Search

This paper employs the Bayesian Model Selection (BMS) to determine the link between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and export performance in Ghana. The BMS enables us to consider a large number of potential explanatory variables and deal with the issue of model uncertainty. The study revealed positive effect of FDI on export performance but not as a major driver of export growth in Ghana. However, the effect of domestic savings, trade liberalisation and infrastructure development are found to have stronger effect on export performance than FDI inflows. The study recommends government policies should be geared towards improving domestic savings and the liberalization of the economy towards international trade.

The study examines the effects of market structure on profitability in the Sierra Leone banking industry. There are two competing hypotheses—the traditional structure–conduct–performance (SCP) hypothesis and the efficiency hypothesis (EH). Using pooled and quarterly data for the period 2006-2011, this study tests the validity of these two hypotheses. In general, the overall results of the study have been mixed. However, capital to asset ratio and expenses to asset ratio are found to influence their performance. But for definitive policy purposes, the impact of the banking structure needs to be explored further.

This study examines the factors that influence inflation in Ghana over the sample period of 1965-2012, using the Bayesian Model Selection (BMS) techniques to address issues of model uncertainty. Using data from the world development indictors, the study found real output growth, population growth rate, broad money, exchange rate, lending rate and budget deficit as some of the key factors contributing to Ghana’s inflation. The study recommends among others Bank of Ghana to adopt a low official interest rate as it has a transmission mechanism. JEL Code: E32, E37 Keywords: Bayesian Model Selection, Ghana, Inflation

This study sought to determine how much individual households are willing to pay for efficient solid waste management in the Bolgatanga municipality as well as what factors influence people's demand for the services at a particular price. In pursuance of this, the contingent valuation method which employed the biding game was used. Using cross tabulation and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) the calculated mean willingness to pay (WTP) was Cl6,750. The income variable was found to have a significant effect on the individuals' WTP. Through the interaction dummy variables model, the income elasticity was 0.37. It was also found that occupation (OCC), level of education (EDU), the interaction between sex and occupation(SOC) and the interaction between sex and education (SED), as well as income(lnY) which is the covariate were all significant. Thus the antilog of the differential effects of OCC, EDU, SOC and SED were found to be; 0.64194, 1.65571, 1.69476 and 0.44884, respectfully. Thus the mean WTP of SOC was higher by C2.3367, while the mean WTP of SED was also higher by C2.10455. It is recommended that differential pricing as well as door-to-door refuse collection in selected areas among other services be put in place to ensure efficient refuse management in the municipality.

In contributing to the ongoing debate on the impact of trade liberalization, this paper investigates the quantitative effect of import liberalization on imports and tariff revenue in Ghana. The Johansen cointegration and error correction technique was employed to determine the impact of import liberalization on aggregate imports, and inferred from the estimated results, how liberalization affects import tariff revenue. The findings of the study indicate that import liberalization has been in conflict with the revenue objective of economic reforms in Ghana. It has been suggested that public policy should focus on the identification of the major sources of duty revenue leakage and also focus on complementary measures such as tax replacement, for example substituting sales taxes for tariffs.

The objective of this study was to determine the differential impact of various government expenditures on economic growth and poverty reduction in Ghana using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model based on a social accounting matrix (SAM) for Ghana for the year 1999. Even though there is evidence to show that higher fiscal deficits resulting from the increase in public investment outlays 'crowd out' some private investment by raising interest rates, the overall impact points to increased real GDP on a net basis by removing physical bottlenecks of infrastructure and thereby raising the factor productivity of private investment. Two main lessons can be drawn from this study. First, various types of government spending have differential impacts on economic growth and poverty reduction, implying greater potential to improve efficiency of government spending by reallocation among sectors. Second, governments should reduce their spending on unproductive sectors and rather give priority to increasing its spending on production-enhancing investments such as education, health and infrastructure.