Measuring labour earnings inequality in post-apartheid South Africa

Arbeitspapier

This paper investigates the validity of household survey data published by Statistics South Africa since 1993 and later integrated into the Post-Apartheid Labour Market Series (PALMS). A series of statistical adjustments are proposed, compared, and applied to primary data with the purpose of generating time-comparable, unbiased estimates, and accurate standard errors of labour earnings inequality coefficients. In particular, corrections deal with outliers and implausible data records, missing observations, bracket responses, breaks in the series, under-reporting of high incomes, and quarterly frequency. This work lays the ground for future research on the redistributive dynamics of economic policy in South Africa, which notably suffers from the presence of spurious shifts in repeated cross-sections.

Object Details

• ISBN: 978-92-9256-789-7
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: WIDER Working Paper ; No. 2020/32

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models: Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models; Quantile Regressions; Social Interaction Models ; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration ; Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Household Analysis: General
• Subject: income inequality ; distribution ; heterogeneity ; survey data ; imputation

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Merrino, Serena
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
• (where): Helsinki
• (when): 2020

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2020/789-7
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/229256
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET