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57 UNU-WIDER articles, publications, projects, experts...
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Working Paper
Fiscal decentralization and efficiency of public services delivery by local governments in GhanaIn this paper, we estimate the efficiency of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana, and investigate the impact of fiscal decentralization on the efficiency of local public goods and services delivery by MMDAs. Using data...
Report
How COVID-19 is affecting workers and their livelihoods in urban GhanaThis survey is a collaborative project conducted by researchers of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) and the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of...
Working Paper
Gender wage gaps in GhanaThe wage of an individual is observed only when he/she is employed. However, getting employment requires two decisions. First, an individual has to decide to participate in the labour market, and second, an employer must decide to hire that...
Working Paper
Socioeconomic and cultural drivers of women’s formal work in rural GhanaWe study socioeconomic indicators of female labour force participation in off-farm formal employment in a subsistence agriculture setting in northern Ghana, where a new commercial farm provides a positive demand shock for low-skilled labour. We use a...
Working Paper
The financial inclusion agendaUsing a unique district-level panel dataset, we investigate the effect of banking system penetration on financial inclusion in Ghana. To purge potential endogeneity bias in the underlying relationship, we exploit a change in the policy environment of...
Background Note
Review of sub-national institutional performance in GhanaIntroductionThe literature on the concept, measurement, causes, and correlates of sub-national institutional governance is not new. From the seminal work of Putnam et al. (1993) to recent attempts by Iddawela et al. (2021), several authors have...
Working Paper
Ethnic diversity and informal work in GhanaWe present the first study that examines the effects of ethnic diversity on informal work. Using two waves of data from the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey, we find that ethnic diversity is associated with a higher probability of engaging in...
Journal Article
Duration of pre-university education and labour market outcomesThis study provides new evidence on the effect of shortening the duration of pre‐university education on long‐term labour market outcomes in Ghana, exploiting the education reform of 1987 as a natural experiment. Our results indicate that the drastic...
Working Paper
The labour market impact of COVID-19 lockdownsIn this paper, we provide causal evidence of the impact of stringent lockdown policies on labour market outcomes at both the extensive and intensive margins, using Ghana as a case study. We take advantage of a specific policy setting, in which strict...
Working Paper
Do gender wage differences within households influence women’s empowerment and welfare?Using household data from the latest wave of the Ghana Living Standards Survey, this paper utilizes machine learning techniques to examine the effect of gender wage differences within households on women’s empowerment and welfare in Ghana. The...
Journal Article
Fiscal decentralization and efficiency of public services delivery by local governments in GhanaWe estimate the efficiency of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana, and investigate the impact of fiscal decentralization on the efficiency of local public goods and services delivery by MMDAs. Using data from composite...
Working Paper
The welfare effects of financial inclusion in GhanaUsing a nationally representative household survey data set from Ghana, this paper provides empirical evidence regarding the role of financial inclusion or financial exclusion in household welfare. We first compute a multidimensional index of...
Journal Article
Do gender wage differences within households influence women's empowerment and welfare?Using household data from the latest wave of the Ghana Living Standards Survey, this paper utilizes machine learning techniques – IV LASSO – that allows for the treatment of unconfoundedness in the selection of observables and unobservables to...
Working Paper
Investigating inequality trends in AfricaWork done by the African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR) has documented the many-faceted nature of inequality in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. Conventionally measured inequality ranges from moderate (in Ghana) to extremely high...
Working Paper
Differences in inequality measurementOver the years, money-metric measures of inequality such as the Gini coefficient and the Palma Ratio, as frequently used in Ghana, have become useful in providing quantitative measures of welfare distribution that enable a better understanding of the...
Journal Article
The labour market impact of COVID-19 lockdownsIn this study, we provide causal evidence of the immediate and near-term impact of stringent COVID-19 lockdown policies on employment outcomes, using Ghana as a case study. We take advantage of a specific policy setting, in which strict stay-at-home...
Working Paper
Explaining gender differences in preference for self-employment among tertiary graduates in GhanaWe examine gender differences in ambitions and expectations of jobseekers concerning self-employment, an increasingly proposed option for youth in economies with limited wage employment. Analysing survey data on 2,036 tertiary graduates in Ghana, we...
Book Chapter
The agro-processing industry and its potential for structural transformation of the Ghanaian economyPart of Book Industries without Smokestacks
Working Paper
Oil discovery and macroeconomic managementThis paper analyses the evolution of fiscal and monetary variables in Ghana, from the discovery of oil in 2007 through to 2014. It documents the deterioration of fiscal and monetary discipline over this period, which resulted in a rebound of debt, a...
Journal Article
Gold Mining Pollution and the Cost of Private HealthcareTo attract greater levels of foreign direct investment into their gold-mining sectors, many mineral-rich countries in sub-Saharan Africa have been willing to overlook serious instances of mining company non-compliance with environmental standards...
Working Paper
South-South labour migration and the impact of the informal China-Ghana gold rush 2008–13This paper examines irregular South-South migration from China to Ghana, and the role it has played in transforming livelihoods and broader developmental landscapes. It looks at the entry from the mid-2000s of approximately 50,000 Chinese migrants...
Working Paper
Following in their footstepsThe decision to migrate is often influenced by the experience of earlier migrants from one’s household. Earlier migrants provide information on likely opportunities and potential risks and can offer support at destination to later migrants. We...
Journal Article
South‐South Irregular MigrationPart of Journal Special Issue Migration Governance and Policy in the Global South
Working Paper
Structural transformation and inclusive growth in GhanaThis study examines the structural transformation–inclusive growth nexus for Ghana. The data cover the post-independence period for Ghana and are phased into three periods: the post-independence period to the start of the economic recovery programme...
Background Note
COVID-19 and the socioeconomic impact in AfricaThe first two cases of COVID-19 were reported in Ghana on 12 March 2020 by the health ministry. As a first response, on 15 March all public gatherings were banned, all schools and universities were closed, and on 23 March all of the county's borders...
Working Paper
Duration of pre-university education and labour market outcomesThis paper provides new evidence on the causal effect of shortening the duration of pre-university education on long-term labour market outcomes in Ghana. We use the education reform of 1987 as a natural experiment, which reduced the years of...
Working Paper
Implications of the changing nature of work for employment and inequality in GhanaIn this paper, we analyse the role of the changing nature of occupational employment and wages in explaining the trend in earnings inequality in Ghana between 2006 and 2017, a period in which there was a substantial transformation of the economy...
Journal Article
Following in their footstepsPart of Journal Special Issue Migration and Those Left Behind
Working Paper
Residual capacity and the political economy of pandemic response in GhanaOn the whole, poor countries in Africa and elsewhere seem to have weathered the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19) pandemic better than wealthier countries with superior healthcare systems. Using the Ghanaian case, this paper draws on newspaper...
Blog
An African in Africa: New perspectives on travelling for research
Working for an international organisation presents a host of challenges, given the vast nature of tasks that one must surmount in a fast paced and...
Journal Article
Rural financial intermediation and poverty reduction in GhanaThe financial sector in rural areas, where most of the poor people in sub-Saharan Africa are found, has transformed massively in recent times, notably through the increased penetration of several types of rural financial intermediaries in addition to...
Working Paper
Domestic savings in sub-Saharan AfricaOne essential condition of economic progress in any society is an ample supply of savings, which depends on the growth of real capital.Economists agree that higher investment rates will lead to higher growth. Thus, domestic savings is considered an...
Working Paper
Humanity over economy: biopolitical responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in GhanaThis study posits that pandemics should be regarded as complex, open-ended phenomena that cannot be reduced to biology and epidemiology. The research assesses Ghana’s effectiveness in governing the COVID-19 pandemic contrary to apocalyptic...
Journal Article
Ethnic diversity and informal work in GhanaPart of Journal Special Issue What sustains informality
Book Chapter
Harnessing residual capacity: Ghana's struggle against health system constraints in the COVID-19 responsePart of Book How States Respond to Crisis
Working Paper
Urbanization, climate change, and structural transformation in Accra, GhanaThis study examines the effect of climate on citywide labour productivity in the Accra city region. We use data from Ghana’s Integrated Business and Establishment Survey dataset, climate data at the sub-city level from Ghana Meteorological Agency...
Journal Article
The financial inclusion agendaUsing a unique district-level panel dataset, we investigate the effect of banking system penetration on financial inclusion in Ghana. To purge potential endogeneity bias in the underlying relationship, we exploit a change in the policy environment of...
Working Paper
Rural financial intermediation and poverty reduction in GhanaThe financial sector in rural areas, where most of the poor people in sub-Saharan Africa are found, has transformed massively in recent times, notably through the increased penetration of several types of rural financial intermediaries in addition to...
Displaying 48 of 57 results