Von Fintel, D. and Orthofer, A., 2020. Wealth inequality and financial inclusion: Evidence from South African tax and survey records. Economic Modelling.
Working Papers
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.
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? Children under 10 are least susceptible to COVID-19, they should go back first. Spaull,…
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.
This week researchers at Stellenbosch University launched the Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM), a collaborative research project across five universities which will track the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 in South Africa. The study will survey a nationally representative sample of 10,000 South Africans every month for the next six months using telephone surveys with R20 airtime incentives per respondent per wave. The survey will focus on unemployment, household income, access to healthcare, child hunger and access to government grants.
International Tests: What are they and why should South Africa participate? South Africa takes part in three major international assessments: TIMSS, PIRLS and SEACMEQ. This…
Language-in-education policy has a powerful influence on social and economic relations, with complex dimensions in multilingual and unequal societies such as South Africa.
Perseverance, Passion, and Poverty: Examining the association between grit and reading achievement in high-poverty schools
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP06/2020This paper examines whether school characteristics moderate the association between grit and reading achievement in a sample of Grade 6 learners in high-poverty contexts.
Using a dataset known as the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), RESEP’s Martin Gustafsson assesses the South African response to COVID-19 relative to that of 139 other nations.
How does South Africa’s Covid-19 response compare globally? A preliminary analysis using the new OxCGRT dataset A 19 May 2020 update of aspects of…
President Ramaphosa announced on 15 March that schools would close within days for just over three weeks, as opposed to the originally planned one week of school holidays. This is in line with steps taken across the world to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus. This is a sudden change of plan, and closures may be extended. What should South Africans look out for? What can they do to limit the adverse effects of this disruption on education?
The coronavirus pandemic working its way through South African society will have many knock-on effects, one of them will be hunger and malnutrition as 9-million children no longer receive free school meals while their schools are shut.
RESEP’s Ronelle Burger today published an article in the Daily Maverick calling for South African’s to stand together and adhere to the President’s recent announcements on precautionary measures to stem the spread of the Coronavirus.
On the 20th and 21st of February 2020, RESEP convened a workshop on education research with participation from academics from the University of Bristol (UK), the University of Bath (UK), the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (India), and Tribhuvan University (Nepal), as well as key policymakers and researchers from the DBE.
Competing against some 738 data scientists from around the globe, RESEP’s Cobus Burger recently won the Uber Movement SANRAL Cape Town Challenge. Burger’s model was most accurately able to predict when and where road accidents were going to happen on Cape Town’s busy roads.
A cost-effective intervention that is easy to implement – this is how researchers describe the standardised reference letter that was developed to assist unemployed South Africans in their search for a job. The study found that job-seekers with previous work experience who use reference letters in their job applications stand to increase their employment prospects by more than 50%.
A recent paper by Martin Gustafsson shows that there have been significant improvements in reading in South Africa in recent years.
A revised PIRLS 2011 to 2016 trend for South Africa and the importance of analysing the underlying microdata
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP02/2020Given South Africa’s weak performance in international testing programmes, there is a strong interest in gauging improvements within these programmes.
Correspondence between mathematics and mathematical literacy scores: an analysis from 2010 to 2018
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP03/2020This paper estimates correspondence curves between mathematics and mathematical literacy scores for South African Matric Students from 2010 to 2018.