| Description |
This paper describes the distribution of welfare in Ghana in 1987-88, as measured by consumption expenditures. The data used are from the first year of the Ghana Living Standards Survey. While primarily descriptive, the paper contains information with clear policy implications. Several findings stand out. First, rural residents are, on average, clearly worse off than urban residents. The poorest group are residents of the rural savannah while the wealthiest are those who live in the capital, Accra. Second, education of the household head is strongly positively correlated with household welfare. Third, households where the head is self-employed, especially in agriculture, are generally found at the lower end of the distribution of welfare, while those headed by a wage earner, either in the private or public sector, are better off. Fourth, unemployment among household heads is not correlated with household welfare. Finally, although the poorer groups are less likely to seek medical help when they are ill, malnutrition among young children in these groups is not much higher than that among the better off groups. |
