Murray Leibbrandt

Murray Leibbrandt is the DSI/NRF Chair in Poverty and Inequality Research, the Director of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town and the Director of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research within the African Universities Alliance. He is a Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER and is on the Executive Committee of the International Economics Association.

His research uses survey data and especially panel data to analyse South African and African poverty, inequality and labour market dynamics. From 2007 to 2019 he was a founding Principal Investigator on the National Income Dynamics Study, South Africa’s national longitudinal study.

In 1995-96 he served on President Mandela’s Labour Market Commission to advise on post-apartheid labour market legislation and, from 2016-17, served on Deputy President Ramaphosa’s Advisory Panel on the National Minimum Wage. In 2021 he served on the Expert Group to advise the Minister of Social Development and the President on Basic Income Support and in 2021/22 served on a Ministerial Task Team of the Department of Higher Education and Training to support a policy review of student funding.