Ghana

Unlike many African economies, Ghana has not experienced major violent conflict, and growth figures have been relatively stable since economic reforms began in 1984, averaging 5%. Ghana has also had one of the more impressive declines in poverty, with poverty incidence falling to 28.5% from 50.2% a decade ago. Ghana has pursued macroeconomic stability somewhat consistently for two and a half decades, with occasional policy slippages, and has a well-functioning democracy. The most significant challenge facing Ghana’s government today is how to make growth rates rise faster through enhanced productivity, and thus reflect in both employment generation and rising personal incomes while maintaining low inflation.

To support the government in these challenges, the IGC-Ghana programme focuses on macroeconomic stability, agriculture sector restructuring, private sector development, education and skills acquisition, and natural resource management. Specific policy questions to be addressed include management of inflation, agricultural finance and credit constraints, and the returns to education.

The IGC-Ghana office is hosted by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER).

Below are short summaries and updates of active IGC work in Ghana, either from the country engagement or individual research programmes.

Ghana

Growth Week - current agenda
Adam Robert Green

Please download the current agenda for Growth Week, subject to modifications. Day time sessions are now closed. 4.30 pm and 6.30pm sessions are open to the public on a first-come first-serve basis.

Growth and Informality in Urban Africa (Infrastructure and Urbanisation programme)
Francis Teal

Tanzania and Ghana have both seen improvements in their growth rates and, in the case of Ghana, a spectacular reduction in the poverty rate which halved between 1991 and 2005. A common trend in both countries has been the growth in informality in the labour force. Why has growth in output been associated with informality? How are policies which lead to accelerated growth linked to increases in formality? Francis Teal (Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford) explores.

Examining the Underinvestment in Agriculture: Capital Constraints and Risk (Agriculture programme)
Chris Udry

Research on the returns to capital in developing countries reveals that the potential for farmers to take on profitable investments may be very high. With a focus on Ghana, Christopher Udry (Yale University), Ernest Aryeetey (Brookings Institute), Dean Karlan (Yale University) and Robert Osei-Akoto (Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research) investigate why farmers do not invest more in potentially profitable farming activities: are risk aversion and/or capital constraints important reasons for this underinvestment in agriculture? And what are the effects of risk aversion and capital constraints on farmers’ behavior?

Estimating the benefits to secondary school in Africa: evidence from Ghana (Human Capital programme)
Esther Duflo

Some researchers argue that secondary education is likely to have a much larger impact than primary education on long-run earnings, health, fertility, gender equality, and civic and political participation. But expanding secondary education is a significantly more expensive undertaking than providing free primary education. Esther Duflo, (MIT), Michael Kremer (Harvard University) and Pascaline Dupas (University of California, Los Angeles) examine the medium- and long-term impacts of secondary school for a cohort of students in Ghana who earned admission to a secondary school but could not afford to pay the fees.

Improving Child Nutrition through Quality Certification of Infant Foods in Ghana (Human Capital programme)
William Masters

The market for infant foods in Ghana and other developing countries is dominated by high-priced products, the most prominent of which is Nestle’s iconic ‘Cerelac’ brand. Consumers may buy such foods because they cannot observe, and therefore cannot trust, the nutritional content of domestic, lower-priced products. William Masters (Purdue University) tests whether a full-scale quality certification system could be introduced to encourage consumption of cheaper, domestic brands and therefore reduce expenditure of the poor.

Update

24th March 2010
Ghana Workshop on Finance and Development

The Finance programme will hold a workshop in Ghana this summer, bringing together researchers and policymakers working on finance issues in development.