Quantifying the Economic Divide in South African Agriculture: An Income-Side Analysis

The dualistic nature of the South African economy manifests itself to a large extent in the agricultural sector, where ownership and access to land was previously reserved and is still mainly controlled today by white farmers. As a result black farmers were prevented from sharing in the profits derived from a thriving agricultural sector, contributing to the large disparities between the income levels of white and black agricultural households. In this paper the inequality in the distribution of income between the black and white agricultural populations is quantified using various decomposition and data exploratory techniques. Analyses of data from the Income and Expenditure Survey of 2000 and the Labour Force Survey of September 2000 (Statistics South Africa) suggest that not only are inequalities within agriculture higher and more pronounced along racial lines than inequalities within non-agriculture, but these inequalities can be explained to a large extent by differences in the ownership of income-generating assets such as land and productive capital. However, given the high poverty rates and meagre incomes among black subsistence and small-scale farmer households, much needs to be done in order to increase returns to non-commercial agriculture before it will become a solution to poverty reduction.Consumer/Household Economics,

Measures of Poverty and Inequality: A Reference Paper

This paper discusses various measures of poverty and inequality found in the literature. Inequality measures discussed include the range, the variance, the coefficient of variation, the standard deviation of logarithms, the Gini coefficient, Theil's Entropy measure and Atkinson's inequality measure. Of these the mean log deviation, the Theil index and the coefficient of variation have come to be known as the Generalised Entropy class of inequality measures. As far as poverty indicators are concerned the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke measures, a class of generalised decomposable poverty measures, have become very popular in the literature. The paper also discusses some Stata do-files that were written in order to calculate poverty and inequality measures, with application to the Income and Expenditure Survey data of 1995.Food Security and Poverty,

A Profile of the Western Cape Province: Demographics, Poverty, Inequality and Unemployment

This paper forms part of a series of papers that present profiles of South Africa's provinces, with a specific focus on key demographic statistics, poverty and inequality estimates, and estimates of unemployment. In this volume comparative statistics are presented for agricultural and non-agricultural households, as well as households from different racial groups, locations (metropolitan, urban and rural areas) and district municipalities of the Western Cape. Most of the data presented are drawn from the Income and Expenditure Survey of 2000 and the Labour Force Survey of September 2000, while some comparative populations statistics are extracted from the National Census of 2001 (Statistics South Africa). The papers should be regarded as general guidelines to (agricultural) policymakers as to the current socio-economic situation in the Western Cape, particularly with regards to poverty, inequality and unemployment.Food Security and Poverty, Labor and Human Capital,

A Profile of the Eastern Cape Province: Demographics, Poverty, Inequality and Unemployment

This paper forms part of a series of papers that present profiles of South Africa's provinces, with a specific focus on key demographic statistics, poverty and inequality estimates, and estimates of unemployment. In this volume comparative statistics are presented for agricultural and non-agricultural households, as well as households from different racial groups, locations (metropolitan, urban and rural areas) and district municipalities of the Eastern Cape. Most of the data presented are drawn from the Income and Expenditure Survey of 2000 and the Labour Force Survey of September 2000, while some comparative populations statistics are extracted from the National Census of 2001 (Statistics South Africa). The papers should be regarded as general guidelines to (agricultural) policymakers as to the current socio-economic situation in the Eastern Cape, particularly with regards to poverty, inequality and unemployment.Food Security and Poverty, Labor and Human Capital,

A Profile of the Free State Province: Demographics, Poverty, Inequality and Unemployment

This paper forms part of a series of papers that present profiles of South Africa's provinces, with a specific focus on key demographic statistics, poverty and inequality estimates, and estimates of unemployment. In this volume comparative statistics are presented for agricultural and non-agricultural households, as well as households from different racial groups, locations (metropolitan, urban and rural areas) and district municipalities of the Free State. Most of the data presented are drawn from the Income and Expenditure Survey of 2000 and the Labour Force Survey of September 2000, while some comparative populations statistics are extracted from the National Census of 2001 (Statistics South Africa). The papers should be regarded as general guidelines to (agricultural) policymakers as to the current socio-economic situation in the Free State, particularly with regard to poverty, inequality and unemployment.Food Security and Poverty, Labor and Human Capital,