Haroon Bhorat
haroonbhorat.bsky.social
Haroon Bhorat
@haroonbhorat.bsky.social
Professor of Economics
University of Cape Town
South Africa
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
How can tariffs improve welfare? Your country needs market power.

A quick explainer below 👇🏻
July 30, 2025 at 6:14 AM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
HAROON BHORAT (@haroonbhorat.bsky.social, our colleague at @dpru-uct.bsky.social): Getting the numbers right on the informal economy

www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2...
HAROON BHORAT: Getting the numbers right on the informal economy
It is wrong to assume that what is true at the local level must translate to a 1:1 relationship at national level
www.businesslive.co.za
June 26, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Trump’s new tariffs are an abomination. It’s not just the economics that is backwards. It’s also the geopolitics/national security angle. Countries have always used trade for geopolitical reasons. But it’s by opening your market to other nations that you get them to align with you, not by closing.
April 2, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Trump's claim that foreigners will pay the tariffs in full. They assume a small but positive passthrough indicating that domestic prices will rise by 25% of the tariffs.
April 3, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Their use of elasticity is inconsistent and would not pass an undergraduate test (where is the price effect on the value of imports?) The assumption that exports will be unaffected is crazy. Note also that their (necessary) assumption that domestic import prices will rise contradicts +
April 3, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
This is what Trump's "economists" say about how they calculated the "reciprocal" tariffs. Don[t be fooled by the equation. They commit countless crimes against economics. ustr.gov/issue-areas/... +
Reciprocal Tariff Calculations
Executive Summary Reciprocal tariffs are calculated as the tariff rate necessary to balance bilateral trade deficits between the U.S. and each of our trading partners. This calculation assumes that pe...
ustr.gov
April 3, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
But of course this equation and calculation are a travesty. It is a silly attempt to provide a veneer of respectability to a nonsensical, arbitrary, and ad hoc political decision. Whoever produced this (and indeed all the economists working for Trump) should be embarrassed of themselves.
April 3, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Looking back at our 40th anniversary reception this week!

Our panel discussion highlighted the importance of cross-sectoral cooperation: every level of organization has a role to play in finding sustainable solutions.

@FCA_global @Ulkoministerio @Columbia @uonbi
March 30, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Fear of floating
by Reinhart, Carmen & Calvo, Guillermo (2002)
IDEAS/RePEc link
to RePEc:pra:mprapa:14000
ideas.repec.org
March 23, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
On this day in 1934, Daniel Kahneman was born. He wrote 'Thinking Fast and Slow' and won a Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on behavioural economics. Have a listen to learn more. Also born on this day were James Tobin (1918) & William Beveridge (1879). #EconSky open.spotify.com/episode/6XoJ...
Season 4 Episode 1 - Daniel Kahneman
Economics In Ten · Episode
open.spotify.com
March 5, 2025 at 6:34 AM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Tomorrow the US Administration imposes the heaviest taxes since the 1930s on Americans who buy imports.

In this new brief from @ucsandiego.bsky.social, leading economists Evenett & Muendler estimate the harm to US workers in all 50 states—>

econweb.ucsd.edu/muendler/dow... | cc @piie.com
March 4, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Predicting U.S. Recessions: Financial Variables as Leading Indicators
by Arturo Estrella & Frederic S. Mishkin (1995)
IDEAS/RePEc link
to RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5379
ideas.repec.org
March 4, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Support Project Syndicate (@projectsyndicate.bsky.social).

"For every donation, large or small, you’ll get one year of digital access to Project Syndicate for free – because the world needs informed perspectives now more than ever."

Link: donations.cafamerica.org/project-synd...
March 3, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Got a null result? It’s not the end of the story. Null findings play a crucial role in building evidence—helping refine theories, guide policy, and avoid publication bias. Learn more:
So, you got a null result. Now what?
While a null result is likely not what you were hoping for, and while null results can (unfortunately) be more difficult to publish, they can spur just as important insights and policy implications…
buff.ly
March 3, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
A Theory of the Term Structure of Interest Rates
by Cox, John C & Ingersoll, Jonathan E, Jr & Ross, Stephen A (1985)
IDEAS/RePEc link
to RePEc:ecm:emetrp:v:53:y:1985:i:2:p:385-407
ideas.repec.org
March 3, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Is Public R&D a Complement or Substitute for Private R&D? A Review of the Econometric Evidence
by Paul A. David & Bronwyn H. Hall & Andrew A. Toole (2000)
IDEAS/RePEc link
to RePEc:wpa:wuwpdc:9912002
ideas.repec.org
March 2, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
The implementation of TWFE:
reghdfe Y D##T, absorb(state year) robust

The causal implication of the TWFE coefficient:
March 2, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Working from home has stabilized at about 25 percent of all full worked days in the US according to a new analysis of 9 different US datasets, from Shelby R. Buckman, Jose Maria Barrero, @nickbloom.bsky.social, and Steven J. Davis https://www.nber.org/papers/w33508
March 1, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Trump's enablers have made a Faustian bargain to advance their particular agendas, but they are as likely to find themselves at each other's throats www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/t...
The Coming Showdown in Trumpworld | by Dani Rodrik - Project Syndicate
Dani Rodrik points out that a coalition comprising incompatible financial and ideological interests cannot last.
www.project-syndicate.org
March 1, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Capital Deepening and Non-Balanced Economic Growth
by Daron Acemoglu & Veronica Guerrieri (2006)
IDEAS/RePEc link
to RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12475
ideas.repec.org
March 1, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
The Old Volksraad Mense™ have found allies in the Trump gauleiters and their opposition to diversity and inclusivity and globalism, and in the European right and a media that is in a panic about dark-skinned people taking over Europe.
OPINIONISTA: The Old Volksraad Mense™ and their curious bromance with Trump amid fears of genocide
www.dailymaverick.co.za
February 28, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
Why Do Firms Train? Theory and Evidence
by Acemoglu, D. & Pischki, J.S. (1996)
IDEAS/RePEc link
to RePEc:mit:worpap:96-7
ideas.repec.org
February 27, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.”
James Baldwin
February 27, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
A Proposal for a Debt-adjustment Facility in the IMF
by Arjun Sengupta (1988)
IDEAS/RePEc link
to RePEc:bla:worlde:v:11:y:1988:i:2:p:165-186
ideas.repec.org
February 27, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Haroon Bhorat
"Any idiot can face a crisis ; it 's this day-to-day living that wears you out." - Anton Chekhov.
February 26, 2025 at 8:12 AM