ABSTRACT Governments’ role in fostering accelerated economic growth is very significant and plays a key role in poverty reduction for most developing economies, for which most Sub-Sahara African countries are dominant. The effect of public spending on economic growth with its attending policy implications has ignited the interest of researchers both theoretically and empirically. The study set out to determine the effect of total government spending on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa....
ABSTRACT The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) after its establishment in 1975, was tasked with a major responsibility of enhancing intra-ECOWAS trade. This led to the establishment of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) in 1990 – a mechanism designed to ensure that trade is fully liberalized in West Africa. Intra-ECOWAS trade according to the International Monetary Fund Direction of Trade Statistics (IMF DOTS) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Develo...
ABSTRACT Access to safe and effective family planning services and contraception empowers women to have more control over when to have children and lessens the incidence of unsafe abortions that may lead to deaths. Among socio-economic factors that influence contraceptive use and its choice, price is a likely factor which has not been fully explored in most researches. Thus removing all possible barriers from contraceptive use may help achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5. This...
ABSTRACT Ghana continues to contribute troops to UN peacekeeping operations across the globe and presently Ghana is the eighth (8th) largest contributor of military personnel for UN peacekeeping operations in the world. Subsequently, several reasons motivate countries (Ghana) to participate in UN peacekeeping operations. These reasons could be classified under economic benefits, institutional benefits and political stability. This study seeks to explore socio-economic factors that influence G...
ABSTRACT User fees have been in place since 1985 and have over the years generated a lot of debates and arguments in Ghana. This study aimed to investigate the impact of cost sharing policies, otherwise known as user fees on the utilisation of health care facilities in the Tema District of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Other issues such as how households rank other available alternatives to public health facilities, households’ views on the user fees concept, the effectiveness of the e...
Abstract Decomposing economic time series into their temporary and permanent components have followed two broad paths: trend versus difference stationary models and detrending versus filtering. Whereas the former breaks down due to their inability to capture the underlying data generation process (dgp), the latter are either one sided filters or are based on ad hoc procedures in achieving parsimony. In this paper, we propose structural time series models in which trends, cycles, seasonal comp...
Unemployment is often cited as one of the macro-economic indicators measuring the strength and growth of an economy. Given that the youth are three times more likely to be unemployed, it is only prudent that in addressing issues of unemployment, programs, and policies are structured to address youth unemployment. In an attempt to better understand the dynamics of youth unemployment this study takes a brief look at the patterns of unemployment in Sub Saharan Africa, particularly Ghana, to...
ABSTRACT Unemployment is often cited as one of the macro-economic indicators measuring the strength and growth of an economy. Given that the youth are three times more likely to be unemployed, it is only prudent that in addressing issues of unemployment, programs, and policies are structured to address youth unemployment. In an attempt to better understand the dynamics of youth unemployment this study takes a brief look at the patterns of unemployment in SubSaharan Africa, particularly Ghana,...
International trade has enormous impact on a country’s economic growth and development as a whole. Governments in every part of the globe pursue various economic policies aimed at improving trade and enhancing economic development. The trade balance is a major indicator in determining a country’s trade performance on the international market. An improved trade balance will improve a country’s current account balance and GDP as a whole and vice versa. Unfortunately, most of the econ...
ABSTRACT The thesis is divided into three empirical papers to address the core issues regarding the main drivers of Ghana’s export performance both at the macro and micro levels with focus on the role of exchange rate volatility and exchange rate policies, and the constraints to Ghana’s export diversification effort by examining its economic complexity levels as well as the product space and the prospects for structural transformation. The empirical chapter one, titled “Ghana’s Export...
ABSTRACT Limited access to credit is one of the fundamental problems faced by rice farmers in the Northern Region of Ghana. As such, it is the aim of government and other organizations such as the Food Security and Rice Producer Organization (FSRPOP) to increase rice farmers‟ access to credit. However, studies on the demand side of the credit market of rice farmers that would help formulate appropriate policies essential for increasing rice farmers‟ demand for credit are missing. The stud...
ABSTRACT Efficiency of government expenditure is very important in the management of every economy since outcomes depend on the ability of resources to reach their target destination. Governments all over the world spend a high percentage of their GDP annually and countries in the ECOWAS sub-region are no exception. With efficiency, countries can achieve better outcomes with the same level of spending or even less. This study, therefore, seeks to examine the relationship between government sp...
ABSTRACT Despite the vast and growing body of empirical literature focusing on the drivers of export performance of firms, the empirical evidence on the channels through which human capital and R&D affect firm export is dearth even though this relationship seems to be important, specifically for developing economies. In this study, a conceptual model is developed drawing on the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory of the firm to conduct a detailed evaluation of whether firm export is explained by...
ABSTRACT The fast rate at which the nation's forests are being depleted as a result of unsustainable land-use practices adopted by economic agents, has become a serious concern to policy-makers. Even though several afforestation and reforestation schemes are being undertaking by the government and private individuals, they seem inadequate compared to the rate of destruction. A combination of econometric analysis, a survey, and tabular representation and analyses have been used to analyse the ...
ABSTRACT LEAP is a flagship program of Ghana government that seeks to leap poor households out from poverty. Since the inception of this program, limited studies have explored the effect of the program on child poverty in Ghana. This study sought to quantify the impact of LEAP program on multidimensional child poverty using Global MPI. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to achieve the objectives of the study. The study used secondary data obtained from Institute of Statisti...