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While the role of search effort in the transition from unemployment to employment is not contentious, there is paucity of empirical evidence on the nexus between search effort and the duration of unemployment, especially in developing countries. Hence, this paper focuses on the time period in which the individual exits unemployment, using search intensity as a key explanatory variable. Data for the study is sourced from a survey of 404 formal sector workers in Accra who secured their first employment from 2005 and 2012. We disaggregated the transition period into three intervals namely; less than 1 month, between 1 and 12 months and more than 12 months, in order to achieve this objective. Using the multinomial logistic regression, we found that the use of multiple methods (search intensity) in the search process has a highly significant (p<0.001) effect on the probability of entering employment. In particular, using two additional methods decrease the probability of finding employment in less than 1 month by 11.4 percentage points but raises the prospect of entering into employment in the 1-12 months period by 9.8 percentage points. Other variables that significantly explain the duration of unemployment include age, years of schooling, sector of employment (private sector), family support and the year of employment. The paper concludes with a recommendation to realign the Labor Market Information System to the dynamics of the labor market [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desire of workers to engage in moonlighting, a phenomenon of multiple job-holding is a reflection of some of the changing labour market outcomes. Public sector workers who suffered loss of jobs through public sector retrenchment and privatisation as part of Ghana's economic reform resorted to holding more than one job to earn enough to avert any substantial drop in their living conditions. Despite the seemingly conspicuous existence of multiple job-holding in Ghana, much remains to be learnt about its determinants and characteristics of the phenomenon. This article employs the probit regression estimation technique based on the two most recent nationwide household surveys conducted in 1998/99 and 2005/06 to investigate the main determinants of moonlighting in Ghana. It provides empirical evidence to suggest that personal and household characteristics as well as location and labour market characteristics such as individual earnings and hours spent in the main job significantly influence an individual's desire to engage in more than one job. The study concludes that apart from the financial motive that drives an individual's decision to moonlight, the engagement of moonlighting on account of lower working hours in the individual's main job could be a symptom of visible or time-related underemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study re-examines the McKinnon-Shaw financial liberalization hypothesis, which posits simply that high real deposit interest rates increase financial savings, which in turn lead to increase in the quantity and quality of domestic investment. More specifically, the study investigates the impact of interest rate deregulation on investment in Ghana and the transmission mechanism through which this could happen. Utilizing cointegration and error correction model techniques with data for the period 1970-2005, the study's findings are as follows. While the study finds a statistically significant and positive relationship between real deposit interest rate and financial savings as well as between bank credit and financial savings, the net effect of a real deposit rate on investment is found to be negative. In other words, holding all other variables constant, a higher real deposit rate which leads to a higher increase in financial savings and then bank credit, is offset by a higher cost of lending, thus making the net effect on investment negative. In this regard, the findings do not seem to provide support for the McKinnon-Shaw financial liberalization hypothesis. Other variables found to be important in explaining investment in Ghana are the financial deepening, macroeconomic volatility that is proxied by inflation differential and the lagged change in GDP, affirming the accelerator model principle. The findings therefore have important policy implications for the on-going financial sector reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the influence of government expenditure and institutions on public debt accumulation and economic growth in Ghana between 1990 and 2019. The paper examines how public debt is utilized for government spending on capital and recurrent expenditure, and the role bureaucratic quality plays in improving economic growth. The employed estimation technique is structural equation modelling because it effectively assesses complex situations and allows the modelling of complex systems by utilizing simultaneous equations, mediator analysis and modification indices to improve the goodness of fit of a model. The study indicates that public debt negatively affects GDP growth, whereas trade openness positively influences GDP growth and public debt accumulation. Bureaucratic quality impacts GDP growth positively and capital expenditure negatively. Recurrent expenditure positively predicts GDP growth and capital expenditure. Capital expenditure's effect on GDP growth is negative but statistically insignificant. The right checks and balances should be implemented to mitigate rent‐seeking and corrupt activities associated with bureaucracy. Tax revenue mobilization should be improved to reduce budget deficits and borrowing, whereas exports should be promoted through improving local industries. Finally, all infrastructural projects must be completed to serve their purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]