DPRU

The Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) is one of Africa’s premier economic policy think tanks. The DPRU aims to inform economic and social policymaking by specialising in academically rigorous research into various socio-economic challenges in South Africa and Africa in general; their causes in areas such as education, regulation and governance; and the consequences of these challenges for poverty and inequality at the country and regional level.

The DPRU is located within the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town, and has been actively engaged in policy-relevant socio-economic research for 30 years. The three core objectives of the Unit are to foster high-quality, policy relevant research; train a new generation of research economists; and disseminate knowledge to decision- and policy-makers in government, the private sector and civil society.

The DPRU provides economic expertise in relation to research questions around labour markets, poverty and inequality dynamics. The bulk of its research derives from the analysis and manipulation of micro-level datasets, such as individual and household surveys, firm surveys, national censuses and increasingly, administrative databases.

At UNTANGLED the DPRU is involved in WPs 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8.