Bernardin Senadza’s research while affiliated with University of Ghana and other places

This article examines poverty dynamics in Ghana using the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Surveys and a synthetic panel based on the Ghana Living Standards Surveys. It provides insight into the extent of poverty mobility and persistence in Ghana, and the factors that explain poverty transitions. The results show that upward mobility has been a key feature of Ghana's poverty transitions between 2006 and 2019. However, there are still high probabilities of poverty persistence and downward mobility among initially poor and non-poor households, respectively. Furthermore, notable heterogeneities exist in poverty transitions across socioeconomic groups. Poverty is more chronic in rural areas and the northern parts of Ghana compared with urban and southern regions, respectively, and among households headed by persons from opportunity-deprived backgrounds. Other characteristics such as the number of dependants, sex, occupation and level of education of the household head are important correlates of poverty persistence and downward mobility in Ghana. Hence, addressing chronic poverty requires targeted policies that foster more inclusive and sustainable growth in rural areas and northern parts of Ghana, and improved access to opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds, the unemployed, and those in vulnerable employment.

In 2010, the government of Ghana shortened the duration of senior high school by one year. As a result of this policy, the 2009 and 2010 high-school entry cohorts experienced exogenously different years of education but took the same exit exam in 2013. Using nationwide administrative data on the two cohorts, we find that the one-year reduction in schooling substantially worsened performance in all subjects. The most economically significant declines occurred in two core subjects with the lowest historical pass rates—core mathematics and integrated science. Analysis by gender shows larger detrimental effects for female students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects. We also find suggestive evidence that the policy negatively impacted students in the long term.

Ghana returned to democratic rule in 1993 after over a decade of military rule by the Provisional National Defence Council. Before that, the country went through a near economic meltdown resulting in a number of reforms including the Economic Recovery Program (ERP) in 1983 under the guidance of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Since 1993 Ghana’s economic development strategy has evolved around macroeconomic stabilization and structural reforms leveraging on her democratic environment with the view to grow and transform her economy. Notwithstanding many challenges within the period, significant gains were made in terms of economic growth. However, Ghana’s economy remains largely undiversified with little change in its economic structure over the past three decades. Going forward, the exploits of countries like China should serve as a useful model for re-thinking the developmental path for Ghana.

This paper examines the effect of aid fragmentation on the aid-growth nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1990-2017. Aid fragmentation is measured by both the concentration index (Herfindahl index and ratio of contribution by largest three donors) and donor counts (total number of donors and number of small donors). We find a significant negative effect of aid fragmentation on the effectiveness of aid to stimulate economic growth based on the concentration index. We did not find any significant relationship between aid fragmentation and aid effectiveness when we employed the instrumental variable approach. The results point to a positive impact of the economic policy environment in the recipient countries on economic growth. The policy environment and the level of aid fragmentation in the recipient countries are found to have a combined positive moderating effect on the aid-growth nexus.

This article examines poverty dynamics in Ghana using the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Surveys (GSPS) and a synthetic panel based on repeated cross-sectional data (the Ghana Living Standard Surveys (GLSS). It provides insight into the extent of poverty mobility and persistence in Ghana, and the factors that explain poverty transitions. The results show that upward mobility has been a key feature of Ghana's poverty transitions between 2006 and 2019. However, there are still high probabilities of poverty persistence and downward mobility among initially poor and non-poor households, respectively. Furthermore, notable heterogeneities exist in poverty transitions across socioeconomic groups. Poverty is more chronic in rural areas and the northern parts of Ghana compared with urban and southern regions, respectively, and among households headed by persons from opportunity-deprived backgrounds. Other characteristics such as the gender of the household head, his/her occupation, and level of education, as well as the number of dependents, are important correlates of poverty persistence and downward mobility in Ghana. Hence, addressing chronic poverty requires targeted policies that foster more inclusive and sustainable growth in rural areas and northern parts of Ghana, and improved access to opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds, the unemployed, and those in vulnerable employment.

Ghana’s tourism industry has witnessed steady growth over the past two to three decades, which has translated into increasing tourism receipts. This paper examines the economic determinants of international tourism demand in Ghana using data on tourist arrivals from the country’s major generating markets outside Africa from 1995 to 2014. We employ the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimation approach. The long run estimates suggest that income of tourists denoted by the GDP per capita of their respective origin countries, tourism prices in Ghana, substitute prices in an alternative destination (Nigeria), and the level of trade between Ghana and the origin countries are significant determining factors of international tourism demand in Ghana. In the short run, the substitute price showed a negative and statistically significant effect on tourism demand; implying tourists from the origin countries consider Ghana and Nigeria as complementary destinations in the short run. The error correction coefficient indicates that about 11 percent of deviations in tourism demand are corrected every year, signalling a sluggish adjustment process towards long run equilibrium. The study recommends that government policies should focus on strengthening the macroeconomic fundamentals of the economy, promote trade with the origin countries, and diversify the tourism markets.

This paper examines the effect of increasing the length of senior high school educationon immediate academic performance. We exploit a unique natural experiment thatextended high school duration by one year in Ghana from 2007 to 2009. Following thepolicy’s reversal, the 2009 and 2010 high school entry cohorts experienced exogenouslydifferent years of schooling but took the same exit examination in 2013. Using administrativedata on the two student cohorts, we find that the extra year of high schoolsubstantially increased performance in all subjects. We find the most economicallysignificant improvement in achievement for two core subjects with the lowest historicalpass rates—Core Mathematics and Integrated Science. Analysis by gender demonstratesthat the policy closed preexisting achievement gaps in favor of female studentsfor Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. The resultssuggest that relaxing learning time constraints may improve academic achievement andclose gender gaps in STEM fields.