Book Launch Seminars: Oxford Companion to the Economics of South Africa
SOUTH AFRICA BOOK TOUR - AUGUST 2015
Please join us at one of our roadshow events across the country in early Augustâ, as we continue to launch the Oxford Companion to the Economics of South Africa.
Following the success of the first book launch in Cape Town in November last year, each seminar will be chaired by two or more of the editors, and will feature author presentations based on their relevant chapters.
Copies of the book will be donated to the library of each institution hosting an event as well as to the libraries of other previously disadvantaged institutions.
Background:
This highly-anticipated volume provides a unique perspective on the last two decades, and the challenges faced by South Africa as it moves to translate political freedom into economic prosperity and inclusion.
In 1994 South Africa saw the end of apartheid. The new era of political freedom was seen as the foundation for economic prosperity and inclusion. The last two decades have seen mixed results. Economic growth has been volatile. While inequalities in public services have been reduced, income inequality has increased, and poverty has remained stagnant. As the twentieth anniversary of the transition to democracy approaches in 2014, the economic policy debates in South Africa are in full flow. They combine a stocktake of the various programs of the last two decades with a forward looking discussion of strategy in the face of an ever open but volatile global economy. Underlying the discourse are basic and often unresolved differences on an appropriate strategy for an economy like South Africa, with a strong natural resource base but with deeply entrenched inherited inequalities, especially across race.
This volume contributes to the policy and analytical debate by pulling together perspectives on a range of issues: micro, macro, sectoral, country wide and global, from leading economists working on South Africa. Other than the requirement that it be analytical and not polemical, the contributors were given freedom to put forward their particular perspective on their topic. The economists invited are from within South Africa and from outside; from academia and the policy world; from international and national level economic policy agencies. The contributors include recognized world leaders in South African economic analysis, as well as the very best of the younger crop of economists who are working on the study of South Africa, the next generation of leaders in thought and policy.
The Book Tour will comprise the following events:
6 August: University of Fort Hare
Miriam Makeba Centre, East London
17h00 – 18h30
11 August: Pretoria Co-hosted with UNU-WIDER and TIPS
The Sheraton, Pretoria
18h00 – 20h00
13 August: University of Zululand
Library Conference Room, KwaDlangezwa Campus
12h30 – 14h00
14 August: Johannesburg Co-hosted with MISTRA
CedarWoods of Sandton, 120 Western Service Road, Woodmead, Sandton
09h00 – 12h30
These events are being co-organised with the Graduate School of Development Policy and Practice at UCT.
To RSVP and for further enquiries, please contact sarah.marriott@uct.ac.za or call Sarah on 021 650 5701.
About the Editors
Haroon Bhorat is Professor of Economics and Director of the Development Policy Research Unit, School of Economics, University of Cape Town, Alan Hirsch is Director, Graduate School of Development Policy and Practice, University of Cape Town, Ravi Kanbur is T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and Professor of Economics, Cornell University. Mthuli Ncube was at the time of publishing, Chief Economist and Vice President, Africa Development Bank Group & Professor, Graduate School of Business Administration, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, now Professor of Public Policy at Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.