My Research
External portfolio web pages
Working papers
I collaborated with Andrew Donaldson on a project we called Labour Market Effects of the Great Lockdown in South Africa: Employment, Earnings and the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme. Our project has created knowledge on how to simulate the cost of social insurance schemes.
Horn, A.J. & Donaldson, A.R. 2021. Labour Market Effects of the Great Lockdown in South Africa: Earnings and Employment During 2020–2022. (SALDRU Working Paper 279). Available: http://opensaldru.uct.ac.za/handle/11090/1007
R Script: https://social-insurance.saldru.co.za/ters/qlfs-2020
YouTube presentation; Slides
Donaldson, A.R. & Horn, A.J. 2021. Employment and Earnings by Industry Before Covid-19. (SALDRU Working Paper 277). Available: http://opensaldru.uct.ac.za/handle/11090/1005
QLFS earnings uprating factors: https://social-insurance.saldru.co.za/data
Horn, A.J. 2021. South Africa's Unemployment Insurance Fund Benefit Function: A Mathematical Critique. (SALDRU Working Paper Number 276). Cape Town: SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town. Available: http://opensaldru.uct.ac.za/handle/11090/1004
Policy Brief (forthcoming)
Dissertations and essays
Masters
Horn, AJ. 2020. Teacher Remuneration in South Africa: Incentivizing Performance. http://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/33816
Despite high government expenditure, education in South Africa is poor quality. We focus on how teacher quality can be improved by improving the structure of their remuneration. Performance-related pay, which can be based either on measuring learner test scores, or by measuring teacher content knowledge or pedagogical skills, has sometimes been successful in countries with low levels of teacher effort, and may be applicable in South Africa. However, measures to enhance accountability or reward performance need to take into account resistance by teacher unions. We situate the discussion in the context of South Africa’s existing framework for teacher remuneration under the Occupation Specific Dispensation. From this, we criticize the relatively flat progression of salaries as teachers’ experience increases, which discourages skilled teachers from remaining in the profession. We propose that performance-based pay be integrated into the existing salary structure through bonus salary notch progressions, thereby also increasing the slope of salary progression.Honours
Horn, AJ. 2018. Wage Subsidies in South Africa: Context and Future Directions. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14064.89608
This paper explores the feasibility for utilizing a wage subsidy in South Africa. Whilst a wage subsidy is already in place in South Africa, it is fairly unsubstantial, and this paper investigates the prospect of expanding it. Design characteristics of wage subsidies are discussed, in the context of South Africa. The paper shows how a wage subsidy is currently being used in South Africa (the Employment Tax Incentive) and ventures to show how a wage subsidy can be constructed in future. The finding is that wage subsidies currently do little to reduce unemployment, especially with the low levels of subsidization such as what currently occurs in South Africa, but that subsidies would need to be considerably extended in order for there to be a determinable impact on unemployment. Some suggestions are made about targeting subsidies towards employment-intensive industries, and towards small firms.