Associate Professor Nicola Branson

Nicola Branson is a Chief Research Officer in the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) in the School of Economics, University of Cape Town. She holds a PhD in Economics from UCT and has experience in quantitative research using household and longitudinal survey data and in managing longitudinal datasets such as the National Income Dynamics Study. Nicola’s published
works relate to human capital inequalities in South Africa, including the intergenerational consequences on teenage childbearing, the relationship between educational attainment, post-schooling decisions and labour market reward, and the implications of COVID-19 on university performance. She currently runs the Siyaphambili Post-School Research Initiative, a project within SALDRU, where her research focuses on inequalities in access to post-school education and subsequent transitions into the labour market.