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Migration and Urbanization in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Bakker,Jan David
  • Parsons,Christopher Robert
  • Rauch,Ferdinand Gordian
Abstract
Although Africa has experienced rapid urbanization in recent decades, we know little about the process of urbanization across the continent. The paper exploits a natural experiment, the abolition of South African pass laws, to explore how exogenous population shocks affect the spatial distribution of economic activity. Under apartheid, black South Africans were severely restricted in their choice of location and many were forced to live in homelands. Following the abolition of apartheid they were free to migrate. Given a migration cost in distance, a town nearer to the homelands will receive a larger inflow of people than a more distant town following the removal of mobility restrictions. Drawing upon this exogenous variation, the authors study the effect of migration on urbanization in South Africa. While they find that on average there is no endogenous adjustment of population location to a positive population shock, there is heterogeneity in these results. Cities that start off larger do grow endogenously in the wake of a migration shock, while rural areas that start off small do not respond in the same way. This heterogeneity indicates that population shocks lead to an increase in urban relative to rural populations. Overall, the evidence suggests that exogenous migration shocks can foster urbanization in the medium run.

Suggested Citation

  • Bakker,Jan David & Parsons,Christopher Robert & Rauch,Ferdinand Gordian, 2019. "Migration and Urbanization in Post-Apartheid South Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8764, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8764
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Sharp, Matthew, 2021. "The labour market impacts of female internal migration: Evidence from the end of Apartheid," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Emran, M. Shahe & Shilpi, Forhad & Coulombe, Harold & Blankespoor, Brian, 2019. "Temporary Trade Shocks, Spatial Reallocation, and Persistence in Developing Countries: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in West Africa," MPRA Paper 94598, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Lin, Jeffrey & Rauch, Ferdinand, 2022. "What future for history dependence in spatial economics?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Bedasso Biniam E. & Jaupart Pascal, 2020. "South-South migration and elections: evidence from post-apartheid South Africa," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-47, January.
    5. Michael Wyrwich, 2020. "Migration restrictions and long-term regional development: evidence from large-scale expulsions of Germans after World War II [The consequences of radical reform: the French revolution]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 481-507.
    6. Ferdinand Rauch & Kristiina Tuomikoski, 2019. "The distance elasticity at short distances - A study of the library choice of Oxford students," Economics Series Working Papers 865, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Employment and Unemployment; Armed Conflict; Construction Industry; Common Carriers Industry; Food&Beverage Industry; Plastics&Rubber Industry; Textiles; Apparel&Leather Industry; Pulp&Paper Industry; Business Cycles and Stabilization Policies; General Manufacturing; Skills Development and Labor Force Training;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • N97 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Africa; Oceania
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure

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