UCT’s School of Economics is the South African representative on the Economic Thematic Group of the BRICS Network University (BNU). BNU is a government level initiative to build collaborative research and educational linkages across the BRICS partners. Scholars from institutions representing member countries presented an overview of research conducted at their respective universities at a workshop hosted by the School of Economics.
SALDRU’s Deputy Director, Prof. Vimal Ranchhod, participated in the exchange. He presented information about our research and data on inequality, including projects such as the National Income Dynamics Study and the African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR). ACEIR is the recently launched hub for collaboration on African inequality studies hosted by SALDRU.
Historically, South Africa and Brazil were always compared to each other with respect to inequality, Ranchhod observed. However, Brazil’s inequality has been decreasing in the past 15 years and one can no longer compare the two countries, he contends.