An empirical analysis of household formal education expenditure in Ghana

Abstract

Using data from the latest 2017 Ghana Living Standards Survey Round Seven, this paper explores variables affecting household spending on education using the OLS model. The results showed that in the 12 months preceding the survey, household in the southern regions of Ghana increased their education spending on all the three types of the education categories namely; basic, secondary and post-secondary, and tertiary education, and established that the average annual household basic education expenditure accounts for 17.7 percent of the total annual household income and taking into account household undefined education expenditure, 13.5 of a percentage point is spent more on household basic education. The average annual household secondary and post-secondary education expenditure accounts for 5.8 percent of the total annual household income. Accounting for household undefined education expenditure, 22 percent of a percentage point is spent more on household secondary and post-secondary education and average annual household tertiary education expenditure accounted for 3.8% of the total annual household income. Weighing undetermined spending on education by household, 6.3 percent of a percentage point is spent on household tertiary education. Household expenditure on tertiary education is the lowest of all the education categories’ expenditure.

Keywords:

• Ghana
• OLS model
• household
• education expenditure
• regions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2292863

Additional information

Funding

The author received no financial support.

Notes on contributors

Isaac Addai

Isaac Addai is a quantitative social scientist specialising in household education economics and finance in Africa. His research interests include measuring production efficiency in higher education institutions, tracer studies, social innovations and development.