Fourth Annual Pretoria-Stellenbosch PhD Workshop in Economics

The fourth annual Pretoria-Stellenbosch PhD Workshop in Economics took place on 9 July 2024 at the University of Pretoria. Ten PhD students and postdocs from universities across the country presented their research, including a number of students from the Department of Economics at Stellenbosch University. The workshop was organised by Jesse Naidoo (UP), Mamello Nchake (SU) and Marisa von Fintel (SU).

The presentations spanned a range of topics in health economics, education, trade, and labour economics, amongst others. Each student participant was paired with a discussant within their field who gave detailed feedback and comments on their research. The discussants were from universities in the United States, United Kingdom and South Africa This feedback, as well as the lively discussions between participants during the day, was highlighted by student participants as being especially valuable in providing new impetus and motivation for improving their research.

The students from Stellenbosch participating were Wihan Marais (Gravity and Cross-Border Influence: The Importance of Distance in Mobile Telecommunications), Bianca Bohmer (Covid-19 and Inequality in Reading Outcomes in South Africa: PIRLS 2016 and 2021), Valentine Madzudzo (Local Conflict Exposure and Gender Employment Outcomes in eThekwini and Gauteng), Cecilia Njoroge (Decentralisation, Ethnic Favouritism and Water Service Provision: Evidence from Kenya) and Timothy Ngalande (Race-Biased Technological Progress and Growth in 20th-Century Industrial South Africa).

Jane Kabubo-Mariara (Partnership for Economic Policy) was the first keynote speaker of the day and presented the various opportunities available for young researchers in the Global South to participate in research and mentoring projects through the Partnership for Economic Policy. These opportunities would be especially valuable for the student participants, and many of them expressed an interest to participate in the future.

The second keynote was given by Chris Blattman (University of Chicago), on the topic of past and future conflict research. He used the backdrop of letters between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud just after the end of WWI to introduce a discussion on whether humans are inherently evil, and by implication disposed to conflict. He presented a summary of the main existing theories of why the costs of conflict are ignored in favour of a pursuit of violence and ended his discussion by highlighting the need for empirical research to fill the remaining gaps in this literature.

The day ended with a dinner event at a restaurant in Waterkloof Ridge. Practicing economists and researchers from various economic consulting firms, the National Treasury, Statistics South Africa, and the South African Reserve Bank attended the dinner, which allowed them to meet the student participants and academics which were present.

The next workshop will be hosted by Stellenbosch University in mid-2025. A call for papers will be circulated in the first term of next year. For any queries about the event, please contact any of the members of the organising committee.

Workshop Participants at the dinner event at De Kloof Restaurant in Waterkloof Ridge, Pretoria

This year’s workshop was made possible by the generous support of the following sponsors:

Department of Economics, University of Pretoria

Bureau of Economic Research

Thanks to Marisa von Fintel for providing the material for this article.