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State pension and labour market dynamics in South Africa

State pensions in South Africa are characterised by their generosity. The current level is approximately double the median per capita income of Africans in 1993. It is possible that pension receipt in a household could have a strong effect on labour market outcomes. This paper investigates the effec...

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Main Author: Geel, Katherine
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: School of Economics 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author Geel, Katherine
author_browse Geel, Katherine
author_facet Geel, Katherine
author_sort Geel, Katherine
collection Thesis
description State pensions in South Africa are characterised by their generosity. The current level is approximately double the median per capita income of Africans in 1993. It is possible that pension receipt in a household could have a strong effect on labour market outcomes. This paper investigates the effects of access to pension income on labour supply and employment probability, The large negative elasticity of labour supply to pension income found in Bertrand, Mullainathan and Miller (2003) is much reduced, although the employment probability elasticity has increased in size. Eligible households are characterised by larger household size, higher unemployment levels, lower numbers of prime age workers present in the household, and on average younger members. These patterns tie in with our hypothesis that pension income is used to fund migration and job search, and thus a true picture of the effect of pension payments on labour supply must take this into account, We also investigate the effect of membership of a social network on employment probability. We find that network membership enables individuals to overcome the negative effect of pension income on employment probability.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher School of Economics
publisherStr School of Economics
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38285 State pension and labour market dynamics in South Africa Geel, Katherine economics State pensions in South Africa are characterised by their generosity. The current level is approximately double the median per capita income of Africans in 1993. It is possible that pension receipt in a household could have a strong effect on labour market outcomes. This paper investigates the effects of access to pension income on labour supply and employment probability, The large negative elasticity of labour supply to pension income found in Bertrand, Mullainathan and Miller (2003) is much reduced, although the employment probability elasticity has increased in size. Eligible households are characterised by larger household size, higher unemployment levels, lower numbers of prime age workers present in the household, and on average younger members. These patterns tie in with our hypothesis that pension income is used to fund migration and job search, and thus a true picture of the effect of pension payments on labour supply must take this into account, We also investigate the effect of membership of a social network on employment probability. We find that network membership enables individuals to overcome the negative effect of pension income on employment probability. 2023-08-24T13:41:17Z 2023-08-24T13:41:17Z 2006 2023-08-24T13:40:55Z Master Thesis Masters MCom http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38285 eng application/pdf School of Economics Faculty of Commerce
spellingShingle economics
Geel, Katherine
State pension and labour market dynamics in South Africa
thesis_degree_str Master's
title State pension and labour market dynamics in South Africa
title_full State pension and labour market dynamics in South Africa
title_fullStr State pension and labour market dynamics in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed State pension and labour market dynamics in South Africa
title_short State pension and labour market dynamics in South Africa
title_sort state pension and labour market dynamics in south africa
topic economics
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38285
work_keys_str_mv AT geelkatherine statepensionandlabourmarketdynamicsinsouthafrica