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Economic Complexity and Employment for Women and Youth: The Case of Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • William Baah-Boateng
  • Eric Twum

    (University of Ghana
    Associate Professor)

Abstract

Ghana’s growth performance can appropriately be analysed within three distinct periods: 1960-1983, 1984-2006, and 2007-2017. The country’s growth performance prior to 1984 can best be described as erratic with negative growth in six out of 24 turbulent years. Most of the years of negative growth coincided with a period of intense political instability and external shocks (Alagidede et al., 2013). After experiencing its first coup d’état in 1966, the country recorded four1 other successful military takeovers prior to 1983, and each of these regimes witnessed abandonment of policies and projects pursued by their predecessors. Agriculture was the country’s major economic activity, accounting for over 60% of GDP and constituted the main foreign exchange earner through cocoa exports. The major thrust of the country’s policies, particularly within the first decade after independence and in most part of the 1970s, was inward looking and public sector led economic strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • William Baah-Boateng & Eric Twum, 2019. "Economic Complexity and Employment for Women and Youth: The Case of Ghana," Working Papers idrcdprughana, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    • Handle: RePEc:ctw:wpaper:idrcdprughana
    as

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    File URL: http://www.dpru.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/36/Publications/Other/Ghana_Economic%20Complexity%20Paper_21May2019.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Haroon Bhorat & Christopher Rooney & François Steenkamp, 2019. "Building Economic Complexity in Africa," Working Papers 201906, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    2. Nxumalo, Mpumelelo Author-Name: Raju, Dhushyanth, "undated". "Structural Transformation and Labor Market Performance in Ghana," Jobs Group Papers, Notes, and Guides 154568, The World Bank.

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    Keywords

    Economic Complexity; Ghana; Employment; Women; Youth;
    All these keywords.

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