Responding to Economic Shocks in Ghana: The Agricultural Sector as a Social Safety Net

Daniel Bruce Sarpong () and Samuel Asuming-Brempong
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Daniel Bruce Sarpong: Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Ghana

The Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, 2004, vol. 1, issue 1, 117-137

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to document, assess and characterize the role Ghana’s agriculture has played as a safety net when the urban labor market suffered economic shocks. The study explores how agriculture influences non-agricultural dependent households. Specific attention is given to the implicit value of the informal insurance role that rural households play in supporting family members who lose jobs acquired after migrating to urban areas. The paper analyses Ghanaian agriculture’s social security role in the late 1980s and 1990s. This well documented period in Ghanaian economic literature, coincides with both natural and macro policy shocks and the policy measures taken to cope with the shocks.

Keywords: Ghana; labor; migration; rural development; safety nets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J61 Q10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fao:tejade:v:1:y:2004:i:1:p:117-137

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