United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), together with its partners, now invites research proposals related to migration for the Southern Africa Towards Inclusive Economic Development (SA-TIED) programme. Deadline for submissions is 06 April, 2020 23:59 UTC+3.
In 2016, we joined a project in South Africa working to make tax data available for research purposes. Tax authorities collect an enormous amount of data on companies and individuals, data that is useful for economics research and economic policy-making, and the potential to learn from such a large collection of data on the economy is huge.
The success of an economy’s manufacturing sector is often critical to economic growth and development. As a major contributor to exports, site of innovation, adopter of international best practices, and engine of job creation, an internationally competitive manufacturing sector often drives output and employment growth.
Service exports are the fastest growing portion of world trade and now account for nearly a quarter of global exports. Tradable services contribute to economic growth and development by bolstering industrial capabilities, facilitating productivity growth and investment, and contributing directly to exports. This presents opportunities for many...
The design and implementation of industrial policy should be closely linked to spatial considerations. Firm output and productivity are often location-specific, with factors such as the availability of physical infrastructure, proximity to sources for raw materials, and the potential for adopting research-based technology from similar firms...
Countries’ economic complexity, and the associated diversification and sophistication of their exports, is a key determinant of economic growth. Understanding how South African firms learn to export more sophisticated products is, therefore, an important policy issue. Using administrative data covering the entire tax-paying population of firms...
SA-TIED will hold a seminar on the gender wage gap in South Africa's manufacturing sector. The seminar will be given by Victor Stolzenburg under the work stream on Turning the tide on inequality.
This paper uses detailed firm transaction data on manufactured exports to analyse the dilution of the real exchange rate-export relationship in South Africa over the period 2010 to 2014. Our empirical results show that firms that are larger, have higher export shares in destination markets, and import are more likely to raise the domestic...
This paper uses matched employer-employee data from South Africa to examine the extent to which technology transfers between firms through the hiring of workers. Allowing for differential spillovers based on observable technology differences between sending and receiving firms, we find strong evidence for positive productivity spillovers...
This paper investigates the effect of innovation on employment growth at the firm level in South Africa. Innovation is typically associated with better export performance at the firm level due to productivity enhancements and new products. However, the link between innovation and employment is more ambiguous. R&D targeted towards product...
This working paper is the fourth in a series that forms part of the project ‘Southern Africa – Towards Inclusive Economic Development’, a three-year partnership between UNU-WIDER and the South African government aimed at generating a better understanding of regional value chains and supporting industrialization in the Southern African...
Using comprehensive, anonymized tax administrative data for the 2008–14 period, we examine firm-level productivity in South Africa. Measures of firm-level productivity are included in a spatial autoregressive model that assesses spillovers from total factor productivity originating from agglomeration economies and the spatial diffusion of...
Economist, and researcher under the work stream on climate change and energy, Faaiqa Hartley was interviewed by Knowable Magazine on her recent SA-TIED working paper Faster than you think: Renewable energy and developing countries.
SA-TIED will hold a seminar on minimum wages and firm dynamics, using evidence from the agricultural sector and South African administrative tax data. The semainr will be given by Marlies Piek under the work stream on Turning the tide on inequlity.
SA-TIED held a two-day technical workshop on climate change. The workshop was carried out under the work stream on climate and energy and took place at the Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria, South Africa.
SA-TIED will hold a seminar on offshoring within South African manufacturing firms, an analysis of the labour market effects.
SA-TIED held a work in progress meeting for the work stream on Macroeconomic modelling for policy formulation.
SA-TIED held a 5-day macroeconomic forecast training session at the Bureau for Economic Research in Stellenbosch.
The training was designed for staff at the National Treasury and provided them with background knowledge on macroeconomic analysis and forecasting as well as an in depth understanding of the Treasury and BER macro models.
SA-TIED held a 5-day macroeconomic forecast training session at the National Treasury.
The training was designed for staff at the National Treasury and provided them with background knowledge on macroeconomic analysis and forecasting as well as an in depth understanding of the Treasury and BER macro models.
SA-TIED will hold a 5-day modelling course for staff from the National Treasury, Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, Department of Energy, and the Department of Transport.
Channing Arndt, an expert in our SA-TIED programme and divisional Director of Environmental and Production Technology at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), appeared on Talk Radio 702 following several days of unseasonably heavy rains in the Gauteng province.
During a speech to parliament on Tuesday, South Africa’s Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, discussed the important work being carried out by the Southern Africa – Towards Inclusive Economic Development (SA-TIED) programme.
UNU-WIDER is looking for an outstanding individual with strong commitment and potential to contribute to the SA-TIED programme.
New research provides the first direct evidence of tax-motivated transfer mispricing in a developing country. Using highly detailed firm-level customs data from the tax authority, the analysis calculates the difference between legitimate estimates of market prices (known as the arm’s-length price) to the prices firms actually charge themselves...
SA-TIED will hold a 3-day training course on data analysis using Stata, including computer-based training. The workshop will take place at the National Treasury’s computer lab in Pretoria, South Africa and be attended by staff from the National Treasury, SARS, and SARB.
SA-TIED will hold a 3-day training course on data analysis using Stata, including computer-based training. The workshop will take place at the National Treasury’s computer lab in Pretoria, South Africa and be attended by staff from the National Treasury, SARS, and SARB.
The analysis of firm growth has been a topic of consistent economic interest as a growing body of literature has lent support to the possibility that the majority of growth and new employment creation is the result of a small sub-sector of high-growth firms (HGFs). While this has been demonstrated to be true in some periods in some countries,...
United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), together with its partners, now invites research proposals related to macroeconomic analysis for the Southern Africa Towards Inclusive Economic Development (SA-TIED) programme. Deadline for submissions is 30 November 2019 23:59 UTC+3
China’s growing edge in export manufacturing has caused concern for low-income and middle-income countries seeking to develop robust manufacturing sectors. China’s recent transition from an exporter of lower-tech goods, such as garments, to more advanced products, such as components for high-tech products has strengthened these concerns,...
SA-TIED will hold a 2-day synthetic data training course for policy and research officials in the National Treasury of the Republic of South Africa to support national capacity to manage and use economic data for evidence-based policy making.
This study seeks to quantify South Africa's maize export potential to non-GM maize markets with the aim of establishing whether there are opportunities for non-GM maize production expansion as well as economic benefits for farmers to increase the supply of non-GM maize. The findings of the study will inform policy decision-making regarding...
The South African economy is generally understood to be characterised by high levels of product market concentration and high firm markups. This paper reviews the existing literature and discusses what can be learnt from new administrative firm-level panel data. I present new evidence on South African markups, industrial concentration, and the...