FYI on South Africa, by World Bank Pro-Poor Growth & Inequality Group.
Meeting in Washington DC, papers on WB Website, there is a listserve.
Barbara Krimgold
Thematic Group Seminar Series
presents
Not Separate, Not Equal
Poverty and Inequality in Post-Apartheid South Africa
by Berk Ozler (DECRG)
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
MC4-301
12:30-2:00
As South Africa begins 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 and improved for
those
at the top during this period of modest 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 the subgroups of
the
population that experienced healthy consumption growth, the rate of
poverty
reduction was low because the distributional shifts were not pro-poor.
Limited
growth, and a low elasticity of poverty reduction to that growth,
hindered
progress against poverty in South Africa.
Participants outside the Bank who wish to attend the seminar should send
an
email to Esteban Hernandez, [log in to unmask], to request a
visitor
pass.
Previously held pro-poor growth and inequality thematic group seminars
are
available at the following external web site (which is constantly
updated):
Pro-poor Growth and Inequality Seminars. The seminars are organized by
date. If
you are interested in joining the Pro-poor Growth and Inequality
Thematic Group,
please contact Vidhya Muthuram, [log in to unmask]
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