IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/wisagr/12621.html

Poverty and Inequality in the First Decade of South Africa's Democracy: What Can be Learned from Panel Data?

Author

Listed:
  • Aguero, Jorge M.
  • Carter, Michael R.
  • May, Julian

Abstract

Using a longitudinal survey of South African households over the 1993-2004 period, this paper evaluates changes in income distribution since the end of apartheid. Inequality amongst these households has markedly increased this period as initially better off households consistently improved their economic well-being. Sharp increases in measured poverty over the first half of this period were partially reversed by later improvements for some poor households. Comparisons between actual and "market-generated" income distributions suggest that these improvements were driven in part by government transfer programs. Nonetheless, the chronically poor remain a significant fraction of the total poor, and 60% of those households that were poor in 1993 are still poor in 2004. Analysis of the next generation (that is the now grown children of the original survey households) shows a similar pattern of bifurcation, with one group moving ahead rapidly, and another mired at low living levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Aguero, Jorge M. & Carter, Michael R. & May, Julian, 2006. "Poverty and Inequality in the First Decade of South Africa's Democracy: What Can be Learned from Panel Data?," Staff Papers 12621, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:wisagr:12621
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.12621
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/12621/files/stpap493.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.12621?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charles Meth, 2006. "What was the poverty headcount in 2004 and how does it compare to recent estimates by van der Berg et al?," SALDRU Working Papers 1, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    2. Michelle Adato & Michael Carter & Julian May, 2006. "Exploring poverty traps and social exclusion in South Africa using qualitative and quantitative data," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 226-247.
    3. Servaas van der Berg & Ronelle Burger & Rulof Burger & Megan Louw & Derek Yu, 2005. "Trends in poverty and inequality since the political transition," Working Papers 01/2005, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    4. Mary Jo Bane & David T. Ellwood, 1986. "Slipping into and out of Poverty: The Dynamics of Spells," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 21(1), pages 1-23.
    5. Julian May & Michael Carter & Lawrence Haddad & John Maluccio, 2000. "KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS) 1993-98: A longitudinal household database for South African policy analysis," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 567-581.
    6. Servaas Van Der Berg & Megan Louw, 2004. "Changing Patterns Of South African Income Distribution: Towards Time Series Estimates Of Distribution And Poverty1," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 72(3), pages 546-572, September.
    7. repec:rza:wpaper:13 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Julian May & Jorge Aguero & Michael Carter & Ian Timæus, 2007. "The KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS) third wave: methods, first findings and an agenda for future research," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 629-648.
    9. Charles Meth & Rosa Dias, 2004. "Increases in poverty in South Africa, 1999-2002," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 59-85.
    10. Michael Carter & Christopher Barrett, 2006. "The economics of poverty traps and persistent poverty: An asset-based approach," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 178-199.
    11. Carter, Michael R. & May, Julian, 1999. "Poverty, livelihood and class in rural South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-20, January.
    12. Carter, Michael R. & May, Julian, 2001. "One Kind of Freedom: Poverty Dynamics in Post-apartheid South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 1987-2006, December.
    13. Servaas van der Berg & Megan Louw, 2003. "Changing Patterns of South African income distribution: Towards time series estimates of distribution and poverty," Working Papers 02/2003, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anderson, Bret, 2012. "Converting Asset Holdings into Livelihood: An Empirical Study on the Role of Household Agency in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1394-1406.
    2. Radeny, Maren & van den Berg, Marrit & Schipper, Rob, 2012. "Rural Poverty Dynamics in Kenya: Structural Declines and Stochastic Escapes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1577-1593.
    3. Simone Schotte, 2019. "Structural poverty dynamics in urban South Africa: A mixed-methods investigation," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-100, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Mats Lundahl & Lennart Petersson, 2009. "Post-Apartheid South Africa: An Economic Success Story?," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2009-56, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Oliver Schulte & Julian Mumber & Trung Thanh Nguyen, 2023. "Agricultural commercialization and asset growth for poverty reduction: Evidence from panel data for rural Vietnam," TVSEP Working Papers wp-032, Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade, Project TVSEP.
    6. Schulte, Oliver & Mumber, Julian & Nguyen, Trung Thanh, 2023. "Agricultural commercialisation, asset growth and poverty in rural Vietnam," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 67(03), April.
    7. Swati Dutta, 2015. "Identifying Single or Multiple Poverty Trap: An Application to Indian Household Panel Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 157-179, January.
    8. Liverpool, Lenis Saweda O. & Winter-Nelson, Alex, 2010. "Asset versus consumption poverty and poverty dynamics in the presence of multiple equilibria in rural Ethiopia," IFPRI discussion papers 971, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    9. Swati Dutta & Lakshmi Kumar, 2016. "Is Poverty Stochastic or Structural in Nature? Evidence from Rural India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 957-979, September.
    10. Dylan Fitz & Shyam Gouri Suresh, 2021. "Poverty traps across levels of aggregation," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 16(4), pages 909-953, October.
    11. Swati Dutta, 2021. "Structural and stochastic transitions of poverty using household panel data in India," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 8-31, March.
    12. Geyer, Herman, 2016. "Poverty Traps in South African Agriculture," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 55(4), December.
    13. Janz, Teresa & Augsburg, Britta & Gassmann, Franziska & Nimeh, Zina, 2023. "Leaving no one behind: Urban poverty traps in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    14. Naschold, Felix, 2012. "“The Poor Stay Poor”: Household Asset Poverty Traps in Rural Semi-Arid India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 2033-2043.
    15. Wilkinson, Kate, 2009. "Adapting EUROMOD for use in a developing country – the case of South Africa and SAMOD," EUROMOD Working Papers EM5/09, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    16. Agnes R. Quisumbing & Neha Kumar & Julia A. Behrman, 2018. "Do shocks affect men's and women's assets differently? Evidence from Bangladesh and Uganda," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(1), pages 3-34, January.
    17. Sommarat Chantarat & Christopher Barrett, 2012. "Social network capital, economic mobility and poverty traps," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(3), pages 299-342, September.
    18. Sophie Mitra, 2008. "The Recent Decline In The Employment Of Persons With Disabilities In South Africa, 1998‐2006," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 76(3), pages 480-492, September.
    19. Giesbert, Lena & Schindler, Kati, 2012. "Assets, Shocks, and Poverty Traps in Rural Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1594-1609.
    20. Bapu Vaitla & Jennifer Denno Cissé & Joanna Upton & Girmay Tesfay & Nigussie Abadi & Daniel Maxwell, 2020. "How the choice of food security indicators affects the assessment of resilience—an example from northern Ethiopia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(1), pages 137-150, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:wisagr:12621. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dauwius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.