Top Institutions and Economists in South Africa, as of April 2026

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This page is part of a larger set of rankings for research items, serials, authors and institutions made available on this site. A FAQ is available.

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Authors with multiple affiliations have their score distributed across regions according to the affiliation shares they provided. The ranking is performed using the set of authors or institutions within the region, recomputing the scores within the set. The ranking done by simply looking up the worldwide ranking for those authors or institutions from this region is provided in the W.Rank column and put in [square brackets].
Authors who are deceased or whose email address with RePEc is invalid are not counted, the latter under the assumption that they have moved or have died
A series of rankings by different criteria are aggregated. The average rank score is determined by taking a harmonic mean of the ranks in each criterion. For a list of criteria, see the general ranking page.
For 10/10: This ranking takes only publications in the last 10 years into account.
For 10/10: The ranking here is limited to the best 10 authors from each institution for each criterion. Authors with multiple affiliations count proportionally to the affiliation share they set for the score and the author count. Rankings for criteria HIndex and Students are from the general ranking.
There are 9298 institutions with 73371 registered authors evaluated for all the rankings
For a listing of all economics institutions in South Africa, see EDIRC
For South Africa, these are 77 institutions with 480 members with a total share of 434.35.

The data presented here are experimental. They are based on a sample of the research output in Economics and Finance. Only material catalogued in RePEc is considered. For any citation based criterion, only works that could be parsed by the CitEc project are considered. For any ranking of people, only those registered with the RePEc Author Service can be taken into account. And for rankings of institutions, only those listed in EDIRC and claimed as affiliation by the respective, registered authors can be measured. Thus, this list is by no means based on a complete sample. You can help making this more comprehensive by encouraging more publications to be listed (instructions) and more authors to register (form). For more details on the various rankings that are available as well for documentation, follow this link.

Entity	Full ranking		Last 10 years		10 best authors		Last 10 years, 10 best authors		Top 5% authors		More
Authors	Short	Details	Short	Details							More
Institutions	Short	Details	Short	Details	Short	Details	Short	Details	All years	Last 10	More
Regions	Short	Details	Short	Details							More

Top institutions, all authors, all publication years

Rank	W.Rank	Institution	Score	Authors	Author Shares
1	[1]	University of Pretoria → Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Pretoria, South Africa	1.08	37	28.70
2	[2]	University of Stellenbosch → Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Stellenbosch, South Africa	2.06	85	74.20
-	[-]	University of Pretoria → Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences → Department of Economics, Pretoria, South Africa	2.09	34	26.20
3	[3]	University of Johannesburg → College of Business and Economics, Auckland Park, South Africa	3.39	63	53.43
-	[-]	University of Stellenbosch → Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences → Department of Economics, Stellenbosch, South Africa	3.45	76	64.08
4	[5]	University of Cape Town → Faculty of Commerce, Cape Town, South Africa	3.92	58	45.91
5	[4]	University of South Africa (UNISA) → College of Economic and Management Sciences, Pretoria, South Africa	4.74	35	30.43
-	[-]	University of Cape Town → Faculty of Commerce → School of Economics, Cape Town, South Africa	4.97	56	44.85
6	[6]	University of the Witwatersrand → Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Johannesburg, South Africa	5.76	36	28.53
-	[-]	University of South Africa (UNISA) → College of Economic and Management Sciences → Department of Economics, Pretoria, South Africa	6.33	22	19.48
7	[7]	University of Cape Town → Faculty of Commerce → School of Economics → Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU), Cape Town, South Africa	6.98	21	13.98
8	[8]	University of Cape Town → Faculty of Commerce → School of Economics → Policy Research in International Services and Manufacturing (PRISM), Cape Town, South Africa	7.75	8	5.63
-	[-]	University of the Witwatersrand → Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management → School of Economic and Finance, Johannesburg, South Africa	7.92	22	17.15
-	[-]	University of Cape Town → Faculty of Commerce → School of Economics → Development Policy Research Unit, Cape Town, South Africa	8.67	16	15
9	[10]	South African Reserve Bank, Pretoria, South Africa	10.37	17	12.59
10	[9]	Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University → Department of Economics, Port Elizabeth, South Africa	10.40	14	14
-	[-]	University of the Witwatersrand → Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management → Wits Business School, Johannesburg, South Africa	10.54	7	5.83
11	[11]	Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA), Cape Town, South Africa	11.08	30	11.75
12	[12]	University of Cape Town → Graduate School of Business, Cape Town, South Africa	12.66	4	2.75
-	[-]	University of Stellenbosch → Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences → Department of Economics → Bureau for Economic Research, Stellenbosch, South Africa	12.95	13	10.84
13	[13]	North-West University → Centre for Business Mathematics and Informatics, Potchefstroom, South Africa	13.25	1	1
14	[14]	University of Cape Town → Environmental Policy Research Unit (EPRU), Cape Town, South Africa	14.67	2	1.88
15	[15]	University of Stellenbosch → Business School, Stellenbosch, South Africa	15.27	6	3.53
16	[16]	Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) → Economic Performance and Development, Pretoria, South Africa	15.51	5	3.75
-	[-]	University of Johannesburg → College of Business and Economics → School of Economics, Auckland Park, South Africa	16.48	7	5.25
17	[17]	North-West University → Skool vir Economie, Potchefstroom, South Africa	16.91	8	6.87
18	[18]	University of the Western Cape → Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Bellville, South Africa	17.37	4	3.15
19	[21]	University of the Witwatersrand → Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management → School of Economic and Finance → Studies in Financial Markets and Macroeconomics (SFM), Johannesburg, South Africa	19.36	4	3.50

Top institutions, 10 best authors for each, publications last 10 years

Rank	W.Rank	Institution	Score	Authors	Author Shares
1	[1]	University of Pretoria → Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Pretoria, South Africa	1.03	37	10
-	[-]	University of Pretoria → Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences → Department of Economics, Pretoria, South Africa	2.03	34	10
2	[2]	University of South Africa (UNISA) → College of Economic and Management Sciences, Pretoria, South Africa	2.62	35	10
3	[3]	University of Johannesburg → College of Business and Economics, Auckland Park, South Africa	2.73	63	10
4	[4]	University of Stellenbosch → Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Stellenbosch, South Africa	3.50	85	10
-	[-]	University of South Africa (UNISA) → College of Economic and Management Sciences → Department of Economics, Pretoria, South Africa	4.00	22	10
-	[-]	University of Stellenbosch → Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences → Department of Economics, Stellenbosch, South Africa	4.82	76	10
5	[5]	University of the Witwatersrand → Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Johannesburg, South Africa	5.06	36	10
6	[6]	University of Cape Town → Faculty of Commerce, Cape Town, South Africa	5.32	58	10
-	[-]	University of Cape Town → Faculty of Commerce → School of Economics, Cape Town, South Africa	6.33	56	10
7	[7]	Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University → Department of Economics, Port Elizabeth, South Africa	7.36	14	10
-	[-]	University of the Witwatersrand → Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management → School of Economic and Finance, Johannesburg, South Africa	7.40	22	10
8	[8]	South African Reserve Bank, Pretoria, South Africa	8.28	17	10
-	[-]	University of Cape Town → Faculty of Commerce → School of Economics → Development Policy Research Unit, Cape Town, South Africa	8.70	16	10
-	[-]	University of the Witwatersrand → Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management → Wits Business School, Johannesburg, South Africa	9.84	7	5.83
9	[9]	University of Cape Town → Faculty of Commerce → School of Economics → Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU), Cape Town, South Africa	10.32	21	10
10	[10]	University of Cape Town → Faculty of Commerce → School of Economics → Policy Research in International Services and Manufacturing (PRISM), Cape Town, South Africa	10.34	8	5.63
-	[-]	University of Johannesburg → College of Business and Economics → School of Economics, Auckland Park, South Africa	10.63	7	5.25
11	[11]	University of Cape Town → Graduate School of Business, Cape Town, South Africa	10.81	4	2.75
12	[12]	University of the Witwatersrand → Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management → School of Economic and Finance → Studies in Financial Markets and Macroeconomics (SFM), Johannesburg, South Africa	11.54	4	3.50
13	[16]	University of Cape Town → Environmental Policy Research Unit (EPRU), Cape Town, South Africa	16.71	2	1.88
14	[13]	University of Stellenbosch → Business School, Stellenbosch, South Africa	16.83	6	3.53
15	[15]	Walter Sisulu University → Faculty of Business and Management Science, Mthatha, South Africa	16.86	1	1
16	[14]	University of Fort Hare → Department of Economics, East London, South Africa	17.02	7	7
17	[17]	North-West University → Fakulteit Economiese en Bestuurwetenskappe, Mmabatho, South Africa	17.18	7	5.65
-	[-]	University of Stellenbosch → Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences → Department of Economics → Bureau for Economic Research, Stellenbosch, South Africa	17.25	13	10
18	[19]	North-West University → Skool vir Economie, Potchefstroom, South Africa	19.21	8	6.87
19	[18]	University of Pretoria → Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development, Pretoria, South Africa	19.26	9	6.55

Top authors, all publications years

Rank	W.Rank	Author	Score
1	[1]	Rangan Gupta	1
2	[2]	Nicholas M. Odhiambo	2.38
3	[6]	John Paul Dunne	4.78
4	[12]	Murray Leibbrandt	8.12
5	[10]	Roula Inglesi-Lotz	8.31
6	[11]	Haroon Bhorat	8.97
7	[16]	Dirk Tasche	9.32
8	[26]	Alexander Zimper	9.74
9	[4]	Ulrich Schmidt	10.70
10	[18]	Harald Winkler	12.03
11	[30]	Cally Ardington	12.34
12	[9]	Andrew Phiri	12.99
13	[22]	Martine Visser	14.46
14	[23]	Fiona Tregenna	14.51
15	[19]	Ingrid Woolard	15.39
16	[17]	Johan Fourie	15.74
17	[20]	Eric Schaling	16.73
18	[21]	Lawrence Edwards	17.53
19	[24]	Servaas van der Berg	21.48
20	[27]	Johann Frederick Kirsten	22.06
21	[3]	Erik Stam	22.06
22	[35]	Nicola Viegi	23.82
23	[32]	Dorrit Posel	24.21
24	[25]	Ivan Nicholas Turok	24.30
25	[33]	Manoel Bittencourt	24.36
26	[31]	Steven Fredric Koch	24.85
27	[43]	Neil Andrew Rankin	24.91
28	[34]	Renee van Eyden	26.20
29	[28]	Lumengo Bonga-Bonga	29.12
30	[40]	Mike Morris	30.58
31	[44]	Ramos Emmanuel Mapanga Mabugu (Ramos E. Mabugu)	30.92
32	[38]	Stan Du Plessis	31.31
33	[51]	Rulof P. Burger	31.81
34	[37]	Charles Komla Delali Adjasi	32.32
35	[15]	Nicholas Biekpe	32.52
36	[46]	Kalu Ojah	32.67
37	[5]	Augustin Fosu	34.79
38	[50]	Matthew W Clance	37.02
39	[48]	Charl Jooste	38.25
40	[59]	Vimal Ranchhod	39.04
41	[47]	Nick Vink	39.05
42	[53]	Beatrice Desiree Simo-Kengne	41.51
43	[45]	Derek Yu	41.65
44	[49]	Nicholas Ngepah	42.07
45	[54]	Matteo Bonato	43.33
46	[62]	Andrew Kerr	45.03
47	[65]	Kevin Nell	47.81
48	[79]	Co-Pierre Georg	49.00
49	[7]	Jan Luiten van Zanden	49.28
50	[55]	Dieter von Fintel	50.20
51	[52]	Sin-Yu Ho	50.88
52	[69]	Daniela Maria Casale	52.53
53	[71]	Ismail Olaleke Fasanya	53.01
54	[60]	John Weirstrass Muteba Mwamba	53.46
55	[67]	Daan Steenkamp	53.69
56	[61]	Eftychia Nikolaidou	53.74
57	[72]	Ruthira Naraidoo	54.43
58	[63]	Moinak Maiti	54.60
59	[81]	Benjamin Stanwix	55.68
60	[78]	Margaret Mabugu	57.74
61	[87]	Ben W. Smit	58.87
62	[64]	Arno Tausch	59.26
63	[91]	Witness Simbanegavi	60.22
64	[73]	Michael Machokoto	60.46
65	[74]	Morne Oosthuizen (Morne Jacques Oosthuizen)	60.81
66	[77]	James Blignaut	61.12
67	[66]	Sheilla Nyasha	62.14
68	[85]	Monique Reid	65.75
69	[75]	Willem H. Boshoff	66.15
70	[14]	Johannes Wolfgang Fedderke	66.56
71	[82]	Christopher Malikane	67.64
72	[70]	Hlalefang Khobai	68.21
73	[97]	Sonali DAS	70.73
74	[83]	Andrea Saayman	71.37
75	[99]	Nicola Branson	73.10
76	[92]	Hylton Hollander	74.24
77	[105]	Stephen George Sinclair Taylor	76.10
78	[115]	Merle G. Holden	77.85
79	[76]	Joel Hinaunye Eita	78.43
80	[90]	Danilo Spinola	79.04
81	[58]	Don A Ross	80.84
82	[88]	Marthinus Christoffel Breitenbach	81.32
83	[96]	Ronelle Burger	81.66
84	[131]	Matthew Olckers	83.85
85	[107]	Umakrishnan Kollamparambil	84.17
86	[84]	Eliphas Ndou	85.36
87	[109]	Camille Roger Meyer	85.86
88	[124]	Harold Kincaid	89.65
89	[125]	Guangling Liu	89.68
90	[102]	Alexis Habiyaremye	91.05
91	[95]	Grietjie Verhoef	92.55
92	[89]	Mduduzi Biyase	93.02
93	[104]	Charles Lepepeule Machethe	93.70
94	[108]	Sylvanus Ikhide	93.86
95	[112]	John Ele-Ojo Ataguba	94.81
96	[127]	Edwin Muchapondwa	95.11
97	[121]	Dambala Gelo	95.57
98	[106]	Carolyn Chisadza	95.79
99	[86]	Simon Jon Roberts	96.68
100	[116]	Paul Nkemngu Acha-Anyi	97.28
101	[117]	Elvis Korku Avenyo	97.47
102	[118]	Konstantin Makrelov	98.53
103	[93]	Meshach Jesse Aziakpono	99.13
104	[122]	Kevin Kotze	100.73
105	[119]	Adeola Oyenubi	102.36
106	[13]	Andreas Freytag	104.16
107	[120]	Tafirenyika Sunde	105.68
108	[80]	Fred Gault	106.85
109	[100]	Daniel Makina	107.29
110	[147]	Mare Sarr	108.59
111	[130]	Reza Che Daniels	108.84
112	[143]	Seán M. Muller (Sean M. Muller)	110.32
113	[153]	Bennett Stephen Labson	110.71
114	[142]	Waldo Krugell	111.41
115	[176]	Michael K. Johnston	112.94
116	[126]	Tendai Gwatidzo	113.25
117	[148]	Roy Charles Havemann	113.83
118	[113]	Clement Zibusiso Moyo	113.89
119	[135]	Johane Dikgang	114.41
120	[132]	Mthokozisi Mlilo	114.70
121	[111]	Isaac Kalonda Kanyama	116.97

Top authors, publications last 10 years

Rank	W.Rank	Author	Score
1	[1]	Rangan Gupta	1
2	[2]	Nicholas M. Odhiambo	2.00
3	[6]	Roula Inglesi-Lotz	5.87
4	[4]	Andrew Phiri	8.32
5	[13]	Matthew W Clance	8.68
6	[11]	Nicholas Ngepah	10.30
7	[5]	Nicholas Biekpe	10.60
8	[32]	Rulof P. Burger	11.80
9	[34]	Neil Andrew Rankin	13.23
10	[9]	Lumengo Bonga-Bonga	13.32
11	[12]	Sin-Yu Ho	13.80
12	[14]	Moinak Maiti	13.88
13	[22]	Fiona Tregenna	14.42
14	[19]	Renee van Eyden	14.51
15	[17]	Haroon Bhorat	14.99
16	[15]	Johan Fourie	15.17
17	[18]	Michael Machokoto	16.51
18	[3]	Erik Stam	17.21
19	[25]	Daan Steenkamp	17.44
20	[16]	Hlalefang Khobai	20.07
21	[20]	Matteo Bonato	21.77
22	[21]	John Paul Dunne	22.52
23	[24]	Murray Leibbrandt	23.41
24	[35]	Ismail Olaleke Fasanya	23.81
25	[31]	Steven Fredric Koch	24.04
26	[33]	Martine Visser	24.40
27	[27]	John Weirstrass Muteba Mwamba	24.56
28	[28]	Paul Nkemngu Acha-Anyi	25.34
29	[59]	Matthew Olckers	28.04
30	[30]	Danilo Spinola	28.67
31	[40]	Charl Jooste	29.08
32	[36]	Carolyn Chisadza	33.81
33	[29]	Mduduzi Biyase	35.36
34	[43]	Marthinus Christoffel Breitenbach	36.23
35	[55]	Andrew Kerr	38.13
36	[37]	Sheilla Nyasha	38.22
37	[44]	Elvis Korku Avenyo	38.41
38	[42]	Harald Winkler	38.89
39	[38]	Clement Zibusiso Moyo	40.91
40	[52]	Hylton Hollander	41.36
41	[39]	Charles Komla Delali Adjasi	42.29
42	[53]	Camille Roger Meyer	42.52
43	[49]	Adeola Oyenubi	44.18
44	[86]	Alexander Zimper	44.61
45	[51]	Mthokozisi Mlilo	45.12
46	[54]	Kalu Ojah	45.84
47	[97]	Stephen George Sinclair Taylor	46.07
48	[58]	Umakrishnan Kollamparambil	46.49
49	[56]	Tafirenyika Sunde	47.70
50	[60]	Jones Odei-Mensah	48.01
51	[57]	Christopher Malikane	49.40
52	[50]	Dieter von Fintel	50.93
53	[70]	Nicola Viegi	52.17
54	[75]	Benjamin Stanwix	53.65
55	[61]	Emmanuel Orkoh	54.33
56	[62]	Beatrice Desiree Simo-Kengne	54.97
57	[73]	Ramos Emmanuel Mapanga Mabugu (Ramos E. Mabugu)	55.46
58	[46]	Joel Hinaunye Eita	57.12
59	[77]	Willem H. Boshoff	58.82
60	[71]	Charles Lepepeule Machethe	59.66
61	[65]	Grietjie Verhoef	60.07
62	[66]	Ivan Nicholas Turok	62.19
63	[78]	Lawrence Edwards	63.20
64	[26]	Ulrich Schmidt	63.40
65	[79]	Konstantin Makrelov	63.62
66	[74]	Mike Morris	63.99
67	[87]	Monique Reid	64.06
68	[105]	Roy Charles Havemann	66.84
69	[90]	John Ele-Ojo Ataguba	67.52
70	[92]	Dambala Gelo	67.53
71	[83]	Xolani Sibande	69.24
72	[107]	Leonard Le Roux	69.36
73	[69]	Eliphas Ndou	72.74
74	[84]	Derek Yu	72.99
75	[89]	Ingrid Woolard	73.04
76	[88]	Morne Oosthuizen (Morne Jacques Oosthuizen)	73.49
77	[76]	Yonas Tesfamariam Bahta	75.32
78	[94]	Amy Julia Thornton	75.50
79	[48]	Don A Ross	75.86
80	[72]	Forget Mingiri Kapingura	76.39
81	[95]	Dorrit Posel	77.39
82	[118]	Neryvia Pillay	78.56
83	[93]	Jules Clement Mba	78.99
84	[112]	Ruthira Naraidoo	79.97
85	[111]	Nick Vink	80.68
86	[119]	Harold Kincaid	81.10
87	[91]	Timothy Köhler (Timothy Kohler)	81.15
88	[109]	Kevin Nell	81.32
89	[129]	Stan Du Plessis	81.53
90	[101]	Eftychia Nikolaidou	81.73
91	[45]	Ndemaze Asongu	82.83
92	[110]	Gabrielle Wills	83.39
93	[117]	Kevin Kotze	83.39
94	[103]	Tendai Gwatidzo	84.12
95	[80]	Syden Mishi	85.21
96	[127]	Thomas Andrew McWalter	86.96
97	[124]	Eleni Yitbarek	87.53
98	[122]	Witness Simbanegavi	89.28
99	[96]	Alexis Habiyaremye	89.36
100	[125]	Talita Greyling	89.45
101	[102]	Daniel Makina	90.97
102	[116]	David Mhlanga	91.79
103	[131]	Sonali DAS	91.89
104	[104]	Munacinga Chinyama Hamusankwa Simatele	92.21
105	[106]	Themba Gilbert Chirwa	94.22
106	[99]	Zurika Robinson	95.45
107	[135]	Manoel Bittencourt	95.94
108	[121]	Servaas van der Berg	99.78
109	[137]	Johane Dikgang	99.80
110	[153]	Corlise Liesl Le Roux	102.26
111	[138]	David Oluwatosin Fadiran	102.38
112	[82]	Franz Ruch	102.89
113	[123]	Ariel Herbert Fambeu	103.98
114	[139]	Herbert Ntuli	104.42
115	[113]	Athenia Bongani Sibindi	104.68
116	[115]	Ntokozo Patrick Nzimande	105.89
117	[145]	Reza Che Daniels	107.78
118	[98]	Simon Jon Roberts	108.94
119	[141]	Charles Shaaba Saba	111.56
120	[130]	Johann Frederick Kirsten	113.54
121	[151]	Lardo Stander	114.05

Credits:

Citations from CitEc project by José Manuel Barrueco Cruz, University of Valencia, Spain. Hardware provided by Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas (IVIE), Valencia, Spain.
Abstract views and downloads statistics from LogEc project by Sune Karlsson, Örebro University, Sweden.
Author registration, institution database, and ranking computations by Christian Zimmermann.
RePEc has been initiated by Thomas Krichel.

We do our best, but we cannot exclude errors.

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