Overview

Director: Prof Beatrice Conradie

Current SSU Researchers

Nicoli Nattrass works on the political-economy of labour-intensive growth and on human-wildlife conflict in the Karoo.

Heinrich Gerwel is a SSU researcher and PhD candidate who is studying agriculture as a vehicle for pro-poor growth in the Eastern Cape. Hein will take up a fulltime academic position in the Agricultural Economics Department at Stellenbosch University on 1 September 2016 as part of the Next Generation of Academics Programme.

Cathy Namome is SSU and Economics of Tobacco Control Project researcher who works on the alternatives for tobacco in smallholder farming in Uganda. Her PhD studies the effect of crop adoption decisions and farm productivity.

Craig Galloway is a SSU research associate registered for a PhD at Stellenbosch University. Craig is interested in environmental sustainability in dairy production. His results indicate that the goal of private profit maximisation supports environmental quality because it minimises fertiliser and feed use, which reduced the carbon footprint and reduces the nitrogen surplus.

Lesego Moshikaro is a student shared by the SSU and PRISM in the School of Economics. Her research interest is promoting productivity in manufacturing. She works with Beatrice and Anthony Black on the automotive industry.

Martin Dyer began his research career in the SSU as an undergraduate student with a study on the productivity of urban agriculture. This paper appeared in Agrekon before the end of his third year. In honours he investigated the total factor productivity of the SMME retail sector. He is currently in the UK on a Rhodes Scholarship.

Jenifer Piesse is a long-term associate of the SSU who regularly collaborates with Beatrice on total productivity and farm labour studies. Jenny is a professor in Business at Bournemouth University and an extraordinary professor in Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University.

Colin Thirtle was the inspiration for the SSU’s Total Factor Productivity project. Recently retired from Imperial College London Colin now divides his time between fishing and hanging out in the SSU when he is in Cape Town during the summer. He occasionally visits Stellenbosch University to replenish his wine supplies.

Jeremy Seekings is a researcher in the SSU as well as ​Director of the Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa and Professor of Political Studies and Sociology. His research is inter-disciplinary, extending across history (especially economic history), politics, sociology and economics. In the 1990s and 2000s most of his work focused on South Africa. Over the past decade it has extended to more comparative work, including in Brazil, the Caribbean and other parts of Africa. He runs a major project on Legislating and Implementing Welfare Policy Reforms (LIWPR) in Africa. Recent SSU Working Papers include: The quality of South African wage data: accounting for deductions, debt and disclosure, Trade unions and the redesign of South Africa’s minimum wage-setting institutions in the 1990s and Minimum wage-setting by the Employment Conditions Commission in South Africa, 1999-2015.