South Africa slows down; Bread winner wives, nervous husbands; Election season in India; Wealth today, gone tomorrow

1 South Africa slows down (BBC) South Africa's economic growth slowed sharply in the first three months of the year. According to official figures, between January and March, the country's economy grew by just 0.9%, compared with the previous quarter. The figure has raised concerns that Africa's largest economy is struggling to regain momentum. It grew by 2.5% last year. Compared with the same three months in 2012, South Africa's economy grew by 1.9%.

Much of the slowdown in growth is being attributed to closures for maintenance in several crucial industries, notably the petroleum sector. Nicky Weimar, senior economist at Nedbank, said: "To put it mildly, it's a very disappointing number." Last week, South Africa's Reserve Bank kept interest rates at 5%, saying it was "increasingly concerned" about the economy's "deteriorating outlook". South Africa's economy has been struggling since a recession in 2009. Violent strikes in the mining sector last year saw output plunge.

2 Bread winner wives, nervous husbands (Richard H Thaler in The New York Times) Girls are generally outperforming boys in high school, and then proceeding in greater numbers to attend and graduate from college. And as women take the helm as chief executives of more major corporations, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM and PepsiCo, there are hints that the glass ceiling may be at least cracking, if not breaking.

Such developments should encourage aspiring young women to believe that social norms are changing, and that barriers to success are dropping. But a new study reveals that women’s gains on the economic front may be contributing to a decline in the formation and stability of marriages. One reason for this decline may be that women with greater earning power have greater economic security that allows them to leave bad marriages. Yet another possibility is that many men seem to be clinging to a social norm from the “Mad Men” days: that the husband should be the primary earner in a family.

An interesting new paper by Marianne Bertrand, Emir Kamenica and Jessica Pan, three economists who are colleagues of mine at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, found that traditional views of gender identity, particularly the view that the right and proper role of the husband is to make more money than the wife, are affecting choices of whom to marry, how much to work, and even whether to stay married. 

Women’s earnings have been rising relative to men’s over the past 40 years — though, on average, women’s pay still lags behind. One sign of change is seen in a recent study, which finds that mothers are providing more than half the income in 15% of married households with children at home, up from 3.5% in 1960. Given such trends, it’s logical that problems would arise if men kept their desire to be the primary breadwinners. 

Given these findings, it isn’t surprising that when a wife earns more than her husband, the risk of divorce rises, too. Divorce rate rose by half, to about 18%, for couples in which the wife earned more than the husband. The paper’s findings support the anecdotal complaints of many highly educated, high-earning women who say they can’t find suitable husbands. And as women continue to outperform men in school, these problems are likely to grow. Perhaps over time, men will catch on to this new world and accept the fact that hard-working girls may well turn into highly paid women. 

3 Election season in India (MJ Akbar in Khaleej Times) There is definitely an election mood creeping up among all parties in India, and they have begun their exercises in position play. Ideally, smaller parties would like to keep all options open. This also means that no option is closed. In contrast to 2004, allies have dropped away from Congress: Mamata Banerjee went out of government, followed by DMK. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati were never in. 

If there is one topic in Delhi, which is almost as exciting as the prospect of a general election, it is which way Sharad Pawar will turn. Pawar will shift only if he is over 100 per cent sure that continued partnership with Congress will hurt him badly at the polls. Nor will he enter the inner ring of NDA in one quick leap. He will edge into the nebulous outer ring, where what is loosely and inaccurately called the Third Front waits in hope.

We are heading for the most open election since the late 1990s. All parties are convinced that Congress is in free fall, but no one is certain as to who will be the beneficiary and to which extent. Parties will, therefore, try and maximise their MP strength and then sit across the table in Delhi when the time comes to form a government. They also know that any government without a nucleus cannot hold.

4 Wealth today, gone tomorrow (Sudha Menon in Khaleej Times) You know they saying about fame and money. Here today, gone tomorrow. Two of the world’s wealthiest people, Mexican telecommunications stalwart Carlos Slim and global steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal are going through tough times these days. Slim, who made his riches through a maze of investments in real estate and construction before becoming the king of telecommunications in his country, has recently been knocked off from the world’s richest man title. His consolation can probably come from the fact that the guy who usurped him is a worthy opponent: Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

Indian-born Mittal, the wealthiest man in the UK, is feeling the pinch of the recession which is forcing him to relook his steel business in other parts of the world. And if being down by an astounding £2.5 billion and losing ‘his richest man in the UK’ tag to a Russian, is not enough, he is now facing the wrath of employees at his ArcelorMittal steel venture in France for shutting down some manufacturing facilities in France. Their response? A video game aptly labelled Kill Mittal, that allows employees a chance to taken on Mittal within the factory premises and kill him. Not a move that is in any good taste but then, we have heard Mittal is a man of steel and this is not likely to bend him.

What is likely to make him possibly feel less happy with the situation is the fact that he has had to put his home on Palace Green in Kensington for sale and that too at a loss. When he bought it in 2008, the 12-bedroom house cost him £117 million, making it the most expensive home in London but the same property is now on sale for £110 million. We are not sure a few million pounds here and there will hurt the man but if home is where the heart is, the sale of the house is likely to hit Mittal more.

As for Slim, a government legislation that allows it to make monopolistic businesses reduce their stake in ventures and also allows foreign investment in telecommunications business where he owns over 70% of the market, has him up against the walls. The man himself says he is not too bothered about being the richest man in the world.

“Regardless of whether I am first or one thousandth, I am not going to take anything with me to the grave,” he said. “I don’t change my life… I am not going to have more children, no more family, nor am I going to live differently. I haven’t changed anything in my life in the last 35 years. Probably not even for the last 60.” We hope the chances of the billionaire having to eat his words are, err, slim…