NALSU NEWS: Labour Studies podcast/ video: Professor Michael Rogan, NALSU, Rhodes: “Social Security for Africa's Informal Sector? Evidence and Lessons from a High Tax / Low Protection System in Ghana."
TOPIC: In the wake of COVID-19, low- and middle-income countries face the challenge of increasing domestic resources while improving social protection. These are especially acute where countries have large informal economies, and in which many workers are employed. There are widespread debates on taxation and social protection, including grants, and the informal sector, but little empirical work. Using new, representative data on informal sector operators in Accra, Ghana, this paper contributes novel evidence on the extent to which informal sector workers in Accra have access to social protection, and to COVID-19 relief programmes. It also explores the tax burdens of informal workers. Most, it turns out, are not covered by social protection beyond national health insurance, yet all pay a wide range of taxes and fees to government, in a regressive system that falls hardest on the poorest. The paper examines the degree to which they might be able to make additional contributions to social protection schemes. It concludes with some reflections on the current tax burdens in Accra's informal sector -- and what this means for equity and progressive fiscal policy more broadly.
DETAILS: This is a recording of an online event in the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU) Labour Studies Seminar Series, held on Wednesday, 10 May 2023 4pm, on Zoom at Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa.
YouTube: https://t.co/vaYotsKr5W
Podcast: https://t.co/iaUFflxtDq
Paper: https://tinyurl.com/e75a62wd
SPEAKER: Michael Rogan is an Associate Professor in Economics and Economic History, and an active member of the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU) where he runs some of the largest projects. He is also an honorary research fellow at the HSRC’s Education and Skills Development Research Programme and a research associate in the global research-policy-action network Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO). He holds a PhD and a Masters degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal(UKZN) and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle.
HOSTS: The Labour Studies Seminar Series is run by the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU) in partnership with the Departments of Sociology & Industrial Sociology, and Economics & Economic History, Rhodes University. ABOUT NALSU: Based in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, NALSU is engaged in policy, research and workers' education. Built around a vibrant team, including from the disciplines of Sociology and Economics, NALSU has a democratic, non‐sectarian, non-aligned and pluralist practice, and active relations with a range of advocacy, labour and research organisations. We draw strength from our location in a province where the legacy of apartheid and the cheap labour system, and post-apartheid contradictions, are keenly felt. NALSU is named in honour of Neil Hudson Aggett, union organiser and medical doctor who died in an apartheid jail in 1982 following brutality and torture.