Economists versus the Street: Comparative Viewpoints on Barriers to Self-employment in Khayelitsha, South Africa

Paul Cichello, Liberty Mncube, Morne Oosthuizen and Laura Poswell ()
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Laura Poswell: Haverford College

Working Papers from University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit

Abstract: What prevents the unemployed in Khayelitsha, South Africa from trying self-employment? Perceptions of a small group of academic economists are presented and compared to the perceptions of unemployed Khayelitsha residents themselves. The largest differences in view-points are that a) academics believe that the general business skills of residents hold the unemployed back substantially while residents perceive it as a minor issue; and b) compared to academics, residents of Khayelitsha give much more weight to jealousy within the community and to the continual vulnerability to business failure as barriers to trying self-employment.

Keywords: self employment; informal economy; unemployment; perceptions; South Africa; crime; risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2011-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-ent and nep-iue
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Published in Working Paper Series by the Development Policy Research Unit, November 2011, pages 1-20

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http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7292 First version, 2011 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctw:wpaper:11144

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