Blog

Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with two experts from the South African Revenue Service (SARS), Mamiky Leolo and Pumla Bam. Leolo serves as the Executive Manager of the Macro Economic Research unit within...

Tim Köhler, Haroon Bhorat, Robert Hill, 26 May 2023 About three years have passed since the South African government introduced the COVID-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) in response to the pandemic and associated lockdown...

South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world. This income inequality is mostly due to high unemployment and large differences in wages. In South Africa today, economists and policymakers typically focus...

Urbanization provides a unique opportunity to accelerate economic and social development across Africa. South Africa has some of the technical capabilities to support the process through systematic planning, institution building and investment in essential infrastructure...

Regional integration in Africa is underway but progress requires that the gains are widely spread. South Africa’s huge regional trade surplus in manufactured goods is leading to protectionist pressures in neighbouring countries. Agro-processing is a...

The Employment Tax Incentive was introduced in 2014 in response to South Africa’s chronic structural youth unemployment crisis. Its aim was to encourage employers to hire young people by subsidizing their wages. ‘High youth unemployment,’...

The theme for women’s month in South Africa – Generation Equality: Realizing Women's Rights for an Equal Future – could not be more aligned with the policy objectives of the research produced under the SA-TIED...

Stunted growth in early life has serious implications for cognitive development and is a well-established constraint to individual productivity and life expectancy. Vulnerability in childhood is highly correlated with stunted growth in many developing countries...

Most jobs right out of university are either filled with busy work or too much work—very little time is available for gaining new skills. This early career period is arguably the most important time for...

The COVID-19 pandemic delivered a devastating economic shock to livelihoods across the world. In Cape Town, it has been toughest on those who had just found a way to keep their heads above water, living...

Tax benefits to boost contributions into pension funds or pension-related tax expenditures (PTEs) are used widely by governments worldwide to address issues related to the aging of population and the sustainability of retirement systems. Although...

Agriculture and agro-processing value chains have been under pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been particularly marked where they remain underdeveloped, as is the case in South Africa and the rest of the region...

Countries need data and evidence to create, amend, and evaluate policy. Indeed, one of the key mandates of policy makers in South Africa is to make evidence-based policy decisions which improve the policy landscape of...

In September 2020, due to the ongoing pandemic, SA-TIED moved its seminar series online. What once took place at the National Treasury in Pretoria, now takes place once or twice a month on Zoom. The...

Policymakers often work in the dark, as they try to make real impact on people’s lives. If you don’t have good data, being worked on by good researchers, it can be hard to know whether...