Income Inequality Reduction in South Africa

Income Inequality Reduction in South Africa â€Å"The disparate distribution of a nations gross domestic product amongst its population†. That is how (Sullivan Sheffrin 2003) define income inequality. It is usually characterised by two underling issues; the inability of an economy to efficiently utilise its factors of production, and limited social mobility ranging from social classes to ethnicity and even nations. History demonstrates how inequality can act as a barrier to sustainable development; highlighted in the Brundtland Report (UN, 1987). â€Å"Quality economic growth† is the significant expression emphasised in the report in an attempt to illustrate the requirements of a more equal and democratic society. Up until recent times, South Africa has boasted the largest economy in Africa. This has resulted in heavy examination of economic growth levels in the country. Between 1960 and 2013, the country recorded average growth rates of approximately 3.25% (World Bank 2013). However, this growth hasn’t been enjoyed by the masses, approximately 23.7 per cent of the country’s labour forces were unemployed in 2009 and 25 per cent in 2012 (World Bank 2013). In South Africa, there are combinations of factors working together causing income disparity in the country. However, even in post- apartheid South Africa, race is still a significant factor responsible for the gap between the rich and poor. (Sherer, 2000) and (Ozler. 2007). This is significant because it has been observed that societies that are more equal experience longer periods of economic growth (UN, 1987). The Gini coefficient measured at 0.6314 in 2009, is incongruously high for an upper-middle-income nation (World Bank 2 013) Gini Coefficients: South Africa According to (World Bank 2013) the Gini index â€Å"measures the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption expenditure among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution†. Gini coefficients measures the variances between all pairs of incomes and their and sum their absolute difference. Between 1948 and into the early 1990s no official data was collected with regards to inequality levels in South Africa. Throughout this period, South Africa was still under the apartheid regime and the government were far from concerned by the clear inequality in the country. Observing the graph above it appears that inequality decreased following the dissolution of the apartheid regime and has gradually increased for most of the first decade in the most-recent millennium. Having said that, perspective is required as the data set is extremely limited, and it is possible that fluctuations may be a result of standard economic business cycles. Therefore it is impossible to use Gini data to provide empirical evidence for or against income inequality patterns. Lorenz curves: South Africa â€Å"The Lorenz curve plots the percentage of total income earned by various portions of the population when the population is ordered by the size of their incomes† (Gastwirth, 1971) Figures in the graph below are centred on monthly per capita household expenditures in 2000 ZAR (South African Rands) The Lorenz curve illustrated above is a graphical representation of the distribution of income among the South African population. It is clear for the graph that the Lorenz Curve for South Africa in the year 2000 is underneath that of the year 1995 until it reaches the 85 per cent percentile. The Lorenz principle is void in this case as there is a intersection in the Lorenz curves. Results from the Lorenz curve should not be taken as factual as it does not take into account key dynamics that are responsible for income inequality. For example, trade union bargaining, land ownership and educational achievement (Azam Rospabà ©, 2007). Kuznets Ratio: South Africa The Kuznets ratio can be defined as a measurement that observes the income share attained by the richest 20 per cent of the population divided by that held by the poorest 40 per cent. Data for Kuznets ratio table in South Africa is based on data available from the World Bank to date. Above is table illustrating the Kuznets ratio in South Africa, this table is based on the data available from the World Bank to date. Looking at the table it is clear that the disbandment of the apartheid lifestyle inequality seems to decrease. This is observable by comparing the 1993 and 1995 Kuznets ratios. From the data available it can be deduced that from 2000, inequality in South Africa has been increasing (7.24 in 2000, and then 9.30 in 2009). This hypothesis matches that of the Gini-coefficient data which proposes a notion of inequality rising since the turn of the twenty-first century. 20:20 Ratio: South Africa The 20:20 ratio is a measurement of the income share of the richest 20 per cent compared to that of the poorest 20%. Its methods in measuring inequality are similar to that of the Kuznets ratio. However the 20:20 ratio can be more revealing of the actual impact of inequality in a society. This is because the effect of outliers is reduced on the top and bottom and prevents the middle 60 per cent concealing inequality levels. Data for 20:20 ratio table in South Africa is based on data available from the World Bank to date. Results from the 20:20 ratio follow similar patterns to that of the Kuznets ratio. Inequality is seen to decrease between 1993 and 1995, however again like the Kuznets ratio it increases at the turn of the twenty first century; (20.5 in 2000 but then 25.26 in 2009). Theil-T index: South Africa The Theil-T index is another statistic that measures inequality in societies. The Theil-T index however is unique compared to other economic inequality measurements. It is a specialised form of the entropy index, differentiating inequality between and across various groups in society. According to (Woolard, 2002) approximately 40 per cent of inequality in South Africa is between races. 33 per cent is â€Å"intra-African† and 21 per cent â€Å"intra-White. Average household monthly wage by race and spending quintle (ZAR) Mean hourly wages by racial group (ZAR/Hour) The unproductive nature of rural farming in rural South Africa has had an effect of encouraging a culture of dependency. Rural families have become heavily reliant on migrated â€Å"family member’s remittance†. Due to this culture, labour market access has played a key role in providing income for job seekers, and to those who depend on them to repatriate income. (Allanson Atkins 2005) claim that African worker’s wages have improved by roughly 30 per cent. It is believed that the introduction of minimum wage policies (OECD 2010) has caused this change. These policies were introduced in an attempt to start rectifying the injustices of apartheid. Looking at the figure 6 above, it is clear that there has been an improvement in the wages of rural migrants. Pro-labour acts as well as increases in labour mobility have meant that more rural migrants have been able to find employment in urban areas. However, the introduction of minimum wage policies as mentioned before has not been completely successful. In fact, it has significantly contributed to the high unemployment levels currently witnessed in South Africa. The African National Congress (ANC) attempted to combat this problem through wage subsidies. However this attempt has been mostly unsuccessful in reduce inequality as businesses prefer highly-skilled workers (Delfin 2010) Access to Crop Land and its use in Rural Areas â€Å"Apartheid institutionalised both conflict and environmental degradation †¦ by allocating, through the homelands system, 14 per cent of the nations land to 72 per cent of the population† (UN, 1987). Figure 7 above illustrates how, across rural South Africa post-apartheid, the three most deprived quintiles, measured by consumption, had relatively smaller quantities of land which were shared communally, and were un-irrigated. Research undertaken by (UNDP, 2003) has hypothesised that inequitable land distribution within the country has been a stumbling block to the eradication of extreme poverty in rural South Africa. (UNDP, 2003) also highlights how â€Å"In 2002, 37.3 per cent of households’ disposable income was from property†. This indicates that the property right concentration policy enforced under the 1912 Native Lands Act, continues to extend income disparities in South Africa. At this time the African National Congress (ANC) was the new party in power. They developed a â€Å"reconstruction and development programme† (RDP) in order to combat the underlying issues in South Africa. The foundation of the programme was based around three key land-reform pillars; restitution, redistribution and tenure reform. The ANC took a market-led ‘willing seller, willing buyer’ approach. The main objective of this approach was to promote economic growth, social and food security (UNDP, 2003). According to the work of (Philip David, 2003) roughly 1 per cent of entitled South Africans applied for restitution under the above-mentioned RDP. (UNDP, 2003) cites the fact that since redistribution was not complemented by the provision of a sufficient support scheme, success has limited. Cross-sectional studies conducted in Limpopo, (province in South Africa), established that the resources required by rural farmers to make land arable were too expensive (Eastwood, Kirsten, Lipton, 2006). The Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs (DALA), who is responsible for implementing the land reforms, were allocated only a third of a per cent of the South African national budget in 2002 (UNDP, 2003). A DALA report on the quality of life of South African farmers, found that only 22 per cent of those farmers who profited from the land reform were able to make sufficient revenue from the land (UNDP, 2003). Academic specialists of rural South Africa believe that â€Å"suitably adapted land reform could play an important part in restructuring the rural sector in South Africa† (Deininger, 1999). This hypothesis is backed up by the fact that pilot studies led by the South African government have successfully increased rural farmer’s income. This increase has been a chieved by facilitating joint schemes between White and African commercial farmers, resulting in increased access to credit, technology and consumer markets (UNDP, 2003). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_metrics Unequal access to humdamian capital has been one of the biggest income-inequality drivers within post-apartheid South Africa. It has led to racial wage discrimination, both as a result of skills biased technological change and institutional racism (Azam Rospabà ©, 2007). These factors have led to an increase and fall in the demand for white and black workers respectively (Michaud Vencatachellum, 2003). These low returns to education for black children have negatively affected African parents’ human capital investment. As shown in Graph 7, South Africa, in comparison to most other Sub-Saharan African countries, has had relatively high levels of primary school enrolment. However, it is also worth observing that during the apartheid, the 1953 Bantu Act restricted the quality of education available to ‘non-whites’ (Michaud Vencatachellum, 2003). â€Å"Roughly, for every 4 R spent on a White child, only 3 R were spent on an Indian child, 2 R on a Coloured child an d 1 R on a Black child.† (Thomas, 1996). A panel study in Cape Town found that the amount of African students enrolled in school was positively correlated with grade repetition (Lam, Ardington, Leibbrandt, 2011). This was as a result of the inadequate internal assessment procedures undertaken across predominantly-black public schools. Hence, grade progression within these schools was sparsely linked with cognitive ability. The study concluded that, often, for African students grade advancement is a lottery. Inadequate management within South Africa’s public school system makes human capital investment too costly for poorer African households (Edmonds, 2006). The inability of the poorest South African parents to invest in future generations’ educational attainment has exacerbated income inequality. A study into the effects of credit constraints on schooling decisions, found that, amongst the poorest black South African families, the opportunity costs of sending children to school decreased as anticipated pension eligibility increased (Edmonds, 2006). The study found that â€Å"each additional schooling year of exposure to a male pensioner increases the probability that a male completes primary school by three percentage points. (Edmonds, 2006)†. Another study (Duflo, 2004), found that increases in an elder female’s pension increased the height of younger females in the same households by 1.16 standard deviations. Cash transfers in South Africa have had successful re-distributional effects, which have extended beyond their recipients in the form of increased spending on children’s wellbeing. Within both state-run and private South African educational institutions, school fees directly limit the quality of education poorer households have access to (Seloda Zenou, 2003). The schools with higher fees tend to offer better facilities and higher teacher-student ratios, but are often further away from the black students. A study (Seloda Zenou, 2003) assessed the cross-cultural human capital effects of transportation subsidies, private-school vouchers and public-school spending in Central Business Districts and Black Townships. The study found that a ‘restricted-voucher’ policy, which could be offered to low-income families, would offset the fee-setting behaviour in predominantly-white areas. The study estimated that if the policy was financed by a 1% income tax rate, it could increase black student’s access to better schools by over 50 per cent (Seloda Zenou, 2003) . In conclusion, income inequality reduction measures have been, for the most part, unsuccessful in South Africa. Market-led principles, which have driven reforms in education, labour and land markets, have not achieved the desired trickle-down effect on many of the poorest South Africans. Rather, they have directly increased the returns to factors which have traditionally been monopolised by the white minority population (Murray Leibbrandt, 2010). However, more recent signs indicate that inequality may be falling across races but increasing within them (OECD, 2010). In light of falling world commodity prices and an uncertain global economic outlook, I believe the long-term success of South Africa’s economy primarily hinges on initiatives, such as cash transfers, which will help poorer households finance their children’s access to higher-level human capital.

Key Concepts and Network Architecture for 5G Mobile

G technology is offering the services in Product Engineering, Documentation, supporting electronic transactions (e-Payments, transactions) etc. As the customer becomes more and more aware of the mobile phone technology, he or she will look for a decent package all together, including all the advanced features a cellular phone can have. Hence the search for new technology is always the main motive of the leading cell phone giants to out innovate their competitors. The ultimate goal of 56 is to design a real wireless world that is free from obstacles of the earlier generations.This requires an integration of networks. This paper represents, introduction to 56 technologies, Key concepts of 56, Features of 56 networks technology, applications, hardware and software for 56 technologies and network architecture for 56 wireless technologies and last section conclude the paper. Keywords?G, www, JIB, DAWN, ‘P, Wi-If INTRODUCTION 56 Technology stands for 5th Generation Mobile technology. 56 technology has changed the meaner to use cell phones within very high bandwidth. 56 is a packet switched wireless system with wide area coverage and high throughput. 6 wireless uses FOOD and millimeter wireless that enables data rate of 20 Mbps and frequency and of 2-8 GHz. 56 is going to be a packed based network . The 56 communication system is envisioned as the real wireless network, capable of supporting wireless World Wide Web (www) applications in 2010 to 201 5 time frame. There are two views of 56 systems: evolutionary and revolutionary. In the evolutionary view the 56 (or beyond 46) systems will be capable of supporting www allowing a highly flexible network such as a Dynamic Dados Wireless Network (DAWN).In this view advanced technologies including intelligent antenna and flexible modulation are keys to optimize the dados wireless networks. In revolutionary view 56 systems should be an intelligent technology capable of interconnecting the entire world without limits. An example application could be a robot with built-in wireless communication with artificial intelligence. User never experienced ever before such a high value technology. The 56 technologies include all type of advanced features which makes 56 technology most powerful and in huge demand in near future.Amazing isn't it such a huge collection of technology being integrated into a small device. The 56 technology provides the mobile phone users more features and efficiency than the 1000 lunar doodle. A user of mobile phone can easily hook their 56 technology gadget with laptops or tablets to acquire broadband internet connectivity. Up till now following features of the 56 technology have come to surface- High resolution is offered by 56 for extreme mobile users, it also offers bidirectional huge bandwidth. – 56 technology excellent quality service is based on Policy in order to evade errors. It provides transporter class type gateway that has unequalled steadiness. – The 56 technology billing interface is highly advanced making it efficient and appealing. – It offers huge quantity of broadcasting data, which is in Gaga Bytes, sustaining more than 60,000 connections. – This technology also provides remote diagnostic feature. – Provides up to 25 megabytes per second connectivity. Also it supports the private virtual networks. KEY CONCEPTS OF 56 The key concepts discussing 56 and beyond G wireless communications are: 1) Real wireless world with no more limitation with access and zone issues. ) Wearable devices with AY capabilities. 3) Internet protocol version 6(Pop), where a visiting care- of mobile IP address is assigned according to location and connected network. SECRET @ 2012 4) One unified global standard. 5) Pervasive networks providing ubiquitous computing: The user can simultaneously be connected to several wireless access technologies and seamlessly move between them These access technologies can be a 2. 56, 36, G or 56 mob ile networks, Wi-If, WPAD or any other future access technology.In 56, the concept may be further developed into multiple concurrent data transfer paths. 6) Cognitive radio technology, also known as smarted: allowing different radio technologies to share the same spectrum efficiently by adaptively ending unused spectrum and adapting the transmission scheme to the requirements of the technologies currently sharing the spectrum. This dynamic radio resource management is achieved in a distributed fashion, and relies on software defined radio. 7) High altitude stratospheric platform station (HAPS) systems.

Hong Kong’s Environmental Problems and Solutions - 1223 Words

Hong Kong’s environmental problems and solutions Hong Kong is one of the top financial centers in the world. Thus, the environmental quality of Hong Kong is very important. It is because the environmental quality is indirectly linking to the image of Hong Kong. Moreover, the living standard of Hong Kong residents is also under influencing of the environmental quality. However, Hong Kong is now surviving serious environmental problems. Poor air quality, noise problem and heavy traffic loads are the three important problems of Hong Kong. The members of Hong Kong should try their best to tackle these problems. Problem of air quality in Hong Kong is serious so we need to try our best to solve it. Three are two main reasons that causing the†¦show more content†¦Better road planning will divert the noisy road from the residential areas and thus reduce the disturbance to the residents. Lastly, there is an urged to deal with to problem of traffic congestion. â€Å"The problem of traffic congestion in Hong Kong is caused by the lack using of public transport† (Lo I, 2004). Hong Kong is such a small place but there are a few million vehicles on the roads. We can see that there are a lot of private vehicles running on the road everyday. The increasing of private vehicles increases the demand of the usage of the roads. As more and more vehicles are riding on the roads at the same time, the road system will then cannot afford. Traffic congestion occurs. Another cause of traffic congestion is less well-planned road system in Hong Kong. In Central, traffic congestion is common. It is because of the poor road system. Many vehicles will rush to Central at the rush hour, but the poor road system cannot help to divert the vehicles flow rate. So many vehicles are concentrated in Central and caused traffic congestion. What are the impacts of traffic congestion? Firstly, L o I. (2004) claimed that people are needed to pay heavy time cost for traffic congestion. The wasting of time may lead to the loss of business, late for work and school. So traffic congestion can also cause the economics loss. In addition, the image of Hong Kong will also be affect. Hong Kong is an international financial center that gives the world an image ofShow MoreRelatedHong Kongs Environmental Problems and Solutions1209 Words   |  5 PagesHong Kong’s environmental problems and solutions Hong Kong is one of the top financial centers in the world. Thus, the environmental quality of Hong Kong is very important. It is because the environmental quality is indirectly linking to the image of Hong Kong. Moreover, the living standard of Hong Kong residents is also under influencing of the environmental quality. However, Hong Kong is now surviving serious environmental problems. 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The Islamic State Of Iraq And Terrorism - 1615 Words

War and conflict have raged in Southeast and Central Asia for centuries due to civil unrest and political instability. The rise of the Taliban and other militant insurgencies have escalated the dangers and unpredictability of an already unstable government in Afghanistan. The agenda of these jihadist extremists is the takeover of the Afghan and Pakistan governments in favor of the more stringent Islamic ways of the Taliban, and the destruction of anyone who opposes them. These groups, professing to do the work of God, are perpetrating a coarse and distorted interpretation of Islam and the Quran. Violent acts that have been committed by insurgents, include crimes against humanity, acts of terrorism, murder, suicide bombings, and†¦show more content†¦He was born in a Pakistani refugee camp and was raised and educated in a Pakistani madrassa. These madrassas taught students very conservative Islamic ideologies as well as an indoctrination of extremist jihadist ways. Omar took t he teachings from the madrassa and implemented it into the Taliban culture. The Taliban emerged in 1994 from a group of guerilla type Muslim Mujahidin that had fought in the Afghan and Soviet war, and were dissatisfied and disillusioned with their current Mujahidin leadership. Much of the funding and high tech weapons provided to this militant group was the contribution of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), working with the Pakistan Intelligence Agency (ISI), in an effort to force Soviet withdrawal during the â€Å"Cold War†. Ironically, those militants have now become a major problem in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Journalist and bestselling author Ahmed Rashid said, â€Å"Prior to the war the Islamacists barely had a base in Afghan society† (Rashid, 2000, p. 19). Following the departure of the Soviets in 1989, civil unrest, chaos, and a civil war ensued in Afghanistan. Millions of refugees fled to Pakistan. The Taliban, growing in strength and power, took advantage of a weakened and unstable Soviet supported government. The Taliban conquered Kabul and hanged the President, Dr. Mohammed Najibullah on September 27, 1996, reflecting the brutal nature of this organization (Franzen, 2012, p. 3). The Taliban promised to