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Evaluating the performance of the South African economics departments, 2005-2014 Atoko Kasongo (Economics Department, University of the Western Cape) Mariana Moses (Economics Department, University of the Western Cape) Derek Yu (Economics Department, University of the Western Cape) Abstract: There are currently only 2 South African studies (Luiz 2004 & 2009) evaluating the performance of the South African economics departments. In both studies, the participants (the heads of the departments) were asked to provide information on gender and rank of the lecturers, class size at each level, as well as publications on the accredited journals, before the participants were asked to subjectively rank the all the economics departments. Our study, taking place 10 years after the merger of some universities, would take a slightly different approach. Instead of asking the participants subjectively rank the departments, this study would collect the information from the departments' publications on the five commonly recognized South African peer-reviewed economics journals (i.e. South African Journal of Economics; Studies in Economics and Econometrics; Development Southern Africa; South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences; Economic History of Developing Regions), presentation of papers at the biannual Economic South Society of South Africa (ESSA) Conference as well as publication of Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA) working papers to evaluate each department’s research performance. With regard to teaching activities, information on the courses offered at each level would be collected by consulting the university prospectus/calendar/handbook of each institution. JEL codes: A11, A20 Keywords: Economics departments, research, teaching, South Africa

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1. Introduction

It has been five years since the ‘Performance of SA Economics Department’ study been conducted.

Only 2 studies have been done in SA (Luiz, 2004 & 2009)

But these 2 studies are quite general, only giving a profile of the lecturing staff, class size, research output in quantity terms, and the HOD’s perceived ranking of the Economics Department

Almost all international studies only focused on research when ranking Economics Departments, mainly using indicators like quantity of journal publications and number of citations.

Our study wants to fill the existing gap by also putting some weight on teaching activities

Our study wants to present: (1) the 2014 staff profile of each Economics department; (2) journal publications and ERSA working papers in 2005-2014, as well ESSA conference participation in 2009, 2011 & 2013

2. Literature review

Past local (only 2 studies – both by Luiz) and international studies on ranking of departments

Methodologies used in these studies (questionnaire, citation, journal publications, graduate placement, etc.)

Atoko, please spend February-April to read the literature thoroughly; make notes; and then write up this section very well during May-June (this section is very important, if we want to beg for a chance from the journal for publication!!)

3. Methodology and data

Mariana, I have done the data analysis and pasted the tables onto this document, so you must write up the results really well, or we will have no chance for publication…

We would look at the economics of 17 institutions: Traditional universities: University of Cape Town (UCT); University of Fort Hare

(UFH); University of Free State (UFS); University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN); University of Limpopo (UL); North-West University (NWU); University of Pretoria (UP); Rhodes University (RU); Stellenbosch University (Maties); University of the Western Cape (UWC); University of Witwatersrand (Wits).

Comprehensive universities: University of Johannesburg (UJ); Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU); University of South Africa (UNISA); University of Venda (Univen); Walter Sisulu University (WSU); University of Zululand (xxx)

Teaching activities: Looking at the courses offered at each level

Research activities: Focusing on the following: Participation at Economic Society of South Africa (ESSA) Conference in 2009, 2011 &

2013 Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA) Working papers in 2005-2014 Publications on the following five South African-based peer-reviewed journals in 2005-

2014: (1) South African Journal of Economics (SAJE) (2) Studies in Economics and Econometrics (SEE) (3) Development Southern Africa (DSA) (4) Economic History of Developing Regions (EHDR), formerly known as South African

Journal of Economic History (5) South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences (SAJEMS)

Say something about the “unit” allocation: In case I publish an article alone and I only work for institution X, then 1 unit is

allocated to X.

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In case I publish an article alone but I work for institutions X and Y, then 0.5 unit is allocated to each institution.

In case 2 authors are involved and they work at the same institution X, the whole 1 unit is allocated to X.

In case 2 authors are involved, but the first author works for institution X, while the second author works for both institutions Y and Z, 0.5 unit goes to X, 0.25 unit goes to Y and 0.25 unit goes to Z.

In case 2/3/4 authors are involved and they work at different institutions, then 0.5/0.33/0.25 unit is allocated to each institution.

Similar reasoning applies, when 5/6/etc. authors are involved. Section 4: Teaching and research activities

Mariana, I have done the data analysis and pasted the tables onto this document, so you must write up the results really well, or we will have no chance for publication…

3.1 Teaching activities (not done in detail by Luiz 2004 & 2009)

Modules offered at each level

Unfortunately, it is not possible to obtain the information on UL and UniZulu

Findings at Level 1? (Very boring…)

Findings at Level 2? (Boring results – as expected, Micro and Macro are the core modules; however, some departments are very “innovative” by already offering mathematical economics and econometrics at this level)

Findings at Level 3? (Only 6 departments offer Micro and Macro; the 3 common modules offered are Econometrics, International Economics and Public Economics)

Conclusion at undergraduate level (e.g. are there any departments that don’t offer Econometrics at all? Are there any departments that don’t offer Mathematical Economics at all? Are there any departments that don’t offer Public Economics at all?)

Findings at postgraduate level? [e.g. only few institutions offer the ‘Honours Research Methods’ and ‘Master Research Methods’ modules; some departments rather offer Advanced Time-Series Econometrics and Cross-Sectional Econometrics instead of the general Master Econometrics module; “only” nine departments offer Mathematical Economics as a compulsory Honours module (or a Master elective for new Master students who did not do this module at Honours level); the commonly offered electives include Development Economics, Public Economics, Labour Economics, Monetary Economics, Environmental Economics, Financial Economics, International Trade; UNISA and WSU don’t offer Master programs; RU and Univen only offer the full thesis Master program]

3.2 Research activities (also not done in detail by Luiz 2004 & 2009)

We only include the publications by academics working for these 17 economics departments (i.e. we exclude articles written by, e.g. an economist working for the National Treasury; an intern at the South African Reserve Bank; an economist working for Statistics South Africa; a consultant working at Metropolitan; etc.)

First say something about the results in absolute terms

Then say that these absolute-terms results are biased, as some departments have got very big staff size, so we derive the per-capita results. Unfortunately it is not possible to do so for three departments since it is not possible to find out their staff size (UFH; UL and Wits).

Do the rankings change a lot between Tables 3 and 4, after taking staff size into consideration? (e.g. UWC is ranked #3 on Development Southern Africa publication, after taking staff size into consideration!)

Section 4: Conclusion XXX

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Lee, F.S., Grijalva, T.C. & Nowell, C., 2010. Ranking Economics Departments in a contested discipline: A bibliometric approach to quality equality between theoretically distinct subdisciplines. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 69(5): 1345-1375. Lubrano, M., Kirman, A., Bauwens, L. & Protopopescu, C., 2003. Ranking Economics Departments in Europe: A statistical approach. Journal of the European Economic Association. 1(6): 1367-1401. Luiz, J.M., 2004. State of Economics at South African universities. South African Journal of Economics 72(1): 183-202. Luiz, J.M., 2009. Evaluating the performance of South African Economics Departments. South African Journal of Economics 77(4): 591-602. Miller, A.H., Tien, C., Peebler, A.A., 1996. Departmental rankings: An alternative approach. Political Science and Politics 29(4): 704-717. Mukhopadhyay, T. & Sarkar, S., 2010. Rankings of Economics Journals and Departments in India. Working Paper WP-2010-021. Mumbai: Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research. Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2014. Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences Prospectus 2014. [Online] Available: http://www.nmmu.ac.za/getmedia/797a7e2f-ac82-4f1e-8558-3824e47ce37f/2014-BES-Prospectus?disposition=attachment North-West University, 2014. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences Undergraduate Programmes: Calendar 2014. [Online] Available: http://www.nwu.ac.za/sites/www.nwu.ac.za/files/files/p-academic-administration/dokumente/jaarboeke2014/EW/PC%20EMS%20Undergr.pdf North-West University, 2014. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences Postgraduate Programmes: Calendar 2014. [Online] Available: http://www.nwu.ac.za/sites/www.nwu.ac.za/files/files/p-academic-administration/dokumente/jaarboeke2014/EW/PC%20EMS%20Postgr.pdf Rhodes University, 2014. Department of Economics and Economic History Prospectus 2014. [Online] Available: http://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/registrar/documents/prospectus2014/(28)%20department%20of%20economics%20and%20economic%20history.pdf Scott, L.C. & Mitias, P.M., 1996. Trends in rankings of Economics Departments in the US: An update. Economic Inquiry 34(2): 378-400. Skeels, J.W. & Fairbanks, R.P., 1968. Publish or perish: An analysis of the mobility of publishing and non-publishing economists. Southern Economic Journal 35(1): 17-25. Stellenbosch University, 2015. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences Calendar 2015. [Online] Available: http://www.sun.ac.za/english/Documents/Yearbooks/Current/EMS.pdf Tschirhart, J., 1989. Ranking Economics Departments in areas of expertise. The Journal of Economic Education. 20(2): 199-222.

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Walter Sisulu University, 2014. Faculty of Business, Management Sciences and Law: Prospectus 2014. [Online] Available: http://www.wsu.ac.za/wsuV1/img/FBMSL%20prospectus%202014%20low_res.pdf University of Cape Town, 2014a. Faculty of Commerce Handbook 2014. [Online] Available: https://www.uct.ac.za/downloads/uct.ac.za/apply/handbooks/Handbook6ACommerceUndergraduateStudies2014.pdf University of Cape Town, 2014b. Faculty of Commerce Handbook 2014. [Online] Available: https://www.uct.ac.za/downloads/uct.ac.za/apply/handbooks/Handbook6BCommercePostgraduateStudies2014.pdf University of Fort Hare, 2014. Faculty of Commerce and Management Handbook 2014. [Online] Available: http://www.ufh.ac.za/files/Faculty%20of%20Management%20and%20Commerce.pdf University of Free State, 2014a. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences Undergraduate Rulebook 2014. [Online] Available: http://apps.ufs.ac.za/dl/yearbooks/221_yearbook_eng.pdf University of Free State, 2014b. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences Postgraduate Rulebook 2014. [Online] Available: http://apps.ufs.ac.za/dl/yearbooks/223_yearbook_eng.pdf University of Johannesburg, 2015. Faculty of Economic and Financial Sciences: Qualifications and Regulations 2015. [Online] Available: http://www.uj.ac.za/EN/Faculties/Documents/2015%20FEFS.pdf University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2014. College of Law and Management Studies Handbook for 2014. [Online] Available: http://clm.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/Information_for_students/college-of-law-and-management-studies-handbook.sflb.ashx University of Pretoria, 2014a. Faculty of Economic Management Sciences Undergraduate Handbook 2014. [Online] Available: http://www.up.ac.za/media/shared/Legacy/sitefiles/file/publications/2014/yearbooks/ems_undergraduate_yearbook2014eng.pdf University of Pretoria, 2014b. Faculty of Economic Management Sciences Postgraduate Handbook 2014. [Online] Available: http://www.up.ac.za/media/shared/Legacy/sitefiles/file/publications/2014/yearbooks/economic_and_management_sciencespostgraduate2014.pdf University of South Africa, 2014. College of Economic and Management Sciences Handbook 2014. [Online] Available: http://www.unisa.ac.za/contents/study/docs/myRegistration-Unisa-2014-CEMS.pdf University of the Western Cape, 2014a. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences: Undergraduate Calendar 2014. [Online] Available:

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http://www.uwc.ac.za/Students/Documents/Part%204a%202014%20Faculty%20of%20Economic%20and%20Management%20Sciences%20Undergraduate.pdf University of the Western Cape, 2014b. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences: Postgraduate Calendar 2014. [Online] Available: http://www.uwc.ac.za/Students/Documents/Part%204b%202014%20Faculty%20of%20Economic%20and%20Management%20Sciences%20Postgraduate.pdf University of the Witwatersrand, 2014. Commerce, Law and Management 2014: Rules and Syllabuses. [Online] Available: http://www.wits.ac.za/files/3inii_766210001383036386.pdf University of Venda, 2014. Department of Economics: Programmes. [Online] Available: http://www.univen.ac.za/old_server/management_sciences/economics_programmes.html#com3

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Table 1: Courses offered at undergraduate level by each Economics Department Level Course UCT UFH UFS UJ UKZN NMMU NW UP Rhodes Maties UNISA Univen WSU UWC Wits Total (15)

Level I Macroeconomics 15

Microeconomics 15

Level II

Macroeconomics 15

Microeconomics 15

Economic History

5

Mathematical Economics

5

Development Economics

4

Econometrics

4

Labour Economics

4

Economic Indicators

3

Environmental Economics

3

International Economics

2

Applied Policy Analysis

1

Economics of Tourism

1

Financial system

1

Game Theory

1

Health Economics

1

Monetary Economics

1

Political Economy

1

Public Economics

1

Level III

Microeconomics

6

Macroeconomics

6

Econometrics

12

International Economics

14

Public Economics

13

Monetary Economics

8

Development Economics

5

Economic History

5

Labour Economics

5

Environmental Economics

4

Mathematical Economics

4

Economic Policy

3

Financial Economics

2

Industrial Economics

2

Managerial Economics

2

Agricultural Economics

1

Cost Benefit Analysis

1

Economic and Development Ethics

1

Economic Systems

1

Economics of Africa

1

Institutional Economics

1

Resource Economics

1

Statistical Economics

1

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Table 2: Courses offered at postgraduate level by each Economics Department

Course UCT UFH UFS UJ UKZN NMMU NW UP RU Maties UNISA Univen WSU UWC Wits Total (15)

Honours Research Paper 15

Master Research Paper

13

Honours Research Methods 6

Master Research Methods 6

Honours Microeconomics 15

Honours Macroeconomics 15

Master Microeconomics

11

Master Macroeconomics

11

Mathematical Economics 9

Honours Econometrics 13

Master Econometrics

9

Advanced time-series econometrics 3

Advanced cross-sectional econometrics 2

Development Economics

13

Public Economics

12

Labour Economics

10

Monetary Economics

10

Environmental Economics

9

Financial Economics

9

International Trade

9

Industrial Economics

6

International Finance

6

International Economics

5

Economic History

3

Political Economy

3

Economics of Technology

2

Health Economics

2

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Table 2: Continued

Course UCT UFH FS UJ UKZN NMMU NW UP RU Maties UNISA Univen WSU UWC Wits Total (15)

Agricultural Economics 1

Competition Economics 1

Cost Benefit Analysis 1

Dynamic Economic Theory 1

Economic Challenges in Africa 1

Economic Change and Comparative Development 1

Economic Impact Assessment 1

Economic Issues in Developing countries 1

Economic Policy Analysis 1

Economics of Competition and Regulation 1

Economics of Conflicts/War/Peace 1

Economics of Education 1

Economics of Ports and Harbours 1

Economics of Travel and Tourism 1

Experiments in Economics 1

Financial Econometrics 1

Game Theory 1

Globalization and South African Economy 1

Institutional Economics 1

Local Economic Development 1

Methodology in Economics 1

Survey Data Analysis 1

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Table 3: Absolute number of units on ESSA conference participation, ERSA working paper series and publication on the five economics journals

Institution ESSA (2009-2013) ERSA (2005-2014) SAJE (2005-2014) SEE (2005-2014) DSA (2005-2014) SAJEMS (2005-2014) EHDR (2005-2014)

Unit % Rank Unit % Rank Unit % Rank Unit % Rank Unit % Rank Unit % Rank Unit % Rank

UCT 54.42 13.0% 2 100.13 29.1% 1 32.67 19.3% 2 21.17 22.7% 1 16.75 27.2% 1 1.00 1.4% 11 5.59 14.8% 2

UFH 3.17 0.8% 13 2.00 0.6% 13 2.00 1.2% 11 1.33 1.4% 12 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None

UFS 25.50 6.1% 8 3.00 0.9% 12 13.25 7.8% 4 4.33 4.6% 7 1.00 1.6% 11 3.50 4.8% 8 0.00 0.0% None

UJ 46.50 11.1% 3 35.37 10.3% 4 12.25 7.2% 6 3.17 3.4% 11 0.75 1.2% 14 3.00 4.1% 9 5.50 14.5% 3

UKZN 39.83 9.5% 5 26.00 7.5% 5 7.50 4.4% 9 4.00 4.3% 9 5.00 8.1% 3 5.50 7.6% 4 1.83 4.8% 5

UL 4.00 1.0% 12 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None 3.00 4.9% 7 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None

NMMU 9.58 2.3% 10 16.00 4.6% 7 2.00 1.2% 11 10.83 11.6% 4 1.00 1.6% 11 4.50 6.2% 6 0.00 0.0% None

NWU 33.75 8.1% 6 6.67 1.9% 10 8.17 4.8% 8 3.83 4.1% 10 3.17 5.1% 5 12.92 17.8% 2 1.50 4.0% 6

UP 40.32 9.7% 4 75.25 21.8% 2 26.00 15.4% 3 7.70 8.3% 5 5.00 8.1% 3 24.38 33.6% 1 1.33 3.5% 8

RU 24.08 5.8% 9 14.50 4.2% 8 12.83 7.6% 5 11.00 11.8% 3 3.17 5.1% 5 2.50 3.4% 10 0.00 0.0% None

Maties 94.08 22.5% 1 35.83 10.4% 3 35.17 20.8% 1 13.42 14.4% 2 13.92 22.6% 2 5.33 7.4% 5 16.84 44.5% 1

UNISA 7.92 1.9% 11 7.33 2.1% 9 10.00 5.9% 7 7.50 8.0% 6 1.50 2.4% 10 3.83 5.3% 7 1.50 4.0% 6

Univen 1.00 0.2% 15 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None 0.33 0.5% 15 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None

WSU 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None 1.00 1.6% 11 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None

UWC 2.50 0.6% 14 3.50 1.0% 11 1.00 0.6% 13 0.67 0.7% 13 3.00 4.9% 7 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None

Wits 29.92 7.2% 7 19.08 5.5% 6 6.42 3.8% 10 4.33 4.6% 7 3.00 4.9% 7 6.00 8.3% 3 3.75 9.9% 4

UniZulu 1.00 0.2% 15 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None 0.00 0.0% None

417.57 100.0% 344.66 100.0% 169.25 100.0% 93.28 100.0% 61.58 100.0% 72.47 100.0% 37.85 100.0%

Table 4: Per capita units on ESSA conference participation, ERSA working paper series and publication on the five economics journals

Institution Staff size

ESSA (2009-2013) ERSA (2005-2014) SAJE (2005-2014) SEE (2005-2014) DSA (2005-2014) SAJEMS (2005-2014) EHDR (2005-2014)

Per-capita unit Rank

Per-capita unit Rank

Per-capita unit Rank

Per-capita unit Rank

Per-capita unit Rank

Per-capita unit Rank

Per-capita unit Rank

Maties 27 3.48 1 1.33 3 1.30 1 0.50 4 0.52 1 0.20 5 0.62 1

UP 23 1.75 3 3.27 1 1.13 2 0.33 5 0.22 6 1.06 1 0.06 5

RU 14 1.72 4 1.04 6 0.92 3 0.79 2 0.23 4 0.18 6 0.00 NONE

UCT 37 1.47 5 2.71 2 0.88 4 0.57 3 0.45 2 0.03 10 0.15 3

NMMU 12 0.80 9 1.33 3 0.17 10 0.90 1 0.08 9 0.38 3 0.00 NONE

UKZN 22 1.81 2 1.18 5 0.34 7 0.18 8 0.23 4 0.25 4 0.08 4

NWU 28 1.21 7 0.24 9 0.29 8 0.14 9 0.11 8 0.46 2 0.05 6

UFS 23 1.11 8 0.13 11 0.58 5 0.19 7 0.04 11 0.15 7 0.00 NONE

UJ 34 1.37 6 1.04 6 0.36 6 0.09 11 0.02 13 0.09 9 0.16 2

UNISA 35 0.23 11 0.21 10 0.29 8 0.21 6 0.04 11 0.11 8 0.04 7

UWC 7 0.36 10 0.50 8 0.14 11 0.10 10 0.43 3 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE

WSU 5 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE 0.20 7 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE

Univen 7 0.14 13 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE 0.05 10 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE

UniZulu 5 0.20 12 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE 0.00 NONE

Note: It is not possible to derive the per-capita results for three institutions (UFH, UL and Wits) since the information on lecturing staff size could not be obtained.

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Figure 1: Percentage share of each department on the absolute number of publications unit in the five journals, 2005-2014

Figure 2: Per capita number of units of publications in the five journals, 2005-2014

Note: It is not possible to derive the per-capita results for three institutions (UFH, UL and Wits) since the information on lecturing staff size could not be obtained.