Theoretical models show that financial inclusion reduces wealth inequality. Existing empirical models are restricted to estimates using income inequality because of a lack of cross country wealth ...inequality data. We used 2010-11 and 2014-5 waves of the National Income Dynamics Study combined with South African tax records to estimate wealth and income inequality. Using Re-centered Influence Function regressions on the micro-level records, we confirmed the negative cross-country relationship between financial inclusion and income inequality. Wealth inequality is different. Financial inclusion improved wealth shares of only the middle class. Because of predatory lending, expansion of credit reduced the wealth share of the poor. Improved savings by the middle class, providing better oversight over financial services targeted at the poor and removing impediments to the small business sector are pre-conditions for financial inclusion to reduce wealth inequality.
•Wealth inequality and financial inclusion are studied for the first time.•Analysis of income inequality using micro tax and survey data supports macro results.•Financial inclusion improves the wealth share of only the middle class.•Without oversight, access to credit reduces wealth shares of the poor.•Financial inclusion can raise wealth at the bottom if impediments are removed.
This paper is the first to provide estimates of how minimum wages affect worker flows and employment growth rates in an employment scarce developing country context. We investigate the effects of a ...large, exogenous increase in agricultural minimum wages in South Africa. We find that changes occurred primarily among non‐seasonal workers. Non‐seasonal agricultural employment growth decreased in the initial periods after the minimum wage hike. This was mainly driven by slower rates of entry. The effect on the rate of entry decreases over time. While farms also responded by shedding non‐seasonal workers at higher rates, this negative effect was limited to 1 year directly after the minimum wage hike. Employment growth recovers 4 years after the policy shock, indicating that firms adjusted relatively quickly despite the large legislated minimum wage increase. Seasonal employment growth and rates of entry and exit of seasonal workers were for the most part unaffected. Descriptive statistics, however, suggest a slight compositional change among seasonal workers: Farms replaced the worst paid seasonal workers with other low‐income workers who were slightly better paid and presumably more productive.
•South Africa’s population persistence yet wealth reversal suggests the two are not mutually exclusive.•South Africa’s colonial and post-colonial history shows that climate or institutional shocks ...can cause suboptimal equilibria to persist.•South Africa did not experience an institutional reversal that could explain its reversal of fortunes.•In South Africa’s new democracy migration may mitigate the effects of institutional divergence.
Does wealth persist over time, despite the disruptions of historical shocks like colonisation? This paper shows that South Africa experienced a reversal of fortunes after the arrival of European settlers in the eastern half of the country. Yet this was not because of an institutional reversal. We argue, instead, that black South Africans found themselves at the mercy of two extractive regimes: one in ‘white South Africa’ and another in the ‘homelands’. The political and economic institutions of each of those regimes favoured a small elite: in white South Africa, whites, and in the homelands, the black chiefs and headmen. Democracy brought inclusive institutions for black residents in white South Africa but not for those in the former homelands. This is why we see mass migration to the urban areas of South Africa today, and why addressing the institutional weaknesses of the former homelands are key to alleviating the poverty in these regions where a third of South Africans still reside.
The institutional literature emphasizes local conditions in explaining divergent colonial development. We posit that this view can be enriched by an important supply-side cause: the skills with which ...the settlers arrive. The Huguenots who arrived at the Cape Colony in 1688/9, we argue, possessed skills different from those of the incumbent farmers, and this enabled them to become more productive wine-makers. We demonstrate this by showing that this difference is explained by none of the standard factors of production, nor by any institutional differences between the French and the Dutch. We observe that a group of Huguenot descendants from wine-producing regions maintained their advantage in wine-making at the Cape over several generations. This disparity cannot be satisfactorily explained as resulting from first-mover advantage or social capital. Specialized skills gave the Huguenots from wine-producing regions a sustained competitive advantage. Our results show that colonial institutions are shaped not only by whether immigrants settle or not, which legal system they adopt, or their language, religion, or beliefs, but by the set of skills, knowledge, and experience brought from their country of origin. As such, cross-country comparisons may blur much of the detail when we analyse the effect that settlers have on the destination country.
Unlike household surveys, client exit interviews are conducted immediately after a consultation and therefore provides an opportunity to capture routine performance and level of service quality. This ...study examines the validity and reliability of women's reports on selected ANC interventions in exit interviews conducted in Malawi.
Using data from the 2013-2014 Malawi service provision facility census, we compared women's reports in exit interviews regarding the contents of ANC received with reports obtained through direct observation by a trained healthcare professional. The validity of six indicators was tested using two measures: the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), and the inflation factor (IF). Reliability of women's reports was measured using the Kappa coefficient (κ) and the prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK). Finally, we examined whether reporting reliability varied significantly by individual and facility characteristics.
Of the six indicators, two concrete and observable measures had high reporting accuracy and met the validity criteria for both AUC ≥ 0.7 and 0.75>IF>1.25, namely whether the provider prescribed or gave malaria prophylaxis (AUC: 0.84, 95% CI: 0.83-0.86; IF: 0.96) or iron/folic tablets (AUC: (0.84 95% CI: 0.81-0.87; IF:1.00). Whereas four measures related to counselling had lower reporting accuracy: whether the provider offered counselling about nutrition in pregnancy (AUC: 0.69, 95%CI: 0.67-0.71; IF = 1.26), delivery preparation (AUC: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.60-065; IF = 0.99), pregnancy related complications (AUC: 0.59, 95%CI: 0.56-0.61; IF = 1.11), and iron/folic acid side effects (AUC:0.58, 95% CI: 0.55-0.60; IF = 1.42). Similarly, the observable measures had high reliability with both κ and PABAK values in the ranges of ≥ 0.61 and ≥ 0.80. Respondent's age, primiparous status, number of antenatal visits, and the type of health provider increased the likelihood of reporting reliability.
In order to enhance the measurement of quality of ANC services, our study emphasizes the importance of carefully considering the type of information women are asked to recall and the timing of the interviews. While household survey programmes such as the demographic health survey and multiple indicator cluster survey are commonly used as data sources for measuring intervention coverage and quality, policy makers should complement such data with more reliable sources like routine data from health information systems.
Internal migration in South Africa has a strong gender dimension. Historically, the apartheid‐era migrant labour system meant that predominantly black African men moved to urban areas without their ...families. After the abolition of influx controls in 1986, many women relocated, presumably to join their male partners. The period of migration feminization was also coupled with labour market feminization. However, existing research shows that increased female labour supply was poorly matched by labour market absorption, leading to rising unemployment among black African women. This paper studies incentives for female migration in this context, by building a gravity model of male and female inter‐municipal migration. We find that neither men nor women move primarily for family reasons. Instead, they follow the traditional male migrant route to well‐lit economic centres. Women also do not migrate primarily for increases in their own labour market opportunities, but tend to flock to regions where other fortunate groups have higher earnings potential. While this might signal that migrants base relocation decisions on incorrect information (and could in turn explain why many migrants have unfulfilled expectations), our results also show that women not only move for work, but for public services. The implications are twofold if migration is to alleviate poverty in the long run: first, in the short run, management of public resources must improve, as poor (women) place large emphasis on their effect; and second, labour market barriers – especially into the informal sector – should be better understood.
抄録:
南アフリカ共和国における国内移住には性差の幅(gender dimension)が根強く認められる。かつて、アパルトヘイト時代には,移住労働システムは大体においては黒人のアフリカ人男性が家族を置いて単身で都市部に移ることであった。都市流入規制(influx control)が廃止された後の1986年には、多くの女性が移住しており、特にパートナーである男性のもとへの移住が多く認められる。移住の女性化(migration feminization)の時期は、労働市場の女性化(labour market feminization)の時期でもあった。しかしながら、既存研究は、女性の労働力の増加と労働市場の吸収とはほとんどマッチしておらず、これが黒人アフリカ人女性の失業率の増加をもたらしているとしている。本稿では、これに関連した女性の移住の動機について、男性と女性の基礎自治体間の移住(inter‐municipal migration)の重力モデルを作成して検討する。結果から、男女を問わず、主な移住の動機は家族的な理由ではないことが分かる。移住者は、むしろ、過去に男性が明るい経済の中心地へ移動したのと同じルートを辿っている。女性は、労働市場における機会が豊富な地域を第一に求めて移住しているのではなく、より高い所得が見込まれる業績の良い他の集団がある地域に集まる傾向がある。これは、移住者が誤った情報を基に移住を決定していることを示す可能性がある(つまり、多くの移住者が期待どおりの移住ができていない理由を説明しうる)一方で、この結果から、女性は仕事だけではなく公共サービスを求めて移動していることが示される。長期的に見て移住により貧困が減るとすれば、本結果には二つの意義がある。すなわち、一つには、短期的には、貧困者(女性)は公的なリソースの効果を強く重要視しているため、その管理が改善される必要があること。もう一つは、労働市場の障壁、特にインフォーマルセクターへの障壁をさらに解明するべきである。
Resumen
La migración interna en Sudáfrica tiene una fuerte dimensión de género. Históricamente, el sistema de mano de obra migrante de la era del apartheid significó que los hombres africanos negros fueron predominantemente los que se mudaron a las áreas urbanas sin sus familias. Después de la abolición de los controles de entrada en 1986, muchas mujeres migraron, presumiblemente para unirse a sus parejas masculinas. El período de feminización de la migración sucedió también a la vez que la feminización del mercado laboral. Sin embargo, la investigación existente muestra que la mayor oferta de mano de obra femenina no fue correspondida con una absorción por parte del mercado de trabajo, lo que dio lugar a un aumento del desempleo entre las mujeres africanas negras. Este artículo estudia los incentivos para la migración femenina dentro de este contexto, mediante la construcción de un modelo de gravedad de la migración intermunicipal masculina y femenina. Se encontró que ni los hombres ni las mujeres se mueven principalmente por razones familiares. En cambio, siguen la ruta tradicional de migrantes masculinos hacia centros económicos afluentes. Las mujeres tampoco migran principalmente para aumentar sus propias oportunidades en el mercado laboral, sino que tienden a congregarse en regiones donde otros grupos más afortunados tienen un mayor potencial de ingresos. Si bien esto podría apuntar a que las personas migrantes basan las decisiones de reubicación en información incorrecta (lo que a su vez podría explicar por qué muchas personas migrantes tienen expectativas no logradas), los resultados de este artículo muestran también que las mujeres no solo se mueven por el trabajo, sino por los servicios públicos. Las implicaciones son dobles si se considera la migración como una forma de aliviar la pobreza a largo plazo: primero, a corto plazo, la gestión de los recursos públicos debe mejorar, ya que las mujeres pobres ponen gran énfasis en sus efectos; y segundo, es necesario entender mejor las barreras del mercado laboral, especialmente en el sector informal.
Poor child nutrition is a major public health challenge in Tanzania. Large between and within regional nutritional inequalities exist in rural and urban areas. We looked at how locational ...circumstances hinder children from having an equal opportunity for good nutrition. We used the 2008/09 Living Standards Measurement Study data for Tanzania to identify the part played by water and sanitation in rural and urban inequality of opportunity in child nutrition. We used the dissimilarity index and the Shapley decomposition technique to quantify and decompose inequality of opportunity in nutrition. We find that 16% of the circumstance‐driven inequality of opportunity needs to be redistributed for equality of opportunity to prevail. We find that in rural areas, about 42% of the inequality of opportunity in nutrition is due to water and sanitation problems and 22% to child age. In urban areas, we find that the inequality of opportunity is related mainly to the child's sex, price fluctuations and intergenerational factors. The findings suggest that policies to improve water and sanitation coverage could help equalize opportunities for children in rural areas. In urban areas, policies that could help equalize opportunities require incentives to change social norms and behavior around feeding practices and vaccination.
In Nigeria, varying levels of malnutrition across states present a critical challenge to public health, demanding tailored policy responses. This paper delves into the specific issues and dynamics ...influencing nutrition programs in the country. Advocating for nutrition-sensitive actions requires analyzing context-specific political commitment. This article presents a case study on two Nigerian states with varying malnutrition profiles to explore the political economy of nutrition. The study used stakeholder analysis, in-depth interviews, and semi-structured interviews through workshops, incorporating the Political Commitment Rapid Assessment Tool. The objective was to measure political commitment, the window of opportunity for action, and stakeholder analysis. The results showed that despite having a significant child malnutrition problem, Kebbi State received a high political commitment to nutrition, with proportions ranging from 0.67 to 1 in each of the six domains measured. On the other hand, Anambra State, where malnutrition was less severe, had varying commitment levels. Institutional commitment was marginally high (0.67), expressed commitment was high (0.71), and budgetary commitment was lower at 0.33. Kebbi had better support for programs dependent on foreign donors than Anambra. Both states need to use media to increase awareness about nutrition issues. When the nutrition situation is severe, foreign donors' influence grows. In conclusion, there are opportunities for strategic framing and advocacy of the nutrition profile of the states. Local state media can be effective, and institutional coordination committees that include various sectors already facilitate commitment to nutrition actions. However, individual, uncoordinated sectoral action can counterbalance the benefits of these committees. Further possibilities to generate political commitment for nutrition in the states are available. This study not only offers insights into the effectiveness of political strategies in addressing malnutrition but also lays the groundwork for future research and provides actionable recommendations for government policymaking.
A variety of antenatal care models have been implemented in low and middle-income countries over the past decades, as proposed by the World Health Organisation (WHO). One such model is the 2001 ...Focused Antenatal Care (FANC) programme. FANC recommended a minimum of four visits for women with uncomplicated pregnancies and emphasised quality of care to improve both maternal and neonatal outcomes. Malawi adopted FANC in 2003, however, up to now no study has been done to analyse the model's performance with regards to antenatal care service quality and utilisation patterns.
The paper is based on data pooled from three comparable nationally representative Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS) datasets (2000, 2004 and 2010). The DHS collects data on demographics, socio-economic indicators, antenatal care, and the fertility history of reproductive women aged between 15 and 49. We pooled a sample of 8545 women who had a live birth in the last 5 years prior to each survey. We measure the impact of FANC on early access to care, underutilisation of care and quality of care with interrupted time series analysis. This method enables us to track changes in both levels and the trends of our outcome variables.
We find that FANC is associated with earlier access to care. However, it has also been associated with unintended increases in underutilisation. We see no change in the quality of ANC services.
In light of the WHO 2016 ANC guidelines, which recommend an increase of visits to eight, these results are important. Given that we find underutilisation when the benchmark is set at four visits, eight visits are unlikely to be feasible in low-resource settings.
This paper measures the impact of South African minimum wages on small and large firm employment in a sector that is exposed to international competition (agriculture) and one that is not (retail). ...Small farm employment is most vulnerable to minimum wage legislation. In contrast, large farm employment was shielded from employment losses. While this shift represents a short-run response to minimum wages, it may intensify the long-run movement towards fewer, larger, and more capital-intensive farms. Retail employment experienced no changes in employment, regardless of firm size. These results are in line with the idea that firms exposed to international markets cannot easily increase prices when their employees' wages increase while non-tradable sectors can more readily shift the burden of higher labour costs onto consumers by increasing prices. Implementation of a uniform national minimum wage ignores this type of heterogeneity, and could lead to intra-industry changes in concentration and inequality.
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