This paper seeks to investigate how the Government and people of Jamaica responded to the onslaught of Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, against the background of the established…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to investigate how the Government and people of Jamaica responded to the onslaught of Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, against the background of the established institutional response framework, including the Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management Act (1993) and Disaster Prevention and Emergency Management Plan of 1983 and established norms of practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative methods for primary research were adopted in the study including élite interviews, attendance at press briefings, and reviews of policy documents and media reports. It also adopted a critical application of policy outcomes frameworks in a bid to interpret and evaluate the policy interventions during the event of Ivan.
Findings
The research revealed the following: that established configurations of working relations were upset by the establishment of an ad hoc reconstruction agency called Office of National Reconstruction (ONR); that the decentralised institutional level of response, the Parish Disaster Committees, were expected to possess the relevant capacity for assessment and response, even though these committees had not been capacitated to make an appropriate response; that by placing the ONR outside the legally established response agency, the government had weakened the prospects for institutional learning and preservation of institutional memory, as well as generated undue conflict which impinged on coordination, at a time when unity of purpose was most required.
Originality/value
Posits that, if there was a real and continuous need for an ONR, then its location would be better within the Office of Disaster Planning and Emergency Management. It also suggests that the Parish Disaster Committees are critical to disaster prevention and management as they are located at the interface between government and community, and should be appropriately empowered to play their role.
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Philip Kofi Adom, Mawunyo Prosper Agradi and Christopher Quaidoo
Following the reforms in monetary policy and shift in fiscal policies, it is logical to presume that these reforms may cause a significant structural change in the dynamic…
Abstract
Purpose
Following the reforms in monetary policy and shift in fiscal policies, it is logical to presume that these reforms may cause a significant structural change in the dynamic processes of inflation and hence affect the nature of inflation persistence. The purpose of this paper is to examine the persistence nature of the different inflation episodes while controlling for the effects of demand- and supply-side factors, which are modeled as regime-dependent.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper used the Markov-switching dynamic regression and annual time series data.
Findings
The results showed that high inflation regime is more persistent than low inflation regime, with a respective average duration of an escape of 3.5 and 2.57 years, which suggests that price stability achievements are less sustainable. In both regimes, demand- and supply-side factors play significant roles in driving inflation, but the effect of the latter dominates. Thus, on the argument of whether inflation in Ghana is structural or monetary, the results support the former. The roles of both structural and monetary factors have changed over time, but that of the former has been more significant and important in Ghana.
Originality/value
This study provides the first empirical attempt, in the case of Ghana, that examines the persistence nature of different inflation regimes, while modeling the effects of supply and demand factors as regime dependent. In the modeling sense, the authors also contribute by ruling out the assumption that the researcher knows the processes responsible for each observation at each point in time.
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Samuel Osei-Gyebi and John Bosco Dramani
The purpose of this study is to analyze the nonlinear relationship between electricity consumption (EC) and electricity transmission losses (ETL) in Ghana. Also, we examined how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyze the nonlinear relationship between electricity consumption (EC) and electricity transmission losses (ETL) in Ghana. Also, we examined how ETL moderate the effect of EC on economic growth in Ghana from 1980 to 2021.
Design/methodology/approach
We used timeseries data from 1980 to 2021 within an autoregressive distributed lag framework to analyze the links among ETL, EC and economic growth in Ghana.
Findings
Findings show the existence of an asymmetric long-run relationship between EC and ETL. Also, the negative effects of ETL on EC are bigger in the long run. In addition, ETL and EC combine to reduce economic growth, in the long run, providing evidence for the energy-led growth theory in Ghana. Population and inflation were also found to have a significant effect on economic growth in Ghana.
Originality/value
We examined the nonlinear nexus of EC and ETL, which extant studies have ignored in discussing the link between EC and economic growth. Again, we showed that ETL reduces EC causing a reduction in economic growth.
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Hannah Vivian Osei, Evaristus Tepprey and Philip Opoku Mensah
This study aims to investigate the effects of several individual elements vis-a-vis the environment that affects students’ choice of a career. The study assesses the effects of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the effects of several individual elements vis-a-vis the environment that affects students’ choice of a career. The study assesses the effects of cognitive-person factors on the career decision-making of tertiary students and analyses how chance events moderate these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used the survey research design to gather data from 302 final-year tertiary students from four (4) Faculties and sixteen (16) academic departments of a Technical University in Ghana. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires and analysed using the partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
The study reveals that students’ self-efficacy and outcome expectations are two cognitive-person factors that positively and significantly influence students’ career choices. However, chance events of tertiary students were found not to moderate the relationship between cognitive-person factors and students’ career choices.
Practical implications
Understanding how several cognitive-person factors influence the career choice of students through the lens of social career-cognitive theory could enable researchers to advance knowledge in the career choice process. Counselors and guidance coordinators need to motivate and encourage career/job exploration and development by identifying sources of psychosocial support available to students.
Originality/value
This study identifies the cognitive person factors that drive career decisions and provides one of the initial attempts to investigate how chance events moderate students’ cognitive-person career choice relationship.
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Robert Owusu Boakye, Lord Mensah, Sanghoon Kang and Kofi Osei
The study measures the total systemic risks and connectedness across commodities, stocks, exchange rates and bond markets in Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Abstract
Purpose
The study measures the total systemic risks and connectedness across commodities, stocks, exchange rates and bond markets in Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses the Diebold-Yilmaz spillover and connectedness measures in a generalized VAR framework. The author calculates the net transmitters or receivers of shocks between two assets and visualizes their strength using a network analysis tool.
Findings
The study found low systemic risks across all assets and countries. However, we found higher systemic risks in the forex market than in the stock and bond markets, and in South Africa than in other countries. The dynamic analysis found time-varying connectedness return shocks, which increased during the peak periods of the first and second waves of the pandemic. We found both gold and oil as net receivers of shocks. Overall, over half of all assets were net receivers, and others were net transmitters of return shocks. The network connectedness plot shows high net pairwise connectedness from Morocco to South Africa stock market.
Practical implications
The study has implications for policymakers to develop the capacities of local investors and markets to limit portfolio outflows during a crisis.
Originality/value
Previous studies have analyzed spillovers across asset classes in a single country or a single asset across countries. This paper contributes to the literature on network connectedness across assets and countries.
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Ebenezer Bugri Anarfo, Joshua Yindenaba Abor, Kofi Achampong Osei and Agyapomaa Gyeke-Dako
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic link between financial inclusion and financial sector development (FSD) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic link between financial inclusion and financial sector development (FSD) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper employs a panel vector autoregressive framework to examine the dynamic link between financial inclusion and FSD in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Findings
The findings indicate that there is a reverse causality between FSD and financial inclusion in both the Sub-Saharan Africa countries sample and the full sample. It is evident that financial inclusion is a driver of FSD and vice versa.
Practical implications
The practical implication of this study is that financial inclusion should not only be pursued as a policy objective but it could also be an outcome variable of FSD and vice versa. This implies that African economies and governments in their effort to enhance financial inclusion, FSD can serve as a policy tool. This means that policies aimed at promoting financial inclusion will not impede FSD because the two are complementary. This suggests that we can achieve financial inclusion without sacrificing FSD and vice versa.
Originality/value
This paper provides first empirical evidence of the link between financial inclusion and FSD from the Sub-Saharan Africa perspective using data sourced from World Development Indicators spanning from 1990 to 2014 for 48 Sub-Saharan African economies and 217 economies in the world for the full sample.
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E. Osei‐Tutu, E. Badu and D. Owusu‐Manu
While corruption has long been recognized as a destructive social problem, the subject has not yet been given much attention in the literature of the management of procurement of…
Abstract
Purpose
While corruption has long been recognized as a destructive social problem, the subject has not yet been given much attention in the literature of the management of procurement of infrastructure projects in Ghana. The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss corruption practices inherent in public procurement of infrastructural projects in Ghana with the aim of identifying corruption related challenges that must be addressed in order to actualize the expected economic gains of infrastructural projects.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing extensively on existing literature and published data, the methodology adopted for the paper consisted of multi‐stage critical review of pertinent literature; review of 2007 Annual Report of the Public Procurement Authority and review of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663). The study assumes value‐laden axiological philosophy, where the values and experiences of the authors provided the basis for the discussion.
Findings
Conflict of interest, bribery, embezzlement, kickbacks, tender manipulation and fraud are observed corruption practices in the Ghanaian infrastructure projects delivery system. The severity of corruption practices have intensified the search for more innovative means of delivering infrastructure projects that will achieve value for money. In the pursuit to control corruption practices, this would require constitution of a sound procurement system and pro‐social equity policies that would foster good governance, corporate social responsibility, transparency, accountability, judicious public expenditure and national progress. The Public Procurement Act 2003 (Act 663) is observed to proffer solutions for these underlying constructs but not without challenges.
Research limitations/implications
The nature of the research is review and explanatory without any empirical analysis to support the discussions and thus the results cannot be generalized on a broader context of public procurement practice in Ghana.
Practical implications
Implementation of sound procurement performance measurements would be imperative in the bid to curb corruption practices. The paper suggested a number of business approaches to combat corrupt practices in Ghana, which are explained in terms of political, psychological, technical, operational and retaliatory measures. In this paper, it is proposed that knowledge about and debating corruption related issues is just as important to the modern public procurement as are the abilities to creatively and logically introduce monitoring systems when planning, executing and completing projects.
Originality/value
The work is novel providing meaningful insights into conceptual basis for a detailed empirical analysis. Being a pioneering study, further research tailored to compare the extent of corruption practices in various sectors of the economy of Ghana would be novel.
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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the causes of unemployment in Ghana from both labour demand and supply perspectives based on most recent cross sectional data set from one…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the causes of unemployment in Ghana from both labour demand and supply perspectives based on most recent cross sectional data set from one nationally representative household survey and a baseline survey for Millennium Development Support.
Design/methodology/approach
A logit regression estimation technique is applied to two different household survey data sets of 2008 and 2013 to capture the effect of labour demand and supply on unemployment.
Findings
Using education and age as capability variables to represent supply factors, unemployment is found to increase with education, and declines with age, confirming higher unemployment rate among the youth, than the old. The paper also observes strong influence of demand factors on unemployment based on relatively higher incidence of unemployment fulltime jobseekers relative to part-time jobseekers and seekers of formal or wage-employment and self-employment or SMEs compared with those seeking any job. Other factors such as the individual’s reservation wage, marital status, sex and poverty status as well as their rural-urban location are also found to cause unemployment in Ghana.
Practical implications
Unemployment as a result of the inability of individuals to obtain a job of their choice in the midst of strong economic growth in Ghana suggests weak employment content of growth. In contrast, an increasing phenomenon of unemployment with education also reflects a problem of skill mismatch between skills churn out by education and training institutions and skills requirement by firms in the labour market.
Originality/value
The originality of the paper and its contribution to existing literature largely emanate from the inclusion of demand factors in a cross sectional analysis of causes of unemployment.
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Aziz Yousif Shaikh, Robert Osei- kyei, Mary Hardie and Matt Stevens
This paper systematically reviewed research work on drivers of teamwork, which will reinforce construction work teams to enhance workers’ safety performance. This study adds to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper systematically reviewed research work on drivers of teamwork, which will reinforce construction work teams to enhance workers’ safety performance. This study adds to the existing but limited understanding of teamwork drivers on construction workers’ safety performance. This paper presents scholars and industry-based professionals with critical initiatives that have to be implemented in organisations to get positive results in safety while working in teams with an emphasis on systems drivers of teamwork on safety performance at the organisational level, which will help in providing information on the functioning of the teams and contribute towards improved safety performance of team workers.
Design/methodology/approach
This study aims to systematically examine the existing body of knowledge on drivers of teamwork by analysing 53 publications from the years 1997–2021. The Scopus search engine was used to conduct a systematic review and germane publications were collated.
Findings
According to the findings of the review, since 1997, there has been a burgeoning concern in the research of drivers of teamwork and its impact on workers’ safety performance. After performing a systematic review, 37 drivers of teamwork were identified. The top five drivers are effective communications, team workers’ relations, leadership, shared knowledge and information, and team training. Moreover, it was noted that the United States and Australia have been the international regions of focus for most of the research in the area of drivers of teamwork from the years 1997–2021. The 37 drivers of teamwork are distributed into six major socio-technical components: people drivers; culture drivers; metrics drivers; organisational and management practices and procedures drivers; infrastructure drivers and technology drivers.
Practical implications
The results reported present research scholars and professional practitioners with an overview of the drivers of teamwork that could be implemented in the construction industry to streamline potential implementations and improve safety performance of construction workers.
Originality/value
A list of teamwork drivers has been developed to ratify potential empirical research in the area of construction safety. The results would contribute to the existing but restricted understanding of drivers of teamwork in the construction industry.
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Joseph Mawejje and Nicholas M. Odhiambo
This study investigates the dynamic causality linkages between fiscal deficits and selected macroeconomic indicators in a panel of five East African Community countries.
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the dynamic causality linkages between fiscal deficits and selected macroeconomic indicators in a panel of five East African Community countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design is based on panel cointegration tests, panel cross-section dependence tests, panel error correction-based Granger causality tests and panel impulse response functions.
Findings
Results show that there is long-run feedback causality among fiscal deficits and each of the variables include gross domestic product (GDP) growth, current account balance, interest rates, inflation, grants and debt service. Short-run Granger causality dynamics indicate that there is feedback causality between fiscal deficits and GDP growth; no causality between fiscal deficits and inflation; no causality between fiscal deficits and current account; no causality between fiscal deficits and interest rates; feedback causality between fiscal deficits and grants; and no causality between fiscal deficits and debt service. Impulse response functions show positive and significant impacts of current account balance, inflation and grants; negative and significant impacts of real GDP growth and lending rates; and insignificant effects of debt service.
Research limitations/implications
While the study examines the dynamic causality between fiscal deficits and selected macroeconomic indicators in the East African Community, the analysis excludes South Sudan due to significant data limitations.
Practical implications
In light of the East African Community's aspirations to achieve convergence on key macroeconomic targets, including the fiscal deficit, this research provides novel insights on fiscal policy determinants and causality dynamics.
Social implications
The dynamic relationships between fiscal policy and macroeconomic variables may have social implications for welfare, equitable growth and distribution of resources.
Originality/value
With a focus on the East African Community, this paper contributes to the literature on the macroeconomic determinants of fiscal deficits in regional economic communities.