Rate My Professor Benjamin Stanwix

Benjamin Stanwix is a Senior Research Officer at the Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) in the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Cape Town. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Economic and Social History from the University of Oxford, awarded in 2012, and a Master of Commerce degree in Applied Economics from the University of Cape Town, awarded in 2011. He also completed an Honours degree in Economics in 2008. Stanwix joined the DPRU in October 2012 as a researcher, advancing to Senior Researcher in 2014 and to his current position in 2021. Prior to this, he worked as a researcher with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad, India, from July to December 2009, and has tutored in Economic History.

His research focuses on labour economics and economic and social history, with particular emphasis on minimum wages, labour law compliance, employment formality, and the impacts of policy interventions such as the national minimum wage and COVID-19 lockdowns in South Africa. Stanwix has co-authored numerous publications, including “An Empirical Assessment of the National Minimum Wage in South Africa” (2021) in the HSRC Press volume State of the Nation, “Social Assistance Amidst the COVID-19 Epidemic in South Africa: A Policy Assessment” (2021) in the South African Journal of Economics, “Measuring Multi-Dimensional Labour Law Violation with an Application to South Africa” (2020) in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, “Minimum wages in Sub-Saharan Africa: a primer” (2017) in The World Bank Research Observer, and “Estimating the Impact of Minimum Wages on Employment, Wages, and Non-wage Benefits: The Case of Agriculture in South Africa” (2014) in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. He has contributed to working papers and reports on topics including the employment tax incentive, multidimensional poverty, and resource dependence and inequality in Africa. Stanwix’s work frequently appears in collaboration with colleagues such as Haroon Bhorat and Ravi Kanbur, contributing to evidence-based analysis of labour market dynamics and development policy in South Africa and the broader region.