Household Welfare Effects of Agricultural Productivity: A Multidimensional Perspective from Ghana

Abstract

Although poverty reduction policies in developing countries hinge on the link between smallholder productivity and welfare, micro level empirical evidence on this is limited in sub-Saharan Africa and neglects the multidimensionality of welfare. This article contributes through investigating the productivity-poverty relationship using a number of welfare measures with a three-period panel dataset for Ghana. The findings are that welfare is increasing with labour productivity irrespective of the measure used, but that dramatic increases in productivity would be required to achieve meaningful poverty reduction.