Rural-urban linkages and welfare: the case of Ghana's migration and remittance flows

In spite of the prevalence of rural-urban interactions in developing countries, much remains to be learnt about their welfare impacts. This thesis extends the discussion on rural-urban linkages by examining – for Ghana – two of the main forms of such interactions: migration and remittance flows. The study explores factors influencing migration and remittance flows, and also evaluates the impacts of these linkages on poverty and consumption welfare, using data from the 1998/99 Ghana Living Standards Survey. A key feature of the analyses is the construction of counterfactual scenarios and the application of a methodology that adjusts for selectivity bias.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Understanding Why Households Foster-in Children: Evidence from Ghana

Child fostering – that is, the practice of children living under the care of adults who are not their parents – is pervasive in many African societies. Using data from the 2012/2013 Ghana Living Standards Survey, this analysis examines the determinants of child fostering, with a view to identifying any economic underpinnings. The study’s findings suggest that households employ the fostering-in of children to adjust their size and composition, as well as meet their demand for labor. The results are also indicative that fostered and biological children may largely be treated as substitutes in household decision-making. The findings therefore support the view that child fostering decisions in the developing world are often consistent with rational economic reasoning. These findings have policy implications for the design of social interventions that have a direct bearing on household livelihoods

Rural-Urban Differences in the Utilization of Maternal Healthcare in Ghana: The Case of Antenatal and Delivery Services

Although maternal health in Ghana has generally improved over the past two decades, the current MMR implies that Ghana‟s MMR is approximately 2.4 times higher than the set target in MDG 5. Using data from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey 2008, an attempt is made in this study to investigate the rural-urban differences in maternal health care (antenatal and delivery care) service utilization in Ghana. Most previous studies focused more broadly on the utilization of MHC services either in the entire country or some parts of the country. This study fills the gap by looking at women from the rural and urban areas with varying standards of living and other socioeconomic attributes. The study also includes some women autonomy variables to find out their effect on MHC service utilization in both areas. Lastly, an attempt is also made to investigate the effect of informal education on the use of MHC services using a logistic regression model. The results from the rural sample show that, women with some degree of autonomy are more likely to use MHC services than their counterparts who lack such autonomy. Again, informal education through the media is more effective in the rural areas than in the urban areas, and wealth still remains an issue particularly in the urban areas

Are migrant households better off than non-migrant households? Evidence from Ghana

We present preliminary descriptive statistics and analysis on migrants and their families left behind using a new household survey of Ghana. We provide a profile of current migrants and their households and explore the determinants of migration. Our research suggests that poverty and migration are linked, with poverty determining where households migrate to, and that migration is generally held to be of benefit to households, particularly those with male migrants. Future research will model the counterfactual and seek to estimate to what extent households are better off from having a migrant, and why

Gains and losses from internal migration: evidence from migrant-sending households in Ghana

Migration is a common strategy adopted to escape poverty and improve living standards, but it is not without risks and there are no guarantees of success. We analyse the impact of migration on the welfare of migrant-sending households in Ghana by exploring what their living standards might have been had their migrant members remained at home. We do this by estimating a counterfactual consumption distribution for households with migrants. We examine the importance of selection bias and compare results obtained with and without selection controls. We illustrate how sensitive conclusions about the welfare gains of migration are to the decision to address selection issues. We present preliminary results which suggest that estimated gains are sensitive to whether and how we address selection bias. While the uncorrected results suggest an average gain from migration for households with migrants, once we control for potential selection bias we find that on average households with migrants are worse off than they might have been had their members stayed at home. Our selection corrected results also suggest that initially better off households are more likely to experience gains from migration and that poorer households lose out. Our results are consistent with qualitative research conducted with a small sample of migrants from our migrant-sending households