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The literature about the effects of globalisation on poverty and inequality in developing countries has been flourishing. However, there is no consensus emerging about the nature of this relationship since the observed effects of globalisation are typically country-specific. This suggests that the structure of the economy has to be taken into consideration when examining globalisation's impacts. The focus of this study is on South Africa, which is an interesting country given its history and its recent commitment to globalisation. Since the end of the apartheid era, trade liberalisation policies have been on top of the political agenda. In a country where poverty and inequality both stand at a very high level, it is particularly important to examine the microeconomic impact of trade policies. In this thesis, a computable general equilibrium model is combined with a microsimulation model in a sequential approach in order to build an effective tool to assess the effects of trade policies on South African households. This novel approach enables us to analyse in detail the microeconomic effects (on poverty and inequality) of a macroeconomic policy (trade liberalisation). The results suggest that the impact of trade liberalisation is pro-poor and mainly driven by the expansion of formal sector employment. However, the magnitude of the effects is fairly small. ; La littérature concernant les effets de la mondialisation sur la pauvreté et les inégalités dans les PED est abondante. Cependant, aucun consensus n'émerge à propos de la nature de cette relation, car l'impact de la mondialisation est spécifique à chaque PED. Ainsi, la structure économique du pays étudié doit être prise en considération dans l'analyse des effets de la mondialisation. L'intérêt de la présente étude se porte sur l'Afrique du Sud. Il s'agit d'un pays particulièrement intéressant de par son histoire et son récent engagement en faveur de la mondialisation. Depuis la fin du régime d'apartheid, les politiques de libéralisation commerciale ont figuré ...

South Africa has rapidly reduced trade barriers since the end of Apartheid, yet agricultural production and exports have remained sluggish. Also, poverty and unemployment have risen and become increasingly concentrated in rural areas. This paper examines the extent to which remaining price distortions, both domestic and foreign, are contributing to the underperformance of the agricultural sector vis-a-vis the rest of the economy. The author draws on a computable general equilibrium (CGE) and micro-simulation model of South Africa that is linked to the results of a global trade model. This framework is used to examine the effects of eliminating global and domestic price distortions. Model results indicate that South Africa's agricultural sector currently benefits from global price distortions, and that removing these will create more jobs for lower-skilled workers, thereby reducing income inequality and poverty. The author also fined that South Africa's own policies are biased against agriculture and that removing domestic distortions will raise agricultural production. Job losses in nonagricultural sectors will be outweighed by job creation in agriculture, such that overall employment rises and poverty falls. Overall, the findings suggest that South Africa's own policies are more damaging to its welfare, poverty and inequality than distortionary policies in the rest of the world. Existing national price distortions may thus explain some of the poor performance of South Africa's agricultural sector and rural development.

We apply the Kakwani approach to decomposing redistributive effect intoaverage rate, progressivity, and reranking components, using yearly datafrom the United Kingdom covering the period of 1977-2018. We examinecash and in-kind benefits, and direct and indirect taxes. In addition, wehighlight an empirical implementation issue – the definition of the reference(pre-fisc) distribution. Drawing on an innovative counterfactual approach,our empirical analysis shows that trends in the redistributive effect of cashbenefits are largely associated with cyclical changes in average benefit rates.In contrast, trends in the redistributive effects of direct and indirect taxesare mostly associated with changes in progressivity. For in-kind benefits,changes in the average benefit rate and progressivity each played major rolesat different times.

Survey under-coverage of top incomes leads to bias in survey-based estimates of overall income inequality. Using income tax record data in combination with survey data is a potential approach to address the problem; we consider here the UK's pioneering 'SPI adjustment' method that implements this idea. Since 1992, the principal income distribution series (reported annually in Households Below Average Income) has been based on household survey data in which the incomes of a small number of 'very rich' individuals are adjusted using information from 'very rich' individuals in personal income tax return data. We explain what the procedure involves, reveal the extent to which it addresses survey under-coverage of top incomes and show how it affects estimates of overall income inequality. More generally, we assess whether the SPI adjustment is fit for purpose and consider whether variants of it could be employed by other countries.