Ghanaian Journal of Economics

Community water infrastructure and the One Village One Dam Project: A case study of the Gia dam in the Kassena Nankana East Municipal District

Imhotep Paul Alagidede — 2024-10-07

Water storage has avital role to play inimproving food security and reducing poverty,particularly in the geographical context of northern Ghana that is characterized by short unimodal rainfall pattern .A wide range ofstorage structures are available with thecommonest being dams.While thepositive effects of large dams have not been thoroughly utilized,the special appeal of small waterinfrastructure makes them more preferred .Despite the focus on construction of smaller dams in some parts of northern Ghana ,not all of them remain functional .While some are defective and silted , others are not well engineered , particularly , the Gia dam in the Kassena Nankana East Municipal District in the Upper East Region . Consequently,they are not able to serve theirintended purposes.This paper is acase study of theGia dam constructed under the One Village One Dam [1V1D]initiative and provides empirical evidence toinform current and future dam construction.The study examines the shortcoming oftheexecution ofcommunity dams and argues that the planners need to consider re - engineering and correct defects in the already constructed reservoirs . Community driven and better managed dams with private sector led financing of rural waterinfrastructure projects would facilitate adequate water for all year -round farming and other domestic activities . Alternative construction models are proposed for implementation.

Household spending and income inequality: examining the effects o f a consumption-based tax in Ghana

Kobena Foh Ocran — 2024-10-07

This paper examined the impact of VAT on household spending and income inequality in Ghana by incorporating Zivot–Andrews test. The study employed bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag model, complemented by Toda–Yamamoto causality test. The empirical findings revealed that the elasticity of consumer spending with respect to VAT is negative, inelastic, and significant in the long-run but leaves no short-run effect. The impact of a change in VAT varies on household spending and income inequality.

Persistent budget deficit and lending interest rates in the West African Monetary Zone

Emmanuel Akuoko-Konadu — 2024-10-07

This paper explores lending interest rates’ impact on private investments in six West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) countries from 2004 to 2020. Using the feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) and more robust econometric procedures (LSDV and POLS), the results show that persistent budget deficits have significantly impacted lending interest rates within the WAMZ. The study concludes that country risk premium, foreign interest rate, and money supply are critical predictors of lending interest rates. The study refutes the assertion that budget deficits do not influence lending interest rates and gives credence to the neoclassical hypothesis. This explains that crowding out private investments in the WAMZ is a possible outcome.

The role of aid for trade facilitation in Ghana’s export diversification agenda

Isaac Kwesi Ampah — 2024-10-07

This study employs the novel dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag simulation alongside the traditional Autoregressive Distributed Lag model to investigate the extent to which aid for trade facilitation contributes to improvement in export diversification in a single case country using quarterly data from 2005 to 2020. The estimation results from the augmented Heckscher–Ohlin model adopted for the study indicate that aid for trade facilitation so far received by Ghana has been a significant resource for enhancing export diversification either measured as the number of exported commodities, number of trading partners or the Hirschman–Herfindahl Index (HHI). Based on these findings, the study concludes that Aid for Trade (AfT) facilitation is a potential policy option that the government of Ghana can employ to promote export diversification. Consequently, the study encourages the donor community and the Ghanaian government to allocate new and additional resources specifically aimed at reducing trade-related transaction costs since this could improve the diversification of exports in the country. Additionally, the study suggests that the Ghana Export Promotion Authority and the Ghana Free Zones Authority should provide targeted support in the areas of customs procedures, simplified documentation, and efficient logistics to industries with export potential. Facilitating trade procedures is recommended as a strategy to further diversify exports in the country.

Impact of Cash Transfers on Child Health Status by Gender in Kenya

Jared Masini Ichwara — 2024-10-07

Diarrhoea and malnutrition are major problems afflicting children in Kenya and other developing countries. This is detrimental to human capital development and child well-being. This paper aims at evaluating the potential impact of cash transfers on nutritional status and incidence of diarrhoea among children below five years and differentiated by gender in Kenya. Because the cash transfers are not randomly assigned, propensity score matching methods were applied to a nationally representative household survey to examine whether unconditional cash transfers aid child human capital development. We provide empirical evidence that children in cash transfer- receiving households differ from those in non-recipient households. Second, we show that the unconditional cash transfers have potential to influence human capital development. However, girls are generally in an underprivileged situation in Kenya. Whereas cash transfers reduced the incidence of diarrhoea and malnutrition for boys in cash transfer-receiving households, in the case of girls the impact of cash transfers was not significant in case of diarrhoea or it was significant but adversely affected nutritional status. These results are comparable to other evaluations of unconditional cash transfers around the world. The results suggest there is scope for cash transfer programmes to promote human capital development among vulnerable households. Consequently, there is a case for expanding the cash transfers and ensuring efficient and effective administrative structure for targeting, disbursement and accountability