Missing data are an increasingly important problem in economic surveys, especially when trying to measure household wealth. However, some relatively simple new survey methods such as follow-up brackets appear to appreciably improve the quality of household economic data. Brackets represent partial responses to asset questions and apparently significantly reduce item nonresponse. Brackets also provide a remedy to deal with nonignorable nonresponse bias, a critical problem with economic survey data.

Improving the Quality of Economic Data: Lessons from the HRS and AHEAD

Arden Finn: fnnard001@myuct.ac.za, Doctoral student and researcher at the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
Murray Leibbrandt: murray.leibbrandt@uct.ac.za, Professor of economics and director of SALDRU at the University of Cape Town.
Vimal Ranchhod: vimal.ranchhod@uct.ac.za, Associate professor in SALDRU at the University of Cape Town.
Acknowledgements:
All authors acknowledge financial support from the Programme to Support Pro-poor Policy Development
in the Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation. Arden Finn acknowledges the National
Research Foundation for financial support for his doctoral work through the Chair in Poverty and
Inequality Research. Murray Leibbrandt acknowledges the Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of
Science and Technology and National Research Foundation for funding his work as the Chair in Poverty
and Inequality Research. Vimal Ranchhod acknowledges support from the Research Chairs Initiative of the
Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation.

Patterns of persistence: Intergenerational mobility and education in South Africa (updated, version 3)

Abstract The international literature shows that demand for redistribution is influenced by subjective factors like perceptions of inequality and individuals’ perceived social status. However, few have assessed these subjective dynamics in the developing South, especially in Africa. This study aims to assess the subjective interlinkages between subjective social status, inequality perceptions and demand for redistribution in South Africa, the country with the highest level of inequality in the world. Using ISSP data and an ordered probit model, we show that subjective social status is a negative and significant determinant of demand for redistribution in South Africa. This means that South Africans who position themselves on the lower rungs of society demand higher redistribution and vice versa. Furthermore, perceptions of inequality are significant in driving demand for redistribution in South Africa, as this study finds that inequality tolerance negatively influences demand for redistribution and perceptions of actual inequality positively influence demand for redistribution. This means that South Africans who perceive higher levels of inequality tend to demand more redistribution, while South Africans who tolerate more inequality tend to demand less redistribution. Surprisingly, inequality tolerance is relatively high among the unemployed, Africans, and females. Many of these individuals are part of the most vulnerable in society and would actually benefit from more redistribution. Overall, the results show that, in South Africa, subjective factors like subjective social status and attitudes towards inequality significantly influence demand for redistribution.

The impact of subjective social status, inequality perceptions, and inequality tolerance on demand for redistribution. The case of a highly unequal society

This paper aims at providing new evidence over the effect of conventional monetary policy shocks on wage inequality through the earnings heterogeneity channel under the inflation-targeting regime implemented in South Africa since 2000. The empirical contribution follows previous studies by implementing a multivariate time-series analysis and identifying the structural shocks in a vector error correction model. Impulse response functions show that the overall wage distribution worsens immediately after a positive shock to the prime rate.

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Wage inequality under inflation-targeting in South Africa

Poverty, inequality, and unemployment are on the rise in South Africa. The focus of this study is on school-age children in poverty. Education is a critical policy imperative for the country. Model-based small area estimation was conducted to estimate the different poverty measures for lower and upper bound poverty levels. The primary data sources are the Income and Expenditure Survey 2010/2011 and the 2011 national population census. The model diagnostics and the validation of the estimates showed that the model-based estimates at the local municipality level are more reliable than the direct estimates. There are significant variations in poverty across the local municipalities of South Africa; therefore, spatially targeted poverty alleviation programmes are more beneficial.

A model-based estimation and mapping of school-age children living in poverty in the local areas of South Africa

This paper investigates the validity of household survey data published by Statistics South Africa since 1993 and later integrated into the Post-Apartheid Labour Market Series (PALMS). A series of statistical adjustments are proposed, compared, and applied to primary data with the purpose of generating time-comparable, unbiased estimates, and accurate standard errors of labour earnings inequality coefficients.

/pdf/measuring-labour-earnings-inequality-in-post-apartheid-south-zb0dmfaal9.pdf

Measuring labour earnings inequality in post-apartheid South Africa

The aim of this paper is to assess South Africa's fiscal multiplier across different states of the economy, with a focus on the financial accelerator mechanism of fiscal policy shocks, by estimating impulse response functions from both linear and non-linear local projections. The model finds evidence of strong business cycle effects such that, while the average multiplier is below 0.5, it reaches 1.2 during recessions and that, while credit volume diminishes during periods of positive output gap, it expands otherwise.

/pdf/state-dependent-fiscal-multipliers-and-financial-dynamics-an-2jidr8kecq.pdf

Serena Merrino

Papers

Measuring labour earnings inequality in post-apartheid South Africa

State-dependent fiscal multipliers and financial dynamics: An impulse response analysis by local projections for South Africa

Monetary policy and wage inequality in South Africa

Wage inequality under inflation-targeting in South Africa