An investigation into food-away-from-home consumption in South Africa

Food policy that ignores food-away-from-home (FAFH) in a developing country like South Africa will be misleading given changes in demand for food over time. This study contributes to our understanding of the factors that influence the demand for FAFH in South Africa. Using panel data from the Income and Expenditure Survey, this study analyses the effects of income and socio-demographic variables on FAFH expenditure using a double-hurdle model. The results show that small-sized households headed by younger white females/males and living in an urban settlement are most likely to purchase FAFH while male-headed households spend more than female-headed households. Furthermore, income of the household head is an important determinant of household FAFH expenditures. The income elasticity of expenditure on FAFH is inelastic and a normal good. The small size of the participation elasticities means that growth in the FAFH sector will be driven by households with existing expenditure.     

Who are the heads of household,what do they do,and is the concept of headship useful? An analysis of headship in South Africa

In most household surveys, headship is not defined by objective criteria but is self-identified by respondents. The first part of this article examines whether self-reported heads in South Africa are those household members in whom more control over decision-making is vested. Although the head is typically found to be the oldest household member, there is also a strong relationship between headship and the highest income-earner in the household. Furthermore, heads have final say over decisions even when they do not earn the most income. This is the case particularly in households headed by women. The second part of the article evaluates whether the gender of the head provides a useful marker for distinguishing between household types and their access to resources. Female- and male-headed households are not homogeneous groupings, and male-headed households are not equally advantaged. However, female-headed households in South Africa on average contain fewer income-earners, whose income is also lower, than male-headed households. Overall, therefore, households headed by women are considerably more likely to be economically vulnerable.     

Rural–urban differences in parental spending on children's primary education in Malawi

Using Malawian data, this paper answers two interrelated questions: are there rural–urban differences in the factors that influence the probability that a household spends or does not spend on own children's education; and are there rural–urban differences in the factors that affect educational expenditure if a household decides to spend? Computed elasticities indicate that spending on education by rural households is more sensitive to changes in income compared with urban households, suggesting that spending on education in rural areas is a luxury good. In both areas, a mother's employment and education has a larger impact on spending compared with those of a father. Urban households compared with their rural counterparts are more sensitive to the quality of access to primary schools. We find no evidence of gender bias in school spending in urban areas, but rural households exhibit bias in favour of boys.     

Patterns of poverty in South Africa

This article brings together results from two large household surveys ‐ the October Household Survey and the Income and Expenditure Survey of 1995. The analysis adopts a simple definition of income poverty which allows comparisons between households in ten deciles defined on the basis of per capita household income. The analysis compares access to resources such as housing and land, and access to basic services across these households. It then examines the economic status of women and men living in households with different incomes. The article shows consistent correlation of per capita income with other examined variables. It illustrates further how women within each decile are disad‐vantagedcomparedwith men in terms of economic status and earning.     

Firm agglomeration and local poverty reduction: evidence from an economy in transition

We examine the linkages between firm agglomeration and the welfare of households in Vietnam. We measured firm agglomeration by per capita firm output at the district level and household welfare by per capita income, expenditure, and poverty. We find that firm agglomeration helps households move from the informal sector to the formal sector. As a result, there is a positive effect of firm agglomeration on per capita income, per capita expenditure, and poverty reduction, albeit of a small and time‐decreasing magnitude. The effect of firm agglomeration on per capita expenditure tends to be higher for households with men, younger, and more educated heads than households with women, older, and less educated heads. Households in rural areas and those that do not have crop land are more likely to benefit from firm agglomeration than those living in urban areas and having crop land.     

Regional Income Inequality and Welfare in China: A Dominance Analysis

Inference-based dominance analysis is applied to micro data containing comprehensive measures of rural and urban incomes in seven major regions of China. Ordinal inequality rankings are estimated for Lorenz curves of household income, per capita household income and square root equivalences scale adjusted income. Regional inequality is shown to be sensitive to the treatment of household size. The lack of reliable regional cost of living measures leads us to propose that entire food expenditure share quantile distributions be used as indicators of differences in well-being within and across regions. The results indicate that statistical rankings of Lorenz dominance and food share dominance are very different indicators of regional disparities in income and welfare in China. One urban region is shown to have been in the unenviable position in 1988 of being at the bottom of the Lorenz dominance ranking and tied for last in terms of food share dominance.     

Integration into the South African core economy: household‐level covariates

In this analysis of household survey data, households' main income sources are used as indicators of integration into the South African core economy. The allocation of main income sources is studied as the outcome of households' demographic composition, geographic location and earners' characteristics. The emerging picture of household income generation is one that disputes the common perception of African households as raising their incomes from a multitude of sources. The majority of surveyed households rely to a large extent on a single source of income and a single income earner. Separate multinomial logit models are estimated for urban and non‐urban households where, in addition to the considerable association with non‐urban residence, prominent earner covariates of low‐integration income sources are female gender, old or young working age, and low levels of education. Both provincial location and within‐provincial, subregional locations display strong impacts. The study also finds associations between main income sources and households' demographic compositions that are compatible with findings both in studies on private transfer behaviour and in the growing literature on endogenous household formation in South Africa.     

The Invisible Hand of Rain in Spending: Effect of Rainfall‐Driven Agricultural Income on Per Capita Expenditure in Ghana

This paper uses a nationally representative household pseudo‐panel dataset for Ghana, a rain‐fed agriculture economy, to investigate whether there is a positive relationship between rainfall‐driven agricultural income and household per capita expenditure. By using the Two Stage Least Squares Instrumental Variable (2SLS‐IV) estimator, it is found that a fall in rainfall‐driven agricultural income leads to a decrease in per capita expenditure. The results show that the gender and the locality of the household head matter in the response of per capita expenditures to rainfall‐driven agricultural income. Female‐headed and rural households are more vulnerable to rainfall‐driven agricultural income changes. The expenditure disaggregation indicates that female‐headed households significantly reduce per capita non‐food expenditure in times of rainfall‐induced agricultural income decrease whilst the response of male‐headed households focuses more on reducing per capita food and remittance expenditures.     

Non‐farm employment and incomes in rural Cambodia

Rural households in Cambodia derive income from various sources. On average, non‐farm income accounts for more than 60 per cent of total household income. However, the average masks the substantial heterogeneity of non‐farm employment. We account for this heterogeneity and find significant differences in non‐farm participation and incomes across segments of the income distribution. The poor and the less well‐educated participate less in the non‐farm sector, and when they do work in the non‐farm sector, they work in low‐paid jobs and earn lower incomes. Accounting for endogeneity and sample selection issues, we conduct an empirical enquiry of the determinants of participation in non‐farm activities and of non‐farm incomes. As expected, we find that education plays a major role in accessing more remunerative non‐farm employment. Interestingly, we do not find evidence that women, ethnic minorities, or the land‐poor are disadvantaged in access to the non‐farm sector. Geographical location plays a role in access to and income from non‐farm employment, indicating the importance of local context.     

Impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on single-person households in South Korea

Using nationally representative income and expenditure data from South Korea, we show that single-person households suffered a much greater decrease in household income and expenditure compared to multi-persons households during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Negative effects on income were largest for the single-person households in ages 50—64, mostly driven by decreases in earned income rather than business income. There was no corresponding decrease in consumption expenditures, however, other than on transportation expenditure for young men. Notably, there were significant decreases in non-consumption expenditures that are related to formal and informal consumption-smoothing mechanisms, such as spending on insurances, pensions, and household transfers. Our findings highlight the disproportionately negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the middle-aged single-person households. With reduced spending on consumption-smoothing mechanisms, this group is likely to be even more vulnerable to negative income shocks in the future.     

Consumption based estimates of urban Chinese growth

This paper estimates the household income growth rates implied by food demand in a sample of urban Chinese households in 1993–2005. Our estimates, based on Engel curves for food consumption, indicate an average per capita income growth of 6.8% per year in 1993–2005. This figure is slightly larger than the 5.9% per year obtained by deflating nominal incomes by the CPI. We attribute this discrepancy to a small bias in the CPI, which is of a similar magnitude to the one often associated with the CPI in the United States. This result supports the view that Chinese price statistics are reliable. Our estimates indicate stronger gains among poorer households, suggesting that urban inflation up to 2005 in China was “pro-poor,” in the sense that the increase in the cost of living for poorer households was smaller than for the average one.     

Expenditure patterns and elasticities of rural households sampled in two communal areas of KwaZulu-Natal

Expenditure patterns among a sample of 99 rural households in two communal districts in KwaZulu-Natal were investigated to determine the potential impact of a widespread income shock on household expenditure. The results showed expenditure elasticities of close to unity for food. Low elasticities were found for staple foods. Elasticities for meat, meat products and poultry were close to unity, while horticultural products showed the greatest potential for demand growth within the food category. Of the statistically significant commodity categories, expenditure elasticities for durables, housing and transport were more than double those estimated for the aggregate food category. For consumer items, the district expenditure elasticities were estimated to be 0,76 and 0,71, while expenditure on social obligations would not increase with rural incomes. Wealthier households (the top expenditure decile) have a greater propensity for increased expenditure on transport, while poorer households show a greater propensity for increased expenditure on housing and durables. Although agriculture has the potential to generate widespread growth in rural incomes, the preference for manufactured goods casts some doubt on the strength of consumption multipliers for locally produced farm and non-farm goods in rural KwaZulu-Natal.     

Re-estimating gender differences in income in South Africa: The implications of equivalence scales

Most studies of poverty and inequality in South Africa measure individual welfare by deflating total household resources, such as income, by household size. This per-capita method makes no adjustments for the different consumption needs of children or for household economies of scale. However, in addition to being more likely to live in households where average per-capita household income is lower compared with men, we show that women in South Africa also live in significantly larger households which include more children. These gendered differences in household composition are driven to a large degree by low rates of co-residency between men and women. We therefore investigate how adjusting household resources for the presence of children and economies of scale affects measures of the gender gap in income.     

Gendered trends in poverty in the post-apartheid period, 1997–2006

This study investigates whether trends in the extent and depth of poverty in South Africa over the past decade have been gendered. We examine whether females are more likely to live in poor households than males and whether this has changed over time, and how poverty has changed for female-headed and male-headed households. We use data from the 1997 and 1999 October Household Surveys and the 2004 and 2006 General Household Surveys, which have the advantage of collecting information on the individual receipt of social grant income. We find that although poverty rates have fallen for both males and females, and for male-headed and female-headed households, the decline has been larger for males and for male-headed households. Gender differences in poverty rates have therefore widened over the period. We show that these findings are robust to the possible underestimation of household income and to adjustments for household composition.     

Food consumption patterns,seasonality and market access in Mozambique

Seasonal fluctuations in food consumption are a serious problem in rural Mozambique, where community isolation is high, and market integration, use of improved inputs, and access to off-farm income are low. This article uses household survey data to trace seasonal fluctuations in food consumption patterns and to analyse the ways households maintain access to calories. Significant substitution is observed between maize and cassava, and beans and green vegetables, over the production cycle. An analysis of the total expenditure elasticity of food groups reveals how precarious food security is in rural households in the poorest quintile. These households show near unitary expenditure elasticity for even the most basic staples of maize and cassava. The potential role of public policy in diminishing seasonal fluctuation in food consumption is explored using distance to road as an indicator of market access. The results show that distance to the nearest road has a significant effect on household food consumption patterns.     

Dual Job Holding and the Gig Economy: Allocation of Effort across Primary and Gig Jobs

This article explored motivations for allocating effort between “gig” and primary jobs using a sample of Amazon Mechanical Turk workers. We found that main job hour constraints, a commonly cited rationale for traditional moonlighting, were a motivation for men but not for women. Other factors affecting effort were also gender specific: Men were driven to spend more time on gig jobs to increase their incomes, while women were motivated by insecurity in their main job. Women, though not men, who were more depressed based on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale earned less in their gig economy job. Finally, higher risk aversion reduced income from gig work for men, but not women. We concluded that motivations for effort allocated between the primary and gig jobs differ from those identified in past literature as important for traditional moonlighting decisions.     

Kenya's focus on urban vulnerability and resilience in the midst of urban transitions in Nairobi

ABSTRACT

Addressing urban vulnerability requires an understanding of the underlying determinants of resilience for individuals, households, communities and institutions – to withstand shocks, to adapt and to change. Analysing urban resilience utilises the results of five rounds of the Indicator Development for Surveillance of Urban Emergencies surveys conducted in three informal settlements of Nairobi. Results show a significant deterioration in food security and household hunger in marginalised urban populations, with other deprivations including insecurity, negative coping behaviour and inadequate access to water and sanitation. Within slum populations, there was a significant variation in income and expenditure (p?<?0.05) with lowest income quintiles spending over 100% of their income on food. Significant gender disparities have been shown in lowest income quintiles, with female breadwinners earning 62% compared with male breadwinners (p?<?0.05). Recommendations from this analysis include establishing thresholds for vulnerability and concrete dimensions for measuring resilience that can initiate and guide related interventions.     

Living standards and the life cycle: reconstructing household income and consumption in the early twentieth-century Netherlands†

Conventional methods of measuring historical household living standards are often criticized because of the omission of women's and children's wages and non-wage income; the focus on urban centres; and the exclusion of life-cycle changes in household composition, income, and consumption. This article presents a method that accounts for these issues and applies it to agricultural and textile households in the early-twentieth century Netherlands. It uses total household income, as opposed to the husband's wage, as the enumerator for calculating alternative welfare ratios. The results show that welfare ratios were not only structurally higher than those based on the male-breadwinner model, but also followed a different life-cycle trajectory. Furthermore, household portfolios were diversified and depended on local labour market structures. Thus, the study concludes that analyses based on men's wages only reflect the rough outlines of how households functioned.     

Personal savings,ethnicity and redistribution

The effects on personal savings of measures to equalise incomes are prominent in current policy debates. Both supporters and opponents of redistributive measures adopt the Keynesian position that greater income equality will itself reduce savings. However, not only income level affects household savings. Different ethnic groups have very different savings behaviour: surveys suggest that black households in the larger urban areas have a higher savings function than white households and a higher marginal propensity to save. Equalising incomes in South Africa implies shifting income to black households from white ones. In these circumstances redistributive measures could actually increase savings. These findings do not, however, point to specific measures to achieve that end or indicate how redistributive measures themselves could shift the savings functions of the various ethnic groups. Nor do they ensure that higher personal savings will translate efficiently into higher investment.     

Do the self-employed underreport their income? Evidence from Japanese panel data

This paper examines to what extent self-employed households underreport their income to tax authorities in Japan. To this end, we employ the so-called expenditure-based approach, which essentially compares the current expenditure of self-employed and wage earner households while controlling for their income, net worth, and household characteristics. Using Japanese household-level panel data for the period 2009−2019, we find that the self-employed possibly underreport their income by 33.0–36.4%. Our findings are also robust to the different preferences (degree of risk-loving, time discount rates, etc.), planned retirement age, and degree of measurement error in expenditure between the self-employed and wage earners.