Basitere, Louisa Maria2024-06-182024-06-182023-02-28Basitere, Louisa Maria. (2023). Is there a financial Kuznets curve for South Africa? [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/38678https://hdl.handle.net/10539/38678A Research Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Commerce (Applied Development Economics) in the School of Economics and Finance, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023This research report analyses the impact of financial sector development on Income inequality in South Africa for the period 1990 - 2021. The research report employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) using data sourced from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and the World Inequality Database. The report finds that there is no evidence of a financial Kuznets curve for South Africa for the period of the study. The report adds to the sparse literature on the nexus between financial sector development and income equality in South Africa by using an index formulated using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as a proxy for financial sector development and considering the impact of Social protection expenditure. Social protection expenditure, mostly in the form of cash social grants, is used the by South African government as one of the levers to address income inequality in the countryen© 2023 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.Financial sector developmentGini coefficientIncome inequalityKuznetsAutoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL)South AfricaUCTDSDG-8: Decent work and economic growthDissertation