Professor Haroon Bhorat

Haroon Bhorat is Professor of Economics and Director of the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He holds an NRF B2 rating, and with a total citation estimate* of over 8600 and an h-index* of 53, he is one of the most cited South African economists globally. Prof. Bhorat is an advisor to the President of South Africa – Cyril Ramaphosa – serving since 2019 on his Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC). 

He was recently re-appointed to the 7th Administration’s PEAC, established to generate new ideas for economic growth, job creation and addressing poverty in South Africa. Prof. Bhorat holds the DST/NRF SARChI Chair in Economic Growth, Poverty and Inequality Research. He is a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labour in Bonn (IZA); and a member of the UCT College of Fellows. He has his PhD in Economics through Stellenbosch University, studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was a Cornell University research fellow.