Janet Wilhelm
Small business: Keep it Loose or We'll Lose it
Financial Mail - 10 December 2004
The overall numbers of small businesses and entrepreneurs in SA are growing strongly but there are marked differences between the formal and informal sectors. Informal entrepreneurship is booming - it grew 11% from 2002 to 2003 - but formal sector small business has stagnated and even shrunk slightly (0,5%) over the same period (see table). By far the most informal enterprises were initiated by African women, whose participation in the formal sector simultaneously regressed. These are the findings of the "Annual review of small business 2003", a report commissioned by the department of trade & industry and conducted by policy think-tank Trade & Industry Policy Strategies (Tips).
Aussie Minister Urges Lower Trade Barriers
Business Day - 8 February 2008
AUSTRALIA's Deputy Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Bruce Billson urged developing countries yesterday to make substantial reductions in their trade barriers to encourage economic growth and trade among themselves.
Business Day - 5 May 2005
Commentators say government should provide financial assistance where there is a crisis that may have significant economic and social consequences, and where temporary aid can provide breathing space for a turnaround that will set a company on a sustainable path.
Think before "just doing it"
Business Day - 18 October 2005
SOME commentators believe that countries should…just do it - when it comes to unilateral trade liberalisation. It is argued, perhaps correctly, that the World Trade Organisation negotiations have become too complex, with too many players, for significant liberalisation to occur through this…multilateral-process. The answer, apparently, is unilateral tariff reductions. The assumption behind this is that free trade will simply lead to higher growth. If only things were that simple.
Southern Africa Trade Database: 2005 Data
16 February 2007
2005 Trade data for a number of countries have been uploaded for various Member States on the Southern African Trade Development website.
Introductory Course on Computable General Equilibrium Modelling
Course Leaders: Dirk Ernst van Seventer (dirk@tips.org.za) | Rob Davies (rdavies@hsrc.ac.za)
Course Material:
The course was taught using a mixture of lectures and hands-on computer lab exercises. Because the emphasis was on developing an understanding of CGE modelling as a practical tool, many sessions involved both lectures and exercises. We also tried to pace the course to ensure maximum understanding. The following programme is thus indicative of the sequence of topics rather than the exact times devoted to each area. Lab sessions included discussion and interpretation of results, to which participants were expected to contribute.
Programme
Course material is available for download:
IFPRI CGE Course Material Adapted for TIPS CGE Course Mar07.pdf [333 KB]
| Day | Morning | Afternoon |
| Day 1 | Day1-Morning.zip | Day1-Afternoon.zip |
TIPS hosted a short course on computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling at its offices in Pretoria from 8-16 March 2007. The course was available to a limited number of 12 participants.
The IT revolution has allowed techniques that were once the preserve of a handful of leading theoreticians to become part of the practical economist's everyday toolkit. CGE modelling is one of a number of approaches to economy-wide analysis that have become accessible and practicable as data- and computer-based techniques have developed. An increasing number of economists use this framework to analyse real-world issues that were previously approached through less appropriate partial equilibrium methods.
As part of our commitment to ensure that Southern Africa benefits from these development, TIPS has (co)presented a series of related short courses over the past five years. The current course is part of this ongoing programme. The course integrates theory, real world data, hands-on computer work and real-world applications, and participants are
- introduced to the micro, macro and trade theories that underlie typical CGE models;
- provided with an overview and practical examples of Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs) and of parameter and elasticity estimation methods which typically provide the data on which CGEs are built;
- taught GAMS, a programming language widely used in economy-wide policy modelling; and
- exposed to issues involved in using models for specific applications, such as the analysis of trade, public finance, regulation and environmental economics. Some of these topics will be presented by special instructors, who bring a wide range of practical experiences to the learning process.
These components of the modeller's tool-kit are taught in an integrated and cumulative way. The theory is developed alongside the practical applications, which move from introductory exercises through to more advanced applications. The applications use materials developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and adapted by the course instructors to suit Southern African economies.
Participants will apply what they learn to a mini-project, which will be presented to the class at the end of the course. By that time, all participants will have sufficient competence to be able to continue developing their skills independently.
The course is targeted at those who wish to develop professional expertise in the area, as well as those who need to understand the potential and limitations of the use of these approaches without themselves becoming modellers. As such it should appeal to policy-makers and analysts in both the public and the private sectors, as well as to students and academics. Many of the special instructors are alumni of past courses. An intended by-product of the course is the development of a community of builders and users of economy-wide models in Southern Africa.
No previous exposure to CGE modelling is required, although it will be an advantage if participants have some familiarity with SAMs Those without SAM experience are invited to attend a brief introduction the day before the start of the programme.
Alan Hirsch
Alan Hirsch is Professor of Development Policy and Practice and has directed the Graduate School of Development Policy and Practice at UCT since 2013. He was born in Cape Town and educated in Economics, Economic History and History at UCT, Wits and Columbia. After teaching economic history and economics at the University of Cape Town, he joined the South African Department of Trade and Industry in 1995, managing industry and technology policy. He worked at the South African Presidency from 2002 to 2012 where he managed economic policy, represented the Presidency at the G20, and was co-chair of the G20 Development Working Group.
He has served or serves on the boards of a range of research or training centres including the European Centre for Development Policy Management. He was a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School, was a regular visiting professor at the Graduate School of Governance at Maastricht University, directed the International Growth Centre’s research in Zambia for 5 years, and was a member of the OECD secretary-general’sInclusive Growth Advisory Panel.
He writes about economic development issues, including Season of Hope - Economic Reform under Mandela and Mbeki and recently co-edited The Oxford Companion to South African Economics.