Conference Synthesis Paper
This conference was designed around a deliberate absence. The topics that have dominated South Africa’s public economic discourse – monetary policy and the inflation target, the budget and fiscal consolidation, and the Operation Vulindlela reform programme – were not on the agenda. Not because they are unimportant; they surfaced repeatedly and are clearly part of the story. But they receive abundant attention elsewhere. What receives far less attention – and what this conference set out to explore – are the microeconomic foundations of growth: the firm-level dynamics, the regulatory environment, the cost structures, the market failures, and the institutional arrangements that determine whether businesses can enter, compete, innovate, hire, export, and grow.
