Measuring Poverty in South Africa.pdf

D P R U WORKING PAPERS Measuring Poverty in South Africa Ingrid Woolard and Murray Leibbrandt No 99/33 October 1999 ISBN: 0-7992-1978-9 Development Policy Research Unit University of Cape Town Abstract This paper sets out the methodological issues for the measurement of poverty before presenting a poverty profile of South Africa. It tests the sensitivity of the poverty profile to choices around the metric used to measure well-being, the equivalence scale used and the level of the poverty line. The key finding is that the defining features of South African poverty are so pronounced that the profile of poverty is robust to changes in the underlying measurement assumptions. Acknowledge ments This paper is part of a larger one-year project on Labour Markets, Poverty and Inequality in South Africa. We would like to thank the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and the South African Department of Labour for their generous financial assistance. MEASURING POVERTY IN SOUTH AFRICA MEASURING POVERTY IN SOUTH AFRICA DPRU WORKING PAPER NO 99/33 List of Tables Table 1 Incidence of poverty amongst selected groups, by poverty measure (1993 data)* 6 Table 2 Incidence of poverty amongst selected groups, by poverty measure (1995 data)* 6 Table 3 Correlation of alternative definitions of poverty with the per capita consumption definition (1993 data) 7 Table 4 Correlation of alternative definitions of poverty with the per capita consumption definition (1995 data) 8 Table 5 Comparison of Selected Poverty Lines for South Africa - 1993 11 Table 6 Net expenditure require