ABSTRACT A strong and efficient tax system provides the basis for enhanced economic growth and development. Ghana‘s fiscal structure prior to 1983 had generally been characterized by low revenue. As a result, Ghana undertook a number of reforms prescribed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank under the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) and the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). Under the programmes, numerous policies were amended to establish a more attractive inve...
ABSTRACT World Bank report (2010) clearly reported a continuous increase in old age dependency ratio and a sharp decline in fertility rate. The disparity of child birth between the early 1960s and the 2000s has caused many people to be found in the old age group. Now, the kind of pension scheme operating in Ghana is the Pay as you go scheme (PAYG) and the sustainability of the scheme depends on increasing working population. The problem is how the fewer young people under the PAYG scheme can ...
ABSTRACT World trade has expanded over the last few decades, but the trade within Africa especially among Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries has been low. Globally there has been a reduction in tariff rates, reducing trade costs in general, but the SSA region still records the high costs of trade as compared to other developing regions and this has hindered the flow of trade within the region (World Bank Doing Business report, 2013). SSA’s poorly developed trade logistics in the form of po...
ABSTRACT In Ghana, as in many developing countries, farmers depends largely on pesticides to control pest and weeds. Unfortunately, residues of this pesticides in the soil, crops and vegetables poses a great harm to the environment and human health which has the ability to erode the marginal developmental gains that have been made. This study seeks to investigate how much households in the Accra-Tema Metropolitan areas are willing to pay for selected Pesticide Free Products that are more env...
ABSTRACT The problem of access to loans faced by household enterprises (HEs) is the motivation for this study. The study examined the determinants of access to loans in the various financial sectors. The objective of this study was to identify the factors that influence HEs’ access to loans in general and also their access to formal and informal loans, and also new strategies to finance HEs. The study focused on entrepreneurial characteristics and enterprise features that influence access ...
ABSTRACT The motivation for this study is the persistent lack of access to credit facing all firms in general and SMEs in particular. The study examined factors that determine access to finance as well as challenges facing SMEs in their access to finance in Ghana. The specific objective is to find the factors that influence SMEs’ demand for and access to credit in Ghana. The study focused on characteristics of the owners/managers of SMEs and features of those SMEs that influence their deman...
ABSTRACT With the advent of globalization and regional economic integration across the globe, monetary and financial integration has become imperative in West Africa and this has led to the creation of a West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ). A major challenge for the introduction of a single currency within WAMZ countries has been the persistence instability in the balance of payments. The objective of the study is to analyse the monetary approach to the balance of payments (MABP) in the West Af...
ABSTRACT The alarming rate of waste generation in Ghana, coupled with the adoption of improper solid waste disposal methods by most Ghanaians has necessitated several interventions of which the polluter pays principle is key. However, its implementation has not yielded the desired results yet, since the exploration of the main factors underlying the use of improper solid waste disposal (SWD) methods as well as the decision to pay for SWD has not been exhaustive. This thesis therefore seeks t...
ABSTRACT An evaluation of the budgetary process in Ghana depicts that annual expenditure proposals are continuously anchored on projected revenue. This means that the accuracy of revenue projection is a necessary condition for devising a suitable framework for fiscal deficit management in Ghana. This study explores the impact of tax policy measures on economic growth using time series data for the period 1970 2013 to devise a reasonably accurate estimation of Ghana‟s sustainable revenue p...
ABSTRACT The study of conflict and cooperation in competitive situations has contributed greatly to various fields. From modelling to describing behaviour, the application of game theory in these fields has significantly improved their depth and robustness. Despite the field’s usefulness there is still a significant disconnect between theoretical predictions and what is evidenced empirically. Illuminating this gap greatly explains the motivation behind this empirical study. An experiment o...
ABSTRACT Over the years, there has been an improvement in child nutritional status around the world. Though this improvement in child nutritional status has also been evident in Ghana, it has been slow and unevenly distributed across the country. Ghana‘s child nutritional indicators are still below the average conditions that prevail globally. Wasting in Ghana is still higher than the average rate around the world, and a relatively higher percentage of children below age five in Ghana suf...
ABSTRACT The World Bank Reported in 2013 that 25 out of the 48 SSA countries were experiencing energy crises which has resulted in brownouts and blackouts in those countries. Consequently, many sectors of the economy of these countries have being suffering great losses as they experience incessant power outages. Therefore the study focused on the factors that determine the generation of electricity in the case of selected SSA countries so as contribute in the curbing of the situation. Also,...
ABSTRACT Electricity is an essential commodity that affects every sphere of life. It is especially fundamental for emerging economies whose national developmental agenda require constant availability of power. Ghana depends heavily on electricity to carry out most of its activities. The industry, services sector, and households all need electricity for their activities. Unfortunately, a major problem that confronts the nation is the irregular and unreliable supply of electricity. Electric pow...
ABSTRACT This thesis comprises of five chapters with three empirical papers on essays on foreign direct investment (FDI) in SSA. The first empirical paper investigates the geographical determinants of FDI, while controlling for resources, market, efficiency and institutional factors in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) from 2002 to 2016. To achieve this objective, a panel data consisting of a sample of 40 SSA countries was estimated using Hausman-Taylor estimation technique. To check for the robustn...
ABSTRACT Gold is the most important mineral resource in Ghana. It has over the years contributed to Ghana’s foreign exchange earnings, Gross Domestic Product, employment and government revenue through taxes. However, mining of gold brings great destruction to Ghana’s forests and its habitats. These costs are usually not considered in the design of fiscal policies. The question that arises is, what is the optimal royalty tax rate that would internalize the environmental cost of mining...