Bukari, C. & Koomson, I.
Adoption of Mobile Money for Healthcare Utilisation and Spending in Rural Ghana
2020 ,
journal article
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In this chapter, the authors discuss the potential link between mobile money adoption and health outcomes, which has not received much attention in the existing literature. They empirically examine the effects of mobile money adoption on healthcare utilisation and spending of rural households in Ghana. Using data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey, the authors show that mobile money adoption enhances rural households’ healthcare utilisation, a finding which is more pronounced in the case of female-headed households. The authors demonstrate that this finding is due to the positive association between mobile money use and the ability of rural households to spend on healthcare.
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Koomson, I., Villano, R. A. & Hadley, D.
Effect of financial inclusion on poverty and vulnerability to poverty: Evidence using a multi-dimensional measure of financial inclusion
2020 ,
Working Paper
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This study examines the effect of financial inclusion on poverty and vulnerability to poverty of Ghanaian households. Using data extracted from the seventh round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey in 2016/17, a multiple correspondence analysis is employed to generate a financial inclusion index, and three-stage feasible least squares is used to estimate households’ vulnerability to poverty. Endogeneity associated with financial inclusion is resolved using distance to the nearest bank as an instrument in an instrumental variables probit technique. Results showed that while 23.4 percent of Ghanaians are considered poor, about 51 percent are vulnerable to poverty. We found that an increase in financial inclusion has two effects on household poverty. First, it is associated with a decline in a household’s likelihood of being poor by 27 percent. Second, it prevents a household’s exposure to future poverty by 28 percent. Female-headed households have a greater chance of experiencing a larger reduction in poverty and vulnerability to poverty through enhanced financial inclusion than do male-headed households. Furthermore, financial inclusion reduces poverty and vulnerability to poverty more in rural than in urban areas. Governments are encouraged to design or enhance policies that provide an enabling environment for the private sector to innovate and expand financial services to more distant places. Government investment in, and regulation of, the mobile money industry will be a necessary step to enhancing financial inclusion in developing countries.
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Koomson, I., Villano, R. A. & Hadley, D.
Intensifying financial inclusion through the provision of financial literacy training: a gendered perspective
2019 ,
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This study examines the impact of financial literacy training on financial inclusion and its intensity using data collected from a randomised control trial. An additive index of financial inclusion is generated from four financial inclusion indicators. After testing for baseline balance and estimating impact, our findings show that beneficiaries of financial literacy training are about 7.2 percentage points more likely to own an account while they are 8.2 percentage points more likely to save. Overall, beneficiaries of financial literacy training had a 9.5 percentage points advantage in receiving financial assistance than their non-beneficiary counterparts. While financial literacy training only showed a significant impact on account ownership for female-beneficiary households, male-beneficiary households also only experienced an impact in their savings behaviour and receipt of financial assistance. Moreover, beneficiaries of financial literacy training are more likely to intensify their financial inclusion and the intensity of inclusion is higher for male and young beneficiary households. The results highlight the need to strengthen financial literacy training in order to close the gender financial inclusion gap.
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Abdul-Mumuni, A., & Koomson, I.
Household remittance inflows and child education in Ghana: Exploring the gender and locational dimensions
2019 ,
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This paper investigates the effect of household remittance inflows on child education in Ghana using data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey Six (GLSS 6). Employing an instrumental variable approach and including children at the nursery and kindergarten levels in our study, the following findings are established. First, remittance inflows generally reduce household liquidity constraints, translating into increased number of school hours for their children. Second, while remittance improves child education in the urban areas, it reduces school hours for their counterparts in rural communities. Third, gains in school hours from remittance inflows are much greater for boys but do not make any or much of a difference in improving that of the girl-child. We call for financial system regulations that help to substantially reduce transaction costs on (or rigidities in) remittance inflows so that its influence on child education outcomes will be improved. Keywords:
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Kotey, B. & Koomson, I.
Firm Size Differences in Financial Returns from Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs)
2019 ,
Working Paper
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Firms of differing sizes make FWAs available to employees, with varying performance outcomes. Research on the financial outcomes of FWAs is sparse and tends to focus on large firms. This study investigates the associations between FWAs and return on labour (ROL) as well as the relevance of these associations to small, medium and large firms, using a sample of 3244 employees working in 602 businesses. The findings show negative associations between flexible leave as FWA and ROL for all firms. Job-sharing has financial value for firms with 100 or more workers, with the majority being females but it is not feasible in small firms due to limited employee numbers. Flexible work hours pay off for firms with up to 99 employees but the financial outcomes become negative thereafter, requiring closer monitoring in larger firms. The findings indicate that firm size is relevant to FWA regulations and negotiations with implications for employers, employees and policymakers.
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Koomson, I. & Peprah, J.
Multiple borrowing, over-indebtedness, and the microcredit addiction syndrome: Evidence from some African countries
2018 ,
Working Paper
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This paper sets out to provide a detailed transmission mechanism between multiple borrowing and over-indebtedness and to link over-indebtedness to microcredit addiction using desktop review and a focus group discussion with microfinance practitioners from Ghana. We find that addiction to microcredit has both supply- and demand-side causes. Some of the supply-side causes include MFIs’ upscaling intentions, unhealthy competition among MFIs, group lending methodology, compulsory savings, and high interest rates and transactions costs. On the demand side, we found factors such as clients’ inability to save for the future, clients’ satisfaction with MFI products and services and multiple borrowing behaviour. If MFIs do not fail in the delivery of their core mandate regarding poverty reduction, clients’ addiction to micro-credit will be reduced substantially.
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Orkoh, E., & Annim, S.K.
Source and use of insecticide treated net and malaria prevalence in Ghana
2017 ,
Working Paper
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This study contends that the achievement of Global objective of reducing malaria prevalence through the scaling up of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) is largely dependent on the extent of education incorporated into its distribution by the sources (distributors). The study categorises the sources into those that include some sort of education about how to use the nets and those that do not and examines the effect of these sources on the relationship between ITN use and malaria prevalence in Ghana. Method: A recursive bivariate probit estimation technique that addresses endogeneity between ITN use and malaria prevalence was used to analyse data on 2,908 under-five children from the 2011 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). Results: The descriptive results revealed that the proportion of ITN usage among children in households who acquired their ITNs from government, NGOs and Community Based Agents (CBAs) was higher than the proportion of usage among those who acquired their ITNs from private health centres, market, shops and street vendors that do not include education. The estimation shows that controlling for other socio-demographic factors, sleeping under ITN reduces the likelihood of experiencing malaria by 22 percent. Conclusion: Scaling up ITN distribution is not enough to ensure utilisation and the expected reduction in malaria prevalence unless the source includes education.
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Afful Jr, B., & Owusu, G.
Types and drivers of innovation in the manufacturing sector of Ghana
2017 ,
Working Paper
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The study sought to identify the type and drivers of innovation with special reference to the manufacturing sector of Ghana. This study employed Probit regression model on the 2013 Ghana Enterprise Survey and the 2014 Ghana Innovation Follow-Up Survey. The results showed that market innovation is the predominant type of innovation among the manufacturing firms in Ghana. Product innovation and process innovation were found to be driven by internal R&D. It was also discovered that organisational innovation is positively driven by the age of the firm, training of production staff and internally installed internet. We further found that female top managers, internal R&D, training of production staff and internally installed internet drive market innovation. In order to aid the innovation activities, government should subsidize internal R&D activities and companies should engage in constant training of production staff in the manufacturing firms.
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Koomson, I., Afful Jr, B., & Villano, R.A.
Relationship Between Financial Stress, Moonlighting and Teacher Attrition
2017 ,
Working Paper
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The widely acknowledged low salaries of teachers makes them deficit units who often seek loans from banks or engage in hire purchases in their bid to smoothing consumption within their households. Despite the financial stress that comes with such tendencies (as a corollary) and its effect on teacher attrition, previous studies have remained silent on this phenomenon. We sought to ascertain the effect of financial stress and moonlighting on teacher attrition using data collected from 1,360 Senior High Schools teachers in three administrative regions in Ghana. Our findings show that teachers who are financially stressed are 6 percent more likely to exit the classroom while those who moonlight are 10 percent more likely to leave the classroom. With teachers’ high probability of repayments of credit, we ask that they should be given a special concession on loan interests or paid well so that they do not become financially stressed.
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Koomson, I. & Ibrahim, M.
Financial Inclusion and Growth of Non-Farm Enterprises in Ghana
2017 ,
Working Paper
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Overtime, the policy to enhance financial inclusion at the national and household or individual levels has coincided with the increasing need for non-farm enterprises in addition to mainstream farming due to climate change and as an income diversification strategy. Using data from the sixth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey, this chapter examines the influence of financial inclusion on growth of non-farm enterprises. We construct a multi-dimensional measure (index) of financial inclusion relying on 14 indicators while employing an instrumental variable approach in examining financial inclusion–firm growth nexus. Our evidence suggests that improvement in non-farm entrepreneurs’ level of financial inclusion is growth-enhancing with higher probability in the urban relative to rural areas. At the policy level, strategies targeted at boosting financial inclusion will not only spur firms’ growth but expand these enterprises and hence improve tax revenue for the economy as a whole.
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Koomson, I.
Examining Child Labor and Parental Altruism from the Rural-Urban Divide: Extending the Inverted-U Empirics
2017 ,
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Extending the current empirical discourse on the inverted-U to cover non-farm households, this paper replaces the land size (proxy for wealth) with a fully-composed household income from the GLSS6 data that incorporates the value of land and five other components as income. After choosing the ZIP model over the PRM, based on the corrected versions of the Vuong test, the findings supported the inverted-U relationship between household income and child labour. This implies that, at lower levels of income, parents are non-altruistic, using more child labourers with increases in income but become altruistic towards their children at income levels beyond GH₵11,656.2760 ($5,834.26) for all households; GH₵11,308.3877 ($5,660.14) and GH₵22,026.4658 ($11,024.81) for the rural and urban households respectively. The analysis showed that rural-located parents become altruistic at relatively lower levels of income compared to their urban counterparts. Policy should aim at increasing the average income of households.
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Peprah, J. A., Koomson, I. & Forson, R.
Demand for Insurance in Ghana: Do Poverty, Employment Status and Demographic Characteristics Matter?
2017 ,
forth coming
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The paper answers the question of whether poverty, employment status and demographic characteristics matter in the demand for insurance in Ghana. Using binary logit estimation on the GLSS6 data, we found that the poor have a lower demand for insurance while formal salaried workers have higher demand for insurance than self-employed. Again, residents in small cities and rural areas purchase more insurance than metropolitan residents. Demand for insurance differ depending on poverty and employment status. Policy must focus on segregating the insurance market to cater for different classes of people.
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http://nesranetwork.com/index.php?route=list&menu_type_name=paper&menu_id=194&level1_menu_id=45&post_id=178
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Peprah, J., Afoakwah, C., & Koomson, I.
Crop Yield Volatility among Smallholder Farmers in Ghana
2016 ,
forth coming
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United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA)
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This paper attempts to explore crop yield volatility among rural and urban smallholder farmers. The data for the study was sourced from the sixth round of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS 6). Three separate Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models were estimated to determine the effect of access to credit, rural farming, and the use of multiple input technology on crop yield. Stochastic Dominance Analysis (SDA) reveals that while rural farmers in the forest and coastal zones experience less volatility in their crop yield, crop yield is highly volatile among rural farmers in the savannah belt. To increase yield among smallholder farmers in Ghana, policy should focus on making credit available to farmers, especially those in the rural areas. Education on the use of technology in farming will help to increase yield and reduce volatility.
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http://collections.unu.edu/view/UNU:5923
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Nunoo, J., Darfor, K. N., Koomson, I., & Arthur, A.
Employment Security and Workers’ Moonlighting Behaviour in Ghana
2016 ,
forth coming
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This study sets out to determine the effect of employment security on moonlighting in Ghana as a means to inform policy on enforcing issues of employment security. The paper follows the work of Shishko and Rostker (1976) in using the GLSS6 data by applying the ordered logit estimation technique. An employment security index is created using four variables. The findings indicated that as a person with a single job becomes more secure with employment, the likelihood of moonlighting is decreased by 0.03 while increasing levels of employment security for people with two and three or more jobs, on the contrary, increases the likelihood of moonlighting by 0.0297and 0.0008 respectively. This implies that workers can be made to stick to single jobs by providing them with higher levels of employment security but once they take on two or more jobs, providing them with employment security pushes them to even want to moonlight the more. With current harsh economic conditions in the country and the urgent need for multiple jobs (moonlighting) as a risk coping mechanism, little has been done on the role employment security plays as a catalyst or otherwise. This paper fills the gap by employing a comprehensive index on employment security in the case of Ghana.
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Koomson, I. & Asongu, S. A.
Relative Contribution of Child Labour to Household Farm and Non-Farm Income in Ghana: Simulation with Child's Education
2016 ,
journal article
Child labourers play an integral role in households’ income diversification process by contributing to farm and non-farm incomes but policies, including that of ILO, have focused largely on eliminating child labour from the agricultural sector through education. This study sought to ascertain the relative contribution of child labourers to farm and non-farm incomes using the GLSS6 data and employed a SUR estimation that simulated, empirically, with the child’s number of hours spent in school. Findings confirmed the trade-off between school hours and household farm and non-farm incomes but simulating and deriving the net effect after including child education revealed that as child labourers spend an extra hour in school, every Gh 1.00 contributed to farm income is accompanied by a Gh 2.12 contribution towards non-farm income. By implication, child education policy can remove child labourers from the farm but may likely result in a paradoxical effect of pushing these children into non-farm activities as they engage in them after school and during weekends. We suggest that government provides adequate remuneration for workers and lobby/bargain for comprehensive prices for agricultural products (internationally) so that households do not use children as instruments to diversify their income portfolios, since child labour acts as a push factor.
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http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8268.12170/abstract
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Koomson, I., Annim, S. K., & Peprah, J. A.
Loan refusal, household income and savings in Ghana: a dominance analysis approach
2016 ,
journal article
Many loan applicants and households face the problem of loan refusal but researchers passively discuss it and do not consider discussing its intensity. This paper uses the fifth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey data, employing the logit and Poisson regression models on loan refusal as binary and count variables respectively. The econometric analysis of 1,600 and 1,591 households for the loan refusal and intensity of loan refusal respectively shows that income and savings inversely relate to loan refusal and the intensity of loan refusal. The dominance analysis also showed that in Ghana, household savings causes loan refusal and intensity of loan refusal more than household income. We call on financial institutions to widen their coverage, in general, and more in the rural areas so as to increase the stock of loanable funds readily available to prospective applicants, with more flexibility for rural dwellers.
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Asongu, S. A., Koomson, I. & Tchamyou, V. S.
Financial globalisation uncertainty/instability is good for financial development
2015 ,
forth coming
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This study assesses the effect of time-dynamic financial globalisation uncertainty on financial development in 53 African countries for the period 2000-2011. Financial globalisation uncertainty is estimated as time-dynamic to capture business cycle disturbances while all dimensions identified by the Financial Development and Structure Database of the World Bank are employed, namely: financial depth (money supply and liquid liabilities), financial system efficiency (at banking and financial system levels), financial system activity (from banking system and financial system perspectives) and financial size. The empirical evidence is based on the Generalised Method of Moments with forward orthogonal deviations. The following findings are established. First, financial globalisation uncertainty does not significantly affect money supply, financial system deposits and financial size. Second, the uncertainty increases banking system efficiency, banking system activity and financial system activity. Moreover, the positive effects are consistently driven by above-median uncertainty levels. It follows that uncertainty in foreign capital flows may be a disguised advantage for domestic financial development, especially in dealing with the substantially documented issue of surplus liquidity in African financial institutions. Moreover, the sceptical view in the financial globalisation literature that ‘allocation efficiency’ is only plausible in the absence of uncertainty/instability is not substantiated by the findings. Justifications for the nexuses and other policy implications are discussed.
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Peprah, J., Afoakwah, C., & Koomson, I.
Savings, Entrepreneurial Trait and Self-Employment: Evidence from Selected Ghanaian Universities
2015 ,
journal article
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Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research (JGER)
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Entrepreneurial trait; Ghana; Youth unemployment; Savings; Self-employment ,
Youth unemployment is a major setback to sustainable growth. In recent times, Ghana has experienced a downward trend in youth employment in spite of several attempts made by the government to control the unemployment situation. This paper explores savings behaviour, entrepreneurial trait and the decision to be self-employed among students from selected public and private universities in Ghana. Employing the bivariate analysis and probit model on a sample of 1046 students shows that savings behaviour among the youth varies according to their programmes of study, type of institution (public and private) and family background of the students. Savings and entrepreneurial trait increase the probability of self-employment decision among university students. Policies that can address graduate unemployment should focus on helping students to save while in school. Also, incorporating entrepreneurial training into the academic programmes of these institutions has the tendency of improving the entrepreneurial traits of students and thereby, decide to be self-employed. Policy intervention needs to be designed strategically to target students into self-employment as a way of curbing youth unemployment in Ghana in order to contribute to national development.
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Nunoo, J., Koomson, I., & Orkoh, E.
Household Deficiency in Demand for Water: Do Water Source and Travel Time Matter?
2015 ,
forth coming
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Despite the massive commitment by policy makers and stakeholders to increase the supply of water to households in Ghana, many households have a deficiency in their self-reported daily quantity of water required for drinking and for general use. This paper focuses on the effect of water source and travelling time on households’ deficiency in demand for water using the Sixth Round of the Ghana Living Standards survey. A Tobit regression analysis of data on 2,843 households reveals that a one minute increase in travelling time increases household deficiency in water demand by about 49 percent. Also, compared to pipe in dwelling/yard/plot, all other sources of water to the households come with greater levels of water deficiency, with unprotected well/spring/river-stream/dam-lake-pond generating the greatest (10.5 litres) levels of deficiency. Other significant predictors of household deficiency in water demand are per capita disposable income, number of rooms in the household, sex of the household head and regular payment of water bills. Government policies aimed at addressing household deficiency in water demand should focus on making more resources available to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and the Community Water and Sanitation Agency so as to achieve more coverage of water accessible to both urban and rural households.
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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/66007/
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Peprah, J. A., & Koomson, I.
Capital and credit sources and household non-farm income in Ghana
2015 ,
journal article
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This paper examines the effects of the various sources of capital and credit available for financing non-farm enterprises in Ghana. A maximization of the household production function yields linear equations for estimating the key parameters of interest. Capital from bank, family, NGOs and money lenders significantly influence non-farm income. In terms of business expansion, credit from bank, cooperatives and family/friends are very important. Regional differences also appear to be significant as well as the ecological zones. Gender differences in capital and credit sources affect income of non-farm enterprises.
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@article{peprah2015capital, title={Capital and credit sources and household non-farm income in Ghana}, author={Peprah, JA and Koomson, I}, journal={Journal of Arts and Social Science}, volume={3}, number={1}, pages={74--97}, year={2015} }
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Peprah, J. A., & Koomson, I.
Addiction to Microcredit: An Obstacle to Social and Financial Mobility
2014 ,
Working Paper
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Contrary to the confidence in the ability of microfinance to uplift the poor on the social structure so that upon reaching a higher echelon, the poor (clients) will be able to save and borrow from formal financial institutions (FFIs), most of the poor and socially vulnerable have now become addicted to micro-credit due to demand and supply-side factors. What could be the possible causes of this micro-credit addiction? The objective of this paper was to unravel the causes of what we call “microcredit addiction†and provide recommendations that will enable the addicted clients to break away from this craving. The paper reviews literature on social and financial impact of microfinance and finds that failure of microfinance in the delivery of its core mandate of poverty reduction results in clients’ addiction to micro-credit and, eventually, inhibits their social and financial mobility. The upscaling intentions of MFIs, compulsory savings, high interest rates and transactions costs, multiple borrowing, client’s inability to save for the future and, surprisingly, clients’ satisfaction with MFIs’ products and services are among the factors that make clients get addicted to micro-credit.
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Peprah, J. A., & Koomson, I.
Economic Drivers of Domestic Violence among Women: A Case Study of Ghana
2014 ,
book chapter
Violence against women seems to be more of an economic than a sociological problem. In Ghana, no study has investigated the economic causes of domestic violence against women. The chapter seeks to investigate the economic factors that are likely to drive domestic violence among married couples. The study uses a survey of 260 married women from selected communities around the University of Cape Coast. Due to the nature of the measurement of domestic violence, the study adopts the binary logit model to estimate the key economic variables that affect the likelihood of being subjected to domestic violence. Average income, property ownership, economic activities, and their interactions seem to drive domestic violence after controlling for some household covariates. It is found that income and a combination of being economically engaged and owning an asset significantly affected domestic violence at their desired level of significance. Stemming from this, the authors call on the appropriate authorities to make credit facilities available to women to enable them to be economically engaged. Empowering women through the provision of microcredit facilities has the potential to reduce the economic dimensions of domestic violence.
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http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/economic-drivers-of-domestic-violence-among-omen/94327
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@article{peprah2014economic, title={Economic Drivers of Domestic Violence among Women: A Case Study of Ghana}, author={Peprah, James Atta and Koomson, Isaac}, journal={Globalization and Governance in the International Political Economy}, volume={166}, year={2014}, publisher={IGI Global} }
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