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
18 Jul 2025 Encouraging data, but messy politics while US tariff deadline loomsThe big global data prints of the week came on Tuesday, with better-than-expected Chinese GDP growth for Q2 and US core CPI coming in lower than expected, but still (finally) reflecting some signs of tariffs being passed on to consumers. Locally, the uptick in mining production and retail sales was positive for Q2 GDP dynamics. In addition to the data,...
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