Abstract
M.Com. (Development Economics)
While National progress in poverty reduction has been promising in South Africa, rural or traditional areas are lagging behind with a high-poverty headcount ratio. There are debates on how South Africa in general can foster inclusive growth and the role of agriculture in poverty reduction. This dissertation contributes to this debate with micro-economic empirical evidence, shedding more light on the determinants of rural poverty in South Africa. This study employs data from the first four waves of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) and panel data models (pooled probit and random effect probit models) to investigate the determinants of rural poverty in South Africa. The results show that married status, age of household head, household size and provincial dummies are positively associated with rural poverty. In contrast, explanatory variables for household remittance, squared age of household head, employment status of household head, gender of household head, race dummies, education attainment and location are negatively related to rural poverty.