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Focus Areas

RESEP developed around a long-term research focus on issues of poverty, income distribution, social mobility, economic development and social policy. However, content such as research publications, working papers, or policy briefs is generally categorised under our four areas, namely Education, Health, Labour or Development.

Navigating COVID in the post lockdown period: Shifting risk perceptions and compliance with preventative measures

A report stemming from NIDS-CRAM wave 1, a project consisting of work by a national consortium of 30 social science researchers from five South African universities. The consortium will conduct the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM) over the course of May – December 2020. The NIDS-CRAM project exists to collect, analyze and disseminate data on a broadly representative sample of South African individuals, and to report on their employment and welfare in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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October 5, 2020 By: , Brendan Maughan-Brown, Russell Rensburg, Laura Rossouw PDF

Household resource flows and food poverty during South Africa’s lockdown: Short-term policy implications for three channels of social protection.

A report stemming from NIDS-CRAM wave 1, a project consisting of work by a national consortium of 30 social science researchers from five South African universities. The consortium will conduct the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM) over the course of May – December 2020. The NIDS-CRAM project exists to collect, analyze and disseminate data on a broadly representative sample of South African individuals, and to report on their employment and welfare in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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October 5, 2020 By: Gabrielle Wills, Servaas van der Berg, Leila Patel, Bokang Mpeta PDF

Using international comparisons to inform debates on salaries for publicly paid educators in South Africa

This brief replicates UNESCO’s calculations, to determine whether South African teachers’ wages are comparable with those in Denmark. The level of teacher wages so determined was only USD71, which is similar to Japan and Italy, but even this seems unrealistically high. UNESCO uses purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates for converting teacher pay across countries to dollars – this is where the problem might be. As an alternative strategy to assess the adequacy of teacher pay in international comparison, we use teacher household assets instead of compensation as a proxy for teacher living standards. This results in findings which are considered to be plausible, as South Africa is then comparable with developing countries such as Botswana, Malaysia and Philippines.

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October 1, 2020 By: Tsekere Maponya PDF

The impact of the Coronavirus and lockdown on children’s welfare in South Africa

A report stemming from NIDS-CRAM wave 1, a project consisting of work by a national consortium of 30 social science researchers from five South African universities. The consortium will conduct the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM) over the course of May – December 2020. The NIDS-CRAM project exists to collect, analyze and disseminate data on a broadly representative sample of South African individuals, and to report on their employment and welfare in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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September 30, 2020 By: Servaas van der Berg, Tia Linda Zuze, Grace Bridgman PDF

NIDS-CRAM Wave 1 Synthesis Report: Overview and Findings.

The overview and findings of NIDS-CRAM wave 1, consisting of work by a national consortium of 30 social science researchers from five South African universities. The consortium will conduct the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM) over the course of May – December 2020. The NIDS-CRAM project exists to collect, analyze and disseminate data on a broadly representative sample of South African individuals, and to report on their employment and welfare in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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September 29, 2020 By: Nic Spaull, Cally Ardington, Ihsaan Bassier, et al. PDF

Examining the unintended consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on public sector health facility visits: The first 150 days

This paper considers how access to public sector healthcare in South Africa have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic using three sources of evidence: the NIDS-CRAM (Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey) and MatCH (Maternal and Child Health) SMS survey together with routine health care utilisation data from the District Health Information System (DHIS).

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September 11, 2020 By: Ronelle Burger, Candy Day, Nicola Deghaye, Lungiswa Nkonki, Russell Rensburg, Anja Smith, and Cari van Schalkwyk PDF