Research on the impact of financial development on economic growth remains inconclusive. Previous empirical examination of the link is based on aggregate GDP on the presumption that each economic sector responds identically to financial development. However, the extent of credit utilisation, as well as productivity of credit, may not necessarily remain the same across sectors. This study therefore seeks to contribute to the literature by examining the effect of financial development across sectors in sub-Saharan Africa using the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) over the period 1990-2018. Indeed, the findings show that while financial development has a positive effect on the service and agricultural sectors, a certain threshold of financial development must be reached before it can positively contribute to the growth of the industrial sector. The findings are robust to a different estimation technique. With the industrial sector considered critical for economic transformation, our findings imply that policymakers in sub-Saharan Africa need to continue to promote financial development to spur industrialization.

The paper examines determinants of banks performance in the Ghanaian banking industry for the period 2000-2010 using trend graphs, equations and panel data estimation techniques. Three different measures of performance are employed and the results show a negative trend in banks performance within the study period. This observation is worrying due to the crucial role banks play in the economy. On the determinants, market share of loan is found to be positively related to performance, confirming the relative market power hypothesis. The results further reveal that banks in Ghana pass on their inefficiencies to their customers by raising their lending rates and lowering their deposit rates. The findings have some policy implications: banks should reduce the level of administrative overheads instead of passing their inefficiencies to their customers, as this has the effect of reducing the amount of credit customers would take for economic activities.

This paper examines the relationship between participation in nonfarm activity and participation in markets by farm households in Ghana. The study used data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey Round 6 and employed the endogenous switching probit model which accounts for selection bias from observed and unobserved factors. The results reveal that infrastructural variables such as roads, means of transport, markets and banks are important determinants of nonfarm work engagement and participation in crop market. We also find a positive and significant effect of nonfarm work participation on the probability of selling crops. The conclusion is that farmers’ engagement in nonfarm activities boosts decisions to enter crop markets in Ghana. The results of the study imply that for agricultural development in Ghana and other countries with similar characteristics, agricultural policies should incorporate strategies that enhance opportunities in the nonfarm sector as that will translate to enhanced producer market participation.

PurposeThe paper examines the effect of internal remittances on the employment choices of household heads in rural Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 6) of the Ghana Statistical Service. Due to issues of endogeneity of remittances in relation to labor supply, the paper adopts an instrumental variable approach in the analysis. First, employment choices are categorized into three: (1) wage/salary employment, (2) self-employment and (3) domestic/family employment. The relationship is then modeled as instrumental variable multinomial probit (IV-MNP). Secondly, employment choices are recategorized into two: farm employment and otherwise and modeled as instrumental variable probit (IV-PROBIT). The models are estimated via the conditional mixed process (CMP) estimation technique.FindingsThe results indicate that remittances have a negative effect on self-employment and a positive effect on domestic/family employment. Thus, remittances reduce participation in self-employment but increase participation in domestic/family employment. Furthermore, remittances have a negative effect on participation in farm employment. The results are robust to different measures of remittances: receipt of remittances (dummy) and remittance income.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that remittances are used for consumption rather than investing in earning activities. In general, engaging in earning type of employment, whether farm and nonfarm employment will decline with receipt of remittances in rural Ghana. There is a need for policy attention with the increasing migration of people out of rural areas.Originality/valuePrior to this study, little was known on the effect of internal remittances on labor supply decisions of remittance recipients in Ghana, particularly rural Ghana. This paper contributes significantly to filling this knowledge gap.

This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Author SM lead the data collection, wrote the introduction and the methodology. Author IAA estimated and wrote the descriptive statistics, both qualitative and quantitative analyses. Author YU did the econometric estimations and the analyses. All three authors have read through and are jointly responsible for the content of this paper.