IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/rdevec/v30y2026i4p2424-2439.html

Do Social Interventions Improve Welfare? Evidence From Northern Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Charles Yaw Okyere
  • Collins Asante‐Addo
  • Richmond Atta‐Ankomah
  • Christian Kwaku Osei

Abstract

Social protection programs (SPP), including agricultural input subsidies (AIS), have been implemented in Ghana over the past three decades aimed at improving the welfare of low‐income households. This paper examines whether these social interventions improve welfare in Northern Ghana. We utilized a multipurpose survey data collected from 472 farm households and doubly robust treatment effect estimators to address endogeneity. We found that social interventions increase food and non‐food consumption expenditure, reduce food insecurity and poverty likelihood, and finally, increase happiness and resilience. However, the results show considerable heterogeneity in the magnitude of effects across social intervention options and welfare measures. We recommend that the government and development partners should intensify the implementation of social interventions in Northern Ghana to achieve the development outcomes enshrined in the United Nations (UN)'s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and African Union (AU)'s Agenda 2063.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles Yaw Okyere & Collins Asante‐Addo & Richmond Atta‐Ankomah & Christian Kwaku Osei, 2026. "Do Social Interventions Improve Welfare? Evidence From Northern Ghana," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 2424-2439, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:30:y:2026:i:4:p:2424-2439
    DOI: 10.1111/rode.70124
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.70124
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/rode.70124?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:30:y:2026:i:4:p:2424-2439. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1363-6669 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.