College of Business and Economics | Annual Report 2021 56 Jugal Mahabir Director: Public and Environmental Economic Research Centre (PEERC), School of Economics College of Business and Economics (CBE), University of Johannesburg Public and Environmental Economic Research Centre (PEERC) OVERVIEW The Public and Environmental Economics Research Centre (PEERC) was established in 2016 to play a role in filling a potential gap in the current economic discourse by aligning the fields of public economics and environmental economics. Environmental issues are currently at the forefront of the policy discourse, as the world battles with issues of global warming and climate change. Most of the remedies to environmental issues and externalities are public policy instruments, such as tax policy and regulation. As such, PEERC attempts to mobilise the key skills and resources in both fields towards identifying and remedying environmental issues through public policy. While this is the primary premise of the research centre, PEERC endeavours to be at the forefront of both the public economics and environmental economics fields. PEERC is currently governed by a board of directors, with Dr Sydney Mufamadi as its chairperson. The daily operations at the Research Centre are overseen by its Director, Mr Jugal Mahabir. TALENT MANAGEMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING GRADUATES PEERC’s core staff and research associates are actively supervising honours, master’s, and doctoral students in the fields of public and environmental economics towards developing the next generation of researchers and policy makers in these fields. Since inception, PEERC has graduated three doctoral students, five master’s students and several honours students. PEERC was selected to participate in the Graduate Placement Employment Programme run by the Water Research Commission (WRC). The aim of the programme is to equip young graduates with the skills and knowledge needed for the workplace. Senior researchers at PEERC were chosen to provide mentorship to graduates, while they are given the opportunity to work on various research projects. SCHOLARSHIPS Owing to an increase in funding, PEERC made three scholarships available for three master’s students. These three students are completing their qualifications via externally funded projects, with their dissertations linked to the outcomes of these projects. Using this approach, the students’ research directly fits into current public policy issues and students engage with key policy makers and external researchers in the South African policy environment. RESEARCH ASSOCIATES The Centre strives to attract internationally recognised researchers. Currently, some of the Centre’s research associates include researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
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