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The Effect of Household Characteristics on Living Standards in South Africa 1993 - 98: A Quantile Regression Analysis with Sample Attrition

Author Info

  • Farshid Vahid

    ()

  • Pushkar Maitra

    ()

Abstract

This paper examines whether the dismantling of apartheid has resulted in the improvement in the standard of living for the vast majority of South Africans. The study is based on a panel data set from the Kwazulu-Natal province. Despite the best efforts of the interview team, the attrition rate in this panel is around 16%. We find that household income and size in 1993, several community characteristics and survey quality in 1993 significantly affect the probability of attrition. We use weighted quantile regressions to examine the distribution of standards of living, which corrects for the potential bias arising from non-random sample attrition. Our results show that there has been a significant increase in the spread of the distribution of household expenditure of the Non-White households residing in Kwazulu-Natal province. We argue that the stretch to the right of the upper tail of distribution can be attributed to significant increase in returns to primary and high school education, while movement to the left of the lower quantiles can be associated with the increase in the proportion of female headed households and household size.

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File URL: http://cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/econ/wp452.pdf
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Paper provided by Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics in its series ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics with number 2005-452.

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Length: 39 pages
Date of creation: May 2005
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:acb:cbeeco:2005-452
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Find related papers by JEL classification:

  • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
  • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
  • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
  • C24 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Truncated and Censored Models; Switching Regression Models; Threshold Regression Models

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  1. Alderman, Harold & Watkins, Susan Cotts & Kohler, Hans-Peter & Maluccio, John A. & Behrman, Jere R., 2000. "Attrition in longitudinal household survey data," FCND briefs 96, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
  2. Mwabu, Germano & Schultz, T Paul, 2000. "Wage Premiums for Education and Location of South African Workers, by Gender and Race," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 307-34, January.
  3. Duncan Thomas & Elizabeth Frankenberg & James P. Smith, 2000. "Lost But Not Forgotten: Attrition and Follow-up in the Indonesian Family Life Survey," Working Papers 00-03, RAND Corporation Publications Department.
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  8. MICHAEL R. CARTER & Julian May, 1997. "Poverty, Livelihood and Class in Rural South Africa," Wisconsin-Madison Agricultural and Applied Economics Staff Papers 408, Wisconsin-Madison Agricultural and Applied Economics Department.
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  11. O'Connell, Philip J. & Russell, Helen & FitzGerald, John, 2006. "Human Resources," Book Chapters, in: Morgenroth, Edgar (ed.), Ex-Ante Evaluation of the Investment Priorities for the National Development Plan 2007-2013 Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
  12. Klasen, Stephan, 2000. "Measuring Poverty and Deprivation in South Africa," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 46(1), pages 33-58, March.
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  14. Mwabu, Germano & Schultz, T Paul, 1996. "Education Returns across Quantiles of the Wage Function: Alternative Explanations for Returns to Education by Race in South Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 335-39, May.
  15. Deolalikar, A.B. & Evenson, R.E., 1988. "Technology Production And Technology Purchase In Indian Industry: An Econometric Analysis," Papers 556, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
  16. Moshe Buchinsky, 1998. "Recent Advances in Quantile Regression Models: A Practical Guideline for Empirical Research," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(1), pages 88-126.
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Cited by:

  1. Essama-Nssah, B. & Bassole, Leandre, 2010. "A counterfactual analysis of the poverty impact of economic growth in Cameroon," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5249, The World Bank.
  2. Martine Mariotti & Juergen Meinecke, 2009. "Nonparametric Bounds on Returns to Education in South Africa: Overcoming Ability and Selection Bias," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2009-510, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.

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