Murray Leibbrandt is a Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town and the Director of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit. He holds the DSD/NRF National Research Chair of Poverty and Inequality Research. His research analyses South African poverty, inequality and labour market dynamics using survey data and, in particular, panel data. He is currently one of the Principal Investigators on the National Income Dynamics Study. He is a past president of the African Econometric Society and immediate past president of the Economics Society of South Africa.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in May 2012.