NEIL AGGETT LABOUR STUDIES UNIT (NALSU)
Labour Studies Seminar Series, Rhodes University
SEMINAR & WEBINAR: Wednesday 10 May 2023 4pm, Eden Grove Seminar Room 3, online via Zoom(details below).
Labour Studies Seminar Series, Rhodes University
SEMINAR & WEBINAR: Wednesday 10 May 2023 4pm, Eden Grove Seminar Room 3, online via Zoom(details below).
Finger Food available at the Venue
SPEAKER AND TOPIC: Michael Rogan, NALSU Rhodes: “Social Security for Africa's Informal Sector? Evidence and Lessons from a High Tax / Low Protection System in Ghana"
THE PAPER: 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.
SPEAKER AND TOPIC: Michael Rogan, NALSU Rhodes: “Social Security for Africa's Informal Sector? Evidence and Lessons from a High Tax / Low Protection System in Ghana"
THE PAPER: 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.
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.
JOINING: Please register in advance by going to: https://tinyurl.com/4wywpyk4
JOINING: Please register in advance by going to: https://tinyurl.com/4wywpyk4
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining.
Some DATA available for people outside Rhodes, in South Africa.
Apply: v.wessels@ru.ac.za / 072 183 6632 in advance.
HOSTS: The 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.
NALSU, based in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, is engaged in policy, research and workers' education. Built around a vibrant team from disciplines including Sociology and Economics & Economic History, it has active partnerships and relations with a range of advocacy, labour and research organisations. It draws strength from its location in a province where the legacy of apartheid and the cheap labour system, and the contradictions of the post-apartheid state, are keenly felt. We are named in honour of Dr Neil Hudson Aggett, a union organiser and medical doctor who died in 1982 in an apartheid jail after enduring brutality and torture.