The South African government offers various support mechanisms to support Eskom, the state-owned electric utility, and the independent power producers in providing low-cost electricity, including credit and payment guarantees. Guarantees constitute contingent liabilities to the government and...

The degree of concentration and market power in South African markets has been the topic of much policy discussion. However, there has been little evidence on what drives market power and the impact of the degree of competition in South African markets on economic outcomes. This paper improves...

Although Africa has experienced rapid urbanization in recent decades, we know little about the process of urbanization across the continent. The paper exploits a natural experiment, the abolition of South African pass laws, to explore how exogenous population shocks affect the spatial...

This paper investigates cross-sectoral productivity differentials in South African industry and their distributional consequences. The analysis shows that typically, traded sectors have experienced low productivity growth over the past decade, while skill intensive service sectors have had...

Tobacco taxes are considered an effective policy tool to reduce tobacco consumption and produce long-run benefits that outweigh the costs associated with a price increase. Through this policy, some of the most adverse effects and economic costs of smoking can be reduced, including shorter life...

This South African Agricultural Public Expenditure Review (AgPer) is one of a series of similar studies undertaken in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) of the African Union's (AU) New Partnership for Africa's...

Contingent liabilities create management problems for governments. They have a cost, but judging what the cost is and whether it is worth incurring is difficult. Except in the case of contingent liabilities created by simple guarantees of debt, governments usually can incur contingent...

South Africa has a comprehensive climate change response strategy to support the transition to a low carbon economy and a climate-resilient society. Improving the national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory and implementing a carbon tax are but two elements that form part of this transition....

South Africa's National Climate Change Response Policy (NCCRP) sets out a number of key goals. Reaching these goals will enable South Africa to meet its commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They key elements that will ensure South Africa can...

This report presents the result of the qualitative evaluation to understand the implementation of five adherence interventions from the provider perspective in four South African provinces. The research is part of the evaluation of the new Adherence Guidelines for HIV, TB and other chronic...