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Fifteen Years On: Household Incomes in South Africa

Author

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  • Murray Leibbrandt
  • James Levinsohn
Abstract
This paper uses national household survey data to examine changes in real per capita incomes in South Africa between 1993 and 2008; the start and the end of the first fifteen years of post-apartheid South Africa. These data show an increase in average per capita real incomes across the distribution. Over this period growth has been shared, albeit unequally, across almost the entire spectrum of incomes. However, kernel density estimations make clear that these real income changes are not dramatic and inequality has increased. We conduct a series of semi-parametric decompositions in order to understand the role of endowments and changes in the returns to these endowments in driving these observed changes in the income distribution. This analysis highlights the positive role played by changes in endowments such as access to education and social services over the period. If these endowment changes were all that changed in South Africa over the post-apartheid period, we would have seen a pervasive rightward shift of the distribution of per capita real incomes. In the rest of the paper we explore why this did not happen.

Suggested Citation

  • Murray Leibbrandt & James Levinsohn, 2011. "Fifteen Years On: Household Incomes in South Africa," NBER Working Papers 16661, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16661
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Johann Kirsten & Julian May & Sheryl Hendriks & Charles L. Machethe & Cecelia Punt & Mike Lyne, 2007. "South Africa," Chapters, in: Fabrizio Bresciani & Alberto Valdés (ed.), Beyond Food Production, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
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    7. Özler, Berk, 2007. "Not Separate, Not Equal: Poverty and Inequality in Post-apartheid South Africa," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(3), pages 487-529, April.
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    9. Murray Leibbrandt & Ingrid Woolard & Arden Finn & Jonathan Argent, 2010. "Trends in South African Income Distribution and Poverty since the Fall of Apartheid," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 101, OECD Publishing.
    10. Thomas, Duncan, 1996. "Education across Generations in South Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 330-334, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ashley Turbeville & J. Lawrence Aber & Sharon L. Weinberg & Linda Richter & Alastair Heerden, 2019. "Childhood Economic Well-Being in South Africa: Construction of a Theoretically-Grounded Empirically-Derived Multidimensional Measure," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(6), pages 1855-1878, December.
    2. Giorgio d’Agostino & Margherita Scarlato & Silvia Napolitano, 2018. "Do Cash Transfers Promote Food Security? The Case of the South African Child Support Grant," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 27(4), pages 430-456.
    3. Scarlato, Margherita & D'Agostino, Giorgio, 2016. "The political economy of cash transfers: a comparative analysis of Latin American and sub-Saharan African experiences," IDOS Discussion Papers 6/2016, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    4. Darlington Mushongera & Precious Zikhali & Phindile Ngwenya, 2017. "A Multidimensional Poverty Index for Gauteng Province, South Africa: Evidence from Quality of Life Survey Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 130(1), pages 277-303, January.
    5. Michael A. Clemens, 2011. "Economics and Emigration: Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 83-106, Summer.
    6. Chloé van Biljon & Dieter von Fintel & Atika Pasha, 2018. "Bargaining to work: the effect of female autonomy on female labour supply," Working Papers 04/2018, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.

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    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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