Authors: Stephanié Rossouw Wim Naudé
Publish Date: 2007/09/04
Volume: 86, Issue: 3, Pages: 433-452
Abstract
Most research on the noneconomic quality of life have been a on a national level or performed on crosscountry comparisons and/or b used subjective indicators to measure how people perceive their noneconomic quality of life In this paper our main contribution is to construct objective indicators of the noneconomic quality of life for 354 subnational magisterial districts in South Africa We also compare changes in these indicators over time and consider methodological issues in the construction of objective indicators of noneconomic quality of life We find that although income does matter for the overall quality of life nonincome components of the quality of life can make an important difference We find a number of places with low incomes that have been able to achieve higher than expected outcomes in terms of the noneconomic quality of life and that some of the relative income poor areas have improved their noneconomic ranking between 1996 and 2004 We also find that the geographical/environmental quality of life in South Africa is better in nonurban areas where fewer of the country’s population is residing Significant improvements in the overall quality of life may be achieved through improvements in the urban natural environmentEarlier versions of this paper were presented at the Conference of the Centre for the Study of African Economies St Catherine’s College University of Oxford on 19 March 2007 and at the ODI/CPRC/SDC/Trocaire International Workshop on Understanding and Addressing Spatial Poverty Traps in Stellenbosch South Africa on 29 March 2007 We are grateful to various participants and to an anynomous referee for useful comments and suggestions All errors and omissions remain our own
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