This study examines the effect of oil prices on domestic investment in Ghana using quarterly time series data from 1984 to 2012. Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) technique was used to estimate the effect of oil... more
This study examines the effect of oil prices on domestic investment in Ghana using quarterly time series data from 1984 to 2012. Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) technique was used to estimate the effect of oil price on domestic investment in Ghana. The analysis revealed that there is long run relationship between domestic private investment, oil price shocks, exchange rate, inflation, income and credit to private sector. The study found negative effect of oil price shocks on investment. This indicate that shock in oil prices leads to a reduction in investment. It is therefore recommended that mechanisms be put in place to check or cushion the economy against oil price shocks and variability. This could be done through providing domestic credit to the private sector to boast investment.
Purpose This paper aims to analyze the effects of crop specialization on agricultural productivity and commercialization for farmers who produce high-value crops in the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone of Ghana.... more
Purpose This paper aims to analyze the effects of crop specialization on agricultural productivity and commercialization for farmers who produce high-value crops in the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone of Ghana. Design/methodology/approach The study used the USAID/Ghana Feed the Future (FTF) survey, which collected data on high-value crops (i.e. maize, rice and soya). Data for the analysis consists of 2,903 farm households. The study utilized the three-stage generalized method of moment estimation technique to deal with the potential endogeneity of crop specialization within the context of productivity and commercialization and heteroscedasticity issues in the data. Findings The study found that crop specialization positively relates to agricultural productivity and commercialization, suggesting that increased crop specialization in the production of high-value stimulates productivity and opens market opportunities for farm households. These findings imply that crop specialization ...
This study examines the effect of oil prices on domestic investment in Ghana using quarterly time series data from 1984 to 2012. Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) technique was used to estimate the effect of oil price on domestic... more
This study examines the effect of oil prices on domestic investment in Ghana using quarterly time series data from 1984 to 2012. Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) technique was used to estimate the effect of oil price on domestic investment in Ghana. The analysis revealed that there is long run relationship between domestic private investment, oil price shocks, exchange rate, inflation, income and credit to private sector. The study found negative effect of oil price shocks on investment. This indicate that shock in oil prices leads to a reduction in investment. It is therefore recommended that mechanisms be put in place to check or cushion the economy against oil price shocks and variability. This could be done through providing domestic credit to the private sector to boast investment.
PurposeFollowing the reforms in monetary policy and shift in fiscal policies, it is logical to presume that these reforms may cause a significant structural change in the dynamic processes of inflation and hence affect the nature of... more
PurposeFollowing the reforms in monetary policy and shift in fiscal policies, it is logical to presume that these reforms may cause a significant structural change in the dynamic processes of inflation and hence affect the nature of inflation persistence. The purpose of this paper is to examine the persistence nature of the different inflation episodes while controlling for the effects of demand- and supply-side factors, which are modeled as regime-dependent.Design/methodology/approachThis paper used the Markov-switching dynamic regression and annual time series data.FindingsThe results showed that high inflation regime is more persistent than low inflation regime, with a respective average duration of an escape of 3.5 and 2.57 years, which suggests that price stability achievements are less sustainable. In both regimes, demand- and supply-side factors play significant roles in driving inflation, but the effect of the latter dominates. Thus, on the argument of whether inflation in G...
ABSTRACT This study uses machine learning techniques to identify the key drivers of financial development in Africa. To this end, four regularization techniques – the Standard lasso, Adaptive lasso, the minimum Schwarz Bayesian... more
ABSTRACT This study uses machine learning techniques to identify the key drivers of financial development in Africa. To this end, four regularization techniques – the Standard lasso, Adaptive lasso, the minimum Schwarz Bayesian information criterion lasso, and the Elasticnet– are trained based on a dataset containing 86 covariates of financial development for the period 1990 - 2019. The results show that variables such as cell phones, economic globalization, institutional effectiveness, and literacy are crucial for financial sector development in Africa. Evidence from the Partialing-out lasso instrumental variable regression reveals that while inflation and agricultural sector employment suppress financial sector development, cell phones and institutional effectiveness are remarkable in spurring financial sector development in Africa. Policy recommendations are provided in line with the rise in globalization, and technological progress in Africa.
