OCCASIONAL PAPERS
January 20, 2018
[Occasional Paper 13] Does the 2018 Budget and Economic Policy Address the Critical Challenges Facing Ghana? Ghana is currently facing three critical economic challenges, namely a slowdown of economic growth, rising unemployment, and surging public debt. The broad agenda of the government in 2018 is to guide the economy to grow and create more job opportunities to deal with the surging unemployment by reversing the abysmal performance of the agriculture sector and reviving the ailing manufacturing sub-sector. This is to be achieved by a number of flagship programs and projects. The government also plans to reduce the country’s fiscal deficit […]
October 23, 2017
[Occasional Paper 12] Government Expenditure Arrears in Ghana: Trends, Causes, and Management Government expenditure arrears have reached a significant proportion in recent years, and their clearance has contributed to the growth in public expenditure, deficits, and debt. This paper tracks the arrears problem and examines its causes and management. Read full paper here Occasional Paper 12
August 12, 2017
Occasional Paper 11. Economic Analysis of Advertising in the Legal market in Ghana and Proposals for Reform The law and economics framework is used to study the implication of lifting the ban on social media use in advertising in the legal market in Ghana, and how transaction costs, the information, bargaining, policing cost associated with transaction or an agency rule defines the integrity of the interactions between the two parties. Read full paper here Occasional Paper 11
June 6, 2017
Occasional paper 10. Fiscal Decentralization in Ghana: Progress and Challenges Policy makers in Ghana have lauded the fiscal decentralization as a positive driver of substantial government growth and development. Since 1992, Ghana has made strives at implementing fiscal decentralization in Ghana. However, the implementation of the program and management of revenue at the local level has been challenging. This paper provides a general overview of decentralization in Ghana and examines local government fiscal management Read full paper here Occasional Paper 10
March 24, 2017
Occasional Paper 9. Fiscal Rigidities and their Effects in Ghana: What Should the Government Do? In spite of the fact that many reasons are usually used to justify the presence of fiscal rigidities, they have been found to pose serious fiscal and macroeconomic difficulties to some countries, particularly those in Latin America, since they make governments lose the discretion and flexibility to use fiscal policy to address emerging fiscal and macroeconomic challenges. Yet, fiscal rigidities have not received the needed attention in Africa in terms of research. This paper sheds light on fiscal rigidities and their fiscal and macroeconomic effects […]
January 19, 2017
Occasional Paper 8. The Ghanaian Economy in 2012 – How Accurate was the Reported Fiscal Deficit? This paper reviews the performance of the Ghanaian economy in 2012, with a view to establishing the accuracy and the causes of the reported huge fiscal deficit, amounting to 11.6% of GDP, posted during the period. The study finds that the strong performance of the economy achieved in 2011 continued in 2012, driven by the services and industry sectors, with the latter overtaking agriculture as the second largest contributor to the country’s GDP. Improved macroeconomic policies, supported by a tight monetary policy, also helped […]