Ramaphosa’s stimulus package is more interesting for what it says about the politics of economic decision making than for its likely impact on the economy.
Governments can’t undo the technological changes behind frozen wages and rising inequality. The best policy is to invest in education and training to give workers skills of value in the new economy.
South Africa’s governing ANC has always seen economic growth as the driving force for change. This was wishful thinking as the damage done by apartheid will take far more to undo.
The budget was extraordinary in many ways. It is an abandonment of restraint on taxes by a liberal government. It is nakedly populist and it also acknowledges that government debt can be productive.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s first major post-election economic speech revealed not a hint of awareness that large swathes of the electorate had been unpersuaded by his major policy programs.
The control of imported goods is a quick fix that doesn’t resolve fundamental economic problems. It must be accompanied by a policy focus on macroeconomic issues, labour and agriculture.
South Africa’s government should put more effort into developing concrete strategies for dealing with the factors preventing the removal of the critical constraints on economic growth.
South African opposition politician Julius Malema has blamed economic policies put in place during Nelson Mandela’s era for the country’s high levels of inequality. He may have a point.
Will Thomas Piketty’s visit to South Africa trigger the rewriting of the country’s recent economic history? His analysis and ideas on how to address inequality are hard to ignore.
Mindful of the short attention span of voters, Modi’s economic advisers have been careful to avoid selling economic policy as the answer to India’s problems.
With the federal government’s review of taxation about to get underway, many are expecting Australia’s Goods and Services Tax to be up for change. In this GST series we take a closer look at the evidence…
An opinion poll taken in the wake of George Osborne’s Autumn statement reveals that just 27% of people think the British economy is in good shape. This was a decline compared to a survey taken just three…
Suppose that on the evening of November 16, the G20 leaders release a 25-page communique with hundreds of recommendations on global health, security, climate change, human rights etc. Would this be regarded…
Since 1990, GDP per person in China has doubled and then redoubled. With average incomes multiplying fourfold in little more than two decades, one might expect many of the Chinese people to be dancing…
Distinguished Professor and Derek Schrier and Cecily Cameron Chair in Development Economics, School of Economics and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand