101 UNU-WIDER articles, publications, projects, experts...
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Working Paper
The COVID-19 crisis and the South African informal economy: A stalled recoveryThis paper seeks to identify the differentiated impacts of the crisis on specific groups of informal workers...
COVID-19 South Africa InformalWorking Paper
Monetary policy in South Africa, 2007–21This paper reviews South Africa’s monetary policy since 2007 and makes recommendations towards improving the inflation-targeting framework currently in place...
Monetary policy Inflation targeting Output gapWorking Paper
Spillovers from extractive industriesExtractive industries form an important part of the economy for many developing countries, but their impact on growth and welfare remains understudied...
Mining South Africa SpilloversWorking Paper
Macroeconomic risks after a decade of microeconomic turbulence: South Africa (2007–2020)This study analyses the performance of macroeconomic policy in South Africa in 2007–2020 and outlines challenges for policy in the coming decade...
Macroeconomic policy Economic growth Emerging marketsBlog
From sub-Saharan Africa to Viet Nam and Ecuador, how one model is used to improve social protectionAre there enough tax payers to generate the revenue needed by governments to reduce poverty? How adequate are the social security arrangements that already exist?...
South Africa SOUTHMOD Tax-benefit microsimulationSeminar

Working Paper
Tariffs, productivity, and resource misallocationAn often-neglected potential negative consequence of tariffs is the impact they may have on the misallocation of factor inputs...
Tariffs Productivity MisallocationWorking Paper
Simulation of options to replace the special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant and close the poverty gap at the food poverty lineWe 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 existing special COVID-19 ...
Fiscal incidence Social protection Social spendingWorking Paper
The macroeconomic effect of fiscal policy in South Africa: A narrative analysisThis paper analyses the macroeconomic effect of legislated personal income tax changes in South Africa over the 1996–2019 period...
Personal income tax Structural VAR Instrumental variableTechnical Note
Exploring the quality of income data in two South African household surveys which underpin SAMODThis note has set out several data processes that have been undertaken using the income data in dataset(s) that underpin SAMOD...
Tax-benefit microsimulation Income distribution South AfricaJournal Article
Analysis of the distributional effects of COVID-19 and state-led remedial measures in South AfricaThis study explores the impact of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa on income poverty and inequality in South Africa...
Social protection Tax-benefit microsimulation Income distributionBlog
Stunted growth, orphans, and access to sanitation services in South Africa
Stunted growth in early life has serious implications for cognitive development and is a well-established constraint to individual productivity and life expectancy...
Child wellbeing Child nutrition South AfricaPolicy seminar

Working Paper
Simulating personal income tax in South Africa using administrative data and survey data: A comparison of PITMOD and SAMOD for tax year 2018In this paper we explore South Africa’s personal income tax system using two microsimulation models...
Microsimulation Personal income tax Income distributionWorking Paper
Estimating employment responses to South Africa’s Employment Tax IncentiveWe present new evidence on the effects of South Africa’s Employment Tax Incentive (ETI), a hiring and employment wage subsidy aimed at reducing youth unemployment...
Difference-in-differences Employment event studyBackground Note
Building tax data for research: The South African experienceIntroduction: data for development Globally, one of the key factors associated with increasing use of data to inform policy-making has been the increased availability of new administrative data sources...
Tax data Administrative data South Africa