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.
Towards Resilient Futures Community of Practice: Developing a Fibre Micro-industry to Generate Economic Growth from Degraded Land
Building Economic Complexity in Africa: Laying the Foundation for Expanding Economic Opportunities for Women and Youth in Africa
Ongoing work here is principally structured around a recent grant received to undertake a two-year research project on the pursuit of Structural Change in Africa. The work is globally innovative in that we will use the new tools of economic complexity and product space analysis, to provide concrete policy options that enable African economies move from low productivity to high productivity-high growth sectors in a bid to generate broad-based employment opportunities. The project will have two core objectives. Firstly, to measure the degree and extent of economic complexity and hence the level of economic development in a set of key African economies in the region. Secondly, based on a sample of African countries and through the use of firm surveys, to undertake a detailed product space analysis of each economy. This analysis will map country product spaces and will try to carefully link these to nearby product opportunities, focused on an expansion in growth opportunities, into those products where the economic returns for young people and women are maximised.Read more
National Transfer Accounts: The Case of South Africa
Shaping social protection in Africa: Estimates of National Transfer Accounts for South Africa. Funder:The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) through the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).
Project Outputs: 1. Project report: Maximising South Africa's Demographic Dividend.
Current NTA project: Funder: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- 2a. Working Paper 13/157: Maximising South Africa's Demographic Dividend
- 2b. Country Report: Capturing South Africa’s Demographic Dividend
- 3. Bonus or Mirage? South Africa's Demographic Dividend, The Journal of the Economics of Ageing
- 4. Is low fertility really a problem? Population aging, dependency, and consumption, Science 346, 229 (2014)
Gender Analysis of the Department of Trade and Industry Services and Funding Processes
The Department of Women commissioned the DPRU to determine the extent to which women access and benefit from the services offered by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti). A fieldwork exercise will involve interviews with previous participants of various dti incentives in order to determine the impact of additional funding or support on various pre-determined outcomes. Outputs: Expected early/mid 2020.
Counting Women's Work (CWW)
The Counting Women’s Work (CWW) project is a three-year research project (2014-2016) involving research teams from around the world, with the goal of bringing the economic lives of women and girls into view in a more comprehensive manner than ever before. Our work will provide data and analysis to help develop better policies around economic development, care for children and the elderly, investments in human capital, and gender equity in the workplace and the home. Funder: The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the International Development Research Centre For more information visit www.countingwomenswork.org
Income Inequality Trends in sub-Saharan Africa: Divergence, Determinants, and Consequences
The 4th Industrial Revolution
Rapid technological advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning threaten many jobs, especially those in low-skilled sectors. In order to appropriately mitigate potential employment losses as a result of rapid technological advances (often referred to as the 4th Industrial Revolution), a greater understanding of the extent of the risks posed to employment by adoption of new technologies is required. The DPRU embarked on research with a key focus of understanding the implications of the 4th Industrial Revolution for employment in South Africa; Evaluating the opportunities and risks of the 4th Industrial Revolution; and examining the number of jobs at risk of automation in middle-income countries; and in South Africa.