Murray Leibbrandt holds the UCT Research Chair in Poverty and Inequality Research within the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) at the University of Cape Town. He has served as the University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor, Poverty and Inequality, and as the Director of SALDRU from 2002 until July 2023. He is the Director of the African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research within the African Universities Alliance, a Visiting Professor at Yale University and a Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. He serves on the Council of the Academy of Science of South Africa, He served as the DSI/NRF National Research Chair for Poverty and Inequality Research, from 2008 to 2022, on the Executive Committee of the International Economic Association, from 2017 to 2023, as the President of the African Econometric Society, from 2006-2007, and as the President of the Economic Society of Southern Africa from 2007 to 2010. 

From 2007 to 2019 he was a founding Principal Investigator on the National Income Dynamics Study, South Africa’s national longitudinal study and is a Principal Investigator on the study, Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies in South Africa. His research uses survey data, especially such longitudinal data, to analyse South African and African poverty, inequality and labour market dynamics. 

He served on the President Mandela’s Labour Market Commission to advise on post-apartheid labour market legislation, in 1995-96, and on Deputy President Ramaphosa’s Advisory Panel on the National Minimum Wage from 2016-17. In 2021 he served on the Expert Group to advise the Minister of Social Development and the President on Basic Income Support and in 2021/22 he served on the Ministerial Task Team of the Department of Higher Education and Training that supported a policy review of student funding. In December 2024 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of