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Research Brief
Turnin’ it up a notch: Can foreign direct investment help South Africa increase the complexity of its exports?Since the end of apartheid, South Africa’s economic challenges have disrupted efforts to establish a society of inclusive growth and prosperity...
economic complexity Foreign Direct Investment FDIWorking Paper
Globalization and gender inequality: Evidence from South AfricaInequality has been rising in most countries for several decades, with negative consequences for social cohesion and economic growth. Substantial gender wage gaps contribute significantly to overall wage inequality...
gender wage gap International trade Linked employer-employee dataWorking Paper
Building malls or metros?: South Africa’s exports of tradable urban services to the rest of AfricaService industries are increasingly important in international trade and offer additional paths to economic development. There are many opportunities to expand trade in services between South Africa and other African countries...
Africa International trade South AfricaWorking Paper
The impact of employment protection on the temporary employment services sector: Evidence from South Africa using data from tax recordsAttempts to regulate the temporary employment sector have had mixed results internationally. In South Africa, temporary employment was regulated in 2015 through amendments to the Labour Relations Act...
Administrative data employment protection legislation regression discontinuityWorking Paper
Taxpayer responsiveness to taxation: Evidence from bunching at kink points of the South African income tax scheduleThe author applies the bunching methodology to South African administrative tax data over the period from 2011 to 2017 to investigate the responsiveness of individual taxpayers to changes in marginal personal income tax rates...
bunching elasticity of taxable income personal income taxWorking Paper
South African population projection and household survey sample weight recalibrationThe existing sources of demographic data for South Africa have different strengths and limitations that make them inadequate for calibration of sample weights in post-apartheid South African household surveys...
Population projection recalibrationWorking Paper
A comparative study of export processing zones in the wake of the Sustainable Development Goals: The cases of Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, and ZimbabweThe objective of this research is to assess the extent to which export processing zones in Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe integrate the Sustainable Development Goals in their implementation and operations...
export processing zones Sustainable development BotswanaWorking Paper
Earnings in the South African Revenue Service IRP5 dataThe IRP5 and IT3(a) tax data from the South African Revenue Service have been made available to researchers through a joint project between the South African Revenue Service, the National Treasury, and UNU-WIDER...
Employment Labour income South AfricaWorking Paper
Wage polarization in a high-inequality emerging economy: The case of South AfricaEarnings growth in South Africa displayed a U-shaped pattern across the earnings percentiles between 2000 and 2015, resembling wage polarization in the industrialized world...
Inequality Minimum wage recentered influence functionWorking Paper
Structural transformation, inequality, and inclusive growth in South AfricaThis paper evaluates structural change, inequality dynamics, and industrial policy in South Africa between 1960 and the present day...
Structural transformation Inclusive growth South AfricaBackground Note
COVID-19 and socioeconomic impact in Africa: The case of South AfricaWhat has the government of South Africa done with respect to COVID-19 measures of mitigation and suppression? The first COVID-19 positive case was confirmed on 5 March 2020...
COVID-19 South Africa government actionWorking Paper
Shifting from deductions to credits: Unpacking the distributional effects of medical expenditure considerations in South AfricaThe recent National Health Insurance White Paper proposes redirection of medical tax credits revenue towards the financing of the national health insurance...
medical tax credit medical expenses tax deductionsWorking Paper
Turnin’ it up a notch: How spillovers from foreign direct investment boost the complexity of South Africa’s exportsCountries’ economic complexity, and the associated diversification and sophistication of their exports, is a key determinant of economic growth...
economic complexity Foreign Direct Investment FDIWorking Paper
Exchange rates and firm export performance in South AfricaThis 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...
Exchange rate pass-through ExportsResearch Brief
Spatial dynamics of firm productivity in South AfricaThe design and implementation of industrial policy should be closely linked to spatial considerations...
Agglomeration Firm productivity South AfricaWorking Paper
Structural poverty dynamics in urban South Africa: A mixed-methods investigationThis paper examines the extent and determinants of structural poverty dynamics in South Africa, focusing on the socio-economically disadvantaged urban African population...
Poverty Social mobility Livelihood assets