Effects of an education reform on household poverty and inequality: A microsimulation analysis on the free Senior High School policy in Ghana

Abstract

This study has been prepared within the UNU-WIDER project on 'SOUTHMOD-Simulating Tax and Benefit Policies for Development' which is part of the Institute's larger research project on 'The economics and politics of taxation and social protection'.

Prevalence and determinants of unmet need for contraception in North Gonja District, Ghana

“…In 1995, the government of Ghana launched free compulsory universal basic education [36] and a capitation grant programme was launched in 2005 in which school fees were abolished and public basic schools were to receive a grant of 3 United States dollars per child per academic year [37]. In 2017, a programme was started to absorb the cost of secondary school and vocational training for all students [38]. These efforts are contributing greatly to girl child education and may help improve maternal and child health.…”

Microsimulation approaches to studying shocks and social protection in selected developing economies

“…Although similar analysis has not been carried out in developing economies by focusing on how safety nets adjust when there are shocks as I do in this paper, work by Del Ninno and Bradford (2015) show the importance of various safety nets and how they can be adjusted and targetted to improve poverty alleviation in developing economies. Adu-Ababio and Osei (2018) and Devereux (2002) support this notion by showing that in sub-Saharan Africa even tiny income transfers are usually used to fund gainful activities, social networks, education, or even investment in productive assets. This implies that social safety nets cannot be loosely classified as a means to only prevent transitory and livelihood shocks but, on the contrary, can be a major tool to tackle chronic poverty.…”

“…With the exception of Devarajan et al (2013), no existing work has been done on developing countries. Finally, literature on safety nets in the form of tax-benefit policies highlight their importance among micro-units without making reference to inherent shocks that may affect their efficiency (see Devereux 2002;Adu-Ababio and Osei 2018;Jäntti et al 2020).…”