Who replies in brackets and what are the implications for earnings estimates? An analysis of earnings data from South Africa

In household surveys, earnings data typically can be reported as point values, in brackets or as 'missing'. In this paper we consider South African household survey data that contain these three sets of responses. In particular, we examine whether there are systematic differences between the sample of the employed with earnings reported as point values and those with earnings responses in brackets; we compare five different methods of reconciling bracket and point responses so as to generate descriptive measures of earnings; and we investigate empirically how earnings measures differ by approach.

Sex ratios and racial differences in marriage rates in South Africa

In South Africa, marriage rates among white women aged 20 to 34 are at least twice as high as marriage rates among African women in the same age cohort. This paper compares the relationship between alternative definitions of sex ratios and marriage outcomes among African and white women using matched data from the 2001 Population Census and the South African Labour Force Surveys. We show that among both white and African women, simple sex ratios, which capture the quantity of unmarried men relative to women in local marriage markets, are significant predictors of marriage. However, among African women, economic-based measures of "marriageability", which take into account the quality of available men, perform even better in predicting marriage. Our findings are consistent with the argument that the payment of bridewealth (or ilobolo) by a husband to the prospective wife’s family acts as a financial constraint to marriage among African couples, raising the "marriageability" criteria of men.

Relative standing and subjective well-being in South Africa: The role of perceptions, expectations and income mobility

Most studies that explore the impact of relative standing on subjective well-being use objective measures of the individual’s relative position, such as the mean income of the reference group or the individual’s ranking in the relevant income distribution. In this paper, using a new household survey from South Africa, we are able to derive subjective measures of relative standing, as information is collected on individuals’ perceptions of where they rank in the income distribution. We find considerable differences between objective and subjective measures of an individual’s relative ranking. Furthermore, our results suggest that an individual’s perceived relative status has a significantly larger effect on subjective well-being than objective measures of relative status based on reported income. We also examine the effects on subjective well-being of how individuals perceive their relative position in the income distribution to have changed since childhood, and what they expect their relative position to be in the future. We find that future upward mobility has a smaller effect than upward mobility compared to one’s past, suggesting that life satisfaction is influenced more by what has been achieved than by anticipated achievements.subjective well-being, relative standing, perceptions, expectations, income mobility, South Africa

English Language Proficiency and Earnings in a Developing Country: The Case of South Africa

In this paper we explore the relationship between English language proficiency and earnings in South Africa, using new data from the first wave of the National Income Dynamics panel survey of 2008. Much of the literature on this topic has studied the impact on earnings of host country language acquisition among minority groups of immigrants to developed countries. In our study we analyse the returns to language skills in a developing country context where the dominant language of business, government and education is that of the former colony, although not more than one percent of the African majority population group speaks English as their home language. Our findings suggest large returns among Africans to reading and writing English very well, and particularly among those who have a tertiary education. We also briefly consider the implications of these results for language and education policy in South Africa in the post-apartheid period.language proficiency, earnings, South Africa, language policy

Unions and the Gender Wage Gap in South Africa

Studies of the wage effects of unions in South Africa have been concerned largely with the impact of union membership on the wages of African and White male workers. Consistent with findings in the international literature, these studies have concluded that unions compress the distribution of wages in South Africa, and more specifically, that racial inequality is lower in the union sector than in the non-union sector. In this paper, we explore whether unions in South Africa are associated with comparable gender wage effects among African workers, using data collected in the nationally representative Labour Force Surveys. In contrast to international studies, we find that the gender wage gap is larger in the union sector than in the non-union sector, in part reflecting the nature of occupational segregation by gender in union employment. We also consider how possible selection into union status affects our estimates, and demonstrate the difficulty of addressing this problem in the South African context by evaluating a variety of selection models.

A reconsideration of what and who is middle class in South Africa

In this paper, we revisit 'what and who' is middle class in South Africa using data collected in the 2008 National Income Dynamics Study. First we consider how to identify the middle class based on two broad definitions adopted in the international literature: a middle class defined by the middle share of the national income distribution; and a middle class defined by an absolute level of affluence and lifestyle. We explore alternative ways of capturing the ‘middle strata’ of the national income distribution; and we suggest an approach for identifying threshold levels of income associated with middle-class affluence. Second, we show that both the size and the composition of the middle class in South Africa are very sensitive to how the middle class is defined. In particular, we demonstrate that there is very little overlap between the two broad definitions, a finding which reflects very high levels of poverty and inequality in the country. Lastly, both definitions of the middle class are shown to be robust to two common issues of measurement, namely the inclusion of implied rental income, and the use of expenditure as opposed to income as the basis for measuring class status.middle class; income strata; middle-class affluence; income distribution

Is there evidence of a wage penalty to female part-time employment in South Africa?

In this paper, we investigate female part-time employment in South Africa. Using household survey data for South Africa from 1995 to 2004, we show that women are over-represented in part-time employment, and that the growth in part-time work has been an important feature of the feminisation of the labour force. In contrast to many studies of part-time work in other countries, however, we find evidence of a significant wage premium to female part-time employment. The premium is robust also to fixed effects estimations using Labour Force Survey panel data from 2001 to 2004, where controlling for unobservable differences increases its size. The premium persists with different hourly thresholds defining part-time employment and when we account for possible reporting errors in hours worked.

Gendered Trends in Poverty in the Post-Apartheid Period, 1997 - 2006

This study investigates whether trends in the extent, depth and severity of poverty in South Africa over the past decade have been gendered. We examine first whether females are more likely to live in poor households than males, and whether this has changed over time; and, second, how poverty has changed among female-headed and male-headed households. We use data provided by the 1997 and 1999 rounds of the October Household Survey and the 2004 and 2006 rounds of the General Household Survey. These surveys have the advantage of collecting information on the individual receipt of social grant income. We test whether our findings on gendered trends in poverty are robust to different poverty lines, to the possible underestimation of household income and to adjustments for household composition.

The TRC Report: what kind of history? what kind of truth?

Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: The TRC; Commissioning the Past, 11-14 June, 199

The construction of apartheid, 1948-1961

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented August 1988What was distinctive about Apartheid in the 1950s,as compared with the 1960s? How was it constructed, and how did it change? Much of the academic and journalistic literature on Apartheid pre-'reform' depicts it as the product of a single, long-term 'grand plan', pursued systematically and unfalteringly by the National Party (NP) since its accession to power in 1948. Such views are challenged in this paper, which argues that although the Apartheid state has certainly been characterised by a singular degree of co-ordination, planning and coercion, the construction of Apartheid has not been a wholly linear, systematic or monolithic project. The state's uncertainties, conflicts, weaknesses, changes and failures, although far less visible than its cohesiveness and triumphs, have also made their mark on the construction of Apartheid. Moreover, some (but obviously not all) of the premises and objectives of Apartheid changed in fundamental ways at the onset of the 1960s. (The presentation of these arguments is very brief and schematic, being a summary of large chunks of my doctoral thesis.