Relative Effect of Food and Cash Remittance on Household Food Security

ABSTRACT

This article aims at investigating the relative effect of internal food and cash remittances on household food security. Using the seventh round of the Ghana Living Standard Survey, the study used the Food Insecurity Experience Scale and Food Consumption Score to measure food security. Propensity score matching and instrumental variable estimation were employed to deal with the possible endogeneity problem between remittances and food security. The results revealed that food remittance has a significant effect on food security with a greater magnitude of effect in rural areas relative to urban areas. The results imply that food remittance could enhance food security, just as cash remittance.

KEYWORDS:

• Food remittance
• food security
• propensity score matching

Acknowledgments

The authors are equally indebted to Dr. Joshua Sebu, University of Cape Coast, for taking his time to review the revised draft of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability of statement

The dataset used for this study is available on the Ghana Statistical Service website: http://www2.statsghana.gov.gh/nada/index.php/catalog/97

Authors’ contributions

JB conceived the presented idea and was a major contributor in the writing of the manuscript. SKA and CKO verified the analytical methods and supervised the findings of this work. All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript.

Notes

¹ The study considered remittance within Ghana from both rural and urban centers.