Last updated September 2009
Authors:
David Lam; Murray Leibbrandt
Abstract:
This project brings together economists and demographers from the
University of Cape Town and the University of Michigan to analyze links
between fertility, intergenerational transfers, and economic
development in South Africa. The project builds on a ten-year history
of collaborative research between UM and UCT. The project will focus on
demographic behavior and economic outcomes at the household level in
South Africa. A key tool will be the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS), a
longitudinal survey of young people and their families in Cape Town,
which provides wide-ranging detail about young people’s lives. Another
important data resource will be the new National Income Dynamics Study
(NIDS).
A major focus of the project will be on the economic consequences of
South Africa’s high level of teen fertility. Most of this teen
fertility is non-marital, and teen mothers are much less likely to
finish high school, with potentially important consequences for their
own employment opportunities and for the human capital of their
children. The project will take advantage of a number of strategies
using CAPS, NIDS, and other South African data sets for identifying
the potential impact of reducing teen fertility on women’s human
capital and earnings. These include variation in age at menarche,
access to family planning and health services, and variation in sex
ratios.
Another important focus will be on South African’s complex pattern of
intergenerational support. South Africa’s patterns of household
formation are such that many young South Africans co-reside with
grand-parents. In addition, South Africa’s large state old age pension
gives the some elderly the financial resources to support younger
family whether or not they are co-resident. Finally, South Africa has
recently implemented a Child Support Grant that brings resources to the
care-giver of children. Research has shown that these intergenerational
support systems and public transfers play an important role in the
human capital accumulation and labor force activity of young people.
The research will analyze the extent to which these support systems
mediate the impacts of teen childbearing.
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