An Inter-Generational Effect of Socio-Economic Status on Education Attainment in South Africa

Higher socio-economic status (SES) empowers an individual to have more access to a variety of materials relevant to achievements in life than would otherwise be possible. In theory, a child’s educational attainment can be influenced by hereditary and ecological variables; parents’ achievements are prompting children to achieve, or a deliberate investment that parents undertake in their children’s welfare, all suggestive of inter-generational effect in the process. A parent’s SES may therefore play a significant role in the child’s achievements. This paper attempts to determine the relationship between a parent’s SES and a child’s educational attainment and uses South African data collected at the national level. Employing descriptive statistics and OLS regressions, an inter-generational effect of parental SES positively influencing a child’s educational attainment is established. The finding supports policies promoting education as a fundamental poverty and inequality fighting mechanism in South Africa.&nbsp

Incentivising the Social Discounting Task: A laboratory experiment

Altruism is one of the single most important social preferences driving human behaviour. In Psychology experiments, the Social Discounting Task is employed as a measure of altruism. A conventional laboratory experiment was conducted with 117 undergraduate students, with students randomly assigned to complete an incentivized and un-incentivized Social Discounting Task. In accordance with the 1/d law of giving, the results exhibit the expected inverse relationship between social distance and altruism. There is weak evidence that incentivizing the Social Discounting Task impacts the measurement of altruism in a student population. More specifically, subjects are more altruistic when incentivized, possibly due to enforced reciprocity. At the same time, making payments real influence the identity of the target recipients: paying makes subjects more likely to choose people who are physically and psychologically close at high ranks, and more likely to report greater physical and psychological distance to subjects at lower ranks. Further research is required to verify the robustness of this result. The study also shows that among students family members are more altruistic toward each other as are those exhibiting greater intergenerational solidarity. Preferences for altruism in this student population is no different from WEIRD subject populations.JEL Classification Codes: C91, D64http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/munro_alistair

The funding and accumulation of rights in the social security schemes and the extent to which poverty issue has been addressed : a case study of Zimbabwe

The issue of social security systems in Zimbabwe is not new as these schemes are part of the strategies used to fight poverty and destitution. It is however, of importance, considering the differences in conceptualization of the social security that arise largely from differences in traditions, experiences and levels of development. As is always the case, that the less developed countries tend to imitate the protection strategies from the developed countries, Zimbabwe has been no exception as we see it introducing the so called National Social Security Authority (NSSA) in 1994 as an additional scheme to already existed and scattered informal social security schemes. This is a public institution, a government initiative that culminated in the introduction of social protection to the workers and their families in Zimbabwe. The schemes which were in existence before the introduction of NSSA were based on government support through its own sources of funds and through the international help. Some, which are termed the informal schemes, were based on the funds that were just mobilized by the community members. These were meant to address the immediate needs of life and as a form of relief. Thus NSSA was introduced to provide protection to employees and their dependents for various contingencies such as retirement, invalidity, death of the bread winner and injury at work. The authority was thought to provide first line of defence against poverty and destitution. As stated, NSSA was meant to serve the formal workforce group of population and it is crucial to highlight that the other excluded groups put concern on the informal schemes that operate at local level, mostly unregistered. These schemes tend to dominate within the informal and rural sector and include savings clubs, Rotatory saving and credit associations (ROSCAs) and burial societies. This study shall assess the coverage of the existing schemes, whether formal or informal; their sustainability in finance; management and administration and the sort of objectives that they aim to achieve. The study shall as well assess the impact of NSSA initiation and other schemes on poverty and destitution in Zimbabwe. It will show the effectiveness of the initiation taking into good use, the three economic sectors that co-exist in most less developed countries (LDCs): the modern sector, informal sector and the rural sector. Issues to be highlighted are the employment capabilities of each sector, levels of income of individuals in these groups, growth potentials, and vulnerability of each sector to social and economic problems. It is an attempt to answer the question about whether there is sufficient funding of the existing social security schemes. If so, how then do individuals accumulate the rights that assure them of protection? The study shall employ the Welfare Policy Model that in theory assesses the political support of social security schemes that are adopted by the political parties in an attempt to win the votes. In this study, the model is applied to the schemes that are financed by the government and those that are provided by the NSSA as a corporate body. Focus is on how these schemes are supported by the members and the extent to which they address the poverty problems. Individuals are more concerned about the schemes if the schemes do address their real problems and Zimbabwe is such a country whose population is desperate and in need of security. In an attempt to assess if the existing social security schemes are aiming at or are missing the target, poverty prevalence in Zimbabwe is outlined. This captures measures such as income poverty, lack of education and health as well as the case of being vulnerable and lacking the kind of protection from risks. It is shown as varying by land use, age, marital status, occupation and location. Thus it shall be shown that different schemes are dominating in different groups of people and they vary too across the country. A brief overview of how similar social security schemes seem to work in some other countries especially the developed countries and the challenges they face was included in this paper. So the issue of wealth and welfare states shall be worth discussing in trying to establish the possibility of having viable schemes in poor countries like Zimbabwe. The paper aims to give information relating to where the incumbent programs shall lead us to and what is done to face the challenges associated with Zimbabwe social security schemes

The Role of Betting on Digital Credit Repayment, Coping Mechanisms and Welfare Outcomes: Evidence from Kenya

Digital financial services and more importantly, mobile money, have become an important financial innovation to advance financial inclusion in developing and emerging economies. While digital financial services have improved the lives of many Kenyans, to the growing betting segment of the Kenyan population, these innovations have also brought great convenience to betting. The innovations have allowed easy access to digital credit which can be used for betting. Despite betting or gambling being a widely studied area, particularly in developed countries, little is known about its interaction with financial innovations such as digital financial services in developing and emerging economies. Using data from a 2017 digital credit survey in Kenya, this study investigates if bettors are more likely than non-bettors to be financially distressed or engage in welfare-undermining coping strategies and potentially experience inferior welfare outcomes. The study uses a representative sample of 1040 digital borrowers, of which 304 were digital bettors. Using multivariate logistic regressions, the study found that, after controlling for socio-economic and demographic factors, bettors are significantly more likely than non-bettors to be financially distressed, engage in welfare undermining coping strategies, and have inferior welfare outcomes

Subject’s relationship to recipient.

<p>Subject’s relationship to recipient.</p

Crossover value (Rand), by relatedness.

<p>Crossover value (Rand), by relatedness.</p

Crossover value (Rand), by relationship.

<p>Crossover value (Rand), by relationship.</p

Altruism between kin and others.

<p>Altruism between kin and others.</p

Social discounting task–person #1.

<p>Social discounting task–person #1.</p

Altruism between family, kin, partners and friends.

<p>Altruism between family, kin, partners and friends.</p