Courses 

Social Welfare Measurement, 18 - 21 June 2013 and 24 - 27 June 2013.  

This is a joint SALDRU and DataFirst 8 day course.  The purpose of this short course is to introduce students, researchers, and officials in state agencies to the key concepts in measuring income, expenditure, poverty and inequality.  More information.

Seminar

David Lam, Cally Ardington, Nicola Branson, and Murray Leibbrandt will present this Wednesday's seminar.  The title of their presentation is “Credit Constraints and the Racial Gap in Post-Secondary Education in South Africa”

Abstract:  This paper analyzes the impact of baseline household income and scholastic ability on post-secondary enrollment in South Africa. Using longitudinal data from the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS), we analyze the large racial gaps in the proportion of high school graduates who enroll in university and other forms of post-secondary education. Our results indicate that baseline income and ability (measured by performance on the grade 12 matriculation exam) are strong predictors of post-secondary enrollment and statistically account for all of the black-white difference in enrollment. Controlling for parental education and matric scores eliminates most of the estimated impact of household income on university enrollment, suggesting that credit constraints are not the major source of differences in university enrollment by income or race.

As usual we start at 1pm in Economics' Seminar Room, Level 4, Economics Building, Middle Campus