After independence on March 6, 1957, Ghana, under the late President Kwame Nkrumah, turned to diverse developmental activities. Economically, Ghana was on sound footing; the balance of payments was favorable and cocoa was yielding a good harvest. In 1967, Nkrumah was ousted due to his dictatorial rule. In this study the available primary and secondary sources were utilized. Primary sources were made available by the Ghana Embassy in Washington, D. C. and by friends and relatives in institutions of higher learning in Ghana. The study is divided into five chapters. Chapter I concerns itself with a geographical survey of the country, including land, climate, people, and natural resources. Chapter II explores political developments, and Chapter III examines some of the crucial economic problems. Chapter IV explores some economic progress and Chapter V makes suggestions, some of which may seem sordid and grim, but at least they offer a "stepping stone."

The primary purpose of this thesis is to discuss the protectionist policy of the first Republic of Ghana (1957-66). In particular it attempts to evaluate the performance of the key sectors of the economy under the policy using empirical and statistical data for the period and shortly thereafter. Such discussion is of paramount importance since it provides an insight into what future developmental and growth strategy needs to be adopted for Ghana. While avoiding the social, political and ideological discussions of the policy, the thesis provides an insight into the political atmosphere at the time and the ideological inclinations of the Leaders. The thesis begins by looking at the salient features of the economy of Ghana before independence. It then gives a brief background of protectionism in Ghana and the philosophy that led to its adoption. How the policy was implemented is also discussed. A theoretical background of the effects of protection and a sector by sector analysis and evaluation of the effects of protectionism in Ghana forms the substance of the thesis. While the focus of the discussion is on the first government of Ghana and its protectionist policy, an attempt is made to look at subsequent governments and their deviation, if any, from protectionism. An assessment of the policy arrived at the conclusion that while the leaders had been nationalistic about the policy, their adoption and implementation of the policy was nothing less than an economic blunder. / M.A.

This dissertation is concerned with the appropriateness of the conventional urban land use segregation concept which separates people's residence from their place of work. The empirical research is focused on the creative processes by which households in four low income settlements in Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana, integrate their economic survival strategies into the design and use of their housing. The study analyses the extent to which income, settlement type (i.e., informal or government built estates) and location (i.e., inner-city or periphery) have influenced the emergence of neighbourhood enterprises in four low-income settlements. It also examines the kinds of impact the enterprises have had on family income, employment generation, the use of housing space and the functional linkages of the enterprise with the urban economy. The study covered 1,289 enterprises in the four settlements dealing with informal and semi-formal activities; home-based and non home-based businesses; goods- and service-oriented activities; and enterprises which serviced the neighbourhood market and businesses with market outlets outside the city. The enterprises operated as family businesses functionally integrated into the day to day activities of the family. On average, each enterprise employed about three persons. About half of the employed persons surveyed were involved in neighbourhood enterprises. Women constituted 64 per cent of the total workforce and 63 per cent of the entrepreneurs. Higher concentration of the enterprises was observed in settlements with relatively lower income; those close to the city centre; and those with greater flexibility in development processes. Housing development processes manifested a gradual progression from mainly domestic land use to increasingly complex and integrated activities. In sum, the study revealed that although municipal policies pursue the goal of separating where people live and work, housing practices in the communities reflected an integration of residence and work. The study establishes that for the poor, a house is not just a shell but a place where people live, work and struggle for survival. Based on these findings and insights from the case studies and the literature review, the dissertation suggests that there may be a need for: (a) a shift from the conventional land use segregation planning concept to a more holistic perception of the urban system and the organic integration of its functions; and (b) an evolutionary housing and neighbourhood development approach which is culturally appropriate and economically supportive to the survival of the family. The study also suggests that since the problem of poor housing and infrastructure in these communities is primarily due to the question of unequal access to government resources, future improvements in the communities will depend largely on the residents' ability to organise into a strong political force that will lobby for increased municipal funding for the neighbourhoods. These suggestions will provide the framework for the implementation of an integrated neighbourhood development program in the communities focusing on housing improvements, low-cost infrastructure schemes and employment generation through strong local action and effective involvement of relevant actors in the private and public sectors. The dissertation concludes that the enterprises are thriving not only because they fulfil essential neighbourhood demands, but also because of benign neglect on the part of the elite groups who control the city. Although the evidence from the study suggests that the future survival of the neighbourhood enterprises is reasonably assured, their future economic advancement, depends largely on the support and disposition of the city authorities in Kumasi. Perhaps, if similar studies are undertaken in other cities in Ghana and the developing world, the trends noted in this dissertation may be generalised.

The HIPC debt relief initiative is a controversial IMF/World Bank program. This thesis examines whether the HIPC initiative in Ghana is "pro-poor". The concept of the "poor" and what this means for pubic policy is discussed in the framework of the biblical concept of shalom, that is the promotion of human wellbeing, within the context of Northern Ghana. To enable a fair assessment of the HIPC program in Northern Ghana, a review of Ghana's debt crisis is provided alongside a brief economic history. The origin of the debt crisis is traced to the first republic. A review of HIPC is undertaken from the perspectives of both theory and its practical implication. In the implementation process, particularly in Northern Ghana, the research identifies a number of infrastructural projects being accomplished by the HIPC funds and evaluates their usefulness and relevance. The thesis argues that there are three strengths to HIPC in Northern Ghana, namely, political accountability, social participation and infrastructure development; and that there are six weakness, namely, dependency syndrome, cultural relevance, ethnic conflict, adult capability development, personnel provision and economic distribution. It concludes that problem of human development that has been lacking in Ghana's economic policies, and the crisis of skilled personnel could undermine the provisions of HIPC in Northern Ghana to contribute meaningfully to shalom, or some measure of real development in people's life. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

Informal sectors in developing countries provide a substantial pool of jobs for some of the world's poorest people. Self-employment comprises a large portion of the job opportunities available to individuals working in these sectors. This thesis is concerned with the factors that drive people to become self-employed and determine their welfare as an entrepreneur, with a special emphasis on differences between women and men. In Chapter 1, we explain the Ghanaian context to which this thesis relates and outline the contribution of each main chapter and the common themes. In Chapters 2 and 3, we examine the trade-off between domestic work, such as caring for children and household chores, and market work. In Chapter 2, we consider the extent to which individuals are able to substitute between these two tasks to adjust to short-run variation in domestic productivity brought about by outages in electricity. We find that self-employed workers adjust non-monotonically to changes in domestic productivity, initially increasing their levels of domestic work to preserve consumption levels, but then substituting towards market work when power outages become more severe. We show that this relationship is heterogeneous by sex, and build a model of time allocation to demonstrate the theoretical mechanisms behind these results. In Chapter 3 we examine whether the factors that drive occupational selection differ by sex. It is often argued that women choose jobs in self-employment because this allows them to balance income-generation with childcare and other domestic work. We test the plausibility of this claim and its implications for labour market outcomes. First, we use a simple model of occupational choice to clarify our ideas about which notions of 'job flexibility' are important for the Ghanaian context. Second, we examine whether differential selection forces between women and men may explain the raw sex earnings gaps that appear to persist in various sectors, using a multinomial logit model to adjust for non-random occupational selection. We find that controlling for selection substantially widens the earnings gap amongst the self-employed, but shrinks it for the wage-employed. Third, we interrogate our selection equations and show that domestic obligations increase women's likelihood of entering low-input self-employment jobs more than men. We assess the importance of endogeneity using a maximum simulated likelihood estimator to couch the idea that selection on observables can be used as a guide for selection on unobservables, focussing on the discrete choice made over occupation. In Chapter 4, we turn to theory to try and resolve some of the empirical puzzles that remain from Chapter 3. In particular, we attempt to reconcile the fact that female participation in self-employment is so high even when the average differences in potential earnings are large. To do this, we construct a search model, which allows for individual heterogeneity and participation in both self- and wage-employment, as well as discrimination against female workers in the wage sector. We numerically solve and simulate this model, using calibrations from the existing literature, to explain a set of stylised facts generated from a longitudinal dataset of workers in urban Ghana. We show that wage sector discrimination leads to average earnings gaps in \emph{all} sectors of the economy, even if the underlying ability distribution is the same for both sexes. We also conduct a series of experiments to examine how women and men may be affected differently by government policy. Finally, in Chapter 5 we connect our main findings to policy and make some suggestions for future work.

This dissertation is concerned with the appropriateness of the conventional urban land use segregation concept which separates people's residence from their place of work. The empirical research is focused on the creative processes by which households in four low income settlements in Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana, integrate their economic survival strategies into the design and use of their housing. The study analyses the extent to which income, settlement type (i.e., informal or government built estates) and location (i.e., inner-city or periphery) have influenced the emergence of neighbourhood enterprises in four low-income settlements. It also examines the kinds of impact the enterprises have had on family income, employment generation, the use of housing space and the functional linkages of the enterprise with the urban economy. The study covered 1,289 enterprises in the four settlements dealing with informal and semi-formal activities; home-based and non home-based businesses; goods- and service-oriented activities; and enterprises which serviced the neighbourhood market and businesses with market outlets outside the city. The enterprises operated as family businesses functionally integrated into the day to day activities of the family. On average, each enterprise employed about three persons. About half of the employed persons surveyed were involved in neighbourhood enterprises. Women constituted 64 per cent of the total workforce and 63 per cent of the entrepreneurs. Higher concentration of the enterprises was observed in settlements with relatively lower income; those close to the city centre; and those with greater flexibility in development processes. Housing development processes manifested a gradual progression from mainly domestic land use to increasingly complex and integrated activities. In sum, the study revealed that although municipal policies pursue the goal of separating where people live and work, housing practices in the communities reflected an integration of residence and work. The study establishes that for the poor, a house is not just a shell but a place where people live, work and struggle for survival. Based on these findings and insights from the case studies and the literature review, the dissertation suggests that there may be a need for: (a) a shift from the conventional land use segregation planning concept to a more holistic perception of the urban system and the organic integration of its functions; and (b) an evolutionary housing and neighbourhood development approach which is culturally appropriate and economically supportive to the survival of the family. The study also suggests that since the problem of poor housing and infrastructure in these communities is primarily due to the question of unequal access to government resources, future improvements in the communities will depend largely on the residents' ability to organise into a strong political force that will lobby for increased municipal funding for the neighbourhoods. These suggestions will provide the framework for the implementation of an integrated neighbourhood development program in the communities focusing on housing improvements, low-cost infrastructure schemes and employment generation through strong local action and effective involvement of relevant actors in the private and public sectors. The dissertation concludes that the enterprises are thriving not only because they fulfil essential neighbourhood demands, but also because of benign neglect on the part of the elite groups who control the city. Although the evidence from the study suggests that the future survival of the neighbourhood enterprises is reasonably assured, their future economic advancement, depends largely on the support and disposition of the city authorities in Kumasi. Perhaps, if similar studies are undertaken in other cities in Ghana and the developing world, the trends noted in this dissertation may be generalised. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

MSc (Statistics) / Department of Statistics / Over the years researchers have been modeling inflation rate in Ghana using linear models such as Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA) and Moving Average (MA). Empirical research however, has shown that financial data, such as inflation rate, does not follow linear patterns. This study seeks to model and forecast inflation in Ghana using nonlinear models and to establish the existence of nonlinear patterns in the monthly rates of inflation between the period January 1981 to August 2016 as obtained from Ghana Statistical Service. Nonlinearity tests were conducted using Keenan and Tsay tests, and based on the results, we rejected the null hypothesis of linearity of monthly rates of inflation. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) was performed to test for the presence of stationarity. The test rejected the null Hypothesis of unit root at 5% significant level, and hence we can conclude that the rate of inflation was stationary over the period under consideration. The data were transformed by taking the logarithms to follow nornal distribution, which is a desirable characteristic feature in most time series. Monthly rates of inflation were modeled using threshold models and their fitness and forecasting performance were compared with Autoregressive (AR ) models. Two Threshold models: Self-Exciting Threshold Autoregressive (SETAR) and Logistic Smooth Threshold Autoregressive (LSTAR) models, and two linear models: AR(1) and AR(2), were employed and fitted to the data. The Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) were used to assess each of the fitted models such that the model with the minimum value of AIC and BIC, was judged the best model. Additionally, the fitted models were compared according to their forecasting performance using a criterion called mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). The model with the minimum MAPE emerged as the best forecast model and then the model was used to forecast monthly inflation rates for the year 2017. The rationale for choosing this type of model is contingent on the behaviour of the time-series data. Also with the history of inflation modeling and forecasting, nonlinear models have proven to perform better than linear models. The study found that the SETAR and LSTAR models fit the data best. The simple AR models however, out-performed the nonlinear models in terms of forecasting. Lastly, looking at the upward trend of the out-sample forecasts, it can be predicted that Ghana would experience double digit inflation in 2017. This would have several impacts on many aspects of the economy and could erode the economic gains i made in the year 2016. Our study has important policy implications for the Central Bank of Ghana which can use the data to put in place coherent monetary and fiscal policies that would put the anticipated increase in inflation under control.

Various governments in post-independent Ghana have attempted to alleviate poverty among the citizenry. In furtherance of this, several poverty reduction strategies have been employed with different results. Even though the rate of poverty has fallen over the years, it is still high at 21,4% (Molini and Paci, 2015) with women unfortunately bearing most of the brunt of this (National Development Planning Commission, 2012). This dissertation looks at filling the gap in information by exploring the role women can play in poverty reduction, using Ghana as a case study. In doing that, the study analyses poverty and the underlying reasons for endemic poverty among Ghanaians. The objective of this study was to contextualize and make a dimension of poverty broadly in Africa and Ghana in particular. It also sought to critique the current policy alleviation policies and programmes, in relation to various factors contributing to endemic poverty among Ghanaian women, with the aim of identifying the roles that women can play in poverty reduction and making recommendations. In this regard, a descriptive research design coupled with qualitative research methodological technique was employed, where relevant publications in the form of government reports, journals, textbooks and internet were used to collect data. Inferences were extracted based on the requirements of the research topic. The study found that women play an important role in food production, trade, and business. It also emerged from the study that there are numerous factors inimical to the reduction of poverty among women in Ghana. They included their inability to negotiate labour matters; a lack of, or limited education; patriarchal culture or customs; and economic sabotage. In addressing the aforementioned factors, the study recommended that in its pre-assessment of NGOs, government tailor their intervention to synchronize with the development strategies to alleviate poverty among women. It also advised educational awareness and public-public partnerships in the establishment of schools targeted most especially at women for empowerment purposes. Finally, there was an emphasis on advocacy for the reservation of land exclusively for women through land reforms. / Public Administration and Management / M. Admin. (Public Administration)