Browsing by Author "Turkson, E.F."
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Item Financing the Growth of SMEs in Africa: What are the Constraints to SME Financing within ECOWAS?(Open Access, 2017-06) Quartey, P.; Turkson, E.F.; Abor, J.Y.; Iddrissu, A.M.This study attempts to provide some understanding about SMEs’ access to finance within the West African sub-region with particular interest in establishing whether there are similarities and/or differences in the determinants of SMEs access to finance across countries in SSA. For robustness sake, we developed both subjective and objective measures of access to finance. Using data from World Bank’s Enterprise Survey data set, we examine the determinants of access to finance both at the sub-regional level and at the country-level. We found that, generally, at the sub-regional level, access to finance is strongly determined by factors such as firm size, ownership, strength of legal rights, and depth of credit information, firm’s export orientation and the experience of the top manager. However, we found important differences in the correlates of firms’ access to finance at the country level. The findings of this study therefore have important implications for policy.Item Innovation and employment in manufacturing and service firms in Ghana(Small Business Economics, 2018-11) Baffour, P.T.; Turkson, E.F.; Gyeke-Dako, A.; Oduro, A.D.; Abbey, E.N.While the importance of innovation as a primary source of economic growth has never been in dispute, its impact on employment has remained indeterminate. On one hand, the pessimists indicate that firm innovation destroys jobs because of the immediate indirect labour-saving nature of the effect of innovation, while the optimists argue that there are several compensation mechanisms that are known to counterbalance the initial effect of innovation and render the final effect indeterminate. Using data on a panel of 421 firms in Ghana, the paper investigates the relationship between innovation introduced at the firm level and employment. Relying on the panel fixed effects and Hausman-Taylor estimation techniques, this study finds a robust statistically significant positive impact of product innovation on employment but not for process innovation. In terms of policy relevance, this finding reemphasizes the need for policy makers in Ghana to intensity efforts in promoting technology diffusion particularly through FDI. This study thus contributes to the literature on innovation in Africa by providing evidence on why technological innovation in the form of product innovation can be a panacea to alleviating employment challenges in Ghana.Item Selection into Employment Sectors in Urban Ghana and Tanzania: The Role of Education(2015-11) Twumasi Baffour, P.; Turkson, E.F.Recent debate among policy makers and researcher has centered on whether informal sector employment is a result of competitive market factors or labour market segmentation. This study contributes to the empirical literature by analysing selection into employment sectors in urban labour markets of Ghana and Tanzania using worker surveys from 2004 to 2006 in pooled sample models. Results from occupational choice models suggest both labour markets are characteristic of preference for formal sector employment with education. Results based on age differences indicate heterogeneity in job attainment as young people are found to face more challenges in accessing jobs