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Research Briefs

Pricing electricity blackouts among South African households by Nomsa Phindile Nkosi and Johane Dikgang
Lack of information about households’ welfare losses could lead to incorrect policy choices. Given the ever-increasing reliance on electricity, extreme weather conditions and current energy diversification strategies, it is vital that policymakers obtain information about households’ welfare losses due to power outages. According to Schmidthaler (2012), the costs associated with power outages may be direct, indirect or ongoing.
South African attitudes about nuclear power: The case of the nuclear energy expansion process by Nomsa Phindile Nkosi and Johane Dikgang
Excessive use of fossil fuels is widely acknowledged as one of the main causes of climate change. The energy sector is one of the sectors that make use of fossil fuels. Greenhouse gasses are released during the combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, to produce electricity. Generating electricity from nuclear reduces pollution externalities hence it is argued by some to be part of a sustainable solution to achieving low-carbon energy options. This option According to Ertor-Akyazi et al. (2012) since energy security is a critical element in an economy, nuclear energy can play a role in ensuring smooth supply of electricity; it is reliable, and can provide electricity on a larger scale, similar to fossil fuels.
An institutional comparison of private shareholding in the central banks of South Africa and Turkey by Jannie Rossouw
This paper assesses institutional aspects of private shareholding in the central banks of South Africa and Turkey. It is shown that only a small number of central banks other than the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) in South Africa and Türkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankasi (TCMB) in Turkey have any form of private shareholding, although South Africa and Turkey and the only two emerging-market countries with central banks with private shareholding.

Latest Publications

Emigration and education: the schooling of the left behind in Nigeria by Biniam Bedasso, Ermias Gebru Weldesenbet and Nonso Obikili
The potential effects of migration on the welfare of the left behind consist in an important part of the debate around migration. In this paper we use data from the World Bank's migration and remittance household survey to examine the impact of family migration on educational attainment.
Fiscal stimulus in a global zero lower bound environment by Fernando Garcia-Barragan and Guangling Liu
This paper investigates the effect of fiscal stimulus from an emerging market economy perspective.
Is Basel III counter-cyclical: The case of South Africa? by Guangling Liu and Thabang Molise
This paper develops a dynamic general equilibrium model with banking and a macro-prudential authority, and studies the extent to which the Basel III bank capital regulation promotes financial and macroeconomic stability in the context of South African economy.
Regional economic effects of changes in South Africa's electricity generation mix by Bohlmann, H.R., Horridge, J.M., Inglesi-Lotz, R., Roos, E.L. & Stander, L.

This paper examines the long-run regional economic effects within South Africa of changing the electricity-generation mix away from coal. We use a regional CGE model of South Africa to conduct our analysis.

Can creditor bail-in trigger contagion? The experience of an emerging market by Roy Havemann
The successful bail-in of creditors in African Bank, a small South African monoline lender, provides an opportunity to evaluate the intended and unintended consequences of new resolution tools.

Latest Journal Publications

Pricing electricty blackout among South African households by Nomsa Phindile Nkosi and Johane Dikgang
Journal of Commodity Markets (https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomm.2018.03.001)

South African households, like households in many other developing countries, are faced with regular power outages. This is a big problem, since the outages that the households experience are both frequent and long in duration.

Exploring Unbalanced Growth in South Africa: Understanding the Sectoral Structure of the South African Economy by Johannes W. Fedderke
Economic Modelling, (2018) 1 – 13 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999317309811)

This paper explores the reasons for the unbalanced growth structure of South Africa.

Price-setting Behavior and Competition in Developing Countries: An Analysis of Retail Outlets in Lesotho by Mamello Nchake, Lawrence Edwards and Asha Sundaram
Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10842-018-0275-6)

We study the relationship between price-setting behavior and the degree of competition in a setting where markets and information flows are relatively imperfect.

Using a Natural Experiment to Examine Tobacco Tax Regressivity by Adel Bosch and Steven F. Koch
Social Science & Medicine (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.11.004)

We take advantage of a tobacco tax hike that occurred during the collection of the South African Income and Expenditure Survey to examine the regressivity of tobacco taxes. We are also able to examine the relative change in regressivity following the tax increase.

The Interdependence between the Saving Rate and Technology across Regimes: Evidence from South Africa by Kevin S. Nell and Maria M. De Mello
Empirical Economics Journal (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00181-017-1354-y)

This paper hypothesises that the saving rate and technological progress are interdependently determined by a common exogenous source, so that an exogenous shock to the saving rate determines long-run growth transitions.