TY - JOUR AU - Barnard, Nico AU - Oranje, Mark PY - 2014/12/31 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Proxy indicators as measure of local economic dispositions in South Africa: An exploratory study JF - Town and Regional Planning JA - trp VL - 65 IS - 0 SE - Research articles DO - 10.38140/trp.v65i0.554 UR - https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/trp/article/view/554 SP - 12-22 AB - <p>Despite rapid advances and sizeable middle-class formation in many African&nbsp;countries, development planning is still frustrated by the absence of reliable, relevant&nbsp;and up-to-date data. Even though South Africa is in a more fortunate position with&nbsp;regard to the availability of such data, it also has data gaps, notably with regard to&nbsp;informal economic activities in the rural areas of the country. This exploratory article&nbsp;engages the use of proxy indicators to provide cues as to the state of a local economy.&nbsp;The article explores the relationship between a number of potential proxy indicators&nbsp;and the national economy in order to identify those proxy indicators that mirror the&nbsp;national economy. An interview approach was used to test the identified indicators&nbsp;in three small towns in order to establish whether the nationally determined proxies&nbsp;reflect economic trends in practice. The six proxy indicators that closely mirrored&nbsp;the local economies of the three sampled towns represent a modest, introductory&nbsp;exploration of an area worthy of far more empirical research.&nbsp;</p> ER -