Wealth and health in South Africa

Julien Albertini and Anthony Terriau

No 1911, Working Papers from Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the impact of wealth on health in South Africa using the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS). We estimate a two-stage probit model with inheritance as an instrumental variable for wealth. We find no significant effect of wealth on health at the individual level, consistent with most of the results found for developed countries. Alternative specifications to the health outcomes (self-reported health versus reported diseases) as well as the introduction of gifts as an additional instrumental variable delivers similar results. In addition, we decompose wealth into liquid and illiquid wealth. Despite the health effect being higher for liquid than for non-liquid wealth, none of these measures involve substantial or significant effects on health.

Keywords: Wealth; Health; Inheritance; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C26 D31 I14 I15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-dev
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Working Paper: Wealth and health in South Africa (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gat:wpaper:1911

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