Africa's businesswomen - underfunded or underperforming?

While the recent success of - successful female entrepreneurs - is internationally celebrated, less is known about how liquidity can fuel the success of the and other businesswomen. Using information from a panel of over 800 male- and female-owned businesses in Ghana (ISSER-IGC survey), we capture a measure of underfunding, in addition to data on supplier credit, equity and other finance sources. Our regressions reveal a female-to-male productivity gap of between - 11 and - 19 per cent, values similar to estimates for other African countries.

Gender differences in academic performance of students studying Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects at the University of Ghana.

Using a mixed-methods research design, this study compares academic performance of males and females studying STEM subjects or courses at the university level with that of the senior high school level performance. The factors contributing to the gender differences in academic performance at the two levels of the educational ladder were also explored. Overall, the results show that the academic performance of males was better than females at the senior high school level, whilst at the tertiary level, the academic performance of females appeared to have improved relative to that of males.

Determinants of credit demand and credit constraints among households in Ghana.

This paper investigates the determinants of and trends in credit demand and credit constraints of households with respect to both formal and informal financial institutions in Ghana. Trends and explanatory factors over 1992-2013 using pooled data from four Ghana Living Standards Surveys are analysed using the Heckman Probit model. Estimates for the full population reveal that tertiary education is a significant determinant of both credit requests (positively) and credit constraints (negatively).

Inequalities in child immunization coverage in Ghana: evidence from a decomposition analysis.

Childhood vaccination has been promoted as a global intervention aimed at improving child survival and health, through the reduction of vaccine preventable deaths. However, there exist significant inequalities in achieving universal coverage of child vaccination among and within countries. In this paper, we examine rural-urban inequalities in child immunizations in Ghana.