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Isaac Koomson

The University of Queensland, Centre for the Business and Economics of Health (CBEH), Faculty Member

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I am a Senior Research Fellow at The University of Queensland’s Centre for the Business and Economics of Health (CBEH). My current research is in the areas of health and development economics and cuts across societal healthcare issues such as child health (i.e., malnutrition), healthcare utilisation, out-of-pocket health expenditure and mental health.

My studies also help tackle global community challenges including disease outbreak resilience, poverty, vulnerability, food insecurity and energy poverty. I have worked on projects as a consultant for organisations such as the World Bank, the United Nations, and other policy-oriented research institutes.
Address: Cape Coast, Central, Ghana

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University of California, Santa Barbara

University of British Columbia

Radhika Gajjala

Bowling Green State University

University of Aberdeen

California State University, Northridge

The University of Texas at Austin

Shabib H . Syed

University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

Saebani Hardjono

Trisakti University

Shenila Khoja-Moolji

Georgetown University

ELCHİN SULEYMANOV

Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

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Papers by Isaac Koomson

Employment precarity and energy poverty in post-apartheid South Africa: Exploring the racial and ethnic dimensions

Energy Economics

The Ebola pandemic and household food insecurity

State Fragility and Resilience in sub-Saharan Africa, 2020

Parental Time Poverty, Child Work and School Attendance in Ghana

Child Indicators Research, 2022

This study examines the relationship between parental time poverty, child work, and school attend... more This study examines the relationship between parental time poverty, child work, and school attendance in Ghana using data from the sixth and seventh rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS6 and GLSS7). Results of the analysis indicate an increasing decline in child enrolment in public schools (from 9% to 6%) among time poor household heads. In addition, parental time poverty increases children's walking hours to and from school and private school enrolment. We observed heterogeneity of parental time poverty on child work in relation to the location of households and gender disaggregation. Child work and school attendance-reducing effect of parental time poverty is mainly prevalent among male children but mixed for location. Our result is robust to the alternative estimation method of addressing endogeneity and further shows that household income is the primary channel through which time poverty influences child work and school attendance.

Regional and country-level interventions to end child labor

State Fragility and Resilience in sub-Saharan Africa, 2020

Household Deficiency in Demand for Water: Do Water Source and Travel Time Matter?

Global Social Welfare, 2017

Addiction to Microcredit: An Obstacle to Social And Financial Mobility

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014

Contrary to the confidence in the ability of microfinance to uplift the poor on the social struct... more 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.

Examining Child Labor and Parental Altruism from the Rural-Urban Divide: Extending the Inverted-U Empirics

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2017

Extending the current empirical discourse on the inverted-U to cover non-farm households, this pa... more 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.

Loan refusal, household income and savings in Ghana: a dominance analysis approach

African J. of Economic and Sustainable Development, 2016

Loan refusal has been a problem facing many loan applicants at the household level and this probl... more Loan refusal has been a problem facing many loan applicants at the household level and this problem is not new to loan applicants in Ghana. Despite this knowledge, researchers passively discuss loan refusal and do not consider the intensity of this problem. This study analyses the effect of household income and savings on loan refusal and the intensity of loan refusal in Ghana using the fifth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS-5). The study employs the direct elicitation approach to identifying credit constrained (loan refused) households and makes use of the Logit and Poisson regression to regress the loan refusal variable on other covariates. The Logit model is applied to loan refusal as a binary variable (refused and not refused) while the Poisson is applied to loan refusal as a count variable (number of times of loan refusal). 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 at their respective significance levels. It is also shown that low-income and low-savings households are more likely to be discouraged from loan applications than their counterparts in high-income and savings households. Financial institutions are called upon to generally widen their coverage and to extend their activities more into the rural areas so as to increase the stock of loanable funds available to rural dwellers. This will reduce the vulnerability of rural dwellers when it comes to loan refusal.

Savings, entrepreneurial trait and self-employment: evidence from selected Ghanaian Universities

Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 2015

Youth unemployment is a major setback to sustainable growth. In recent times, Ghana has experienc... more 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...

Economic Drivers of Domestic Violence among Women

Globalization and Governance in the International Political Economy

Violence against women seems to be more of an economic than a sociological problem. In Ghana, no ... more 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.

The role of financial literacy in households’ asset accumulation process: evidence from Ghana

Review of Economics of the Household, 2022

This paper examines the impact of financial literacy training on household asset accumulation usi... more This paper examines the impact of financial literacy training on household asset accumulation using data collected from a randomised controlled trial implemented in Ghana. Financial assets are measured using account holdings and savings while durable assets and their decomposed components are captured using their total values. After testing for baseline balance, impact is estimated using treatment effect models. We find that financial literacy training plays a significant role in accumulation of both financial and durable assets, but the impact is more evident in the accumulation of productive durable assets. Our overall findings on productive and non-productive assets are robust to alternative conceptualisations of what constitutes productive and non-productive assets. Our results also show that financial literacy training has an impact on the accumulation of both total and productive assets in female-beneficiary households, as well as enhancing account holdings for females, althou...

Gender and Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Integrated Crop-Livestock Management Practices (ICLMPs) Among Men and Women Smallholder Farmers in Ghana

Integrated crop-livestock management practices (ICLMPs) play a vital role in ensuring food securi... more Integrated crop-livestock management practices (ICLMPs) play a vital role in ensuring food security and improved welfare for smallholder households but studies that focus on ICLMP adoption in Ghana (including its gender dimension) remain scant. This paper examines gender differences in the drivers and intensity of ICLMPs' adoption using farm-level data from 608 smallholder farmers in Ghana. Employing Multivariate Probit, Tobit regression models and dominance analytical procedures, we find that adoption of ICLMPs is generally influenced by non-farm income, extension contacts and nativity. While age, credit access, soil fertility, distance to markets, total value of assets and research contacts influence the intensity of ICLMPs' adoption among the men, intensity of adoption among women farmers is influenced mainly by household size. The dominance analyses showed that being a native of the community/village where one farms had the strongest influence in intensifying ICLMP adoption, with gender differences being evident regarding the relative influence of the other variables. Policies to enhance the adoption of ICLMPs in Ghana could be designed to focus on women farmers who have large farm assets, access to extension and are engaged in nonfarm income-generating activities

Accelerating the impact of financial literacy training programmes on household consumption by empowering women

Applied Economics, 2021

This study examines the impact of a joint financial literacy and women’s empowerment training pro... more This study examines the impact of a joint financial literacy and women’s empowerment training programme on household consumption as a welfare indicator. Using data collected from a randomised controlled trial conducted in Ghana, we tested for baseline balance and applied ordinary least squares to estimate endline impact. Our findings revealed that the impact of financial literacy on household consumption is influenced by the design and delivery of the programme. A weaker impact is achieved when financial literacy training is offered alone. The ensuing stronger short-term impact of financial literacy training on household consumption is achieved through the inclusion of a women’s empowerment module. The joint delivery of the programme significantly improved household consumption for female-beneficiary and younger households. We advocate the inclusion of women’s empowerment training in financial literacy training programmes to accelerate impact on household welfare through increased household consumption

Effect of Financial Inclusion on Poverty and Vulnerability to Poverty: Evidence Using a Multidimensional Measure of Financial Inclusion

Social Indicators Research, 2020

This study examines the effect of financial inclusion on poverty and vulnerability to poverty of ... more 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% of Ghanaians are considered poor, about 51% 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%. Second, it prevents a household's exposure to future poverty by 28%. 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.

Intensifying financial inclusion through the provision of financial literacy training: a gendered perspective

Applied Economics, 2019

This study examines the impact of financial literacy training on financial inclusion and its inte... more 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.

Gambling and Financial Stress

Social Indicators Research, 2022

In recent years, gambling harm has been considered a significant public health concern due to its... more In recent years, gambling harm has been considered a significant public health concern due to its increasing socioeconomic costs. Although the adverse effects of gambling have attracted research interest, evidence of its effect on financial stress remains largely anecdotal. This study empirically examines the link between individual problem gambling severity and financial stress using panel data from the household, income and labour dynamics in Australia survey. After addressing endogeneity, we find that problem gambling severity is positively associated with self-reported financial stress. Thus, problem gambling severity tends to increase financial stress. This finding is robust to alternative measures of financial stress and gambling behaviour—whether gambling is measured using the problem gambling severity index, gambling risk statuses, number of gambling activities, or gambling expenditure. The positive effect of gambling on financial stress is largely driven by gambling activit...

Impact of climate change adaptation on farm productivity and household welfare

Climatic Change

Conceptualizing the state, state fragility and resilience in the political economy of sub-Saharan Africa

Introducing the Disease Outbreak Resilience Index (DORI) Using the Demographic and Health Surveys Data from sub-Saharan Africa

Social Indicators Research

Although most studies on disease emergencies underscore the need for household readiness for shoc... more Although most studies on disease emergencies underscore the need for household readiness for shocks associated with disease outbreaks, no study to date has provided a holistic measure for profiling households based on their readiness toward disease outbreaks. This paper introduces a novel Disease Outbreak Resilience Index (DORI) using a multidimensional approach that draws on the Alkire-Foster methodology. DORI measures disease outbreak resilience in four dimensions: (a) water and hygiene, (b) physical distancing, (c) energy and communication, and (d) economic security and resilience. The paper details the development of DORI and its use by presenting findings from ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program. In addition to serving as a resilience index, we illustrate how DORI can be used to produce a disease outbreak vulnerability index (DOVI). As a versatile index, the indicators under each dimension can be tailored to meet ...

Crop Yield Volatility Among Smallholder Farmers in Ghana

AARN: Africa (Topic), 2016

This paper attempts to explore crop yield volatility among rural and urban smallholder farmers. T... more 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.

Employment precarity and energy poverty in post-apartheid South Africa: Exploring the racial and ethnic dimensions

Energy Economics

The Ebola pandemic and household food insecurity

State Fragility and Resilience in sub-Saharan Africa, 2020

Parental Time Poverty, Child Work and School Attendance in Ghana

Child Indicators Research, 2022

This study examines the relationship between parental time poverty, child work, and school attend... more This study examines the relationship between parental time poverty, child work, and school attendance in Ghana using data from the sixth and seventh rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS6 and GLSS7). Results of the analysis indicate an increasing decline in child enrolment in public schools (from 9% to 6%) among time poor household heads. In addition, parental time poverty increases children's walking hours to and from school and private school enrolment. We observed heterogeneity of parental time poverty on child work in relation to the location of households and gender disaggregation. Child work and school attendance-reducing effect of parental time poverty is mainly prevalent among male children but mixed for location. Our result is robust to the alternative estimation method of addressing endogeneity and further shows that household income is the primary channel through which time poverty influences child work and school attendance.

Regional and country-level interventions to end child labor

State Fragility and Resilience in sub-Saharan Africa, 2020

Household Deficiency in Demand for Water: Do Water Source and Travel Time Matter?

Global Social Welfare, 2017

Addiction to Microcredit: An Obstacle to Social And Financial Mobility

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014

Contrary to the confidence in the ability of microfinance to uplift the poor on the social struct... more 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.

Examining Child Labor and Parental Altruism from the Rural-Urban Divide: Extending the Inverted-U Empirics

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2017

Extending the current empirical discourse on the inverted-U to cover non-farm households, this pa... more 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.

Loan refusal, household income and savings in Ghana: a dominance analysis approach

African J. of Economic and Sustainable Development, 2016

Loan refusal has been a problem facing many loan applicants at the household level and this probl... more Loan refusal has been a problem facing many loan applicants at the household level and this problem is not new to loan applicants in Ghana. Despite this knowledge, researchers passively discuss loan refusal and do not consider the intensity of this problem. This study analyses the effect of household income and savings on loan refusal and the intensity of loan refusal in Ghana using the fifth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS-5). The study employs the direct elicitation approach to identifying credit constrained (loan refused) households and makes use of the Logit and Poisson regression to regress the loan refusal variable on other covariates. The Logit model is applied to loan refusal as a binary variable (refused and not refused) while the Poisson is applied to loan refusal as a count variable (number of times of loan refusal). 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 at their respective significance levels. It is also shown that low-income and low-savings households are more likely to be discouraged from loan applications than their counterparts in high-income and savings households. Financial institutions are called upon to generally widen their coverage and to extend their activities more into the rural areas so as to increase the stock of loanable funds available to rural dwellers. This will reduce the vulnerability of rural dwellers when it comes to loan refusal.

Savings, entrepreneurial trait and self-employment: evidence from selected Ghanaian Universities

Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 2015

Youth unemployment is a major setback to sustainable growth. In recent times, Ghana has experienc... more 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...

Economic Drivers of Domestic Violence among Women

Globalization and Governance in the International Political Economy

Violence against women seems to be more of an economic than a sociological problem. In Ghana, no ... more 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.

The role of financial literacy in households’ asset accumulation process: evidence from Ghana

Review of Economics of the Household, 2022

This paper examines the impact of financial literacy training on household asset accumulation usi... more This paper examines the impact of financial literacy training on household asset accumulation using data collected from a randomised controlled trial implemented in Ghana. Financial assets are measured using account holdings and savings while durable assets and their decomposed components are captured using their total values. After testing for baseline balance, impact is estimated using treatment effect models. We find that financial literacy training plays a significant role in accumulation of both financial and durable assets, but the impact is more evident in the accumulation of productive durable assets. Our overall findings on productive and non-productive assets are robust to alternative conceptualisations of what constitutes productive and non-productive assets. Our results also show that financial literacy training has an impact on the accumulation of both total and productive assets in female-beneficiary households, as well as enhancing account holdings for females, althou...

Gender and Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Integrated Crop-Livestock Management Practices (ICLMPs) Among Men and Women Smallholder Farmers in Ghana

Integrated crop-livestock management practices (ICLMPs) play a vital role in ensuring food securi... more Integrated crop-livestock management practices (ICLMPs) play a vital role in ensuring food security and improved welfare for smallholder households but studies that focus on ICLMP adoption in Ghana (including its gender dimension) remain scant. This paper examines gender differences in the drivers and intensity of ICLMPs' adoption using farm-level data from 608 smallholder farmers in Ghana. Employing Multivariate Probit, Tobit regression models and dominance analytical procedures, we find that adoption of ICLMPs is generally influenced by non-farm income, extension contacts and nativity. While age, credit access, soil fertility, distance to markets, total value of assets and research contacts influence the intensity of ICLMPs' adoption among the men, intensity of adoption among women farmers is influenced mainly by household size. The dominance analyses showed that being a native of the community/village where one farms had the strongest influence in intensifying ICLMP adoption, with gender differences being evident regarding the relative influence of the other variables. Policies to enhance the adoption of ICLMPs in Ghana could be designed to focus on women farmers who have large farm assets, access to extension and are engaged in nonfarm income-generating activities

Accelerating the impact of financial literacy training programmes on household consumption by empowering women

Applied Economics, 2021

This study examines the impact of a joint financial literacy and women’s empowerment training pro... more This study examines the impact of a joint financial literacy and women’s empowerment training programme on household consumption as a welfare indicator. Using data collected from a randomised controlled trial conducted in Ghana, we tested for baseline balance and applied ordinary least squares to estimate endline impact. Our findings revealed that the impact of financial literacy on household consumption is influenced by the design and delivery of the programme. A weaker impact is achieved when financial literacy training is offered alone. The ensuing stronger short-term impact of financial literacy training on household consumption is achieved through the inclusion of a women’s empowerment module. The joint delivery of the programme significantly improved household consumption for female-beneficiary and younger households. We advocate the inclusion of women’s empowerment training in financial literacy training programmes to accelerate impact on household welfare through increased household consumption

Effect of Financial Inclusion on Poverty and Vulnerability to Poverty: Evidence Using a Multidimensional Measure of Financial Inclusion

Social Indicators Research, 2020

This study examines the effect of financial inclusion on poverty and vulnerability to poverty of ... more 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% of Ghanaians are considered poor, about 51% 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%. Second, it prevents a household's exposure to future poverty by 28%. 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.

Intensifying financial inclusion through the provision of financial literacy training: a gendered perspective

Applied Economics, 2019

This study examines the impact of financial literacy training on financial inclusion and its inte... more 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.

Gambling and Financial Stress

Social Indicators Research, 2022

In recent years, gambling harm has been considered a significant public health concern due to its... more In recent years, gambling harm has been considered a significant public health concern due to its increasing socioeconomic costs. Although the adverse effects of gambling have attracted research interest, evidence of its effect on financial stress remains largely anecdotal. This study empirically examines the link between individual problem gambling severity and financial stress using panel data from the household, income and labour dynamics in Australia survey. After addressing endogeneity, we find that problem gambling severity is positively associated with self-reported financial stress. Thus, problem gambling severity tends to increase financial stress. This finding is robust to alternative measures of financial stress and gambling behaviour—whether gambling is measured using the problem gambling severity index, gambling risk statuses, number of gambling activities, or gambling expenditure. The positive effect of gambling on financial stress is largely driven by gambling activit...

Impact of climate change adaptation on farm productivity and household welfare

Climatic Change

Conceptualizing the state, state fragility and resilience in the political economy of sub-Saharan Africa

Introducing the Disease Outbreak Resilience Index (DORI) Using the Demographic and Health Surveys Data from sub-Saharan Africa

Social Indicators Research

Although most studies on disease emergencies underscore the need for household readiness for shoc... more Although most studies on disease emergencies underscore the need for household readiness for shocks associated with disease outbreaks, no study to date has provided a holistic measure for profiling households based on their readiness toward disease outbreaks. This paper introduces a novel Disease Outbreak Resilience Index (DORI) using a multidimensional approach that draws on the Alkire-Foster methodology. DORI measures disease outbreak resilience in four dimensions: (a) water and hygiene, (b) physical distancing, (c) energy and communication, and (d) economic security and resilience. The paper details the development of DORI and its use by presenting findings from ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program. In addition to serving as a resilience index, we illustrate how DORI can be used to produce a disease outbreak vulnerability index (DOVI). As a versatile index, the indicators under each dimension can be tailored to meet ...

Crop Yield Volatility Among Smallholder Farmers in Ghana

AARN: Africa (Topic), 2016

This paper attempts to explore crop yield volatility among rural and urban smallholder farmers. T... more 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.