Publications

The DPRU’s successful Working Paper series has a broad target audience, including fellow academics and researchers (both local and international), students, representatives from civil society and the business community, the media, as well as policy-makers and government officials. The majority of these papers represent socioeconomic research on labour market issues, poverty and inequality. To facilitate additional exposure to a broader national and international audience, DPRU Working Papers are also available via RePEc (Research Papers in Economics at http://repec.org)

Given the length and often very technical nature of the research published in the Working Paper Series, the DPRU also publishes condensed versions of selected working papers as Policy Briefs, specifically targeted at policy makers. In order to have the highest possible policy impact, it is critically important that a policy research institute reduces its full research reports to a few page policy brief with the most policy-relevant findings and key messages, which can inform the policy process. It is crucial that messages from the working papers are available in an easily accessible format, and can be understood by government officials and other stakeholders with no training in economics or poverty analysis.

The DPRU also publishes a series of labour market factsheets commissioned by the Employment Promotion Programme (EPP). These factsheets either analyse changes in the labour market over the preceding 12 month period, or focus on trends within a given group or sector within the labour market (e.g. youth, or the mining industry).

DPRU researchers regularly publish their work in both peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed journals, books and reports. They also routinely deliver papers at conferences and seminars, participate in workshops and panel discussions, and occasionally contribute to blogs and online opinion forums. DPRU outputs include two published books, namely "Poverty and Policy in Post Apartheid South Africa", involving the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Cornell University, and Strategies and Analysis for Growth and Access (SAGA), and; "Fighting Poverty: Labour Markets and Inequality in South Africa", sponsored by the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and the South African Department of Labour.

A limited number of printed and/or digital copies of the DPRU’s archived annual reports are also available on request from the Unit’s publications library (please contact sarah.marriott@uct.ac.za for more information).