Abstract
Understanding parental spending on children is crucial for making the right investments to positively influence child well-being and long-term social and economic outcomes. This study uses both quantitative household data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey round six (GLSS 6) and qualitative data based on focus group discussions to provide baseline information on how much couples spend on their children in various age brackets. Overall, the results show that older children attract higher expenditures than younger children. Household expenditures on children decrease with successive children, and non-poor couple-households spend almost twice as much as very poor couples. Furthermore, urban parents incur higher child expenditures than their rural counterparts. Finally, food and education account for the largest share of the expenditures on children.
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Source: Authors based on GLSS data
Source: computed by Authors, based on FGDs data
Source: computed by Authors, based on FGDs data
Source: computed by Authors, based on FGDs data
Data Availability
With the exception of the qualitative data, all data for the national and regional level analyses are available from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS)’s Ghana Living standard surveys (GLSS) which is available to the public upon request. The qualitative data can also be made available upon request from the University of Cape Coast Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC).
Notes
Government of Ghana Child and Family Welfare Policy. https://bettercarenetwork.org/sites/default/files/Child%20and%20Family%20Welfare%20Policy%20-%20Ghana.pdf
The current study did not capture those expenditures from members of the extended family.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge financial support from the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC), University of Cape Coast, towards this study.
Funding
Funding was provided by Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre (Grant No. RSG).
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In addition to the approval by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of Cape Coast, the interview guide used for the study was vetted and validated at stakeholders meetings before the interviews were conducted.
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Appendix
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Asmah, E.E., Andoh, F.K., Alakija Sekyi, N.A.S. et al. Examining Parental Expenditure on Children in Ghana. J Fam Econ Iss 44, 777–789 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-022-09870-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-022-09870-z