When apartheid ended in 1994, South Africa had one of the highest levels of income inequality in the world. Inequality in education was both a cause and a consequence of high income inequality. After 25 years there has been little change in income inequality, in spite of improvements in levels of education and education inequality. This presentation for those 50 and over analyzes trends in education inequality and income inequality and examines how they interact in South Africa’s highly unequal society.

David Lam is Director of the Institute for Social Research and Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. He is Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he has done collaborative research since 1996. His research in South Africa analyzes links between education, labor markets, and income inequality.

This is the fourth in a six-lecture series. The subject is South Africa: Past, Present, and a Look Forward. The next lecture will be October 10, 2019. The title is: South African Performing Arts in the New Democracy.