Dept. of Economics University of Cape Coast

The EPMC will concentrate on issues of macroeconomic evaluation and sustainable development with particular reference to issues of poverty and development in Ghana and other Sub-Saharan African economies.  The specific objectives to be pursued by the project include:

• Capacity building for economic modeling by drawing on and developing the expertise of staff presently in the department and others from abroad.  It is expected that the establishment of an internationally respected Economic Policy Modelling Centre will help recruit, develop, and retain highly motivated economists from Ghana and other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to use mathematical models and econometric methods to work on problems of poverty reduction;
•  The establishment and development of a Economic Policy Modelling Centre at the University of Cape Coast which will focus on teaching and training and research in areas of advanced modelling and econometric techniques with particular reference to poverty reduction, debt reduction, and sustainable development;
• The undertaking of research, the holding of seminars and in-service training to support the building of an economic model and a revised social activity matrix and an updated input-output table for Ghana.
• The development of econometric and Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models to solve peculiar national micro and macro economic problems;
• The assembling and maintenance at the Economic Policy Modelling Centre of databases on economic activities of distinct household types, on labour markets, on relevant government and trade related variables, as well as on sectoral economic activity necessary to support the proposed activities of the Centre;
• The undertaking of selective fieldwork necessary for the programmes of the Centre, especially with reference to household poverty in rural areas and the relation between this and agricultural activity and productivity;
• The establishment of a publications unit to review and disseminate results of studies for public debate.
• The establishment of links with policy formulation, policy implementation and other economic institutions and centres to identify short, medium and long term national and West Africa sub-regional structural and socio-economic problems and provide possible solutions;
• The continuation and development of an already highly fruitful teaching and research based collaboration between economists at the Centre for Economic Policy at Hull University and economists at Cape Coast University.