Haroon Bhorat

Haroon Bhorat is Professor of Economics and Director of the DPRU. He holds an NRF B2 rating, and with a total citation estimate of over 7800 and an h-index of 47, he is one of the most cited South African economists globally.

He currently serves on the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), established by President Ramaphosa to generate new ideas for economic growth, job creation and addressing poverty in South Africa. Prof. Bhorat holds the DST/NRF SARChI Chair in Economic Growth, Poverty and Inequality Research. He is a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; a Research Fellow at IZA, the Institute for the Study of Labour in Bonn; and is a member of the UCT College of Fellows.

Serving in a variety of public roles ranging from high-level advisory work for government departments and multi-lateral institutions, to giving public lectures and seminar presentations at the world’s leading universities (including for example Columbia, Cornell, Yale and Oxford), Prof. Bhorat’s ability to seamlessly switch between conducting hard empirical analysis and providing evidence-based policy advice that is accessible to a broader audience, has had a direct impact on the discipline. His research feeds into policy decisions and pronouncements at the highest level, including Cabinet memoranda, State of the Nation Addresses and legislative promulgation. His work has been hugely influential in policy making in respect of poverty, inequality and labour market issues in South Africa.

He consults with international organizations such as the ILO, the UNDP, the World Bank, Ratings Agencies and emerging market fund managers. He retains an involvement in the private sector as he serves on the Board of two listed companies in the Retail and financial services sectors. He sat on the Advisory Board of the UNDP’s 2019 and 2020 Human Development Reports, and was a member of the World Bank’s Advisory Board of the Commission on Global Poverty. He is currently a member of the executive committee of the International Economic Association (IEA) and sat on the Program Committee of the 2017 IEA World Congress. He is a member on the Advisory Committee of the joint United Nations and World Bank Policy Study on the role of Development in the Prevention of Violent Conflict. He also sits on the UN/WHO’s High Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth. Haroon previously served as a member of the UN Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (LEP), and was Head of Research for the UN’s High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Prof. Bhorat has undertaken extensive work for several South African government departments – most notably the South African Department of Labour, the Presidency and the National Treasury, including an appointment as Advisor on the South African Parliament’s High Level Panel on Acceleration of Change and Transformation. He served as an economic advisor to two past Ministers of Finance including Min. Pravin Gordhan, and previous Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, formally serving on the Presidential Economic Advisory Panel.

Prof. Bhorat sits on the editorial advisory board of the World Bank Economic Review, and he is a Board Member of the National Research Foundation (NRF) and UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), previously sitting on the HSRC Board. He has his PhD in Economics through Stellenbosch University, studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was a Cornell University research fellow. Prof. Bhorat’s commitments at UCT include lecturing Advanced Labour Economics (Hons), and supervision to Honours, Masters and PhD students.

Expertise:

• Labour Economics, Poverty, Income Distribution, Inclusive Growth, Minimum Wages​

Books/chapters

• Better Choices for South Africa: Ensuring South Africa’s Future, Brenthurst Foundation, PanMacMillan, 2022. (Co-edited with Jonas, M. and Mills, G.) featuring Policy Choices for the Labour Market, Chapter 3, pp. 69-95, April 2022. (Co-authored with Stanwix, B.)
• Structural transformation, inequality, and inclusive growth in South Africa. In: The Developer’s Dilemma: structural transformation, inequality, and inclusive growth, UNU WIDER. (FORTHCOMING). (Co-authored with Oosthuizen, M., Steenkamp, F., Lilenstein, K. and Thornton, A.)
• Understanding Growth-Income Inequality Interactions in Zambia. In: Inequality in Zambia. Edited by: Caesar Cheelo, Marja Hinfelaar, Manenga Ndulo. Chapter 7. 2022. Routledge. (Co-authored with Oosthuizen, M., Kachingwe, N., and Yu, D.)
• Changing Dynamics in the South African Labour Market. In: The Oxford Handbook of the South African Economy. Edited by Oqubay, A., Tregenna, F. and Valodia, I. Oxford University Press, November 2021. (Co-authored with Stanwix, B. and Thornton, A.)
• An Empirical Assessment of the National Minimum Wage in South Africa. In: State of the Nation: Ethics and Politics of South Africa’s Struggle Against Poverty and Inequality, Edited by Bohler-Muller, N., Soudien, C. and Reddy, V. HSRC Press, February 2021. Chapter 7, pp. 154-172. (Co-authored with Kanbur, R. and Stanwix, B.)

​Collaborative Working Papers

• Employment creation potential, labor skills requirements, and skill gaps for young people: A South African case study. Brookings Institution, AGI Working Paper #26, January 2021. (Co-authored with Allen, C., Asmal, Z., Hill, R., Monnakgotla, J., Oosthuizen, M. and Rooney, C.)
• Growth and Structural Change: Implications for Income Inequality in Developing Countries. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung – FES Study, October 2020. (Co-authored with Asmal, Z. and Allen, C.)
• Social assistance during South Africa’s national lockdown: Examining the COVID-19 grant, changes to the Child Support Grant, and post-October policy options. NIDS-CRAM Wave 2 Working Paper 2020/09, Sept 2020. (Co-authored with Köhler, T.)
• Covid-19, social protection, and the labour market in South Africa. Are social grants being targeted at the most vulnerable?. NIDS-CRAM Wave 1 Working Paper 2020/06, July 2020. (Co-authored with Köhler, T.)
• Wage Polarization In A High-Inequality Emerging Economy: The Case Of South Africa. WIDER Working Paper 2020/55. Helsinki: UNU-WIDER. (Co-authored with Lilenstein, K., Oosthuizen, M. and Thornton, A.)

DPRU Working Papers:

• Can cash transfers aid labour market recovery? Evidence from South Africa’s special COVID-19 grant. Development Policy Research Unit Working Paper 202108. (Co-authored with Köhler, T).
• COVID-19 and the labour market: Estimating the employment effects of South Africa’s national lockdown. Development Policy Research Unit Working Paper 202107. (Co-authored with Köhler, T., Hill, R. and Stanwix, B.).
• The Potential Employment Implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies: The Case of the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector. Development Policy Research Unit Working Paper 202106. (Co-authored with Allen Whitehead, C. Hill, R., Köhler, T. and Steenkamp, F.).
• Understanding Economic Complexity: An Application to the MER Sector. Development Policy Research Unit Working Paper 202105. (Co-authored with Allen Whitehead, C.).
• The Impact of the National Minimum Wage in South Africa: Early Quantitative Evidence. Development Policy Research Unit Working Paper 202104. (Co-authored with Lilenstein, A. and Stanwix, B.).