I31 | Economic Research Southern Africa

Modelling required energy consumption with equivalence

Yuxiang Ye, Steven F. Koch, Jiangfeng Zhang

This study proposes an equivalence scale model for required energy consumption at the household level. The proposed approach equivalises actual energy expenditure across households in two steps: estimating an equivalence scale and dividing actual expenditure by the estimated scale for each...

Feb 2020

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Inequality in South Africa: what does a composite index of wellbeing reveal?

Stephanié Rossouw and Talita Greyling

Policymakers need better information regarding wellbeing inequality to ascertain the contributing factors and to determine whether policy has been successful in improving the spread over time. In this paper, we construct a multidimensional composite wellbeing measure, at a micro level, which...

Sep 2019

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Construction and analysis of a composite quality of life index for a region of South Africa

Talita Dalton-Greyling and Fiona Tregenna

This study employs a novel approach to measure and analyse quality of life in the Gauteng City-Region of South Africa. A comprehensive composite index is constructed. Comparing the quality of life of different groups, groups such as Africans, residents in urban informal settlements and females...

Nov 2014

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Father's Employment and Sons' Stature: The Long Running Effects of a Positive Regional Employment Shock in South Africa's Mining Industry

Martine Mariotti

I exploit the unexpected increase in employment in 1975, 76 and 77 in the South African homelands to compare the long term adult outcomes of children whose fathers benefitted from the employment increase to those who did not. Using a standard difference in difference approach I find that the shock...

Nov 2014

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The Good African Society Index

Ferdi Botha

This paper constructs a Good Society Index for 45 African countries, termed the Good African Society Index (GASI). The GASI consists of nine main indexes: (i) economic sustainability, (ii) democracy and freedom, (iii) child well-being, (iv) environment and infrastructure, (v) safety and security, (...

Jul 2014

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Pricing of National Park Visits in Kenya: The Case of Lake Nakuru National Park

Peter Chacha, Edwin Muchapondwa, Anthony Wambugu and Daniel Abala

This study analyses the factors influencing pricing of National Park visits in Kenya. A two step regression procedure is used to develop a pricing mechanism for Lake Nakuru National Park (LNNP). In the first stage, count data models are applied to estimate the Trip generating function to LNNP and...

Jul 2013

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

Justin Visagie and Dorrit Posel

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...

Oct 2011

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

Dorrit Posel and Daniela Casale

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...

Mar 2011

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