Demand for financial services by households in Ghana
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate household financial choice and the determinants of financial services in rural and urban households in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from the Ghana Living Standard Survey 5 (GLSS 5) are used to estimate the participation of a household in a particular financial sector and what determines this choice.
Findings
The results from Tobit and conditional logit models account for households' demographic characteristics and their financial decisions. The Tobit estimates show that household size, age, sex, marital status, occupation, income, remittances and shocks determine households' participation in the financial markets. Conditional logit model results suggest that locational characteristics are important in obtaining financial services from particular sectors of the financial market. The results also suggest that when the alternatives of financial services are available, rural households are more likely than urban households to obtain their financial services from the informal financial sector.
Originality/value
This current study contributes to the existing literature from the Ghanaian perspective.
Keywords
Citation
Mawuli Akpandjar, G., Quartey, P. and Abor, J. (2013), "Demand for financial services by households in Ghana", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 40 No. 5, pp. 439-457. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068291311315322
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited