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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Economic Geography of Ghana's Structural Adjustment
Author:Vehnämäki, MikaISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:Scandinavian Journal of Development Alternatives and Area Studies
Volume:17
Issue:2-3
Period:June-September
Pages:61-73
Language:English
Geographic term:Ghana
Subjects:regional development
economic policy
Development and Technology
Drought and Desertification
Abstract:This article examines the regional impacts of macrolevel economic policy in Ghana since 1982 under the regime of Jerry John Rawlings. The evidence suggests that economic development has been concentrated through fiscal transfers to cocoa cultivation and gold mining areas and the relatively heavy presence of public amenities in the cities, on the one hand, and the liberalization of the economy that has favoured the export crops of the southern regions and the export industries and small petty trade and manufacturing of the cities, on the other. At the same time, interpersonal and interoccupational economic inequalities are sharper in the cities than in the rural areas. The food producing areas in the countryside have, in turn, lagged behind most in terms of economic development. The future may show a different pattern of regional economic development. Cocoa has lost its primary position in foreign trade in favour of gold, and this may increasingly enhance public infrastructure investments in the Western and Ashanti Regions. The role of tropical timber and energy supply may be accentuated if the political leadership regards them as vital to Ghana's future. Tourism may bring wealth to coastal resorts and Kumasi. Growing urban disaffection may pressure the Ghanaian political leadership to reallocate public services increasingly to urban areas. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum.
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