Department of Economics
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://197.255.125.131:4000/handle/123456789/23098
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Item Harnessing remittances for the poor: the role of institutions(Journal of Economic Policy Reform, 2021) Akobeng, E.This paper investigates the direct effect of institutions on poverty and explores whether the remittances and poverty link can be strengthened by institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. The results suggest that a country characterized by sound financial development and good and stable government with systems to control corruption and attracting investment will provide the enabling environment to reduce the rate, depth and severity of poverty. Such quality institutional attributes reinforce the effectiveness of international remittances in reducing poverty.Item The impact of trade on environmental quality and sustainable development in Ghana(World Development Sustainability, 2024) Kindo, M.D.; Adams, A.A.; Mohammed,J.Since gaining independence in 1957, Ghana has significantly increased its economic ties with the global com munity through trade liberalization policies. However, this integration has profoundly affected the environment, particularly in utilizing natural resources, and has subsequently impacted sustainable development. This study examines the relationship between trade, environmental considerations, and sustainable development within the Ghanaian context. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) error correction estimation technique, we found that trade positively impacts sustainable development in Ghana despite causing adverse environmental effects. This suggests that economic gains are prioritized over environmental preservation, indicating weak sustainability. However, sustainable development requires a balance between economic, social, and environ mental factors, and a shift towards strong sustainability may be necessary for long-term sustainability. Therefore, pivotal policy interventions are warranted to navigate the path toward strong sustainability. Mechanisms that ensure the judicious pricing of Ghana’s forest and natural resources are necessary to optimize resource exploi tation while mitigating negative externalities. Ghana can promote inclusive and sustainable development by establishing a delicate balance between economic expansion and environmental stewardship.Item Gender diversity and productivity in manufacturing firms: evidence from six Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries(Journal of Management & Organization, 2022) Abbey, E.; Adu-Danso, E.We revisit predictions about the relationship between gender diversity and firm productivity using data on 1,082 manufacturing firms from six Sub-Saharan African countries: Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Kenya. Recent evidence suggests that a gender-diverse workforce opens up a firm to a vast range of talent, knowledge and perspectives critical to enhancing innovation and problem solving, and thereby increasing firm productivity. Given the importance of manufacturing for employment and structural transformation in Africa, we test the gender diversity-productivity proposition by exploring structural differences (heterogeneity) across manufacturing firms using the without Smokestacks (IWOSS) classification. We find that while gender diversity promotes firm productivity at lower levels, this effect is displaced with further increases. Our results did not show that IWOSS firms do any better in promoting the diversity-productivity link. Implications of this finding and areas for future studies are also discussed.Item Willingness to pay for insurance against mobile money fraud: evidence from Ghana(Journal of Money Laundering Control, 2024) Ayifah, R.N.Y.; Adda, A.A.Purpose – The rapid growth of the mobile money industry has been matched by a rise in mobile money fraud. The technology required to apprehend perpetrators of such fraud is nonexistent in most developing countries. Hence, the need for individuals to be willing to pay for insurance against such frauds is crucial. This paper aims to examine individuals’ willingness to pay for insurance against mobile money fraud in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses nationally representative data collected from 4,266 adults (persons 18 years and above) in Ghana. Individuals’ willingness to pay premiums for protection against mobile money fraud was elicited by a single-bound dichotomous choice and open-ended contingent valuation designs. Findings – On average, 24.34% of Ghanaians are willing to pay premiums for insurance against mobile money frauds, with more men (26.37%) being willing than women (22.56%). Similarly, the average monthly premium that men are willing to pay for protection against mobile money fraud is GH¢32.16 (US$8.16), while that of women is GH¢22.5 (US$5.62). Furthermore, the results show that years of schooling, income, previous fraud experience, and using the accounts for saving are all positively associated with willingness to pay. However, using other networks apart from MTN has a negative association with willingness to pay. Originality/value – To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that examines willingness to pay for insurance against mobile money fraud. Thus, this is the first that estimate quantitatively how much mobile account holders will pay as premiums for insurance against mobile money fraud.Item The impact of trade on environmental quality and sustainable development in Ghana(World Development Sustainability, 2024) Kindo, M.D.; Adams, A.A.; Mohammed, J.Since gaining independence in 1957, Ghana has significantly increased its economic ties with the global community through trade liberalization policies. However, this integration has profoundly affected the environment, particularly in utilizing natural resources, and has subsequently impacted sustainable development. This study examines the relationship between trade, environmental considerations, and sustainable development within the Ghanaian context. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) error correction estimation technique, we found that trade positively impacts sustainable development in Ghana despite causing adverse environmental effects. This suggests that economic gains are prioritized over environmental preservation, indicating weak sustainability. However, sustainable development requires a balance between economic, social, and environmental factors, and a shift towards strong sustainability may be necessary for long-term sustainability. Therefore, pivotal policy interventions are warranted to navigate the path toward strong sustainability. Mechanisms that ensure the judicious pricing of Ghana’s forest and natural resources are necessary to optimize resource exploitation while mitigating negative externalities. Ghana can promote inclusive and sustainable development by establishing a delicate balance between economic expansion and environmental stewardship.Item The Fight Against Corruption In Africa: The Role Of Women Participation In Governance And In The Labour Market(University of Ghana, 2019) Amofa, EThe controversial debate of associating women with less corruption has been extensively discussed and analyzed with cross-country, micro, and experimental data mostly for the western world. However, this assertion on the impact of women participation in governance and in the labour market on corruption has received less attention in Africa. Using the percentage of women in parliament and in the labour force as proxies for women participation in governance and in the labour market respectively, the study provides evidence on their relationship using a panel data of forty–six (46) countries in Africa for the period, 2012–2016. In accounting for endogeneity issues purported to exist in the corruption literature, the study adopted the two-step system GMM estimation technique to yield consistent and efficient estimates for the effect of women participation on corruption. Like other empirical studies, the study accounts for the regional diversities, time-invariant effects, and unobserved country-specific effects. The study provides robust evidence of a significant negative relationship between women in parliament and corruption. However, the relationship between women in the labour force and corruption was not significant. This findings suggest that women may not necessarily be innately honest but concludes that, the impact of women in fighting corruption is manifested significantly in policy making. Again, the prediction by some scholars that the negative effect of females in parliament on corruption would diminish over time because of their newness in the political space was tested with a long-run analysis. However, women participation in parliament even showed a greater significance and a higher impact on corruption. Meanwhile, other economic and institutional factors like GDP per capita, government effectiveness, press freedom, and urbanization proved to be important factors in the fight against corruption in Africa.Item Energy saving behaviours of middle class households in Ghana, Peru and the Philippines(Energy for Sustainable Development, 2022) Never, B.; Sendaza, B.; Kuhn, S.; et al.Demand-side management of energy seeks to foster energy efficiency investments and curtailment behaviour in households. The role of environmental concern and knowledge for both types of energy-saving behaviour has hardly been investigated in middle-income countries with growing middle classes and rising electricity demand. Drawing on unique household survey data from Ghana, Peru and the Philippines, this paper analyses the links from individual motivation to behaviour, and from behaviour to the impact on households' total electricity expenditures. We find that consumers with more environmental concern are more likely to adopt curtailment behaviors, but that concern does not influence energy efficiency investments. In turn, higher levels of environmental knowledge makes households' energy efficiency investments more likely but does not influence curtailment. Neither energy efficiency investments nor curtailment behaviours significantly impact households' electricity expenditures. Small differences between Ghana, Peru and the Philippines existItem Simulations of Policy Responses and Interventions to Promote Inclusive Adaptation to and Recovery from the COVID-19 Crisis in Ghana(International Journal of Microsimulation, 2022) Cooke, E.F.A.; Acheampong, V.; Appiah, S.; et al.We assess the impact of COVID-19 shocks on household welfare and the effectiveness of select policies implemented to reduce their impact on welfare in Ghana. We adopt a microsimulation approach to assess the effects of COVID-19 on household welfare. Welfare fell by 34.2% to 41.9% between March and June 2020. Over the same period, the poverty headcount and the Gini index increased by 9 to 10.5 percentage points and 0.4 to 0.6 points, respectively. The number of poor people increased by 2.8 to 3.2 million. The hardest-hit sector was education, followed by agriculture and forestry and fishing, trade and repairs, manufacturing, and other services also affected. The effects vary for men, women and children. While women experienced the largest decline in welfare, men experienced the highest increase in poverty incidence. The three policies selected reduced poverty marginally but were unable to offset the increase in poverty that occurred between March and June. The estimated cost of the three policies is GHS3.7 billion excluding administrative costs, which equates to approximately 1% of 2020 GDPItem Technical efficiency in the Ghanaian banking sector: does boardroom gender diversity matter?(Corporate Governance, 2022) Boadi, I.; Osarfo, D.; Dziwornu, R.Purpose: The marginalization of women on boards is a heavily discussed topic across the world. especially in Ghana. Apart from estimating the link between boardroom gender diversity and technical efficiency of banks, this study aims to test the presence of upper-echelons theory in the Ghanaian banking sector. Design/methodology/approach – The study examines data from the 2000–2019 annual reports of 23 banks in Ghana. The stochastic frontier analysis is used to estimate the impact of boardroom gender diversity in technical efficiency of banks in Ghana. Findings: This study finds that greater boardroom gender diversity generates technical efficiencies for banks. The results remain unchanged after accounting for bank types (listed and non-listed). Thus, all banks benefit in terms of technical efficiency from more boardroom gender diversity. The upper echelons theory is validated in the Ghanaian banking context. Overall, the study supports pro-gender diversity on boards. Practical implications: The results have implications at corporate, social and national levels. It supports the need for policies that improve greater boardroom gender diversity. Originality/value: This study adds to the growing number of non-developed countries by investigating the link between the boardroom gender diversity and technical efficiency of banks in Ghana, a country which historically has had minimal female participation in the workforce. New insight is, therefore, offered into this relationship by using data which examines the technical efficiency of banks periods before and after the Women in Finance Charter in 2016.Item Gender differences in extractive activities: evidence from Ghana(International Journal of Social Economics, 2022) Baah-Boateng, W.; Twum, E.K.; Akyeampong, E.K.Purpose: The study seeks to examine women’s participation in Ghana’s extractive, growth-driven economy and the quality of this participation in terms of employment status and earnings relative to their male counterparts and establish whether these differences constitute discrimination for policy attention. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods approaches to assess the extent of gender inequality in employment and earnings in the Ghanaian extractive sector and the sources of these differences. It computes three segregation indices to ascertain the degree of unequal gender distribution of employment based on nationally representative labour force and living standards surveys followed by quantitative analysis of gender earnings differences using Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition technique. This is complemented by the results of the focus Discussion to go behind the numbers and examine the sources of the employment and earnings differences between men and women in extractive activities. Findings: The authors observe lower participation of women in the extractive sector, with a considerable degree of gender segregation and existence of gender earnings gap in favour of men due to differences in observable characteristics such as age, education and occupational skills. There is also evidence of existence of discrimination against women and indications of barriers that impede women’s involvement in high-earning extractive activities in Ghana. The study suggests measures to remove these barriers and improve women’s education particularly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, to address the gender imbalance in extractive activities in Ghana. Social implications: women’s low involvement in the strong extractive growth-driven process has implication for undermining the effort to empower women economically. Originality/value: The study draws argument from the literature and adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques to establish gender in terms of employment distribution and earnings in favour of males in the Ghanaian extractive sector. This has the effect of undermining women’s economic empowerment and exacerbating gender inequality in the country.