Citing a paucity of empirical evidence on the poverty and distributional impacts of trade policy reform in Ghana as the main motivation for this volume, the editors (both of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research at the U. of Ghana) present eleven papers that combine theory and econometric analysis in an effort to assess linkages between globalization, trade, and poverty (including gendered aspects). Specific topics examined include manufacturing employment and wage effects of trade liberalization; the influence of education on trade liberalization impacts on household welfare; trade liberalization and manufacturing firm productivity; the impact of elimination of trade taxes on poverty and income distribution; food prices, tax reforms, and consumer welfare under trade liberalization; impacts on tariff revenues; and impacts on cash cropping, gender, and household welfare; Distributed in the US by Stylus. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Free trade can help 500 million people escape poverty and inject.

Ghana has pursued several programs to accelerate the growth of the economy. In 1995, the government presented “Ghana: Vision 2020,” aimed at making Ghana a middle-income country in 25 years. Vision 2020 focused on human development, economic growth, rural development, urban development, infrastructure development, and an enabling environment. It was followed by the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy. One of the main challenges to economic growth is the unemployment problem. The recent discoveries of oil and gas create tremendous opportunities for stimulating national development.

Trade will have an important role at the global level in generating the growth necessary for reducing extreme poverty to 3 percent and boosting prosperity for the poorest 40 percent by 2030. To identify the most important challenges that exist in maximizing the positive impact of trade on poverty, we need to understand who the poor are, where they are, and what economic activities they undertake. To this end, the study highlights particularly relevant dimensions of poverty: rural poverty in remote areas, informality, fragile and conflict situations, and women. For each of these issues, this study considers the main traderelated barriers and challenges, along with policy responses to address them. It shows the importance of the multilateral trading system and of the Doha Round, as well as the important role of the WBG and WTO in promoting coherence and implementing trade policies in a way that delivers the greatest possible benefits for the poor.

Francis Frimpong argues that the exponential growth of finance and credit infrastructures in Ghana did not alleviate poverty in the country. It has, however, resulted in rising financial profits, financialising poverty and stagnating the real sector of the economy

Introduction / Maurizio Bussolo and Jeffery Round -- The impact of structural reforms on poverty : a simple methodology with extensions / Neil McCulloch -- Trade liberalisation and poverty dynamics in Vietnam / Yoko Niimi, Puja Vasudeva-Dutta, and L. Alan Winters -- Globalisation and poverty : implications of South Asian experience for the wider debate / Jeffery Round and John Whalley -- Globalisation in developing countries : the role of transaction costs in explaining economic performance in India / Maurizio Bussolo and John Whalley -- Globalisation-poverty interactions in Bangladesh / Mustafa Mujeri and Bazlul Khondker -- Poverty and policy in a globalising economy : the case of Ghana / Maurizio Bussolo and Jeffery Round -- Trade liberalisation and poverty in Nepal : computable general equilibrium micro simulation analysis / John Cockburn -- Globalisation and poverty changes in Colombia / Maurizio Bussolo and Jann Lay.