Last month, I attended the centenary conference of the Economic Society of South Africa. ESSA hosts a bi-annual conference and is responsible for the South African Journal of Economics. According to its website, the Society is ‘a discussion forum for economists in academic life, government and business’. The conference was pleasant enough, and it was great to see many old friends and meet a few new acquaintances. But, sadly, if I have to be perfectly honest, it was also disheartening and even disappointing.
I asked myself what a first-time attendee would have taken away. With a few exceptions, they would not have seen the best research on South Africa’s economy. Some of the papers I heard were of a standard I would not expect from a graduate seminar, and in one of the sessions I organised for LEAP, it was clear from the questions that at least some participants had not studied econometrics in decades. Of course, one should not judge a conference on the basis of a few sessions, and the organisers deserve credit for running the event smoothly. But a conference of this stature should serve one of two purposes: either it must showcase the best economics research in the country, or it must expose policymakers, business leaders and journalists to policy-relevant work by South African economists.
It did neither. Let me explain…
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