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Watts happening to work? The labour market effects of South Africa’s electricity crisisIn South Africa, the power grid undergoes rotational, scheduled outages—or rolling blackouts—most commonly referred to as load shedding. Load shedding...
Haroon Bhorat
Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow
Haroon Bhorat is Professor of Economics and Director of the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. He is one of the most cited South African economists globally, with a total citation estimate of 8,400 and an h-index of 52. He is a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Research Fellow at IZA. Haroon was a Cornell University research fellow, and studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prof. Bhorat is a member of the World Bank Economic Review editorial advisory board, and a regular referee for journals including World Development, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, the Journal of African Economies and the Journal of Development Studies.
He is currently a member of the Steering Committee of the International Economic Association (IEA). He was a member on the Advisory Board of the UNDP’s 2019 and 2020 and 2024 Human Development Reports and served on the World Bank’s Advisory Board of the Commission on Global Poverty. He was also a previous member of the WIDER Board.
Prof. Bhorat is an advisor to the President of South Africa - Cyril Ramaphosa - serving on his Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC). He also served as an economic advisor to two past Ministers of Finance and previous Presidents Mbeki and Motlanthe of South Africa.
As a UNU-WIDER Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow, Professor Bhorat is involved in the Social protection in the Global South project.
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Counting (on) the labour market to secure a just transitionThe climate stabilization imperative emerging from the Paris Agreement is, in so many ways, absolutely critical to securing the planet’s future for...
Working Paper
Watts happening to work? The labour market effects of South Africa’s electricity crisisFrequent electricity outages threaten to impede the benefits of expanded access achieved by many developing countries in recent decades. A large literature documents these negative effects, however almost none consider labour market effects. This...
Blog
The COVID-19 TERS policy saved at least 2 million jobs: But not without some unintended resultsAbout three years have passed since the South African government introduced the COVID-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) in response...
Working Paper
The effect of wage subsidies on job retention in a developing countryWage subsidies served as a dominant labour market policy response around the world to mitigate job losses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, no causal evidence of their effects exists for developing countries.We use unique panel labour...
Working Paper
The effect of wage subsidies on job retentionWage subsidies have served as a primary labour market policy used around the world to mitigate job losses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In South Africa, where unemployment is among the highest globally, the Temporary Employer–Employee Relief...
Working Paper
Wage polarization in a high-inequality emerging economyEarnings growth in South Africa displayed a U-shaped pattern across the earnings percentiles between 2000 and 2015, resembling wage polarization in the industrialized world. We investigate whether the drivers of this example of wage polarization in...
Working Paper
Structural transformation, inequality, and inclusive growth in South AfricaThis paper evaluates structural change, inequality dynamics, and industrial policy in South Africa between 1960 and the present day. We find that South Africa experienced growth-enhancing structural transformation until the early 1970s, before...
Working Paper
Firm-level determinants of earnings in the formal sector of the South African labour marketLabour market analysis in the South African context provides a relatively robust understanding of the individual characteristics that influence wage differentials across workers (i.e. supply-side characteristics), but provides relatively little...
Working Paper
Understanding and characterizing the services sector in South AfricaThe South African services sector is large and growing. This coupled with declining employment shares in manufacturing and mining (i.e. deindustrialization) suggests that South Africa is a de facto service-orientated economy. Employment patterns in...
Book
Africa's LionsExamining the economic forces that will shape Africa’s future Africa’s Lions examines the economic growth experiences of six fast-growing and/or economically dominant African countries. Expert African researchers offer unique perspectives into the...
Working Paper
Demographic, employment, and wage trends in South AfricaThis paper looks to uncover the growth traps and opportunities for the South African economy, with a focus on underlying labour market dynamics. We explore the potential of South Africa’s demographic dividend. We also consider the structure of the...
Book Chapter
Trade Unions in South AfricaFrom the book: Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics, Vol. 2.As an upper middle-income country within Africa, South Africa often attracts specific interest in terms of its economic growth and development dynamics. Often under-appreciated, is the...
Working Paper
Policy Co-ordination and Growth Traps in a Middle-income Country SettingSouth Africa has exhibited tepid economic growth over the past twenty years as well as high levels of income inequality characteristic of a middle income country growth trap. This paper compares and contrasts South Africa’s growth trap relative to...
Working Paper
Skills-Biased Labour Demand and the Pursuit of Inclusive Growth in South AfricaThis paper examines the changing nature of occupational labour-market trends in South Africa and the resulting impact on wages. We observe high levels of demand for skilled labour that have intensified a trend already established before 1994. Over...
Working Paper
Trade Unions in an Emerging EconomyThis paper provides a historical overview of the South African trade union movement, followed by a brief discussion of the labour market legislation and institutions formed since 1994. Thereafter, a detailed evaluation of the impact of trade unions...
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