Economics research featured in 2013 Research Report

Research by Rulof Burger, Servaas van der Berg and Dieter von Fintel (How Education Policies Added to Joblessness) and Marisa Coetzee and Ronelle Burger (Bridging the Social Divide with Trust) has been featured in the latest issue of the Stellenbosch University's Research Report.

Rulof Burger and co-authors show that the sharp increase in unemployment numbers in the 1990s may have been due to a change in school policies rather than a weak economy. In 1998, schools were no longer allowed to accept pupils more than two years older than their grade. This forced a large number of pupils into the labour market, increasing unemployment by between 400 000 and 900 000 individuals. The full paper is available here.

Coetzee and Burger show that households where one member is a domestic worker attain higher standards of living than households at similar levels of income but which do not have a member of a household employed as a domestic worker. This shows the importance of 'linking ties' in the process of economic upliftment. The full paper is available here.