One way to boost GDP

From the Wall Street Journal:

South Africa has found an interesting way to bolster its gross domestic product: include illegal activities.

Stats SA in its latest GDP report expanded its survey to include previously uncovered areas of the economy such as crime, the drugs trade and illegal mining. The “non-observed element” of the economy accounted for 0.2% of GDP in 2008, it said.

“Information was obtained from administrative and enforcement records of the South African Police Service (SAPS), South African Revenue Service (SARS), other associations (e.g. SWEAT for prostitution) and information on other country experiences,” Stats SA said.

The contribution to GDP from the non-observed economy is seen steady at around 0.2% from 2002 through 2008, though it dipped to 0.1% in 2007. The calculations are used for its benchmarking revisions, but isn’t included in its regular quarterly numbers. On Tuesday, the country reported that GDP grew 0.9% in the quarter ended September, marking an end to its first post-apartheid recession.

Pressure has mounted on President Jacob Zuma, elected in April on a populist platform of poverty reduction and job creation. Unemployment rose to 24.5% in the third quarter after 484,000 jobs were lost during the three months, Statistics South Africa said last month.

Maybe the country should consider counting people who work in illegal activities to bring down its unemployment rate.

Academic income (in)equality

From Philip Altbach, Director of the Center for International Higher Education:

“Salary progression”—the difference in salary between junior and senior professors—in general appears modest compared to the situation in the professions outside academe. According to our research, for most of the 15 countries in the study, salaries seldom doubled between entry level and senior ranks. The major industrialized countries (including Germany, France, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom) stood at the bottom, in terms of variations between junior and senior ranks, and the developing countries (such as China, South Africa, Argentina, and others) at the top. India ranks poorly on both progression and on basic salary. The lack of possibilities for improved salaries is a problem for the profession in general, but it is particularly damaging for the most productive academics. The latter are the most likely to leave academe or to go to countries with higher salaries.

South Africa’s Illegal Saliva Trade

From the Guardian:

South Africans in an impoverished township are profiting from an illegal trade in a precious new currency ‑ saliva.

Tuberculosis sufferers in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, were found to be selling samples of their sputum to healthy people to pass off as their own in a scam to gain medical grants.

An investigation by the West Cape News identified people with TB charging R50-100 (£4.10-£8.20) for saliva samples contained in bottles stolen from health clinics.

The paper said that buyers of the samples were then able to get a card from a clinic indicating they have TB and use this to fraudulently obtain a temporary disability grant of R1,010 per month from the department of social development.