IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v37y2017i39.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Decomposing changes in household measures: Household size and services in South Africa, 1994–2012

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Wittenberg

    (University of Cape Town (UCT))

  • Mark Collinson

    (University of the Witwatersrand)

  • Tom Harris

    (University of Cape Town (UCT))

Abstract

Background: Household trends are generally tracked by means of repeated cross-sections, such as censuses or nationally representative surveys. However, the trends may be driven either by changes within households over time or the way in which the processes of household formation/dissolution interact with the measure in question. Objective: We aim to develop a method that enables us to apportion changes in a household measure to changes that happen within households and changes that occur due to household formation and dissolution. In particular we intend to show how South African households have reduced in size and how access to services has increased. Methods: We develop a formula for decomposing a household outcome measure. We apply the formula to household size and electricity access data from the Agincourt health and demographic surveillance site for the period 1994 to 2012. We also apply it to the National Income Dynamics Survey of South Africa from 2008 to 2012. We compare the results to the pattern derived from nationally representative surveys run by Statistics South Africa since 1994. Results: The overall reduction in household size is fuelled by rapid household formation, much of which is intertwined with shifts in location. Access to services has been reduced by the process of new household formation. Neither finding is evident from cross-sectional data. Contribution: We introduce a new decomposition technique which can be used with longitudinal data and discuss the insights that it provides.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Wittenberg & Mark Collinson & Tom Harris, 2017. "Decomposing changes in household measures: Household size and services in South Africa, 1994–2012," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(39), pages 1297-1326.
  • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:37:y:2017:i:39
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2017.37.39
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol37/39/37-39.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2017.37.39?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Taryn Dinkelman, 2011. "The Effects of Rural Electrification on Employment: New Evidence from South Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 3078-3108, December.
    2. Janina Hundenborn & Ingrid Woolard & Murray Leibbrandt, 2016. "Drivers of Inequality in South Africa," SALDRU Working Papers 194, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    3. Daniela Casale & Colette Muller & Dorrit Posel, 2004. "‘Two Million Net New Jobs': A Reconsideration Of The Rise In Employment In South Africa, 1995–2003," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 72(5), pages 978-1002, December.
    4. Murray Leibbrandt & Arden Finn & Ingrid Woolard, 2012. "Describing and decomposing post-apartheid income inequality in South Africa," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 19-34, March.
    5. Murray Leibbrandt & Ingrid Woolard & Arden Finn & Jonathan Argent, 2010. "Trends in South African Income Distribution and Poverty since the Fall of Apartheid," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 101, OECD Publishing.
    6. Franco Peracchi, 2002. "The European Community Household Panel: A review," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 63-90.
    7. Haroon Bhorat & Carlene van der Westhuizen, 2013. "Non-monetary dimensions of well-being in South Africa, 1993--2004: A post-apartheid dividend?," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 295-314, September.
    8. Andrew Kerr & Martin Wittenberg, 2015. "Sampling methodology and fieldwork changes in the October Household Surveys and Labour Force Surveys," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5), pages 603-612, September.
    9. Bekker, Bernard & Eberhard, Anton & Gaunt, Trevor & Marquard, Andrew, 2008. "South Africa's rapid electrification programme: Policy, institutional, planning, financing and technical innovations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 3115-3127, August.
    10. Gaunt, C. T., 2005. "Meeting electrification's social objectives in South Africa, and implications for developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1309-1317, July.
    11. Posel, Dorrit & Fairburn, James A. & Lund, Frances, 2006. "Labour migration and households: A reconsideration of the effects of the social pension on labour supply in South Africa," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 836-853, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Donna Hornby & Adrian Nel & Samuel Chademana & Nompilo Khanyile, 2018. "A Slipping Hold? Farm Dweller Precarity in South Africa’s Changing Agrarian Economy and Climate," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-25, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Morné Oosthuizen, 2019. "Inequality and the generational economy: Race-disaggregated National Transfer Accounts for South Africa, 2015," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-24, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Janina Hundenborn & Ingrid Woolard & Murray Leibbrandt, 2016. "Drivers of Inequality in South Africa," SALDRU Working Papers 194, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    3. Anda David & Nathalie Guilbert & Nobuaki Hamaguchi & Yudai Higashi & Hiroyuki Hino & Murray Leibbrandt & Muna Shifa, 2018. "Spatial poverty and inequality in South Africa: A municipality level analysis," SALDRU Working Papers 221, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    4. Janina Hundenborn & Ingrid Woolard & Murray Leibbrandt, 2016. "Drivers of Inequality in South Africa," SALDRU Working Papers 194, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    5. Trotter, Philipp A. & McManus, Marcelle C. & Maconachie, Roy, 2017. "Electricity planning and implementation in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1189-1209.
    6. B. Kelsey Jack & Grant Smith, 2016. "Charging Ahead: Prepaid Electricity Metering in South Africa," NBER Working Papers 22895, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Olivier Bargain & Prudence Kwenda & Miracle Ntuli, 2017. "Gender bias and the intrahousehold distribution of resources: Evidence from African nuclear households in South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 071, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Susan Newman, 2014. "Financialisation and the Financial and Economic Crises: The Case of South Africa," FESSUD studies fstudy26, Financialisation, Economy, Society & Sustainable Development (FESSUD) Project.
    9. Andrew Kerr & Martin Wittenberg, 2019. "Earnings and employment microdata in South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-47, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Choumert-Nkolo, Johanna & le Roux, Leonard, 2024. "Leaving the hearth you know: Internal migration and energy poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    11. Marisa Fintel & Asmus Zoch & Servaas Berg, 2017. "The Dynamics of Child Poverty in South Africa Between 2008 and 2012," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 10(4), pages 945-969, December.
    12. Hall Katharine & Posel Dorrit, 2019. "Fragmenting the Family? The Complexity of Household Migration Strategies in Post-apartheid South Africa," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(2), pages 22-48, August.
    13. Erten, Bilge & Leight, Jessica & Tregenna, Fiona, 2019. "Trade liberalization and local labor market adjustment in South Africa," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 448-467.
    14. Arden Finn, 2015. "A National Minimum Wage in the Context of the South African Labour Market," SALDRU Working Papers 153, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    15. Leonard Le Roux & Johanna Choumert-Nkolo, 2023. "Internal Migration and Energy Poverty," Working Papers 2023.01, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    16. Margherita Scarlato & Giorgio d'Agostino, 2019. "Cash Transfers, Labor Supply, and Gender Inequality: Evidence from South Africa," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 159-184, October.
    17. Ronelle Burger & Servaas Berg & Sarel Walt & Derek Yu, 2017. "The Long Walk: Considering the Enduring Spatial and Racial Dimensions of Deprivation Two Decades After the Fall of Apartheid," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 1101-1123, February.
    18. Frederich Kirsten & Ilse Botha & Mduduzi Biyase & Marinda Pretorius, 2023. "Determinants of Subjective Social Status in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 1-24, August.
    19. repec:ilo:ilowps:485483 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Kate Ambler & Alan de Brauw & Susan Godlonton, 2018. "Rural Labor Market Responses to Large Lumpy Cash Transfers: Evidence from Malawi," Department of Economics Working Papers 2018-11, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    21. Serena Merrino, 2020. "Measuring labour earnings inequality in post-apartheid South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-32, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    decomposition; household size; household formation; panel data; South Africa; electricity access;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:37:y:2017:i:39. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.