
Economist, Assistant Professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (@uabbarcelona)
Barcelona
Joined April 2022
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Leonard le Roux retweeted
I'm always perplexed when I see people putting up slides with a ton of genAI text.
It's like announcing to your audience that you are either not that good at expressing your ideas or that you didn't want to bother.
Leonard le Roux retweeted
Which spatial economist hasn’t wished for European micro-geographic house-price indices using consistent methods?
A start: Germany + England & Wales (LSE-REEF index) in one dashboard.
Send me your AHS index to add!
sites.google.com/view/ahlfel…
@LSEGeography
Leonard le Roux retweeted
Why do many businesses in poor countries look overstaffed? Experiments in Uganda show employers and workers prefer redistribution via work to cash even for no-value tasks. Workfare-like incentives, reciprocity, and dignity shape firm size and productivity.
econometricsociety.org/publi…
Leonard le Roux retweeted
No person forfeits their right to life, dignity or their status as a human being because they are alleged to have violated a law. This is a defining feature of our Constitution that sets us apart as a nation of due process and the rule of law.
We will not tolerate anyone using allegations related to any person’s nationality or immigration status to violate their inherent human dignity and our Constitution, or to inflict damage on our society. It simply cannot and will not stand.
Leonard le Roux retweeted
Fikile Mbalula's messaging on the current anti-immigrant mobilisation may be mixed, but in these clips he doesn't pull any punches, stating
1. While the Zulu king has been responsible Jacob Zuma and the MK Party have been reckless
2. The authority for dealing with immigration belongs to the state. People cannot take the law into their own hands
3. International perceptions that South Africans are xenophobic will result in us paying a high price, economically and politically.
Leonard le Roux retweeted
The facts of the European (EU27) income convergence
How is Europe becoming more equal
branko2f7.substack.com/p/the…
0.3% of the water consumed by US golf courses last year
BREAKING: Amazon data centers used 2.5 billion gallons of water in 2025
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Amazon's data centers withdrew 2.5 billion gallons of water in 2025, down 2% from 2024 despite expansion, or less than 0.1% of annual U.S. landscape irrigation. aboutamazon.com/news/sustainab…
Leonard le Roux retweeted
Let this sink in:
A person with the *median* income in Mozambique is at the 3rd lowest global percentile; a person with the median income in Congo is at the 2nd lowest global percentile.
A person with the median German income is at the 91st global percentile. A person with the median US income is at the 93rd global percentile.
(latest data)
Leonard le Roux retweeted
Senior counsel Tembeka Ngcukaitobi has been appointed as an acting judge to the Constitutional Court. ebx.sh/1WZQv9
Leonard le Roux retweeted
Forthcoming in AER: Insights: "The Missing Poor" by Torsten Figueiredo Walter, Niclas Moneke, and Ana Radu. aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.12…
Leonard le Roux retweeted
We are tired hey?
Every corner is a mall or shopping center?
What about parks!?
Another week, another retail centre - Waterfall's newest R600 million shopping centre has just thrown open its doors🍄
• Name: Mushroom Farm
• Size: 27 000m2
• Retail stores: 50
• Taxi bays: 96
• Parking bays: 1150
• Architect: BAR architects
• Construction started: September 2024
• Construction ended: October 2025
• Construction: Archstone Construction
• Developer & centre owner: Century Property Developments
• Location: corner of Allandale Road and President Drive, Kyalami, Midrand
• Tenants include: Checkers Hyper (9000m2), Mr Price Home, Mambo’s, Dis-chem (1300m2), @Home, Bootlegger, Volpes, Mr Price, Baglios Porchinis, Whippet, Bargain Books, Sorbet, Pnp Clothing, Miladys, PEP Home, Seattle Coffee, Pet Science, BOA Beauty, Specsavers, Checkers Liquor, Wimpy, Crazy Store and DIal-A-Bed, PNA
• Commercial offices and medical suites on the 1st floor
Fun facts about the Shopping Centre’s construction:
• 31 671 m2 of roofing sheets – enough to cover 13 private jet hangars
• 44 805 m3 of concrete – enough to pave a road from Pretoria to Midrand
• 3 900 m2 of tiles – sufficient to cover nine full-size basketball courts
• 1 191 905 bricks – enough for over 130 RDP homes
• 437 tons of steel – equal to 170 full-grown African elephants
• 105 000 m3 of earth moved – more than one million wheelbarrow loads
• 930 m2 of retaining walls – enough to wrap six double-decker buses vertically side by side
The site used to be a working mushroom farm right next to the original Waterval Farm - hence the centre name.
One of the tenants is Kiddies Aqua Swimming Academy - I can really appreciate a tenant like this in the mix. How cool (and convenient) to drop your daughter off for an extra swimming lesson and get your errands done at the same place. Parents spend hours in the car after school to and from extra murals - more tenants like this seem an essential in pulling that sort of foot traffic to your site.
This will also be the home of Johannesburg’s first Mambos Storage and Home. Such a valuable tenant to have in a convenience centre. They are already planning phase 2 for the centre for 2026.
Leonard le Roux retweeted
The parly portfolio committee chair, Tebogo Letsie, has seemingly already nailed his colours to the mast, supporting those who want to put Fort Hare under administration. Shameful. We must PROTECT principled people like Buhlungu against corrupt politicians news24.com/politics/appoint-…
Leonard le Roux retweeted
Johannesburg has been ranked the world’s least walkable city, reflecting its high crime rate and heavy car dependency, which are symptoms of the city’s broader decline from years of mismanagement.
dailyinvestor.com/south-afri…
Leonard le Roux retweeted
Does gender diversity in peer groups benefit performance?
I ran a 7-year field experiment with 3,000+ students to find out
Key findings: As gender diversity increases
– Course grades in short & longer run⬆️
– Dropout rates⬇️
– Performance inequality in groups⬇️
Details below🧵
Leonard le Roux retweeted
I am more of a pessimist. I think Lagos (soon to be largest city on the planet) and other W African cities will look like Rio is 25 years because (1) they further become drug trafficking routes from Andes to Europe & (2) they’ll develop local retail drug markets (and armed gangs)
Leonard le Roux retweeted
The best NBER summer institute session starts today: Urban Economics
It's exciting to this take off as a policy and research area.
Making cities work better — in rich and poor countries both — would solve so many of our problems.
Starts at 830 ET, should be on NBER youtube.
Leonard le Roux retweeted
My take on the Capitec CEO's pronouncement that the SA unemployment rate is actually 10%. Summary: "The Capitec CEO should stay in his lane and confine his pronouncements to topics such as borrowing and lending."
businesslive.co.za/bd/opinio…

































