Servaas van der Berg is professor of Economics at the University of Stellenbosch and holds the South African National Research Chair in the Economics of Social Policy, He leads the ReSEP research group Research on Socio-economic Policy), whose research is often based on the analysis of survey data, including household, labour market and school surveys. His research centres on issues of poverty and inequality, particulary policies that relate to poverty and distributional outcomes in the South African context as well as in the southern African region, including issues relating to the labour market, fiscal incidence, education, health and social grants. His work has a strong policy focus.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in February 2013.