Research

Job Market Paper

On a Mission: Literacy outcomes and self-selection at Cape missions

This paper examines whether the presence of high human capital on farms surrounding mission stations influenced literacy outcomes for residents after emancipation in the Cape Colony. Using census data from 1849, slave valuation records, and spatial analysis, the study finds that areas with higher average valuations of enslaved men at emancipation were associated with significantly higher literacy rates for male residents who arrived at mission stations between 1835 and 1842. These findings challenge the assumption that individuals randomly selected into missionary education and highlight the importance of both supply-side efforts and local demand-side factors in shaping educational outcomes. The results contribute to a growing body of research that emphasises the role of local agency and demand in understanding the long-term impacts of missionary education.

Journal articles

When Cape slavery ended: Introducing a new slave emancipation dataset
with Kate Ekama, Johan Fourie, and Hans Heese
Explorations in Economic History, 2021 (Vol. 81)

Accommodation and Resistance: The Housing of Cape Town’s Enslaved and Freed Population Before and After Emancipation
with Robert Ross
Journal of Southern African Studies, 2021 (Vol. 47, Issue 3)

Working Papers

Supply-Side Economics of a Good Type: Supporting and Expanding South Africa’s Informal Economy
with Z Asmal, H Bhorat, A Lochmann, and K Shah.
2024
CID Research Fellow & Graduate Student Working Paper No. 158, April 2024. Harvard University.

Machine learning vs traditional forecasting methods: An application to South African GDP
2019
Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers: WP12/2019. Stellenbosch University.

Reports

Just Transition and the Labour Market in South Africa - Measuring Individual and Household Coal Economy Dependence
with H Bhorat, T Kupeta, and F Steenkamp
2022
Research Report, March 2024.

Lesotho’s Demographic Dividend in the Context of Health and Other Development Challenges
with M Oosthuizen
2022
UNFPA-ESARO and UNFPA Lesotho Country Office.

Review of the Policy Framework and Processes for Work Visas
National Treasury of South Africa (Contributing author)
2022
Operation Vulindlela. South Africa.

Skills supply and demand in South Africa: Labour Market Intelligence research programme
with M Khuluvhe, H Bhorat, M Oosthuizen, Z Asmal, E Ganyaupfu, E Netshifhefhe, J Monnakgotla, and C Rooney
2022
Department of Higher Education and Training. South Africa.

Other

Charting the Uncharted: A Visual Conceptualisation of Quantitative History Research at Stellenbosch University
with Sepideh Mehraban (artist), exhibition curated by Clara Babette
2021
Biography of an Uncharted People.