, as a form of entrepreneurial capital, are explored using Bourdieu's notion of embodied capital. On this basis it is proposed that hybrid values are of material benefit to traders through conversion into other forms of capital, such as financial capital. More research is required, however, to investigate further how hybrid values translate into material gain in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wild harvesting has taken place over millennia in Africa. However urbanization and cash economies have effectively altered harvesting from being cultural, traditional, and subsistence activities that are part of a rural norm, to being a subculture of commonly illicit activities located primarily within the urban, cash-based, informal economy. This paper focuses on Cape Town, South Africa where high levels of poverty and extensive population growth have led to a rapidly growing informal industry based on the cultural, subsistence, and entrepreneurial harvesting and consumption of products obtained from the local natural environment. Through a process of literature reviews, database analysis, and key informant interviews, a compendium of harvested species was developed, illustrating the breadth of illicit harvesting of products from nature reserves, public open space, and other commonage within the City. The compendium records 448 locally occurring species (198 animals and 250 plants) that are extracted for medicinal, energy, ornamental, sustenance, nursery, and other uses. The sustainability of harvesting is questionable; nearly 70% of all harvested flora and 100% of all collected fauna are either killed or reproductively harmed through the harvesting processes. Furthermore, for the 183 indigenous flora species currently recorded on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, 28% (51) hold assessments ranging from Declining through to Critically Endangered. With respect to the more poorly assessed fauna (46 spp.), approximately 24% (11) have Declining or Threatened status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited consensus on how to define informal employment in South Africa, but in the South African and international literature the three most common ways of capturing informal employment are the enterprise, employment relationship and worker characteristics approaches. This paper reviews the methods used by Statistics South Africa to measure informal employment before and after the introduction of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, and other recently proposed methods. It then investigates the congruence, if any, between five measures of informality used in 2009. It finds that 94.7% of the self-employed are informal according to at least one definition, but only 62.6% according to all five combined. In addition, these two proportions are only 67.7% and 6.9% respectively in the case of informal employees. Econometric analysis is conducted to further investigate the differences between these measures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]