ABSTRACT The average international tourists arrival per thousand populations for the period 2000 to 2009 was 7 in Nigeria compared to 22 in Ghana. The major sources of these receipts were business tourists from France, United Kingdom and United State of America. Government efforts at increasing international tourism demand as an alternative source of non-oil revenue is yet to boost the country’s tourist arrivals. Previous studies have investigated the economic potential of Nigeria’s tour...
Abstract The second West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), comprising The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, was initiated in 1999 to fast-track the common monetary policy objective of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). However, uncertainties about the economic implications of the policy have been major obstacles to regional integration. Economists and policymakers are yet to agree on the potential costs and benefits of a common currency. Available empirical st...
ABSTRACT It was until the early 1990’s that economists began to place greater emphasis on the role of human capital development as the basic rock for development. Using a multi-stage sampling technique, the researcher interviewed a sample of 868 households in rural Ghana. The study adopted unitary model of intra household decision model to examine parents’ expectation and investment in children’s education in rural Ghana. The study revealed that the probability that children getting th...
ABSTRACT The main objective of the study was to determine the effects of firm size on performance of manufacturing firms in Ghana. The study employed a quantitative research design under the positivist philosophy to address the research objectives. A panel on about 1,203 firms were involved based on the Enterprise Survey for Ghana data set for the periods 2007 and 2013. Multiple measures were adopted for firm size but just one measure was adopted for firm performance. Firm size was proxied b...
ABSTRACT Ever since the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) by the government of Ghana in 2003, cost of financing has been increasing from time to time, to the extent that some of the schemes have encountered financial distress. Though subjective reports exist that show high expenditures made on the health insurance schemes by the service provided, it is not clear if such high expenditures can be attributed to the incidence of moral hazards. The study sought to exami...
ABSTRACT This study examines the relationship between stock market capitalization and economic growth in Ghana using quarterly time series data from 1991 to 2006. The study employed Johansen multivariate cointegration technique and vector error correction model to investigate the long-run relationship and the short-run dynamics among the variables. Also, the standard Granger-causality test was conducted to determine the causal relationship between the variables. The study finds that real econ...
ABSTRACT In a federal system of government, it may not be sufficient to study the inflationary effect of government reliance on money creation as a major means of financing expenditure. This is particularly so as some level of government besides the central authority may finance its deficit without recourse to money creation but in ways that may ultimately augment the money supply. There is therefore the imperative need to study the interaction between budget deficits and inflation in the Nig...
ABSTRACT Corporate governance (CG) safeguards shareholders‘ portfolios and ensures optimal returns in terms of dividend payouts (DPs) on investment. The association between CG and DPs could be significant in relation to risk exposure, operational and financing activities across firms and sectors. Also, the differential dividend payment between large and small firms might be due to economies of scale enjoyed by large firms. The relationship between CG and DPs has been well researched, howev...
ABSTRACT Since the last decade, universities in Nigeria have been experiencing a progressive decline in required inputs, like funds, materials and academic staff. In spite of this, there has been a continuing rise in the demand for their services, as shown by rising student enrolment figures (Nigeria, 1981). Confronted with such a problem, universities require more than ever before, formal decision models for planning the allocation of their scarce resources as efficiently as possible. This s...
ABSTRACT Economic Community of West African States‘ (ECOWAS) total trade has reflected deficit in the last two decades. It was $1.42 billion in 1990, increased to $3.32 billion in 2000 and $6.24 billion in 2009. This trade imbalance in the ECOWAS region can be traced to the dominance of primary over manufactured products in the region‘s exports. However, the imbalance can be reversed with trade in similar products that is Intra-Industry Trade (IIT) between the region and her highest trad...
ABSTRACT Urban population growth exerts pressure on energy demand resulting in inefficient supply. This consequently leads to increase in prices of energy sources. The literature on the determinants of urban household energy use in Nigeria has focused little attention on substitution possibilities as well as welfare implications of price increases. This study investigated the determinants of urban household energy demand, substitution possibilities and welfare implications of price increases...
ABSTRACT One of the important primary macroeconomic convergence criteria of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is the attainment of single-digit inflation. Available data show that but for The Gambia, none of the member states has achieved this objective on sustained basis. This raises concerns about the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission mechanism in controlling inflation in the Zone. This thesis addressed three policy relevant issues: (1) investigated the effectiveness of mon...
ABSTRACT International reserves of West African countries rose sharply by 84.3% between 1991 and 2001 and 287.1% between 2001 and 2011. However, due to high macroeconomic instability in the form of persistent asymmetric shocks, output variability and fiscal policy distortions, the reserves were inadequate and the countries in the sub-region are continually faced with the problem of balancing the costs and benefits from reserves holdings. Previous studies have paid little attention to the fac...
ABSTRACT The study examined the effect of public expenditure on unemployment in Ghana using annual data for the period 1980 to 2016 by employing Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to co-integration. The study revealed that there is an inverse relationship between government consumption expenditure and unemployment rate. However, government capital expenditure and unemployment rate were found to be positively related. The study therefore established that the threshold of governmen...
ABSTRACT This study focused on the relationship between methods of financing government eh.1Jenditures and economic growth in Ghana using a dynamic econometric framework. In the study, we developed a two equation system with economic growth and government expenditure as the endogenous variables and seven exogenous variables -domestic borrowing, borrowing from abroad, direct taxes, indirect taxes, private investment, exports and imports. Stationarity tests indicated all variables were integra...