Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Investing in Future Generations: Global Cocoa Price shocks and their impact upon School Attendance and Child Employment Rates in Ghana, 1987-1991

Herbert, Raoul LU (2019) EKHS11 20191
Department of Economic History
Abstract
This paper looks into the responses of cocoa farming households to a negative shock in the global cocoa price with regards to how they invest into the future of their children. The specific child outcomes of focus are child employment rates, school attendance, and household expenditure on schooling and related activities. A differences-in-differences approach is used in line with previous literature studying the effects of macroeconomic shocks upon households in developing countries. Using two Ghana Living Standard Surveys, an analysis is done between the years 1987 and 1991 that finds children of cocoa farmers had a lower child
employment rate, higher school attendance, and slightly more spending on female education after the global... (More)
This paper looks into the responses of cocoa farming households to a negative shock in the global cocoa price with regards to how they invest into the future of their children. The specific child outcomes of focus are child employment rates, school attendance, and household expenditure on schooling and related activities. A differences-in-differences approach is used in line with previous literature studying the effects of macroeconomic shocks upon households in developing countries. Using two Ghana Living Standard Surveys, an analysis is done between the years 1987 and 1991 that finds children of cocoa farmers had a lower child
employment rate, higher school attendance, and slightly more spending on female education after the global cocoa price shock. These findings are found to be generally robust, although attention needs to be paid to school attendance which was under the effect of recent educational reform that can have affected the results. Comparisons are made to Côte d’Ivoire in the same time period which show that the two neighbouring countries were on fundamentally different economic and political cycles during this period and some reasons behind this are explored. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Herbert, Raoul LU
supervisor
organization
course
EKHS11 20191
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Ghana, Cocoa, Economic History, Commodity Shocks, Child Outcomes, Child Labour, Schooling
language
English
id
8991198
date added to LUP
2019-09-12 12:46:52
date last changed
2019-09-12 12:46:52
@misc{8991198,
  abstract     = {{This paper looks into the responses of cocoa farming households to a negative shock in the global cocoa price with regards to how they invest into the future of their children. The specific child outcomes of focus are child employment rates, school attendance, and household expenditure on schooling and related activities. A differences-in-differences approach is used in line with previous literature studying the effects of macroeconomic shocks upon households in developing countries. Using two Ghana Living Standard Surveys, an analysis is done between the years 1987 and 1991 that finds children of cocoa farmers had a lower child
employment rate, higher school attendance, and slightly more spending on female education after the global cocoa price shock. These findings are found to be generally robust, although attention needs to be paid to school attendance which was under the effect of recent educational reform that can have affected the results. Comparisons are made to Côte d’Ivoire in the same time period which show that the two neighbouring countries were on fundamentally different economic and political cycles during this period and some reasons behind this are explored.}},
  author       = {{Herbert, Raoul}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Investing in Future Generations: Global Cocoa Price shocks and their impact upon School Attendance and Child Employment Rates in Ghana, 1987-1991}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}