The effect of household characteristics on living standards in South Africa 1993-1998: a quantile regression analysis with sample attrition

This paper examines whether the dismantling of apartheid has resulted in an improvement in the standard of living for the vast majority of South Africans. The study is based on a panel data set from the Kwazulu-Natal province. We use weighted quantile regressions to examine the distribution of standards of living, which corrects for the potential bias arising from non-random sample attrition. Our results show that there has been a significant increase in the spread of the distribution of household expenditure of the non-white households residing in Kwazulu-Natal province. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.