Abstract Decomposing economic time series into their temporary and permanent components have followed two broad paths: trend versus difference stationary models and detrending versus filtering. Whereas the former breaks down due to their inability to capture the underlying data generation process (dgp), the latter are either one sided filters or are based on ad hoc procedures in achieving parsimony. In this paper, we propose structural time series models in which trends, cycles, seasonal comp...
Unemployment is often cited as one of the macro-economic indicators measuring the strength and growth of an economy. Given that the youth are three times more likely to be unemployed, it is only prudent that in addressing issues of unemployment, programs, and policies are structured to address youth unemployment. In an attempt to better understand the dynamics of youth unemployment this study takes a brief look at the patterns of unemployment in Sub Saharan Africa, particularly Ghana, to...
ABSTRACT Unemployment is often cited as one of the macro-economic indicators measuring the strength and growth of an economy. Given that the youth are three times more likely to be unemployed, it is only prudent that in addressing issues of unemployment, programs, and policies are structured to address youth unemployment. In an attempt to better understand the dynamics of youth unemployment this study takes a brief look at the patterns of unemployment in SubSaharan Africa, particularly Ghana,...
International trade has enormous impact on a country’s economic growth and development as a whole. Governments in every part of the globe pursue various economic policies aimed at improving trade and enhancing economic development. The trade balance is a major indicator in determining a country’s trade performance on the international market. An improved trade balance will improve a country’s current account balance and GDP as a whole and vice versa. Unfortunately, most of the econ...
ABSTRACT The thesis is divided into three empirical papers to address the core issues regarding the main drivers of Ghana’s export performance both at the macro and micro levels with focus on the role of exchange rate volatility and exchange rate policies, and the constraints to Ghana’s export diversification effort by examining its economic complexity levels as well as the product space and the prospects for structural transformation. The empirical chapter one, titled “Ghana’s Export...
ABSTRACT Limited access to credit is one of the fundamental problems faced by rice farmers in the Northern Region of Ghana. As such, it is the aim of government and other organizations such as the Food Security and Rice Producer Organization (FSRPOP) to increase rice farmers‟ access to credit. However, studies on the demand side of the credit market of rice farmers that would help formulate appropriate policies essential for increasing rice farmers‟ demand for credit are missing. The stud...
ABSTRACT Efficiency of government expenditure is very important in the management of every economy since outcomes depend on the ability of resources to reach their target destination. Governments all over the world spend a high percentage of their GDP annually and countries in the ECOWAS sub-region are no exception. With efficiency, countries can achieve better outcomes with the same level of spending or even less. This study, therefore, seeks to examine the relationship between government sp...
ABSTRACT Despite the vast and growing body of empirical literature focusing on the drivers of export performance of firms, the empirical evidence on the channels through which human capital and R&D affect firm export is dearth even though this relationship seems to be important, specifically for developing economies. In this study, a conceptual model is developed drawing on the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory of the firm to conduct a detailed evaluation of whether firm export is explained by...
ABSTRACT The fast rate at which the nation's forests are being depleted as a result of unsustainable land-use practices adopted by economic agents, has become a serious concern to policy-makers. Even though several afforestation and reforestation schemes are being undertaking by the government and private individuals, they seem inadequate compared to the rate of destruction. A combination of econometric analysis, a survey, and tabular representation and analyses have been used to analyse the ...
ABSTRACT LEAP is a flagship program of Ghana government that seeks to leap poor households out from poverty. Since the inception of this program, limited studies have explored the effect of the program on child poverty in Ghana. This study sought to quantify the impact of LEAP program on multidimensional child poverty using Global MPI. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to achieve the objectives of the study. The study used secondary data obtained from Institute of Statisti...
ABSTRACT A strong and efficient tax system provides the basis for enhanced economic growth and development. Ghana‘s fiscal structure prior to 1983 had generally been characterized by low revenue. As a result, Ghana undertook a number of reforms prescribed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank under the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) and the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). Under the programmes, numerous policies were amended to establish a more attractive inve...
ABSTRACT World Bank report (2010) clearly reported a continuous increase in old age dependency ratio and a sharp decline in fertility rate. The disparity of child birth between the early 1960s and the 2000s has caused many people to be found in the old age group. Now, the kind of pension scheme operating in Ghana is the Pay as you go scheme (PAYG) and the sustainability of the scheme depends on increasing working population. The problem is how the fewer young people under the PAYG scheme can ...
ABSTRACT World trade has expanded over the last few decades, but the trade within Africa especially among Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries has been low. Globally there has been a reduction in tariff rates, reducing trade costs in general, but the SSA region still records the high costs of trade as compared to other developing regions and this has hindered the flow of trade within the region (World Bank Doing Business report, 2013). SSA’s poorly developed trade logistics in the form of po...
ABSTRACT In Ghana, as in many developing countries, farmers depends largely on pesticides to control pest and weeds. Unfortunately, residues of this pesticides in the soil, crops and vegetables poses a great harm to the environment and human health which has the ability to erode the marginal developmental gains that have been made. This study seeks to investigate how much households in the Accra-Tema Metropolitan areas are willing to pay for selected Pesticide Free Products that are more env...
ABSTRACT The problem of access to loans faced by household enterprises (HEs) is the motivation for this study. The study examined the determinants of access to loans in the various financial sectors. The objective of this study was to identify the factors that influence HEs’ access to loans in general and also their access to formal and informal loans, and also new strategies to finance HEs. The study focused on entrepreneurial characteristics and enterprise features that influence access ...