Faculty Publications
Adjustment, Industrial Locational Incentives and Structural Transformation in Ghana
Document Type
Article
Keywords
Structural Adjustment, Ghana, Industrial Location, Wood processing, Spatial Structure, Regional Development
Journal/Book/Conference Title
East African Geographical Review
Volume
20
Issue
2
First Page
1
Last Page
24
Abstract
A number of studies have focused on the Structural Adjustment Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, but just a few have focused on the issue of spatial structural transformation under those programs. This paper focuses on such transformation with respect to Ghana's formal wood processing industry. Using an empirically- based qualitative analysis, the paper utilizes the government's industrial locational incentives under Ghana's program to explore post-adjustment spatial structural transformation involving the location pattern of formal wood processing firms, relative to regional development within the national framework. The extent to which the pre-adjustment geographical distribution pattern of firms, deemed as a structural problem, changed in response to the locational incentives is examined. It is shown that for those firms, adjustment was essentially a program which fashioned export sector rehabilitation, using new financial resources, and not for spatial structural transformation. The pre-adjustment “colonial” pattern of urban concentration of firms, thus, persisted indicating that the incentives did not foster the desired structural change.
Department
Department of Geography
Original Publication Date
1-1-1998
DOI of published version
10.1080/00707961.1998.9756264
Recommended Citation
Owusu, J. Henry, "Adjustment, Industrial Locational Incentives and Structural Transformation in Ghana" (1998). Faculty Publications. 6170.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/facpub/6170
