Abstract. This paper investigates the determinants of access to formal credit by poor households in South Africa. Despite some progress in poverty reduction in the recent years, it remains astonishingly high by historical and international standards. Access to credit is believed by some scholars to be a primary means to address poverty and improve the standards of living of poor households. Thus, it is necessary to identify the determinants of the propensity to borrow and of the amount that is borrowed. Using 2008-2012 data from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), a Heckman Selection model was estimated. The results from this study suggest that age of the household head, race, educational level, gender, employment, geographic location of households affect the propensity to borrow by poor households in South Africa. JEL classification: D12, O12

Using all five waves of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) panel dataset, we examine the effect of domestic remittances on the static and dynamic subjective well-being (SWB) of recipient individuals in South Africa, by using a random effects ordered probit model that accounts for individual heterogeneity. Moreover, we check the robustness of our static model results by making use of an instrumental variable for migrants’ remittances. Two major empirical findings emerge from this paper: firstly, domestic remittances are consistently found to have a positive and statistically significant impact on the happiness of recipient individuals. Moreover, this finding persists in both the static and dynamic panel models. Secondly, the coefficient on lagged SWB (derived from the dynamic model) is found to be positive and statistically significant, confirming that SWB today is significantly influenced by SWB in the past.

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Orientation: The subjective well-being (SWB) of individuals depend inter alia on their personality and life events that occur like marriage. Studies show that individuals exhibit anticipation and adaptation effects before and after a marriage takes place.Research purpose: The study determined if males and females in South Africa exhibit anticipation and adaptation effects in SWB before and after a marriage takes place.Motivation for the study: Married individuals generally have higher levels of life satisfaction. Yet four out of 10 marriages in South Africa end in divorce before their 10th anniversary.Research design, approach and method: The study employed panel estimation methods and used the first five waves of the National Income Dynamic Study (NIDS) to test for the existence of anticipation and adaptation to marriage in South Africa.Main findings: There is a strong positive impact on SWB when a marriage takes place. This contemporaneous effect of marriage is slightly larger for men than for women. Men exhibit longer anticipation effects before and both genders adapt immediately after the event.Practical implications: South Africans generally react positively to marriage but then quickly adapt back to hedonic neutrality.Contribution: Very few studies have investigated adaptation and anticipation trends in a panel setting. Moreover, many of the studies have been conducted in developed countries, implying that the estimates derived from these studies might be influenced by the norms and values of the countries in question.