An empirical analysis of household formal education expenditure in Ghana

Using data from the latest 2017 Ghana Living Standards Survey Round Seven, this paper explores variables affecting household spending on education using the OLS model. The results showed that in the 12 months preceding the survey, household in the southern regions of Ghana increased their education spending on all the three types of the education categories namely; basic, secondary and post-secondary, and tertiary education, and established that the average annual household basic education expenditure accounts for 17.7 percent of the total annual household income and taking into account household undefined education expenditure, 13.5 of a percentage point is spent more on household basic education. The average annual household secondary and post-secondary education expenditure accounts for 5.8 percent of the total annual household income. Accounting for household undefined education expenditure, 22 percent of a percentage point is spent more on household secondary and post-secondary education and average annual household tertiary education expenditure accounted for 3.8% of the total annual household income. Weighing undetermined spending on education by household, 6.3 percent of a percentage point is spent on household tertiary education. Household expenditure on tertiary education is the lowest of all the education categories’ expenditure. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.