Browsing by Author "Kunawotor, M.E."
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Item Consumption During Retirement in Ghana: A Case Study of Pensioners in Accra(University of Ghana, 2013-06) Kunawotor, M.E.; Quartey, P.; Boakye-Yiadom, L.SSNIT pension benefit is the primary source of retirement income among formal sector workers and most recently informal sector workers in Ghana. It is also the most comprehensive form of social security among formal sector workers and pensioners in Ghana. But the SSNIT pension benefit is mostly meager and inadequate especially in financing consumption expenditure of pensioners and their dependants. This creates a consumption-pension income disparity which this study sorts to investigate. This study investigates the consumption-income disparity and the possible reasons, the sources of retirement income and the significance of the various income sources among pensioners in Ghana using White robust standard errors of OLS and Kendall‟s coefficients of concordance (W-test). The results indicate that 82% of pensioners spend far in excess of their pension benefits and consumption expenditure exceeds pension benefits by 29% for the average pensioner. Inadequate pension or inadequate savings and certain socio-economic factors that affect consumption are the reasons identified to be responsible for the consumption-pension income disparity. The sources of retirement income apart from SSNIT pensions are income from post-retirement jobs, remittances from family and friends, rental income, personal savings/investments and provident funds. SSNIT pension benefit was identified to be the most important source of retirement income among pensioners in Ghana. Based on these findings, recommendations were made.Item The distributional effects of fiscal and monetary policies in Africa(Journal of Social and Economic Development, 2022) Kunawotor, M.E.; Bokpin, G.A.; Asuming, P.O.; Amoateng, K.A.Income inequality has been persistent and indeed high in Africa over decades. Accordingly, a lot of empirical drivers have been identified to address it, albeit to a large extent of fiscal and monetary policies in Africa. This paper provides empirical evidence on the distributional effects of both fiscal and monetary policies in Africa over the period 1990– 2017. We employ a two-step dynamic system, GMM, a simultaneous quantile regression, and also use variants of fscal and monetary indicators, including fscal redistribution. Our results show that fscal redistribution has been quite effective in Africa, as refected in the role played by income taxes and transfers in reducing Gini coefficients, albeit to a relatively little extent. In particular, we find that direct tax is progressive and a potent tool in redistributing income in favour of the have-nots. Indirect tax, unsurprisingly, is regressive and income unequalizing. Similarly, we find property taxes to have income-unequalizing effects in Africa. The results of the expenditure indicators reveal that government spending on basic and primary education narrows net income inequality, while government spending on secondary and tertiary education rather widens net income inequality. Lastly, we find that contractionary monetary policy has unintended distributional effects in Africa. We suggest that governments should broaden the tax net, increase the share of direct tax, and property tax and spend more on basic education to improve income distribution in AfricaItem Financial Access and Firm Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa(Journal of African Business, 2017-10) Bokpin, G.A.; Ackah, C.; Kunawotor, M.E.The paper investigates the effect of access to finance on the productivity of manufacturing firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. With the aid of the Semi-parametric approach by Levinsohn and Petrin, findings reveal that access to a cost-effective line of credit/loan or an overdraft facility has a positive effect on firm productivity. The study, therefore, concludes that it is of outmost benefit for firms to acquire credit facilities for more productive projects and that the credit constraints firms in Africa face should be significantly relaxed.Item Fiscal & Monetary Policies, Climate Change And Income Inequality In Africa(University Of Ghana, 2022-12) Kunawotor, M.E.This study is an essay on fiscal policy, monetary policy, climate change and income inequality in Africa. The study covers 52 African countries over the period 1990 – 2017. The aim of the first empirical paper is to investigate the effects of temperature change and extreme weather events on fiscal balance in Africa and their implications for fiscal policy formulation. It also investigates the extent to which institutions and adaptive capacity moderate the impacts of extreme weather events and temperature change on fiscal balance. This paper uses the System Generalized Method of Moments, Fixed Effects and Random Effects estimation strategies. The results show that temperature change anomaly which implies a warmer climate in a meteorological year worsens fiscal balance in Africa. The findings also reveal that weather-related events may have a significant negative impact on fiscal balance, if the damage caused is large and consequential. Furthermore, African countries that have relatively strong institutions and adaptive capacities tend to moderate the impact of temperature change anomaly and extreme weather events on fiscal balance. The policy implications of this paper is that the frequent incidence of climatic disruptions and extreme weather events which are considered external shocks, may make the fiscal consolidation efforts and debt sustainability measures of some African governments a little more difficult. The second empirical paper examines the direct effect of extreme weather events on headline inflation and food price inflation. It further investigates if agricultural production empirically serves as a conduit through which extreme weather events impact inflation. This paper uses a two-step system Generalized Method of Moments estimation technique with robust standard errors and Panel VECM and finds that weather-related events may need to occur on a large scale or be extreme to cause a significant price hike in Africa. There is also a bi-directional causality between inflation and extreme weather events in the long run. It also finds that the incidence of droughts and floods leads to a rise in food price inflation. Furthermore, the results reveal that agricultural production serves as a perfect mediator through which extreme weather events affect headline inflation. The policy implication of this paper is that monetary policy authorities may need to consider the implications of supply shocks caused by extreme weather events on general price levels. Also, anchoring inflation expectations should be a drive of policy makers as both headline inflation and food inflation appear quite persistent in Africa. The third empirical paper investigates the effects of weather events and the various types, on income inequality in Africa. It also investigates the impacts that institutions and adaptive capacity play in moderating the impact of weather events on income inequality. Furthermore, it investigates if agricultural productivity mediates the impacts that weather events has on income inequality. The findings using the difference Generalized Method of Moments estimator reveal a non-monotonic U-shape relationship between weather events and income inequality. The result using a simultaneous quantile regression approach shows that weather events increase income inequality at the 10th, 25th, 50th and 75th percent quantiles. In terms of the weather events types, the paper also finds a non-monotonic U-shape relationship between flood and income inequality. Furthermore, institutions tend to moderate the impacts weather events has on income inequality. The results however, shows that there is no statistically significant mediating role of agricultural productivity on the weather events and income inequality nexus. Again, the result appears statistically insignificant on the moderating role adaptive capacity plays in the weather – income inequality nexus. The policy implication is that income inequality concerns should not be ignored in the global climate change discussions. Also, African countries need to strengthen their institutions and adaptive capacities as they remain very weak in the continent. The fourth and final empirical paper examines the distributional effects of both fiscal and monetary policies in Africa. This paper deploys the two-step dynamic system GMM, the simultaneous quantile regression technique and Panel VAR and also uses variants of fiscal and monetary indicators including fiscal redistribution. The results show that fiscal redistribution has been quite effective in Africa as reflected in the role played by income taxes and transfers in reducing Gini coefficients albeit to a relatively little extent. The result shows that direct tax is progressive and a potent tool in redistributing income in favour of the have-nots while indirect tax unsurprisingly is regressive and income un-equalizing. Similarly, the paper finds property taxes to have income un-equalizing effects in Africa. The results of the expenditure indicators reveal that government spending on basic and primary education narrows net income inequality while government spending on secondary and tertiary education rather widens net income inequality. Also, the result show that contractionary monetary policy has unintended distributional effects in Africa. The policy implication of this paper is that African governments need to broaden their tax net, increase the share of direct tax including property tax in the tax net and spend more on basic education to improve income distribution in Africa.Item The Impacts of Extreme Weather Events on Inflation and the Implications for Monetary Policy in Africa(Progress in Development Studies, 2022) Kunawotor, M.E.; Bokpin, G.A.; Asuming, P.O.; Amoateng, K.A.Economic debates around mitigating climate change and weather-related events have long centred on fiscal policy tools than those of monetary policy. However, recent discussions point out that monetary policy formulation could also be affected and hence the need to deploy monetary policy tools as well. Our article seeks to investigate the impacts of climate change, particularly extreme weather events, on headline inflation and food price inflation and their apparent implications for monetary policy in Africa over the period 1990–2017. Using a two-step dynamic system With a generalized method of Moments estimation strategy with robust standard errors, we find that weather-related events may need to be large and consequential to cause a significant price hike in Africa. We also find the incidence of droughts and floods to have a bearing on food price inflation. Furthermore, our empirical evidence using mediation analysis reveals agricultural production to be the critical mechanism whereby extreme weather events affect headline inflation. As central banks are charged with the mandate of ensuring a stable monetary environment, We suggest thatmonetary policy authorities consider the short- and long-term impacts of supply shocks caused by extreme weather events on general price levels in their policy formulation.Item The Implications Of Climate Change And Extreme Weather Events For Fiscal Balance And Fiscal Policy In Africa(Journal of Social and Economic Development, 2022) Kunawotor, M.E.; Bokpin, G.A.; Asuming, P.O.; Amoateng, K.A.African countries quite often experience weather-related events as a result of climate variability. In this study, we investigate the effects of climate change and the incidence of extreme weather events on fscal balance and the broad implications for fscal policy formulation in Africa. We employ the system GMM, fixed-efects and random-efects estimation strategies over the period 1990–2017. We find that increases in temperature change anomaly which implies a warmer climate in a meteorological year worsens fscal balance in Africa. Our fndings also reveal that weather-related events may have a signifcant impact on fscal balance, if the damage caused is large and consequential. Furthermore, African countries with relatively strong institutions and adaptive capacities tend to modulate the impact of temperature change anomaly and extreme weather events on fscal balance. We forecast that the frequent incidence of climatic disruptions and extreme weather events which are considered as external shocks may toughen the fscal consolidation eforts and debt sustainability measures of some African governments.Item Measures for achieving sustainable environment to mitigate climate change in Africa(International Journal of Social Economics, 2023) Osei, B.; Kunawotor, M.E.; Appiah-Konadu, P.Purpose – This study examines the appropriate measures that need to be intensified among African countries to achieve sustainable environment to mitigate climate change. Design/methodology/approach –The study employs panel data covering the period 2000 to 2020 among 54 African countries and Cox proportional hazard model for the analysis. Findings – Estimates indicate that the practice of carbon farming, the development of rooftop gardens, renewable energy production and consumption contribute positively toward achieving sustainable environment, while governance adversely affects this objective of achieving sustainable environment. Practical implications – The study recommends that governments should enforce the constant practice of carbon farming among these countries through passing laws to enforce its application among farmers and allocate 2% of ministry of agriculture’s budget toward financing carbon farming for poor farmers. Originality/value – Empirical studies have been carried out exploring measures to deal with climate change. Nonetheless, the appropriate measures of achieving sustainable environment to mitigate climate change have less been explored in literature on Africa. Hence, this study fills the gap in existing empirical studies.Item Mortality rate and life expectancy in Africa: the role of flood occurrence(International Journal of Social Economics, 2022) Osei, B.; Kunawotor, M.E.; Appiah-Konadu, P.Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of flood occurrence on mortality rate and life expectancy amongst 53 African countries. Design/methodology/approach – The study utilizes panel data from the period 2000–2018 on 53 African countries and system generalized method of moments (system GMM) for the analysis. Findings – The result indicates that flood occurrence causes the destruction of health facilities and the spread of diseases which reduces life expectancy. In addition, flood occurrence increases mortality rate amongst 53 African countries. Research limitations/implications – Practical implications – The study recommends that governments amongst African countries should implement strategies being enshrined in Conference of Parties (COP, 2021) on climate change. This will help to reduce the level of climate change and flood occurrence. Originality/value – Previous studies focused on the adverse effect of flood occurrence without considering the issue of life expectancy amongst African countries. This study contributes to existing empirical studies by examining the effect of flood occurrence on mortality rate and life expectancy amongst African countries.Item Sources of retirement income among formal sector workers in Ghana(Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2016) Quartey, P.; Danquah, M.; Kunawotor, M.E.Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine alternative sources of retirement income apart from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) pension benefits and the significance of these retirement income sources in the consumption decisions of pensioners in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach Using household survey data on SSNIT pensioners in Accra, Ghana, this study employ the Garrett and Kendall coefficient of concordance (W-test) to robustly identify the sources of retirement income and determine the significance of these income sources in financing consumption expenditure during retirement. Findings The findings show that apart from SSNIT pension benefits, other sources of retirement income including rental income, income from post-retirement jobs and remittances from family and friends are significant sources of income for pensioners in Ghana. Personnel savings and investment was the least important source of retirement income. Research limitations/implications Further research will be needed to validate these results, particularly using household survey data that covers the entire country. Originality/value The study contributes to the scanty literature on retirement income by robustly identifying the alternative sources of retirement income and their importance or significance to pensioners in Ghana.