ERSA Team

Matthew Simmonds is an independent consultant, specializing in fiscal economics and public financial management. He has consulted around the world, including South Africa, Egypt, India, and Saudi Arabia. Before working as an expert, Matthew was employed by the IMF as the fiscal economist for Egypt and a technical assistance provider for member countries. Prior to joining the IMF, he was the Deputy-Director General for the Budget Office and Public Finance Divisions at the South African National Treasury. He was also the Chief Director of Fiscal Policy.

Johannes Wolfgang Fedderke is Director of Economic Research South Africa and Professor at Pennsylvania State University.

Chris is the Head of the Economic Research Department at the South African Reserve Bank, responsible for forecasting, global economic analysis, and the writing of the Monetary Policy Review.  He is a member of the SARB’s Monetary Policy Committee and Financial Stability Committee.From 2006 to 2011 he was the Deputy Director-General for Economic Policy in the National Treasury and worked extensively on economic growth and governance, including contributions to the Growth Commission of the World Bank, the Committee on IMF Governance Reform (2009), and the development of the country’s relation

A graduate from the Scottish Doctoral Programme in Economics, he has held positions at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and at the University of Cape Town. His main areas of research are economic policy theory, macroeconomic modeling and regional macroeconomic integration. Current research includes inflation targeting under uncertainty, monetary policy and assets prices, macroeconomic integration in Southern Africa.

Co-Pierre is an Associate Professor at UCT where he holds the South African Reserve Bank Research Chair in Financial Stability Studies. His work focuses on financial stability and financial innovation.

Nonso Obikili is a economist with research interests in African economic history, economic development and macroeconomics. Current research includes the long term effects of the trans-Atlantic slave trades on political and economic development in Africa. He was formerly a Lecturer at the State University of New York at Binghamton and is a regular contributor to various policy oriented think tanks in Nigeria. 

Neryvia is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town, a Policy Associate at ERSA and a Research Fellow at the South African Reserve Bank. Her research interests lie in the field of public economics covering topics such as labour markets, education, health, social grants, inequality and taxation.

Biniam Bedasso is a political economist with diverse research interest in institutional change, human capital development, public finance reform, migration and economic inequality. His research and policy works span several African countries including Benin, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa

Isaah is the Chief Economist of Alexander Forbes. In this position, he’s responsible for formulating the macroeconomic strategy for the business, which entails identifying systemic economic risks and opportunities that benefit the business and its clients. He contributes to Alexander Forbes investment process through generating the macro framework for asset allocation and investment committee.