Home background and schooling outcomes in South Africa: Insights from the National Income Dynamics Study
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP01/2018Publication date: January 2018
Author(s):
Patterns of poverty and inequality in South Africa are largely sustained by differential educational outcomes of children across different strata of society. Most of these differences in educational outcomes are attributed to large differences in the quality of education received by children. It is the intention of this paper to add to our understanding of the determinants of educational outcomes in South Africa by investigating the role of the family in determining these heterogeneous educational outcomes. This is done by estimating the relationship between home background and schooling outcomes for a sample of South African youths. The analysis in this paper suggests a strong correlation between home background and the educational outcomes of the sample at hand. Broadly, the co-residence of biological parents in the household and the education attained by parents are found to be positively associated with educational outcomes of children.
JEL Classification:I24, J12, J13
Keywords:home background, family structure, educational outcomes
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Upcoming Seminars
Monday 28 July 202512:00-13:00
Dr Neil Rankin: Ceo Of Predictive Insights & Stellenbosch University
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12:00-13:00
Prof Willem Boshoff: Stellenbosch University
Topic: "Two competing approaches in South African competition policy: merger control and anti-cartel enforcement over the past 30 years"
12:00-13:00
Professor Johan Fourie: Stellenbosch University
Topic: "Economic History: TBC"
BER Weekly
25 Jul 2025 Budget hurdle cleared, but US tariff implementation remains a riskIt was another big week on the local political front, but with some constructive momentum. On the trade front, ahead of next week’s 1 August deadline, Trump announced another “massive” trade deal with Japan. The upcoming week is busy, with a slew of global and domestic data releases and several monetary policy decisions, including the SARB....
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