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Working paper
Extractive industries form an important part of the economy for many developing countries, but their impact on growth and welfare remains understudied. With global efforts to transition to net-zero carbon emissions in the coming decades...
February 2022
Enterprise development
Working paper
This study analyses the performance of macroeconomic policy in South Africa in 2007–2020 and outlines challenges for policy in the coming decade. After remarkable economic growth in 1997–07, South Africa’s progress slowed dramatically in 2009...
February 2022
Macro-fiscal analysis
Working paper
This study analyses the potential impact of conservation agriculture (CA) on maize production and food security under drought conditions in southern Africa. The study combines biophysical and socio-economic approaches. The biophysical approach is used to...
January 2022
Climate and energy
Working paper
An often-neglected potential negative consequence of tariffs is the impact they may have on the misallocation of factor inputs. Trade protection can provide space for domestic firms to increase prices and mark-ups, allowing low-productivity firms...
December 2021
Enterprise development
Working paper
This paper presents version 4.0 of the CIT-IRP5 firm-level panel dataset. Version 4.0 is the latest edition of the firm-level component of the combined administrative data using sources from the South African Revenue Service. We...
December 2021
Enterprise development
Working paper
We use a fiscal incidence model based on the South African 2014/15 Living Conditions Survey to simulate the poverty reduction impacts of a selection of medium-to-long-term social grant options with the goal of replacing the...
November 2021
Public revenue
Labour market and inequality
Working paper
This paper analyses the macroeconomic effect of legislated personal income tax changes in South Africa over the 1996–2019 period. We identify personal income tax shocks using a narrative approach and incorporate these shocks in a...
October 2021
Working paper
Debt-financed fiscal stimulus programmes directly stimulate aggregate demand through government expenditure or tax cuts, but their effectiveness is highly dependent on direct crowding out of private sector expenditure, spillover effects to the private sector through...
October 2021
Macro-fiscal analysis
Working paper
This paper investigates the business environment in sub-Saharan Africa. Previous studies show that the ease of doing business is associated with economic growth as it affects the level of business. This study aims to examine...
September 2021
Phase 1 regional growth
Working paper
Financial inclusion is considered a vehicle to inclusive growth and thus critical in addressing the three key socioeconomic ills of modern society—particularly in Southern Africa: poverty, unemployment, and inequality. Being excluded from the financial services...
September 2021
Phase 1 regional growth
Working paper
This paper analyses interconnection in telecommunications markets in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, focusing on cross-border roaming as well as international interconnection. These issues have been identified as critical for cross-border integration and...
September 2021
Phase 1 regional growth
Working paper
The COVID-19 pandemic has had severe economic consequences in Southern Africa, resulting in an unprecedented decline in production and employment. Similar policy responses have emerged across the region, centred on temporary and inadequate relief for...
September 2021
Phase 1 regional growth
Working paper
How does centralized bargaining affect the broader wage structure? And what does this tell us about the (non-)competitive dynamics of such labour markets? I study large contracted wage increases negotiated by centralized bargaining councils in...
September 2021
Labour market and inequality
Working paper
Effective competition in the Southern and East African regions requires independent rivals competing across borders and within domestic markets through innovation and effort, investment, product quality, and prices. To understand the constraints to more dynamic...
September 2021
Phase 1 regional growth
Working paper
This paper analyses the permanent and temporary differences of South African firms for the period covered in the SARS-NT panel. The analysis provides valuable information about the differences between accounting profits and the taxable income...
September 2021
Public revenue
Working paper
This study measures the incidence, depth, and severity of health poverty in South Africa, using ordinal self-reported data from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) for 2008–17. The resultant trend is decomposed using a Shapley...
July 2021
Labour market and inequality