The effects of state-subsidised housing on poverty in Cape Town

Figures & data

Table 1. Variable descriptions.

Variable	Response categories	Description
Labour participation	Group average	‘How many hours do you work on your current job per day?’
Per-capita income	Group average	Log of household income per capita from imputed per-capita income variable
Household durables	Average, scale	‘Does anyone in your household own … ?’ (e.g. radio, television, microwave, refrigerator, car, etc.)
Physical health	Ordinal scale	‘How good is your health?’ (0 = poor, 1 = fair, 2 = good, 3 = very good, 4 = excellent)
Teenage pregnancy	Dummy	‘Have you ever been pregnant?’ (1 = pregnant, 0 = otherwise), restricted to females below age of 18 years
School dropouts	Dummy	Average number of respondents who had not completed matric and were above 18 years (1 = dropout, 0 = otherwise)
Neighbourhood stability	Dummy	‘Did your household move in the past five years?’ (wave 1)/‘Have you moved since the last interview?’ (waves 4 and 5) (1 = moved in last four/five years, 0 = otherwise)
Membership in associations	Composite scale	‘Are you a member of … ?’ (e.g. youth group, political party, church, etc.)

Table 2. Characteristics of housing subsidy beneficiaries versus shack-dwellers in 2002 and 2009.

	Wave 1 (2002)			Wave 5 (2009)
	Control	Treatment		Control	Treatment
Variable	(N = 219)	(N = 111)	t	(N = 187)	(N = 102)	t
Age	17.7	18.0	−1.16	24.5	24.6	−0.13
Male	0.43	0.43	−0.10	0.42	0.45	−0.50
Education	8.44	8.72	−1.14	10.03	10.26	−0.92
Marital status	0	0	0.72	0.07	0.10	−0.84
Child	0.22	0.27	−0.69	0.32	0.31	0.21
Household size	5.35	5.66	−1.43	5.52	6.06	−1.62
Employment	0.10	0.12	−0.63	0.48	0.43	0.61
Rooms	3.7	3.7	−0.14	3.6	4.3	−3.63***
Piped water	0.61	0.94	−6.60***	0.67	0.93	−5.10***
Flush toilet	0.75	0.93	−4.05***	0.70	0.93	−4.66***

Note: ***p < 0.01.

Table 3. Summary statistics on various outcome variables: beneficiaries versus shack-dwellers in 2002 and 2009.

	Wave 1 (2002)			Wave 5 (2009)
	Control	Treatment		Control	Treatment
Variable	(N = 219)	(N = 111)	t	(N = 187)	(N = 102)	t
Labour	0.77	1.00	−0.74	4.02	3.41	1.03
Income	5.56	5.24	3.47***	6.11	5.88	1.97**
Durables	3.89	4.77	3.24***	6.01	6.63	−2.08**
Health	4.13	3.78	2.88***	3.81	3.94	−0.85
Pregnant	0.06	0.40	2.97***	0.28	0.31	−0.32
Dropout	0.71	0.78	−0.78	0.69	0.73	−0.77
Stability	0.86	0.91	−1.34	0.90	0.93	−0.79
Memberships	1.50	1.50	0.06	0.95	0.64	2.82***

Note: **p < 0.05; ***p < 0.01.

Table 4. Effects of the housing subsidy on labour participation, household per-capita income, household durables, physical health and membership in voluntary associations: difference-in-differences estimation (multivariate OLS regression).

	(1) Hours worked per day		(2) Per-capita household income (log)		(3) Number of household durables owned		(4) How is your health?		(5) Membership in voluntary associations/organisations
	Pre-treatment	Post-treatment	Pre-treatment	Post-treatment	Pre-treatment	Post-treatment	Pre-treatment	Post-treatment	Pre-treatment	Post-treatment
RDP homeowners	3.24	0.62	6.0	6.6	0.21	0.35	2.99	3.04	0.09	−0.02
	(1.85)	(1.86)	(0.41)	(0.41)	(0.08)	(0.08)	(0.52)	(0.52)	(0.10)	(0.10)
Shack-dwellers	3.16	0.06	6.2	6.64	0.16	0.32	3.35	2.89	0.12	0.04
	(1.84)	(1.83)	(0.40)	(0.40)	(0.08)	(0.08)	(0.51)	(0.51)	(0.09)	(0.09)
Difference	0.08	0.68	0.22*	0.05	0.06**	0.03	0.35**	0.14	−0.03	−0.06**
	(0.49)	(0.50)	(0.11)	(0.12)	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.14)	(0.14)	(0.02)	(0.03)
Difference-in-differences		0.60 (0.70)		0.16 (0.16)		−0.02 (0.03)		0.50** (0.20)		−0.03 (0.04)
Adjusted R^2		0.209		0.244		0.284		0.057		0.123
Observations		464		417		437		436		440

Notes: Standard errors are in parentheses. Only demographic and significant variables are controlled for in each model. Regression of hours controls for sex, marital status, children, education, household size and physical health. Regression of per-capita income controls for age, sex, marital status, children, education, hours of labour and household size. Regression of household durables controls for age, sex, marital status, children, education, employment status and household size. Regression of physical health controls for age, sex, marital status, education, hours of labour and household size. Regression of membership in associations controls for age, household size, education, civic duties and political awareness. Number of observations is a combined total of the baseline and endline observations. OLS = ordinary least squares; RDP = Reconstruction and Development Programme. *p < 0.10; **p < 0.05.

Table 5. Effects of the housing subsidy on teen pregnancy and proportion of school dropouts: difference-in-differences estimation (multivariate logistic regression).

	(1) Proportion of teenage pregnancies	(2) Proportion of school dropouts	(3) Stability
Treat_period	25.79***	0.53	4.01***
	(30.53)	(0.23)	(2.05)
RDP_homeowner	49.25***	1.51	2.05
	(65.85)	(0.94)	(1.16)
Period_homeowner	0.02***	0.77	1.42
	(0.03)	(0.55)	(1.75)
Pseudo R^2	0.186	0.079	0.176
Observations	116	273	409

Notes: Standard errors in parentheses. Only demographic and theoretically important variables controlled for. Regression of teenage pregnancy controls includes age, marital status, education and per-capita income. Regression of school dropout controls includes age, sex, marital status, children, household size, per-capita income and mother’s education. Controls for stability include age, sex, marital status, children, household size, education, per-capita income, hours of labour and memberships. Number of observations is a combined total of the baseline and endline observations. RDP = Reconstruction and Development Programme. ***p < 0.01.