Recently Published Work
Gabrielle Wills and Servaas van der Berg explore the development and trial of new metrics to quantify school leadership and management practices and/or processes considered to be theoretically related to literacy outcomes.
Measuring school leadership and management and linkages with literacy: Evidence from rural and township primary schools in South Africa
Wills, G. and van der Berg, S., 2020. Measuring school leadership and management and linkages with literacy: Evidence from rural and township primary schools in South Africa. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, p.1741143220915923.
Common Questions about South Africa’s Covid-19 Response Answered using the International OxCGRT Dataset
I use the latest (16 May) version of the OxCGRT dataset to answer three fairly common questions about COVID-19 in the South African context. The three questions are: (1) Is South Africa’s curve a relatively flat one? (2.) Does South Africa have ‘one of the toughest lockdowns on earth'? (3.) How do restrictions and ‘flattening the curve’ relate to each other, and where does South Africa fit in?
How Many Commercial Farms are there Really in South Africa and are Most of them ‘Large’?
Good policymaking requires reliable, comparable statistics over time. Despite there being an annual survey of agricultural firms in South Africa, confusion exists about the number of commercial farms in South Africa and the structure of the agricultural sector. According to the agricultural census in 2007, there were 39 966 commercial farms, while the agricultural survey mentions a figure of 64 192 and 57 126 in 2008 and 2017, respectively. With such diverging numbers across time, which figures should we trust and how does one analyse trends in the sector and make evidence-based decisions?
Separating Employment Effects into Job Destruction and Job Creation
This paper presents new evidence on the employment effects of a large increase in agricultural minimum wages in South Africa using anonymized tax data.
Wealth Inequality and Financial Inclusion: Evidence from South African Tax and Survey Records
Von Fintel, D. and Orthofer, A., 2020. Wealth inequality and financial inclusion: Evidence from South African tax and survey records. Economic Modelling.
Sectoral Minimum Wages in South Africa: Disemployment by Firm Size and Trade Exposure
Piek, M. and von Fintel, D., 2020. Sectoral minimum wages in South Africa: Disemployment by firm size and trade exposure. Development Southern Africa, 37(3), pp.462-482.
What the Shifting Evidence on the Coronavirus means for School Re-openings in South Africa
It is critical that the debates leading up to the re-opening of South Africa’s schools, and the actual process of re-opening, which will almost certainly occur in stages, be informed by the emerging medical evidence and reports on best school practices. Re-opening the pre-school sector, covering around 2.4 million children, and the earliest school grades, seems least risky in terms of infections. Moreover, there are strong educational and nutritional arguments which favour prioritising these levels.
Who should go Back to School First in South Africa?
Who should go back to school first in South Africa? ...
Poverty rises, inequality shifts as Covid-19 impact continues unabated
Many have to fall back on that familiar South African last resort, the extended family. It will take some time before the full effect of Covid-19, the lockdown and recession will be clear, writes Servaas van der Berg.
