Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/229343 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2020/119
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
In this paper, we analyse the role of the changing nature of occupational employment and wages in explaining the trend in earnings inequality in Ghana between 2006 and 2017, a period in which there was a substantial transformation of the economy, with workers moving out of agriculture and generally taking more-skilled and less-routine jobs in services, in a context of a stagnant manufacturing sector and an oil-based expansion. We show that there was an initial decline in earnings inequality which is best explained by the fall in the skill premium that followed the expansion of education. This period was followed by a substantial increase in earnings inequality in which the skill premium continued to fall at a slower pace and there was a pro-rich change in the earnings returns to routine tasks performed by workers.
Subjects: 
skills
tasks
occupational employment and wages
earnings inequality
Ghana
JEL: 
J21
J24
D63
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9256-876-4
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.