This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
  4. Forthcoming Articles
  5. Moved to Poverty? A Legacy of the Apartheid Experiment in South Africa

Moved to Poverty? A Legacy of the Apartheid Experiment in South Africa

Abstract

During the South African apartheid, Black people were forced to move to homelands during the 1960s and 1970s, resulting in one of history’s largest segregation policy experiments. We examine how and why relocation to the homelands affected human capital attainment. Exploiting the staggered timing of homeland establishment in a cross-cohort identification strategy, we find that moving to the homelands during childhood significantly reduces educational attainment, labor earnings and employment rates in adulthood. The data suggest an important role for place effects. Moving to the homelands in childhood implies greater exposure to poorer neighborhoods and it disproportionally reduces human capital attainment.

Forthcoming Article Downloads