Welcome to ERSA

Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA) is a research programme which is being funded by the National Treasury of South Africa.

Latest Publications

Programmatic Procurement: A Political Economy Review of the Transnet Freight Rail Competitive Supplier Development Programme by Ayabonga Cawe
Procurement policies in a country like South Africa have been targeted as a vehicle to achieve a range of social objectives.
A Portrait of Informal Sector Credit and Interest Rates in Malawi: Interpolated Monthly Time Series by Harold Ngalawa
Although informal finance forms a large part of their financial sector, nearly all low income countries exclude informal transactions in official monetary data.
Credit Procyclicality and Financial Regulation in South Africa by James Bernstein, Leroi Raputsoane and Eric Schaling
This study assesses the behaviour of credit extension over the economic cycle to determine its usefulness as a reference guide for implementing the countercyclical capital buffers for financial institutions in South Africa.
Democratisation in Africa: The Role of Self-Enforcing Constitutional Rules by Sophia du Plessis, Ada Jansen and Krige Siebrits
Following several decades during which violent civil conflict was common in African countries, the period from 1990 onwards was notably marked by a spreading and deepening of adherence to democratic principles.
Financial Stress Indicator Variables and Monetary Policy in South Africa by Leroi Raputsoane
This paper analyses the relationship between financial stress indicator variables and monetary policy in South Africa with emphasis on how robust these variables are related to the monetary policy interest rate.

Workshops

Political Economy/Public Choice Economics
Thursday, September 18, 2014 to Friday, September 19, 2014
CALL FOR PAPERS
Workshop location: Soweto Hotel and Conference Centre
The Second Economic Theory Workshop “Economies with Asymmetric Information”
Monday, November 10, 2014 to Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Keynote Speakers:
Workshop location: Hatfield Campus (University of Pretoria)
Second Annual Financial Economics Workshop
Thursday, November 27, 2014 to Friday, November 28, 2014
Following the first workshop on financial economics in Cape Town in December 2013, Economic Research Southern Africa, the South African Reserve Bank and the Wits Business Scho
Workshop location: South African Reserve Bank, Pretoria

Latest Journal Publications

Using a choice experiment to manage the excess demand challenges facing the Sundays River Estuary recreational fishery in South Africa by Deborah E. Lee, Stephen G. Hosking and Mario Du Preez
Water South Africa (http://www.wrc.org.za/Lists/Knowledge%20Hub%20Items/Attachments/10581/2913%20abs...)
The Sundays River Estuary, situated in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, has excess recreational demand for estuarine services, specifically recreational fishing. The estuary has been over-fished, putting its sustainability at risk.
Monetary policy and inflation in South Africa: A VECM augmented with foreign variables by Annari de Waal and Reneé van Eyden
South African Journal of Economics (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/saje.12027/abstract)
We develop a structural cointegrated vector autoregressive (VAR) model with weakly exogenous foreign variables, suitable for a small open economy like South Africa. This type of model is known as an augmented vector error correction model (VECM), referred to by VECX*.
Can International Interventions Secure the Peace? by Anke Hoeffler
International Area Studies Review 2014, Vol 17 (1) pp 75-94 (http://ias.sagepub.com/content/17/1/75.full.pdf+html)
The international community uses a number of interventions to make and build peace. How effective are these interventions? What works and what does not? The discussion highlights the uncertainties when evaluating interventions.
The Quantitative Cape: Notes from a new Histriography of the Dutch Cape Colony by Johan Fourie
South African Historical Journal (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02582473.2014.891646)
The digitisation and transcription of rich archival sources and the use of statistical techniques combined with modern computing power, have, over the last decade, allowed social scientists to reinterpret eighteenth-century Cape history.
Slave numeracy in the Cape Colony and comparative development in the eighteenth century by Jörg Baten and Johan Fourie
The Economic History Review (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-0289.12064/abstract)
The lack of accurate measures of human capital formation often constrain investigations into the long-run determinants of growth and comparative economic development, especially in regions such as Africa.