IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ldr/wpaper/86.html

Inequality Traps and Human Capital Accumulation in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Miquel Pellicer

    (SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town)

  • Vimal Ranchhod

    (SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town)

Abstract

We consider the interaction between human capital accumulation and inequality in South Africa. We start by discussing three alternative theoretical frameworks that relate inequality and investment decisions in post-secondary education; namely the 'perfect credit markets hypothesis', the 'imperfect credit markets hypothesis' and the 'social externalities hypothesis'. Each of these suggests different policy implications. We then consider which of these seems to have the most validity in the South African context, by presenting some original analysis as well as considering some of the related literature. Our findings suggest that South Africa is indeed in an 'inequality trap' situation and that credit markets do not work well. There is some evidence that social externalities compound the effects of the imperfect credit markets. We conclude with a discussion of possible policy directions. These include information on eligibility to tertiary institutes of education, awareness campaigns regarding public financing options, subsidization of application and registration fees and efforts to improve school quality at the primary and secondary levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Miquel Pellicer & Vimal Ranchhod, 2012. "Inequality Traps and Human Capital Accumulation in South Africa," SALDRU Working Papers 86, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    • Handle: RePEc:ldr:wpaper:86
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://opensaldru.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11090/177/2012_86.pdf?sequence=1
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anne Case & Angus Deaton, 1999. "School Inputs and Educational Outcomes in South Africa," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 1047-1084.
    2. Robert Garlick, 2018. "Academic Peer Effects with Different Group Assignment Policies: Residential Tracking versus Random Assignment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 345-369, July.
    3. Roland Bénabou, 1996. "Equity and Efficiency in Human Capital Investment: The Local Connection," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 63(2), pages 237-264.
    4. Bertola, Giuseppe, 2000. "Macroeconomics of distribution and growth," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 9, pages 477-540, Elsevier.
    5. Banerjee, Abhijit V & Newman, Andrew F, 1993. "Occupational Choice and the Process of Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(2), pages 274-298, April.
    6. Akerlof, George A, 1984. "Gift Exchange and Efficiency-Wage Theory: Four Views," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(2), pages 79-83, May.
    7. George A. Akerlof, 1982. "Labor Contracts as Partial Gift Exchange," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 97(4), pages 543-569.
    8. Philippe Aghion & Patrick Bolton, 1997. "A Theory of Trickle-Down Growth and Development," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(2), pages 151-172.
    9. Giuseppe Bertola & Reto Foellmi & Josef Zweimüller, 2005. "Income Distribution in Macroeconomic Models," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8058.
    10. Roland Benabou, 1993. "Workings of a City: Location, Education, and Production," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(3), pages 619-652.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lumengo Bonga-bonga & Maphelane Phume, 2018. "Assessing the relationship between total factor productivity and foreign direct investment in an economy with a skills shortage: the case of South Africa," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(3), pages 1395-1405.
    2. Kezia Lilenstein & Ingrid Woolard & Murray Leibbrandt, 2016. "In-Work Poverty in South Africa: The Impact of Income Sharing in the Presence of High Unemployment," SALDRU Working Papers 193, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    3. Finn, Arden & Leibbrandt, Murray & Oosthuizen, Morne, 2014. "Poverty, inequality, and prices in post-apartheid South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 127, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Nicola Branson & Amy Kahn, 2016. "The Post Matriculation Enrolment Decision: Do Public Colleges Provide Students with a Viable Alternative? Evidence from the First Four Waves of the National Income Dynamics Study," SALDRU Working Papers 182, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    5. Arden Finn & Murray Leibbrandt & Morné Oosthuizen, 2014. "Poverty, Inequality, and Prices in Post-Apartheid South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-127, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. TJ Friderichs & F. M. Correa, 2022. "Measuring human capital in South Africa across socioeconomic subgroups using a latent-variable approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 1161-1185, December.

    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. Piketty, Thomas, 2000. "Theories of persistent inequality and intergenerational mobility," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 8, pages 429-476, Elsevier.
    2. Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Ross Levine, 2009. "Finance and Inequality: Theory and Evidence," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 287-318, November.
    3. Josef ZweimüLler, 2000. "Inequality, Redistribution, and Economic Growth," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 1-20, March.
    4. José Wynne, 2005. "Wealth as a Determinant of Comparative Advantage," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 226-254, March.
    5. Riccarda Longaretti & Domenico Delli Gatti, 2002. "Monetary Policy and the Distribution of Wealth in a OLG Economy with Heterogeneous Agents, Money and Bequests," Working Papers 60, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2002.
    6. Daniele Checchi, 1999. "Inequality in Incomes and Access to Education. A Cross-Country Analysis (1960-90)," Working Papers 21, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised May 1999.
    7. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Levine, Ross, 2008. "Finance and economic opportunity," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4468, The World Bank.
    8. Selod, Harris & Zenou, Yves, 2001. "Location and Education in South African Cities under and after Apartheid," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 168-198, January.
    9. Reto Foellmi und Josef Zweim�ller, "undated". "Inequality and Economic Growth - European Versus U.S. Experiences," IEW - Working Papers 158, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    10. Guido Cozzi & Fabio Privileggi, 2009. "The fractal nature of inequality in a fast growing world: new version," Working Papers 2009_30, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    11. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Vassilis Tselios, 2010. "Inequalities in income and education and regional economic growth in western Europe," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 44(2), pages 349-375, April.
    12. Riccarda Longaretti & Domenico Delli Gatti, 2006. "The Non-Superneutrality of Money and its Distributional Effects when Agents are Heterogeneous and Capital Markets are Imperfect," Working Papers 95, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised May 2006.
    13. Lombardo, Vincenzo, 2008. "Poor’s behaviour and inequality traps: the role of human capital," MPRA Paper 14511, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Kiminori Matsuyama, 2008. "Aggregate Implications of Credit Market Imperfections," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2007, Volume 22, pages 1-60, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Oded Galor, 2009. "Inequality and Economic Development: An Overview," Working Papers 2009-3, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    16. Bertola, Giuseppe, 2000. "Macroeconomics of distribution and growth," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 9, pages 477-540, Elsevier.
    17. Karla Hoff & Arijit Sen, 2000. "Home Ownership, Local Interactions and Segregation," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0952, Econometric Society.
    18. Koichiro Sano & Yasunobu Tomoda, 2019. "Persistent income gaps in an occupational choice model with multi‐goods," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 1-20, March.
    19. Oded, Galor, 2011. "Inequality, Human Capital Formation, and the Process of Development," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 441-493, Elsevier.
    20. Roxana Gutierrez-Romero & Luciana Méndez Errico, 2015. "The Long-Term Impact of Inequality on Entrepreneurship and Job Creation," Working Papers wpdea1501, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ldr:wpaper:86. 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: Alison Siljeur (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sauctza.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.