Access to health care is a particular concern given the centrality of poor access in perpetuating poverty and inequality. South Africa's apartheid history leaves large racial disparities in access despite post-apartheid health policy to increase the number of health facilities, even in remote...

Teenage childbearing is considered a social problem with costs to the teenage mother, her child and society at large. In South Africa, media attention suggests a contemporary crisis in teen childbearing; often linking this to a fear that the Child Support Grant incentivises motherhood among...

Poverty may influence HIV risk by increasing vulnerability to economic shocks and thereby preventing key health investments. We explored this by examining the relationship between household shocks and the timing of traditional male circumcision, a practice associated with considerable expense...

Rapid increases in educational attainment and the massification of secondary education in South Africa resulted in substantial differences in the supply and quality of educated workers across generations. This paper describes changes in the distribution of education across birth cohorts and how...

Teenage childbearing is considered a social problem with costs to the teenage mother, her child and society at large. In South Africa, media attention suggests a contemporary crisis in teen childbearing; often linking this to a fear that the Child Support Grant incentivises motherhood among...

Differential education expenditure by racial group was a pillar in the architecture of apartheid. School systems diverged by racial group, with large funding and curriculum differences (Fiske and Ladd, 2004). In 1994, spending on white learners was about 1.5 times the spending on urban African...

The extension of the Child Support Grant in South Africa to all children aged 17 or under gives the opportunity to evaluate this type of social transfer and its effect on school enrolment. Using exogenous variation in the fraction of life exposed to the grant, we find the grant is associated...

Poverty may influence HIV risk by increasing vulnerability to economic shocks and thereby preventing key health investments. We explored this by examining the relationship between household shocks and the timing of traditional male circumcision, a practice associated with considerable expense...

This paper investigates the individual and household variables that influence the decision to start smoking. The data was drawn from wave 1 of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) of 2008 and the analysis was performed using survival analysis. Based on the international literature and the...

Background The tobacco industry claims that illicit cigarette trade in South Africa is high and rising. This is often used as an argument not to increase the tobacco excise tax. Objectives To determine how the industry's estimates of the size of the illicit market have changed over time. Methods...