SA’s economists ‘absent in policy debates’

EFFICIENT Group economist Dawie Roodt’s strong views on the energy crisis and on state-owned enterprises made him the most quoted economist in the South African media in the year to July, with Econometrix chief economist Azar Jammine in second place in a new survey.

But media monitoring company Media Tenor, which did the analysis using more than 700 reports in 33 different media in SA, has bemoaned the fact that economists are fairly absent from the policy debate in the media, and that the views of academic economists in universities and think tanks receive hardly any coverage.

This is in contrast to economies such as Germany or Switzerland, where Media Tenor’s surveys show 50%-90% of economists who contribute to the public debate are affiliated with universities or think tanks, says Media Tenor Internat- ional’s head of research Tobias Thomas.

Bank economists including Investec’s Kamilla Kaplan and Annabel Bishop and Nomura’s Peter Attard Montalto were among the top five most quoted. It found that Ms Kaplan, HSBC economist David Faulkner and Mr Jammine were most quoted on the business cycle while Nazmeera Moola and Ms Bishop were the most visible economists discussing monetary policy. Mike Schussler was loudest on energy issues, particularly electricity pricing.

The survey, conducted in SA for the first time, tends to reflect the economists who are most vocal and media-friendly. By con- trast, the Thomson Reuters economist of the year competition, which this year was won by Credit Guarantee’s Luke Doig, is the best forecaster, while SA’s top-rated domestic economist according to this year’s Financial Mail rankings was Macquarie’s Elna Moolman. The FM rankings are based on a survey of fund managers.

Media Tenor plans to add data from a survey of policy makers’ and academics’ views on the economists to the rankings.

Dr Thomas said economists represented less than 1% of sources cited in the media, reflecting “the absence of economists willing to speak to the media and a choice by journalists to seek quotes elsewhere”.

Business Report and Business Day cited economists and their research the most.

The survey tends to reflect economists who are vocal and media-friendly