TY  - JOUR
AU  - Case,Anne
AU  - Garrib,Anu
AU  - Menendez,Alicia
AU  - Olgiati,Analia
TI  - Paying the Piper: The High Cost of Funerals in South Africa
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14456
PY  - 2008
Y2  - October 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14456
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14456.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Anne Case
367 Wallace Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609/258-2177
Fax: 609/258-5974
E-Mail: accase@princeton.edu

Anu Garrib
Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies
University of KwaZulu-Natal
KwaMsane, KwaZulu-Natal
South Africa
E-Mail: anu_g@yahoo.com

Alicia Menendez
Harris School of Public Policy
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL 60637
E-Mail: menendez@uchicago.edu

Analia Olgiati
Wallace Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
E-Mail: aolgiati@princeton.edu
AB  - We analyze funeral arrangements following the deaths of 3,751 people who died between January 2003 and December 2005 in the Africa Centre Demographic Surveillance Area. We find that, on average, households spend the equivalent of a year's income for an adult's funeral, measured at median per capita African (Black) income. Approximately one-quarter of all individuals had some form of insurance, which helped surviving household members defray some fraction of funeral expenses. However, an equal fraction of households borrowed money to pay for the funeral. We develop a model, consistent with ethnographic work in this area, in which households respond to social pressure to bury their dead in a style consistent with the observed social status of the household and that of the deceased. Households that cannot afford a funeral commensurate with social expectations must borrow money to pay for the funeral. The model leads to empirical tests, and we find results consistent with our model of household decision-making.
ER  -