Title: How has government interventions affected income inequality and poverty in Ghana?

Authors: Daniel Abayaakadina Atuilik

Addresses: Graduate School, ICN Business School, 86 Rue du Sergent Blandan, 54000 Nancy, France

Abstract: Poverty and income inequality have the capacity to undermine social welfare initiatives and undermine earlier growth. Therefore, policy changes are required to lessen or eliminate these issues. Moreso, Ghana has implemented series of interventions without any empirical examination. The study therefore aims to examine how the government interventions affect income inequality and poverty in Ghana. Using both primary and secondary annual data (ranging from 1987 to 2019), the study applies the logistic regressions and machine learning approach. The main findings from the survey results showed that except for education policies, policies such as agricultural, transport, health and social protection can have either positive or negative impact on poverty depending on the kind of policy and implementation. The main findings from the machine learning approach (secondary data) indicate that agricultural, educational and health policies widen the income inequality whilst transport and social protection policies reduces the income inequality gap in Ghana.

Keywords: income inequality; poverty; government interventions; machine learning; Ghana.

DOI: 10.1504/AJESD.2025.149252

African Journal of Economic and Sustainable Development, 2025 Vol.10 No.3, pp.307 - 333

Received: 18 Jul 2024
Accepted: 29 Jun 2025
Published online: 20 Oct 2025 *

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