What is EMA?
What Makes EMA Unique?
Why EMA?
What Are EMA Services?
Why Economic Modelling?
EMA Scholarships
EMA is your gateway to the world of economic modeling
EMA partners with ADRS (Applied Development Research Solutions), a world leader in the field of economic modelling. Over the last 20 years, ADRS has built a system of advanced analytical intelligence composed of economic models for more than 65 countries.
As an EMA student, you will have access to the wealth of resource, experience, expertise and more than sixty country models developed by ADRS. Click on the tiles in the graphic below to discover more about economic models that you will learn about and gain access to through EMA courses.
Our Faculty
Dr. Pali Lehohla
EMA Director
Dr. Asghar Adelzadeh
EMA Director
Prof. Julian D. May
EMA Instructor
Interested in joining our faculty as an instructor or co-ordinator?
We have proudly provided research and training to these organizations
What Is EMA?
EMA is a capacity building organization designed to empower people and organizations to skillfully use economic models in spheres of research, policy, and planning. Our focus is to help you develop high level skills to strengthen your contributions to all aspects of decision-making from policy design, impact analysis, predictive analytics to monitoring and evaluation.
Our learning modality includes:
Building your analytical skills
Building analytical skills by providing a substantive review of relevant analytical and policy issues
Demystifying economic modeling
Using accessible language to teach economic modelling techniques, the role of theory, data, statistical analysis and computer programming in building empirical models for policy design, impact analysis, projections, and monitoring and evaluation.
Providing direct hands-on experience
Providing direct access to innovative online models of more than 60 country models that teach learners the analytical and empirical skills needed to tackle real world economic challenges. User-centered models provide direct hands-on experience and practice as an integrated feature of the training curriculum.
What Makes EMA Unique?
Our approach is predicated upon the conviction that economic modelling has enormous potential. We aim to demystify the science and complexity of economic modelling so that they are more readily used to improve decision-making processes, confidently predicting outcomes and improving performance. Here what makes EMA unique:
Neither Generic Nor General
EMA training in economic modelling is neither generic, nor general. EMA focuses on sharpening your understanding and skills in economic modelling, from key concepts to application to real world problems. We aim to demystify economic modelling and equip you with concrete analytical and empirical skills that are applicable in your work or further studies.
Builds on Your Existing Skills
EMA builds on your existing skills and capabilities to equip you with high-level skills and knowledge to make meaningful contributions to policymaking processes.
Goes Beyond Orthodox Economics
Economic models utilize vast amounts of data to shine a light on the structure and dynamics underlying economies. Since economies are not confined to the limits of orthodox economic theory, neither do the models we use. Heterodox economic models enable students to go beyond the limitations of orthodox models.
Access to a Suite of International Models
With more than 60 economic models to work with, learners benefit from models well suited for examining economic challenges similar to those found in developed economies, developing economies and those in transition. The South African economy is represented in special models because it is well suited for students to examine policy areas of typical interest in developing and transition economies.
Integrates Modelling Know-How with M&E
EMA course modules include learning how economic models and their projections can be integrated into the planning, monitoring and evaluation processes of setting targets and milestones at national, provincial and local levels.
Why EMA?
Empirical models are complex. Understanding them and learning how to use them does not need to be. EMA brings the power of economic modelling to anyone working in policy planning.
What sets us apart?
More than just modelling
EMA courses provide an extensive review of analytical and policy issues related to the course topic. An essential prerequisite for a good modeller is a clear understanding of the economic environment that the model represents.
Expert Faculty
Our courses are not generic, and neither is our faculty. EMA is focused specifically on economic modelling. Our faculty have dedicated their lives to economic analysis, policy issues and formulation, data science, building models and training others how to use them. They provide live, personalized and interactive instruction. Learners with diverse strengths and capacities are guided by our faculty to the analytical and empirical skills needed to tackle economic development challenges.
Hands on learning
Hands-on experience with economic modelling is integrated into all aspects of EMA’s curricula. While learning analytical and empirical skills, learners also gain access to interactive economic modeling tools to learn, practice and perfect their modelling skills with real world scenarios. Hands-on training goes a long way to demystify the science and complexity of economic modelling.
M&E Integration
EMA course modules include learning how economic models and their projections can be integrated into the planning, monitoring and evaluation processes of setting targets and milestones at national, provincial and local levels.
Unique Small Class Size
Small class sizes are designed to allow instructors to provide attention and guidance to individual learners and to promote interactive learning between a global community of students, sharing experiences, common challenges, and fresh insights.
What Are EMA Services?
EMA offers executive courses in economic modelling. Our courses cover macroeconomic, microsimulation and linked macro-micro modelling techniques used in an array of economic and social policy areas (e.g., macroeconomic and industrial policy, social security, taxation, public works, poverty, inequality, skills demand and supply and green economy).
EMA courses are offered for individual learners and for group learners from public and private enterprises. EMA also offers dedicated, tailored, and new courses for enterprises upon request. Enterprises are eligible for discounts based on group size.
By request, EMA also supports local initiatives to develop systems for policy analyses and forecasting at macro, sectoral and regional levels. Moreover, our economic advisory services are designed to support your organization in diverse areas such as design of poverty reduction policies, social welfare programs, employment creation policies, and macroeconomic policies. For more information about EMA services, please Contact Us.
Why Economic Modelling?
Humans are constrained by linear thinking. Without analytical tools, interactions between various parts of the system, adding up to a whole remain perplexing. Unaided, one cannot imagine all the possibilities that the real system can exhibit, and one cannot foresee the full effects of cascading events.
Therefore, models are built to gain insight as well as quantitative predictions about the future.
Broadly speaking, economic models are useful to outline and analyse in a consistent manner future developments under current policies; to provide insight into the likely effects of policy options or policy variants; and to show the sensitivity of policy effects to certain parameters or model specifications.
By understanding the way models and modelling works, we can learn to use them to anlayze the present and predict future outcomes for better planning and strategic decision-making. EMA aims is to demystify the field of economic modelling and the skill set required to understand, use and build economic models.
EMA Scholarships
EMA provides a limited number of partial scholarships, designed to assist individuals with financial needs and who otherwise have the necessary pre-requisites to take one of the current courses. To apply, please complete this form.
ADRS (Applied Development Research Solutions)
Applied Development Research Solutions (ADRS) is a leader in the field of economic modelling. Over the last 20 years, we have built economic models for more than 65 countries. With extensive experience in Africa, our expertise has been integrated into the development solutions of more than 10 African countries. In South Africa, our economic models are used to design macroeconomic, industrial, poverty and income distribution policies.
We have the flexibility to respond quickly and effectively to economic modelling, research and capacity building needs, wherever they may arise.
Models: Macro Economic
Macroeconomic Model of South Africa (MEMSA) is a large multi-sector macro-econometric model that captures the structure and the working of the South African economy. It allows design and analyses of macroeconomic and industrial policies and produces projections of the paths of key indicators related to the economy and its economic sectors under various domestic and international contexts and policy options. MEMSA’s analytical approach is in the tradition of pluralism of heterodox economics and uses modern time-series specification and estimation methods to estimate the parameters of the model’s behavioural equations.
Models: Skills & Occupation
Linked Macro-Education Model (LM-EM) is a tool for skills planning and forecasting. The model captures the interactions between macroeconomics and the education sector in South Africa. It is built to provide a platform to design economic, labour force, and education policy scenarios, quantify their impact, and forecast trends in economic indicators and the demand and supply of skills.
Models: Energy Emissions
Multi-Sector Economy-Energy-Emissions Model (MS3E) captures the interactions between macroeconomics, industrial structure, energy demand and carbon emissions. It is designed to quantify, under alternative growth scenarios, sector demand for energy and carbon emissions, and provide projections of indicators that allow monitoring the country’s progress towards fulfilling its medium and long terms climate change commitments. It is most suitable for examining the environmental impact of macro and micro economic policy scenarios.
Models: Provincial-Municipal
Linked National-Provincial-Macro Model (LNP-Macro) and produces projections of growth, investment, and employment for 27 sectors of each of the nine provinces in South Africa. The model captures the economic structure of nine provinces using econometric estimations of sectors of provincial investment, output and employment and nine linked national-provincial input-output tables. The model is most suitable for forecasting the impact of national level policies on provincial economies or the local and national impact of provincial initiatives.
LNP –MM extends the Linked National-Provincial Macroeconomic Model (LNP-Macro) to include a household microsimulation model to allow interactions between the two and assessments of the impact of national and provincial policy scenarios on provincial economic performance, taxation, social security, poverty and income distribution.
Models: Social Security
ADRS has two models of social security in South Africa. SATTSIM-SS is a full microsimulation of individuals and households that allows designing economic and social grant scenarios for the next 10 years and simulates their impact on the number of beneficiaries, cost, and poverty and income distribution by race, gender, province, locality, quintile and family type. The model’s policy modules include all officials social grant modules plus basic income grant, unemployment grant and care giver grant.
DIMMSIM-SS is a dynamically integrated linked macro-micro simulation model that includes two-way interactions between its macroeconometric and social security microsimulation components. It captures the impact of macroeconomic performance on demand and cost of social grants, income inequality, income poverty and multi-dimensional poverty. At the same time, it captures the impact of changes in cost of social security, poverty and inequality on the performance of the macroeconomy.
Models: Taxation
ADRS has two models of direct and indirect taxes for South Africa. SATTSIM-TAX is a full microsimulation of individuals and households that allows designing economic and tax scenarios for the next 10 years. It produces the impact of scenarios on tax revenue projections for up to 10 years. It also simulates the impact of tax policy scenarios on poverty, income distribution and who pays taxes by race, gender, province, locality, quintile and family type. The model includes detailed income tax and indirect tax modules.
DIMMSIM-TAX is a dynamically integrated linked macro-micro simulation model that includes two-way interactions between its macroeconometric and tax microsimulation components. It captures the impact of macroeconomic performance on direct and indirect tax revenues. At the same time, it captures the impact of changes in direct and indirect tax policies on macroeconomic indicators and on poverty and income inequality.
Models: Poverty & Inequality
ADRS microsimulation model of individuals and households and ADRS linked macro-micro models include several known measures of income poverty and income inequality. Moreover, ADRS has pioneered assessing impact of economic and social policy scenarios on the future evolution of multi-dimensional poverty.
ADRS models capture the links between household poverty and inequality and macroeconomic indicators, industrial transformation, taxation and social security. The models generate projections of the impact of policies, such as the BIG, public employment and macroeconomic policy, on various measures of inequality, income poverty and multi-dimensional poverty by race, gender, province, family type, quintile and locality.
Models: Public Employment
ADRS has two models of public employment for South Africa. A full microsimulation of individuals and households with a public employment policy module. The model allows for design of scenarios related to the size, eligibility conditions and benefits of government public employment programs and produces projections of the impact of the scenarios on distribution of beneficiaries, cost, poverty and income distribution in the short, medium to long term.
ADRS dynamically integrated macro-micro simulation model includes two-way interactions between its macroeconometric and public employment microsimulation components. It captures the impact of macroeconomic performance on demand and cost of public employment. At the same time, it captures the impact of changes in public employment policy on macroeconomic performance, demand and cost of the program, and on poverty and inequality. Possible scenarios range from fixed annual targets for the programme’s job opportunities to testing possible extension of the programme to operate as an employer of last resort.
County Models: Asia
ADRS has built economic models for 16 Asian countries that are available for scenario planning and impact analyses. The models are multi-sectoral and users are able to produce likely impact of macroeconomic, sector and industry scenarios on macroeconomic and sector indicators. The list of Asian countries with ADRS models includes:
| Brunei | Kazakhstan | India | Saudi Arabia | Cambodia |
| South Korea | Indonesia | Singapore | China | Malaysia |
| Israel | Taiwan | Hong Kong | Philippines | Japan |
| Thailand |
County Models: Africa
ADRS has built economic models for twelve African countries. Three of them are currently available for scenario planning and impact analyses. The models are multi-sectoral and users are able to produce likely impact of macroeconomic, sector and industry scenarios on macroeconomic and sector indicators. The list of Africa countries with ADRS models includes:
| Morocco | South Africa | Tunisia |
County Models: Europe
ADRS has built economic models for 33 European countries that are available for scenario planning and impact analyses. The models are multi-sectoral and users are able to produce likely impact of macroeconomic, sector and industry scenarios on macroeconomic and sector indicators. The list of European countries with ADRS models includes:
| Austria | Belgium | Bulgaria | Croatia | Cyprus |
| Czech Republic | Denmark | Estonia | Finland | France |
| Germany | Greece | Hungary | Iceland | Ireland |
| Italy | Latvia | Lithuania | Luxembourg | Malta |
| Netherlands | Norway | Poland | Portugal | Romania |
| Russia | Slovakia | Slovenia | Spain | Sweden |
| Switzerland | Turkey | United Kingdom |
County Models: North America
ADRS has built economic models for 3 North American countries that are available for scenario planning and impact analyses. The models are multi-sectoral and users are able to produce likely impact of macroeconomic, sector and industry scenarios on macroeconomic and sector indicators. The list of North American countries with ADRS models includes:
| Canada | United States | Mexico |
County Models: South America
ADRS has built economic models for 5 South and Central American countries that are available for scenario planning and impact analyses. The models are multi-sectoral and users are able to produce likely impact of macroeconomic, sector and industry scenarios on macroeconomic and sector indicators. The list of South and Central American countries with ADRS models includes:
| Argentina | Brazil | Chile | Colombia | Costa Rica |
County Models: Oceania
ADRS has built economic models for 2 Oceania countries that are available for scenario planning and impact analyses. The models are multi-sectoral and users are able to produce likely impact of macroeconomic, sector and industry scenarios on macroeconomic and sector indicators. The list of Oceania countries with ADRS models includes:
| Australia | New Zealand |
