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This study assesses temporal and spatial distribution of child deprivation and income poverty using the fifth and sixth rounds of the Ghana Living Standards Survey. The first-order dominance methodology was used to examine five dimensions of deprivation of children aged 7 to 17 years, and the outcomes were compared to the incidence of income poverty. The analyses reveal the following: reduction in child deprivation across all five dimensions over time; wide disparities across geographical areas; and differences in regional rankings of deprivation and income poverty. Distinct policies for child deprivation and income poverty are imperative for different locations in Ghana.

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.

This study investigates the effect of financial perception and behaviour on; (a) general accounts and services, (b) investment/savings and (c) insurance/assurance Using FinScope dataset from South Africa over the period 2003 to 2009,ordered probit, generalized ordered probit and pseudo panel micro-econometric techniques have been employed. Results based on all three estimations support the hypothesis that financial perception has a greater effect on the decision to access and use general accounts and services. The cross section and pooled models confirm the hypothesis that the effect of financial behaviour is greater than financial perception when making decisions on the take-up and use of investment financial services. It is also observed that the degree of responsiveness of financial perception on access to, and use of financial services decreases as the depth of usage deepens from basic to advance levels of financial products. In a policy context, targeting demand-side factors to increase access to and use of financial services should be financial type and level specific. Furthermore, the approach should be based on an understanding of the experiences of borrowers.

The study relies on Ghana’s Living Standard Measurement Survey to test the hypothesis of no relationship between credit and household food consumption expenditure. We use single stage and pooled least squares given the non-availability of national panel data in Ghana and lack of better instruments in the Living Standard data. While cognisant of the adverse effect of endogeneity we observe that our finding fails to provide enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis. This suggests that access to credit does not contribute to the smoothening of household consumption. This observation cuts across different sub-samples based on socio-economic classification. We recommend caution in propagating the ability of credit in smoothening consumption.

This paper investigates a relationship between economic governance and the dual objectives of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs): poverty reduction and financial viability. Using an unbalanced panel of 531 MFIs the important role of other institutions such as country-level business registry departments in facilitating targeting of poor clients is illuminated. Comparing the estimates of Hausman-Taylor and Fixed Effects Vector Decomposition allows us to scrutinize and at least partially correct the effects of both time invariant and slow changing endogenous variables. We find that credit information availability and lesser time in securing property enhances the chances of MFIs in achieving their poverty reduction objective. Product diversification leading to economies of scope also enables MFIs to reach poor clients. On the basis of the above, it is imperative for government and development partners to channel their efforts towards provision of an enabling atmosphere that will enhance the achievement of microfinance social objectives.

The evidence of higher income inequality leading to increased HIV prevalence through channels of coercion and migration has emerged. This coupled with previously established macroeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS connotes reverse causality that is likely to develop a cyclical effect. The plausible cyclicality can be identified through the mergence of a three stage relationship. Initially from income inequality to HIV prevalence; then from HIV prevalence to reduced human capital formation and subsequently generating human capital inequality via reduced investment in human capital of affected households and back to income inequality. We hypothesize that the effect of this plausible cyclicality is likely to increase the effect of income inequality on HIV prevalence. Our aim is to assess the effect of productivity gaps measured by human capital dispersion on the relationship between income inequality and HIV prevalence. Deriving 1999 dataset on human capital dispersion which is measured by years of schooling, quality of school system and rates of return for 99 countries, we estimate its linear dependence effect with income inequality on HIV prevalence. We find a more significant and increased effect of income inequality on HIV prevalence of more than three times. This study sets the platform for using current datasets and generates a policy discussion for addressing productivity gaps as one of HIV/AIDS interventions.

Recent evidence from the microfinance industry reveals increase in sources of funding which anecdotally links to the profits of institutions. This phenomenon has evoked concerns for the responsiveness of the poor to credit market operational policies such as loan pricing. This paper integrates the poor’s characteristics into a loan size equation to estimate influence on interest rate stimulus. Using data from Ghana, we test the hypothesis of loan price inelasticity using quantile regression and the interaction procedure. The quantile regression shows pronounced variations in responsiveness of loan size to interest rate changes at different percentiles. In contrast to an inverse relationship depicted between the 20th and 40th quantiles, we observe positive and fairly flat curvatures at the extremes and around the median. Motivated by this finding, the interaction procedure is employed for household poverty scores and lending rates at varied statistic to identify differences in clients’ responsiveness. The semi-elasticity of loan amount responsiveness to a unit change in interest rate is more than proportionate and significant for the poorest group. In a broader context, the need for market segmentation based on socio-economic well-being is suggested in the paper in pursuance of the ‘win-win’ objective of poverty reduction and financial sustainability.