RESEARCH  REPORTS

83.

ECONOMIC  POLiCY AND  THE DISTRIBUTIVE  SYSTEM

IN  GHANA 

- 

1960-1966

by  B.  Beckman*

This stu.dy in progress concerns the  impact of government  policy on

the distribution of  income, social services and consumption opportunities
fn Ghana during the  republican  phase of the  Nkrumah government.

Distribution of  income,  including  the effects of taxation,  is examined

in relation  to  (1)  patterns of economic activity  (employment,  production
sector,  occupation), 
to resources (capital,  education,  political  authority),  and (3) community
membership (urban/rural,  metropolitan/provincial,  South/North).

(2)  the distribution  of access (ownership or control)

The distribution  of social services  is examined  in relation  to community

membership,  income,  economic activity  and access to resources.

The distribution of consumption opportunities, by which  Is meant the

relative  availability  and costs of consumer goods demanded by different social
groups,  is examined  in relation to different  consumption patterns,  income,
economic activity,  access to resources and to community membership.

In analysing  the  policy  Instruments,  through which the government's

impact on the distributive system was exercised,  the following main categories
are examined: 
(1) the  provision of public services,  (2) the  imposition of
taxes,  (3) direct government participation  in production and trade,  (4)  the
provision of public  employment,  (5)  government purchases of goods and
services,  (6) the  imposition of controls (imports,  foreign exchange,  prices,
wages,  credit),  and  (7) the  foreign economic  policy of the government.

It  is hoped that  the study will  illuminate  the structure and process
of the  Ghanaian distributive system and its pattern of social  stratification
and that  it will  contribute to the evaluation of the policies of the Nkrumah
government.

*  Dr.  B.  Beckman is a  Research fellow  in the Department of  Political

Science,  University of Stockholm, Sweden.

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RESEARCH  REPORTS 

84.

My  studies  in  Ghana,  which  are sponsored by  the  Scandinavian
Institute  of  African  Studies,  Uppsala,  Sweden and the  Faculty  of  Social
Science,  University  of  Stockholm,  have  been  in  progress since  February
1967,  The  first  year  in  Ghana  has been  mainly  devoted  to a  preliminary
survey  of  the  development  of  the  public  sector  and the  government  control
system.

I  have  presently  embarked  on a series of  investigations  of  the
impact  of  government  policy  on  the  income  distribution  within  each  of
the  major  sectors  of  economic  activity,  starting with  the  cocoa  industry.
The amount  of  field  survey work  which  will  be undertaken  will  depend on
the  quality  of  the  information  available  from government  sources and
from  previous  studies.

As  for  cocoa,  the  aggregate  income  and taxation  of  the  farmers
can be  easily  established.  Big differences  in output  between  individual
farmers  makes  it  important  to go beyond the aggregate  figures. 
that  the  purchasing  records of  the  former  Farmers' Council,  co-operative
societies  will  provide  a useful  source  for  this  purpose.  Such data  can be
matched against  information  available  in  the sample surveys of  cocoa
producing  families  undertaken  by  the  then  Office  of  the  Government
Statistician  in  1955-57 and  in  Polly  Hill's  numerous and only  partly  pub-
lished  studies.  The  development  of  the  income  of  the  farm  labourers  will
require  special  investigation.

It  is hoped

I  hope  to  be able  to  continue  my research  in  Ghana  up to

Summer  1970.