Ghana

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.

Nii Sowa
: Country Director
Chris Udry
: Lead Academic
Sam Mensah
: Resident Country Director
Henry Telli
: In-Country Economist
Jill Shirey
: Hub Economist

Explore our Research

Harnessing Oil Revenues in Ghana
Working Paper
Authors: Rick van der Ploeg, Radoslaw Stefanski, Samuel Wills
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Reflections from the IGC Growth Week 2011 – “Attaining Middle Income Status”
Policy brief
Author: :
Drawing connections between the Zambia, Ghana and Tanzania sessions at Growth Week 2011: "Zambia, Ghana and the countries that follow in their wake such as Tanzania should work relentlessly at diversifying their economies to achieve export diversification and sophistication thereby cushioning their economies from the vagaries of commodity prices". Authored by…
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Community Involvement in Public Goods Provision: Evidence From a Field Experiment in Ghana
Working Paper
Author: Thomas Walker
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Gold Mining and Living Standards in Ghanaian Households
Research Project
Authors: Juan Pablo Rud , Fernando M. Aragon
What is the effect of mining on living conditions of regional and local communities? Which are the main drivers of the observed effects? Ghana offers an excellent opportunity to study how the development of large-scale mining affects the economic conditions and opportunities of regional and local residents. We are interested…
Public Goods Experiment in Ghana (Governance Programme and Agriculture Programme)
Research Project
Author: Robert Darko Osei
This study tests the willingness of community members to donate to public infrastructure in four rural communities in Ghana. Using detailed data on the participants and their social networks, it examines the characteristics of those individuals who donate the most, and explore the linkage between donations, the social network and…
Harnessing Oil Revenues in Ghana
Research Project
Author: Rick van der Ploeg
What are the best ways for developing countries, like Ghana, to optimally harvest large expected oil revenues? The aim of this project is to construct and calibrate a macroeconomic dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of the Ghanaian economy with the purpose of generating optimal ways of harnessing oil revenues for…
The Impact of Remedial Education through Teacher Community Assistants on the Quality of Education in Ghana
Research Project
Author: Annie Duflo
Studies in India and Kenya have suggest that it is relatively easy to teach children how to read, using a simple methodology; that focusing on the child’s skill level is key; that lower qualified individuals, with a minimal amount of training, can teach children the basic skills and; empowering local…
Improving Child Nutrition through Quality Certification of Infant Foods: Scoping Study for a Randomized Trial in Ghana (Working Paper)
Working Paper
Author: William Masters
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Improving Child Nutrition through Quality Certification of Infant Foods: Policy Implications of a Scoping Study in Ghana - Policy Brief
Policy brief
Author: Adam.Green:
This scoping study aims to help promote large-scale improvements in child nutrition through quality certification of local infant foods. Certification of nutrient density would allow new producers to compete with heavily advertised global brands, and thereby help families meet more of their infants’ needs than is currently possible. …
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Growth and Informality in Urban Africa (Finance, Human Capital, and Trade programmes)
Research Project
Author: 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…
Examining the Underinvestment in Agriculture: Capital Constraints and Risk (Agriculture programme)
Research Project
Authors: Chris Udry, Paul Collier
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…
Estimating the benefits to secondary school in Africa: evidence from Ghana (Human Capital programme)
Research Project
Author: 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…