Lamusse, Roland (1982) Labour policy in a monocrop economy : the case of Mauritius. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Under the pressure of the population explosion amconstitutional
changes, social and economic conditions in Mauritius went through
a process of rapid change after the Second World War. The
introduction of universal suffrage unseated the white plantocracy
and brought to power the representatives of the urban and
rural working classes. This led to fundamen~ changes in the
Government social and economic policy. In 1963, Government
fixed the wages and conditions of employment of agricultural
and non-agricultural workers in the sugar industry.

The first chapter describes the structure of the industry and
the organisation of cane production on sugar estates. We study
the pattern of land owPership characterised by the high concentration
of cane land on millers' estates. The distribution of
land will influence the rate of production and the allocation
of resources inside the industry and the demand for and supply
of labour on estates.

In the second chapter we study the Island's social system and
its influence on Government labour policy. The forces which
led to the Government intervention in the labour market originated
in the social structure of the Mauritius plantation
economy with its rigid divisions. This accounts for the underdevelopment
of industrial relations which prompted direct
Government intervention in labour matters.
The third chapter concentrates on the impact of Government
regulations on the level of wages in the economy. The first
part focusses on the importance of the sugar industry as a wage
leader. We then study the effect of Government policy on the
structure of wages and finally its influence on the
distribution of employment.

The analysis of the macro-economic structure forms an essential
part of the work. The fourth chapter comprises a detailed
quantitative description of the structure of the Island economy,
which provides a convenient framework for the study of the
effects of wage increases on the Government finances and the
Balance of Payments.
The fifth chapter is divided into two parts. In the first part
we analyse the labour conditions on millers' estates through an
investigation of the conditions of demand for and supply of
labour. The second part provides an estimate of the marginal
productivity of field labour during the crop and intercrop by
means of production functions fitted to 1965 and 1973 data,
in order to assess the effect of Government labour policy on
the productivity of labour on estates.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
Official Date:	October 1982
Dates:	Date Event October 1982 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Economics
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Pyatt, Graham, 1936- ; Roe, Alan, 1942- ; Nath, S. K. ; Stern, N. H. (Nicholas Herbert)
Sponsors:	University of Mauritius ; Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas ; Overseas Development Administration
Extent:	xxiv, 427 leaves : illustrations
Language:	eng

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