Murray Leibbrandt

Understanding Contemporary Household Inequality in South Africa

This paper uses various decomposition techniques to understand the nature of household inequality in contemporary South Africa. It examines, firstly, the importance of race in overall inequality; secondly, the contribution of major income sources to national inequality; and thirdly, the relationship between inequality, poverty and the labour market. Within-race inequality is also high with intra-African inequality being highest. The paper also shows the importance of differential access to wage income in driving household income inequality in South Africa. Gauteng, South Africas economic powerhouse, has long been dependent on immigration to supply its labour requirements, a phenomenon deeply rooted in the provinces early economic history and the development of mining and heavy industry. South African immigrants to the province (or in-migrants) were defined in one of two ways: individuals who were born in South Africa, but outside of Gauteng, or individuals whose most recent move in the 1996-2001 period was to Gauteng from one of the other eight provinces. In-migrants are described in terms of their demographics and educational and employment status. Further, in-migrants access to public services including electricity and water and other indicators of their living standards, such as housing, were analysed. As far as possible, the analysis compared in-migrants to non-migrants and intra-Gauteng migrants in order to provide insight into special benefits or challenges that in-migrant households may present. The Labour Force Survey module on migrant labour allowed the profiling of migrant labourers and the approximation of economic links between Gauteng and other provinces as represented by remittances. The study found that a large proportion of Gauteng residents were born outside the province, or moved into the province in the inter-census period, indicating a relatively mobile population.

Describing and decomposing post-apartheid income inequality in South Africa

This paper describes the changes in inequality in South Africa over the post-apartheid period, using income data from 1993 and 2008. Having shown that the data are comparable over time, it then profiles aggregate changes in income inequality, showing that inequality has increased over the post-apartheid period because an increased share of income has gone to the top decile. Social grants have become much more important as sources of income in the lower deciles. However, income source decomposition shows that the labour market has been and remains the main driver of aggregate inequality. Inequality within each racial group has increased and both standard and new methodologies show that the contribution of between-race inequality has decreased. Both aggregate and within-group inequality are responding to rising unemployment and rising earnings inequality. Those who have neither access to social grants nor the education levels necessary to integrate successfully into a harsh labour market are especially vulnerable.

Household and community income, economic shocks and risky sexual behavior of young adults: evidence from the Cape Area Panel Study 2002 and 2005

Objective:To describe recent trends in adolescent sexual behavior in Cape Town, South Africa, and to determine whether household and community poverty and negative economic shocks predict risky sexual behavior. Data:Matched survey data on 2993 African and coloured youth from the Cape Area Panel Study 2002 and 2005. Main outcome measures:Sexual debut, multiple sexual partners in past year, condom use at last sex, measured in 2002 and 2005. Methods:We tested for changes over time in reported sexual behavior and estimate multivariate probit models to measure the association between 2002 individual, household and community characteristics and 2005 sexual behavior. Results:There was a statistically significant increase in condom use and a decrease in the incidence of multiple sexual partners between 2002 and 2005 for young women aged 17–22 years. Young women in households with 10% higher income were 0.53% less likely to debut sexually by 2005; young men in communities with a 10% higher poverty rate were 5% less likely to report condom use at last sex. Negative economic shocks are associated with a 0.04% increase in the probability of multiple partnerships for young women. Education is positively correlated with sexual debut for young women and with multiple partnerships for both sexes. Conclusion:Trends in sexual behavior between 2002 and 2005 indicate significant shifts towards safer practices. There is little evidence of a relationship between negative economic shocks, household and community poverty, and risky behavior. We hypothesize that the unexpected positive relationship between education and sexual debut may be driven by peer effects in schools with substantial age mixing.

The financial impact of HIV/AIDS on poor households in South Africa.

Background:Rising mortality rates caused by HIV/AIDS in South Africa have substantial and lingering impacts on poor households. Methods:This is a descriptive paper using a new dataset of daily income, expenditure and financial transactions collected over a year from a total of 181 poor households in South African rural and urban areas. One of the key pathways through which HIV/AIDS impacts on household wellbeing is through the socioeconomic impacts of death, which this dataset is especially useful in quantifying. Results:The key impacts of death on households are funerals and the loss of income. Funerals often cost up to 7 months of income. Nearly all households in the sample attempt to cover such costs by holding a portfolio of funeral insurance. Despite these efforts to insure against funeral costs, 61% of households are underinsured against the cost of a funeral. Nearly half the sample households are dependent on a regular wage earner, and another quarter are dependent on a grant recipient. Eighty per cent of these households would lose over half of their monthly income should the highest income recipient in the household die. Even by selling liquid assets, only one third of the sample households would be able to maintain their pre-death living standards for a year or more. Conclusion:Death poses substantial and lingering burdens from the funerals that surviving household members need to finance and the ongoing loss of income once brought into the household by the deceased. These costs pose so great a threat to households that they dominate household saving and insurance behavior.

Social assistance, gender, and the aged in South Africa

This paper reviews the history of the noncontributory social pension in South Africa, as well as recent work on the distributional and poverty-alleviating effects of this program. The pension has a strong gender dimension, reaching three times as many women as men, and has an unambiguous impact on reducing household poverty, particularly among Black South African households. The existing literature also suggests that the pension reaches unintended beneficiaries within households and that strongly gender-differentiated patterns emerge both in the sharing of pension incomes by pensioners and in the behavioral responses of other household members to pension receipt.

Orphanhood and Schooling in South Africa: Trends in the vulnerability of orphans between 1993 and 2005

Using 10 nationally representative surveys conducted between 1993 and 2005, we assess the extent to which the vulnerability of orphans to poorer educational outcomes has changed over time as the AIDS crisis deepens in South Africa. In line with the existing literature, we find that at every point in time orphans are at risk of poorer educational outcomes, with maternal deaths generally having stronger negative effects than paternal deaths. However, despite a significant increase in the number of orphans over the past decade, we find no evidence of a systematic strengthening of these negative effects. In order to understand this, we explore patterns of caregiving for orphans. We find that these patterns have shifted over time. While orphans are still absorbed into extended families, single orphans are increasingly less likely to live with the surviving parent, and there is an increasing reliance on grandparents as caregivers. Up to this point, these changing patterns of caregiving within extended families seem to have avoided further worsening in the educational outcomes for the increasing number of orphans.

A comparison of poverty in South Africa's nine provinces

Poverty in South Africa varies greatly across the nine provinces. An accurate estimation of relative poverty shares is important because they serve as key indices for targeting social expenditure. In this article we test the robustness of provincial poverty rankings against changes in measurement methodology. In recent years, a large body of international literature has developed concerning the choice of an appropriate poverty line and the construction of more appropriate poverty measures. This article uses two of these recent developments - the concept of a poverty critical range in place of a single poverty line and distribution-sensitive decomposable poverty measures — to re-examine provincial poverty. Results are checked across two recent national data sets.

Labour force withdrawal of the elderly in South Africa

No wonder you activities are, reading will be always needed. It is not only to fulfil the duties that you need to finish in deadline time. Reading will encourage your mind and thoughts. Of course, reading will greatly develop your experiences about everything. Reading aging in sub saharan africa is also a way as one of the collective books that gives many advantages. The advantages are not only for you, but for the other peoples with those meaningful benefits.This paper analyses labour market behaviour of the elderly in South Africa, focusing on the Black/African population group. The analysis uses data from the 2001 census and 1996 census, the Labour Force Surveys for September 2000 and 2001, and the Income and Expenditure Survey for 2000. Findings show that participation rates fall fairly rapidly after age 45, with particularly sharp declines in both participation and work at the age of eligibility for the old-age pension. Measures of unused productive capacity demonstrate that South Africas age profile of labour force withdrawal compares favourably with some OECD countries. The hazard rate indicates that the age of pension eligibility is associated with increased rates of retirement. The paper also examines major determinants of elderly labour supply, including household structure and marital status, public and private pensions and schooling and, finally, calculates probit regressions to gain a clearer picture of the variables affecting the work activity of the elderly.

The impact of AIDS on intergenerational support in South Africa: Evidence from the Cape Area Panel Study

This study uses panel data from Cape Town to document the role played by aging parents in caring for grandchildren who lose parents due to illnesses such as AIDS. The authors quantify the probabilities that older adults and their adult children provide financial support to orphaned grandchildren. The authors find significant transfers of public and private funds to older adults caring for orphans. Perhaps because of these transfers the authors find no differences in expenditure patterns between households with orphans and other older adult households. They also find no impact of either the death of a child or taking in orphaned grandchildren on adult well-being as measured by ability to work, depression, or self-reported health. Findings suggest that the combined public and private safety net in South Africa mitigates many of the consequences older adults could suffer when an adult child dies and leaves behind grandchildren needing care.

Correlates of Vulnerability in the South African Labour Market

Using the October Household Survey of 1995 (OHS95), this paper seeks to understand the determinants of indigence in the South African labour market. To this end the study presents a description of the labour market, focusing on how covariates such as race, gender, education and location help explain the poverty observed in the labour market. A key innovation of the paper is the application of traditionally household poverty measures to individuals in the labour market. Rural labour markets also surface as a key component of poverty in the labour force. As far as possible, the analysis compared in-migrants to non-migrants and intra-Gauteng migrants in order to provide insight into special benefits or challenges that in-migrant households may present. The Labour Force Survey module on migrant labour allowed the profiling of migrant labourers and the approximation of economic links between Gauteng and other provinces as represented by remittances.