Economic interactions in Ghana : a study of sectoral interdependence and linkages

Abstract

This thesis examines the background to development planning in Ghana, and the interactions between sectors of the economy, with special reference to the primary sectors. It makes use of the official input-output (1-0) table to identify the type of interactions that existed within the Ghanaian economy in 1968. Input-output analyses have been in use for development planning and research for a long time, but very little use has been made of the Ghanaian 1-0 table since it was published in October, 1973. The findings of this paper are not to be regarded as final, but as providing a basis for looking at major problems of the economy (e.g. low incomes, high unemployment and growth as a whole) on a national basis rather than from the viewpoint of industrial projects. As pointed out by Chenery and Raduchel (1971), "to the extent that production requires inputs in fairly fixed proportions, growth is likely to be impeded by shortage of specific factors rather than by a general scarcity of resources." "Planning models", they continued, "in developing countries have concentrated mainly on avoiding bottlenecks in production by making better use of scarce resources of capital and foreign exchange. Possibilities for increasing total welfare through varying the composition of consumer demand or through making greater use of surplus labour have been considered only in the context of partial analyses of individual projects. The problem of unemployment has acquired an increasing urgency in many developing countries because of the neglect of labour absorption in most development plans." The first chapter is essentially an introduction dealing with the measurement of economic performance and the various approaches to economic development. Chapter two d e a ls with the historical background to economic development planning in Ghana. It briefly compares aspects of the Ghanaian economy with those of some other developing countries. Chapter three introduces theoretical aspects of input-output analysis. It briefly discusses the official Ghanaian 1-0 table , how it was compiled , and some of its deficiencies. Chapter four makes use of the 1-0 approach to identify various link ­ age effects in the economy in 1968. Chapter five is a concluding section which also incorporates suggestions for improving the current Ghanaian 1-0 table for use in development planning. Show more