In the media
UNU-WIDER supported project gets recognition in South Africa

An opinion piece published by Elizabeth Gavin, Michelle Smit and Randall Carolissen in the South African business newspaper Business Day recognizes UNU-WIDER’s project Regional growth and development in Southern Africa in providing relevant evidence.

The point of departure of the piece is the modernization of the South African Revenue Service’s (SARS’s) systems over the past decade.

As part of this improvement, SARS began analysis of extensive and detailed pay as you earn (PAYE) administration records in 2011, initially to assess their completeness by comparing job numbers and people employed in the formal sector against other labour market data sources.

In aggregate, remuneration reported to SARS via PAYE administration is close to national accounts figures compiled by Stats SA from different data sources.

The opinion piece highlights how the joint National Treasury-SARS project, supported by UNU-WIDER, has demonstrated the value that can be derived from analysis of integrated tax and trade data at unit record level, including PAYE data.

Read the article:

Business Day, 27 April 2017: ‘Modernised SARS systems a treasure trove of data for policy makers’.