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Haroon Bhorat

University of Cape Town, South Africa, IZA, Germany, and Brookings Institution, USA

Whilst we are beginning to get a better appreciation globally about minimum wages and their impact, we understand little about the impact in terms of the enforcement of this policy. This project afforded the opportunity for us to explore this relatively unknown research area

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Professor of Economics and Director, Development Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Research interest

Labour economics, poverty, income distribution, inclusive growth, and minimum wages

Website

https://acdi.uct.ac.za/contacts/professor-haroon-bhorat

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

Served as an economic advisor to Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, formally serving on the Presidential Economic Advisory Panel; Advisor to the Minister of Finance; National Research Chair under the theme of Economic Growth, Poverty and Inequality: Exploring the Interactions for South Africa; Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution affiliated to the Global Economy and Development Program, and the Africa Growth Initiative (AGI); member of the UN Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (LEP); Head of Research for the UN’s High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda

Past positions

Professor of Economics, School of Economics, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Director, Development Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Qualifications

PhD Economics, Stellenbosch University, 2003

Selected publications

  • “Estimating the impact of minimum wages on employment, wages, and non-wage benefits: The case of agriculture in South Africa.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics (2014) (with R. Kanbur and B. Stanwix).

  • “A note on measuring the depth of minimum wage violation.” Labour: Review of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations 27:2 (2013): 192–197 (with R. Kanbur and N. Mayet).

  • “The gender wage gap in post-apartheid South Africa: A re-examination.” Journal of African Economies 22:2 (2013) (with S. Goga).

  • “Determinants of Grade 12 pass rates in the post-apartheid South African schooling system.” Journal of African Economies 18:4 (2008): 634–666 (with M. Oosthuizen).

article(s)

  • Compliance with labor laws in developing countries Updated

    Non-compliance with labor legislation is widespread and this has critical implications for understanding labor markets in developing countries

    Haroon BhoratRavi KanburBenjamin Stanwix, June 2019
    Compliance with minimum wage laws and non-wage conditions of employment often depends on labor market specific factors. In developing countries, many workers still earn less than the legal minimum and lack access to mandated non-wage benefits. Enforcement has not kept up with regulation growth and compliance has not been measured from a multidimensional perspective. Such an approach would help to understand the impact of institutional variables and country-specific approaches on the level of labor law violation. The difference between de facto and de jure regulation remains particularly pertinent in countries where compliance is low.
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