Completed Projects
The DPRU’s suite of completed research projects ranges from multi-country collaboration on minimum wages and enforcement, to the efficiency and effectiveness of the economy’s dispute resolution system and the role of bargaining councils in the labour market. The resulting body of new and innovative policy work has arguably made significant advances in our understandings of the South African labour market.
Research Project on Employment, Income Distribution and Inclusive Growth
REDI 3x3: The DPRU is responsible for the Inclusive Growth theme, and we are involved in an infrastructure data project (related to the income and expenditure surveys), and papers covering the informal economy, and risk mitigation through micro-insurance, asset poverty and other gaps in current research.
Funder: National Treasury through SALDRU
Project Outputs: Bhorat, H. and Naidoo, K. (2017). Exploring the relationship between crime-related business insurance and informal firms’ performance: a South African case study. REDI3x3 Working paper #25; February 2017.
Year Completed: 2016
Africa Growth Initiative: Macro Project Phase 2: Exchange Rates, Employment and Earnings
The Real Exchange Rate and Sectorial Employment in South Africa.
Funder: The African Growth Initiative (AGI) at the Brookings Institution
Project Outputs: Working Paper 201404
Year Completed: 2014
Africa Growth Initiative 3: Inflation inequality in South Africa
Understanding differences across households and through inflation cycles.
Funder: The African Growth Initiative (AGI) at the Brookings Institution
Project Output: Working Paper 13/158
Year Completed: 2013
Africa Growth Initiative 2: Analysis of the claims on the UIF
Unemployment Insurance in South Africa: A Descriptive Overview of Claimants and Claims, and the Newly Unemployed and the UIF Take-up Rate in the South African Labour Market.
Funder: The African Growth Initiative (AGI) at the Brookings Institution
Project Output: a. Africa Growth Initiative Working Paper 8
Project Output: b. Working Paper 12/147
Year Completed: 2013
Africa Growth Initiative 1: Do Industrial Disputes Reduce Employment? Evidence from South Africa
Measuring employment protection as a function of the quantity and efficiency parameters of the country’s dispute resolution body – the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
Funder: The African Growth Initiative (AGI) at the Brookings Institution
Project Output: Africa Growth Initiative Working Paper 6
Year Completed: 2013
EPP: South African Jobs Losses during the Global Recession
The research is structured as an overview of both international and local labour market changes during the global recession.
Funder: The Employment Promotion Programme (EPP)
Project Output: Project Report
Year Completed: 2013
EPP: Community Work Programme
The CWP is a government intervention that provides a basic level of income security through part-time work in communities with high unemployment levels. Government aims to scale up CWP to meet a target of 1 million job opportunities by March 2014.
Funder: The Employment Promotion Programme (EPP)
Project Output: Project Report
Year Completed: 2013
Employment Promotion Programme (EPP) Phase Three: FACTSHEETS
Monitoring the Performance of the South African Labour Market.
Funder: The Employment Promotion Programme (EPP)
Project Output: Factsheets
Year Completed: 2013
Minimum wage legislation, enforcement and labour outcomes: Argentina, Costa Rice and South Africa
Understanding and measuring the enforcement of minimum wage laws: the case of SA.
Funder: International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Project Output: a. Working Paper 12/149
Project Output: b. Journal Article
Project Output: c. Journal Article
Project Output: d. Policy Brief 13/29
Project Output: e. Journal Article
Year Completed: 2013
The Enforcement of Minimum Wage Laws: The Case of Bargaining Councils in South Africa
Institutional Wage Effects: Revisiting Union and Bargaining Council Wage Premia in South Africa.
Funder: International Labour Organisation (ILO)
Project Output: a. Journal Article
Project Output: b. Journal Article
Year Completed: 2012
Municipal Economic Review & Outlook (MERO)
The MERO report is a high profile Provincial Treasury project. The MERO aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the recent economic performance of and outlook for the Western Cape economy at District / Municipal level. As such it should be viewed as a companion study to its provincial counterpart, the Provincial Economic Review and Outlook (PERO), whilst it also complements and reinforces several other recent studies that have analysed the district and municipal economies within the Western Cape Province. The Province hires the DPRU economist team to model data, that is not publically available, contributing to the Labour Market section of the report.
Funder: Provincial Government of the Western Cape: Treasury
Project Outputs:
Provincial Economic Review & Outlook (PERO)
Annual research report which provides an objective review and analysis of past and estimated future economic growth and socio-economic development of the Western Cape. The DPRU has been involved in the PERO publication since 2005, and has annually contributed a chapter on the provincial labour market.
Funder: Provincial Government of the Western Cape: Treasury
Project Outputs:
Low Paid Work in South Africa
This research focuses specifically on low pay among workers in wage employment over the period 2001 to 2007.
Funder: ILO (the ILO's Conditions of Work and Employment Programme)
Project Output: a. Journal Article
Year Completed: 2012