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This study examines the effect of regional integration—specifically, that of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as an economic integration agreement—on the survival rate of Ghana’s exports. It employs a discrete-time complementary log–log hazard model with a random effects estimation technique and Kaplan–Meier estimates of the survival function, using data spanning from 1996–2018. The findings from the study indicate that ECOWAS has a significantly negative impact on the hazard rate of Ghana’s exports, implying that ECOWAS as an economic integration agreement increases the survival rate of Ghana’s exports for both aggregate exports and commodity-specific ones. Additionally, the heterogeneity effect of other economic integration agreements on Ghana’s export survival was found to increase the survival rate of exports. From a policy perspective, efforts to ensure the smooth operation of trade agreement contracts among member countries within the ECOWAS sub-region are necessary for the long-lasting export survival of Ghana’s exports.

Ghana's energy intensity trends point to a high energy use necessary to generate a unit of output. The country has also witnessed massive investment in energy infrastructure geared towards meeting its lower middle-income status and achieving universal access to energy. The logical question is: what is the contribution of the current economic and technical infrastructure level to the country's energy intensity? The current study addresses this question by employing the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index I (LMDI) to decompose energy intensity in Ghana from 2000 to 2020 to examine its trends and sources. The impact of economic-technical factors on aggregate energy intensity in Ghana is then investigated with the aid of the ARDL estimation technique to unearth potential asymmetric and symmetric effects. The decomposition analysis indicates an oscillating pattern in energy intensity in Ghana promoted by structural effect and labour productivity respectively. The results suggest that renewable energy, rural electrification, and digitisation have a direct and secondary long-run asymmetric effect on aggregate energy intensity with labour productivity and household consumption working as the transmission channels. The study recommends the need for government to pursue clean and eco-friendly practices in its economic development agenda for a meaningful reduction in energy intensity.

Procyclicality has been discovered in crude oil price shocks on aggregate demand. Most studies have used linear estimation techniques, resulting in the loss of asymmetric correlations. We disaggregate the impact of changes in oil prices into positive and negative shocks on aggregate demand and its components from 1970 to 2015 using the nonlinear ARDL framework. The results show that oil price shocks in Ghana have a long-term beneficial asymmetric impact on aggregate demand and its components. Specifically, a positive change in oil price (0.230) has a greater positive effect on the aggregate demand than a negative effect (-0.009) emanating from a negative change in the oil price shock. Further, the same result was obtained for the components of the aggregate demand with the impact on investment expenditures (0.662) being the greatest. Policymakers should diversify energy demand according to our recommendations. Instead of exporting crude oil, officials should encourage its refinement and consumption. Lastly, we suggest that policymakers hedge and use price-smoothing strategies to reduce oil price volatility.

•We investigate the role of risk preferences and time preferences in adoption of energy efficient light bulbs in Ghana.•We examine the empirical effect of exclusive use of energy efficient light bulbs on electricity expenditure.•Risk and time preferences significantly influence the choice of energy efficient light bulbs.•Using energy efficient light bulbs exclusively has a significant reducing effect on households’ electricity expenditure.•There is both a sustainability and an economic motivation to adopt energy efficient technologies in developing countries.