Professor Rashad Cassim

Head of School of Economics and Business Sciences

Brief Biographical Background

PROFESSOR CASSIM was appointed as Head of School in mid-2003. For the previous eight years he headed up Trade and Industry Policy Strategies (TIPS) in Johannesburg.

His major function as director of TIPS - an economic research think tank - was to harness high-quality academic research for policy analysis, specifically with government departments such as the Department of Trade and Industry. Before this Professor Cassim was a research fellow at the Development Policy Research Unit (Department of Economics) at the University of Cape Town.

He completed an MA in Economic History at the University of Cape Town, which explored the export potential of the clothing industry in South Africa. His PHD in Economics - also at UCT - focused on the determinants of intra-regional trade in southern Africa using an extended gravity (cross-section econometric) model.

His research and teaching interests are primarily in the area of international economics - and more specifically the economics of the World Trade Organization, the link between economic research and policy, the economics of regulation and privatization.

Professor Cassim sits on the board of a number of organisations - local and international - including the Editorial of the South African Journal of Economics, the Trade and Industry Policy Strategies in South Africa, and The Institute of Trade and Sustainable Development in Geneva.

Selected Recent Publications include

• 2003: The Link between Policy and Research in South Africa, Global Development Network in South Africa, www.gdnet.org/subpages/rapnet/Case_Studies_Index. html
• 2002: Review of the South African Economy( with Lucia Wegner),- OEDC, African Outlook, Paris
• The State of Trade Policy in South Africa( with Dirk van Seventer and Donald Oynango), TIPS, Johannessburg
• The Economics of Small and Medium Enterprises in South Africa with Berry A, Kesper A, Van Seventer, D, von Blottnitz M, TIPS Johannesburg
• Competitveness, International trade and Finance in a minerals-rich economy: The Case of South Africa with Trevor Bell and Greg Farrell in Finance and Competitiveness in Developing CountriesEdited by Jose Maria Fanelli and Rohinton Medhora (Routledge, London)
• 2001 The Determinants of Trade in Southern Africa: A Gravity Model,DPRU Working Paper, University of Cape Town
• 2002 (with Claudia Manning) Investment In South Africa: Regulatory and Competition Issues: An Introductory Overview: Development Southern Africa, Volume 17, Number 3, September 2000
• 2000: Co-editor, Special Issue, Investment in South Africa: Regulatory and Competition Issues: Development Southern Africa, Volume 17, Number 3, September 2000
• Co-author (J Fedderke, Troy Elyea, Simon Henderson, John Kayemba Martine Mariotti, Prabat Vaze ) Determinants of Investment Behaviour in SA, TIPS Johannesburg
• 1999 Trade and the Environment in South Africa, co-authored with Frimpong M, Gobblath M and Visser M, Published by the Institute of Sustainable Development, Canada.
• 1998: South Africa and the World Trading System, co-authored with T Hartzenburg African Economic Research Consortium, Nairobi, Kenya,
• The Gravity Model of Trade in Southern Africa, co- with T Hartzenberg, African Economic Research Consortium, Nairobi,
• 1997 : Some Theoretical Reflections on Economic Integration in Southern Africa, co-authored with Harry Zarenda, article on the book Long-term Transitional Issues and Economic Development in South Africa by E Elbadawi and T Hartzenberg (ed), MacMillan University Press.
• 'Le developpement industriel au sein de la SADC' with Marina J Mayer in Afrique Comtemporaine Numero special 4.

Current Research in Progress Include

• The Changing Global Trade Architecture and Its Implications for Small Middle Income Open Economy.
• Trade Policy in South Africa in the 1990s
• The Link Between Economics and Public Policy
• Growth and Poverty in the South African Economy