Director’s Statement

ERSA is a National Funded programme designed to both broaden the scope of economic research in South Africa, and to deepen its quality in order to ensure greater international exposure of economic research conducted in Southern Africa.

Toward this end ERSA publishes a Working Paper series, provides financial incentives to researchers to publish their papers in peer reviewed scholarly journals, run Workshop programmes in 5 core research areas, and provides extensive support to graduate students in economics in Southern Africa.

The transition to Section 21 Company Status is now complete, and the requisite governance, financial and administrative requirements have been complied with.

For the Working and Policy Paper series of ERSA, the number of published Working, Policy Papers and Occasional has now risen to 300.

Publications in peer reviewed journals associated with the ERSA paper series also continues to rise steadily. The number of published papers has now risen to 119, of which 69 have appeared in international journals, and 50 in South African journals.

Workshop activity continues across research groups. During 2011-2012, 8 workshops were held, and attendance at the workshops continues to represent a diverse representation of national institutions and demographics. A total of more than 154 institutions, of which 114 were South African, have been represented at ERSA workshops from the inception of the programme.

Under the ERSA scholarship scheme, 20 scholarships have been awarded to date, 17 for Masters, and 3 for PhD study.

During the course of 2011 – 2012, 3 Masters students, and 2 PhD students met the stipulated criteria for second (Masters) and third (PhD) years of study and funding of R80000 per student was approved by the scholarship committee and awarded to the respective students.

The administrative staff of ERSA have provided close and diligent support to the ERSA programmes, in a year in which a considerable additional burden from the transition to Section 21 Company status for ERSA was placed on them. My sincere thanks to them for their efficiency and dedication in performing their work.

Similarly, the contributions of both group convenors and the members of the editorial committee of ERSA, who provide substantial inputs of time to ensure the smooth functioning of the paper and workshop series of ERSA require the strongest possible recognition, as well as the thanks of the economics community in South Africa who benefit from their continuing efforts.