Not Separate, Not Equal: Poverty and Inequality in Post-Apartheid South Africa

42 Pages Posted: 20 Feb 2005

See all articles by Berk Ozler

Berk Ozler

World Bank - Development Economics Research Group (DECRG)

J. G. M. (Hans) Hoogeveen

World Bank - Research Department

Date Written: January 2005

Abstract

As South Africa conducts a review of the first ten years of its new democracy, the question remains as to whether the economic inequalities of the apartheid era are beginning to fade. Using new, comparable consumption aggregates for 1995 and 2000, this paper finds that real per capita household expenditures declined for those at the bottom end of the expenditure distribution during this period of low GDP growth. As a result, poverty, especially extreme poverty, increased. Inequality also increased, mainly due to a jump in inequality among the African population. Even among subgroups of the population that experienced healthy consumption growth, such as the Coloureds, the rate of poverty reduction was low because the distributional shifts were not pro-poor.

Keywords: Poverty, Inequality, South Africa

JEL Classification: D63, I32

Suggested Citation

Ozler, Berk and Hoogeveen, Johannes G. M. (Hans), Not Separate, Not Equal: Poverty and Inequality in Post-Apartheid South Africa (January 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=669147 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.669147

Berk Ozler (Contact Author)

World Bank - Development Economics Research Group (DECRG) ( email )

1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433
United States

HOME PAGE: http://econ.worldbank.org/staff/bozler

Johannes G. M. (Hans) Hoogeveen

World Bank - Research Department ( email )

1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433
United States

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