Race, Poverty, and Deprivation in South Africa

Carlos Gradín ()

No 1107, Working Papers from Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explain why poverty and material deprivation in South Africa are significantly higher among those of African descent than among whites. To do so, we estimate the conditional levels of poverty and deprivation Africans would experience had they the same characteristics as whites. By comparing the actual and counterfactual distributions, we show that the racial gap in poverty and deprivation can be attributed to the cumulative disadvantaged characteristics of Africans, such as their current level of educational attainment, demographic structure, and area of residence, as well as to the inertia of past racial inequalities. Progress made in the educational and labor market outcomes of Africans after Apartheid explains the reduction in the racial poverty differential.

Keywords: poverty; deprivation; race; decomposition; South Africa; households’ characteristics. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 I32 J15 J71 J82 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2011-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://webx06.webs8.uvigo.es/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/wp1107.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Race, Poverty and Deprivation in South Africa (2013)
Working Paper: Race, poverty, and deprivation in South Africa (2011)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vig:wpaper:1107

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Departamento de Economía Aplicada ().