Deputy Director and Chief Research Officer, DPRU

Morné Oosthuizen is Chief Research Officer and Deputy Director of the DPRU. His research interests include the generational economy (National Transfer Accounts), poverty, inequality, and labour markets. He has worked on issues of intergenerational transfers and the demographic dividend in several countries in Southern Africa and helped coordinate the multi-country research project, Counting Women’s Work, which aims to value time spent in unpaid services and incorporate it into estimates of production and consumption over the lifecourse. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Cape Town, focussing on intergenerational resource flows, demographic dividends, and unpaid care across the lifecycle in South Africa using the National Transfer Accounts methodology.

Morné also holds the INSETA-UCT Research Chair. The Insurance Sector Education Training Authority (INSETA’s) purpose is to grow the pool and quality of scarce and critical skills in the insurance and related services sector, enhancing the sector and supporting the country’s transformation. Credible research based on robust evidence is essential to support decision-making by employers, insurance sector stakeholders, INSETA, and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). To this end, the INSETA-UCT Research Chair at the DPRU has embarked on a formal research programme in partnership with INSETA that aims to address key policy-relevant research questions.

Morné joined the Unit in 2002, becoming Senior Researcher later that year. He became Deputy Director in 2006. After graduating cum laude with a B Comm Honours in Economics in 1999, Morné spent a year at the University of Cambridge. He then graduated cum laude from the University of Stellenbosch with an M.Comm in Economics in 2002.

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Latest Research: 

Journal Articles

  1. Mason, A., Lee, R., and Members of the NTA Network (including Oosthuizen, M.), 2022. Six ways population change will affect the global economy. Population and Development Review. DOI: 10.1111/padr.12469
  2. Bhorat, H., Oosthuizen, M., and Stanwix, B., 2021. Social Assistance Amidst the Covid-19 Epidemic in South Africa: A Policy Assessment. South African Journal of Economics 89(1): 63-81, March. DOI: 10.1111/saje.12277.
  3. Oosthuizen, M., (2015). Bonus or Mirage? South Africa’s Demographic Dividend. Journal of the Economics of Ageing 5:14-22. April. DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2014.08.007.
  4. Lee, R., Mason, A., and Members of the NTA Network (including Oosthuizen, M.) (2014). Is low fertility really a problem? Population ageing, dependency and consumption. Science 346(6206):229–234. DOI: 10.1126/science.1250542. 10 October 2014.
  5. Oosthuizen, M., 2012. Low Pay in South Africa. International Labour Review 151(3): 173–192. September.

Book Chapters

  1. Bhorat, H., Oosthuizen, M., Kachingwe, N., and Yu, D. (forthcoming). Understanding Growth-Income Inequality Interactions in Zambia. Chapter 5. Routledge. [Book manuscript approved by publisher for publication.]
  2. Oosthuizen, M. (2022). The Economic Lifecycle and Africa’s Demographic Dividend: Evidence from National Transfer Accounts. In: C. Odimegwu and Y. Adewoyin (ed.), Routledge Handbook of African Demography, Chapter 34. Routledge, New York.
  3. Bhorat, H., Lilenstein, K., Oosthuizen, M., Steenkamp, F., and Thornton, A. (forthcoming). Structural Transformation, inequality, and inclusive growth in South Africa. In: K. Sen, A. Sumner and A. Yusuf (ed.s), The Developers Dilemma. Oxford University Press.
  4. Bhorat, H., Naidoo, K., Oosthuizen, M. and Pillay, K., 2016. Demographic, employment, and wage trends in South Africa. In: H. Bhorat and F. Tarp (ed.s), Africa’s Lions: Growth Traps and Opportunities for the Continent’s Six Dominant Economies. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
  5. Leibbrandt, M., Finn, A. and Oosthuizen, M., 2016. Poverty, Inequality, and Prices in Post- Apartheid South Africa. In: C. Arndt, A. McKay and F. Tarp (eds.), Growth and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: 393-417. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
  6. Oosthuizen, M., 2014. Capturing South Africa’s demographic dividend. In: H. Bhorat, A. Hirsch, R. Kanbur, and M. Ncube (eds.), Oxford Companion to the Economics of South Africa: 231-235. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Working Papers and Other Papers

  1. Allen, C., Asmal, Z., Bhorat, H., Hill, R., Monnakgotla, J., Oosthuizen, M., and Rooney, C., 2021. ‘Employment creation potential, labor skills requirements and skill gaps for young people: A South African case study’. AGI Working Paper #26. January. Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings.
  2. Monnakgotla, J. and Oosthuizen, M., 2021. ‘Job Quality in South Africa: A Proposed Index for Ongoing Monitoring of Job Quality’. DPRU Working Paper 202103. March. Development Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
  3. Bhorat, H., Köhler, T., Oosthuizen, M., Stanwix, B., Steenkamp, F., and Thornton, A., 2020. ‘The Economics of Covid-19 in South Africa: Early Impressions’. DPRU Working Paper 202004. May. Development Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
  4. Bhorat, H., Lilenstein, K., Oosthuizen, M., and Thornton, A., 2020. ‘Wage polarization in a high-inequality emerging economy: The case of South Africa’. WIDER Working Paper Series 2020/55. UNU-WIDER.
  5. Bhorat, H., Lilenstein, K., Oosthuizen, M., and Thornton, A., 2020. ‘Structural transformation, inequality, and inclusive growth in South Africa’. WIDER Working Paper Series 2020/50. UNUWIDER. 
  6. Bhorat, H., and Oosthuizen, M., 2020. ‘Jobs, Economic Growth, and Capacity Development for Youth in Africa’. DPRU Working Paper 202005. May. Development Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town. (Also published as Working Paper Series No. 336, African Development Bank.)
  7. Bhorat, H., Oosthuizen, M., and Stanwix, B., 2020. ‘Social Assistance Amidst the Covid-19 Epidemic in South Africa: An Impact Assessment’. DPRU Working Paper 202006. July. Development Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
  8. Bhorat, H., Thornton, A., Köhler, T., and Oosthuizen, M., 2020. ‘Jobs and COVID-19: Measuring Work-Related Physical Interaction’. DPRU Working Paper 202003. April. Development Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
  9. Oosthuizen, M., 2019. Inequality and the generational economy: Race-disaggregated National Transfer Accounts for South Africa, 2015. WIDER Working Paper 2019/24. UNU-WUDER.
  10. Oosthuizen, M., 2018. Counting Women’s Work in South Africa: Incorporating Unpaid Work into Estimates of the Economic Lifecycle in 2010. CWW Working Paper WP8. September. Counting Women’s Work Project.
  11. Oosthuizen, M. and Lilenstein, K., 2018. Counting Women’s Work in Mauritius: Household Production across the Lifecycle in 2003. CWW Working Paper WP7. October. Counting Women’s Work Project.
  12. Oosthuizen, M., 2018. Counting Women’s Work in South Africa: Estimates of Household Production across the Lifecycle in 2000. CWW Working Paper WP6. September. Counting Women’s Work Project.