Understanding the capability approach through education and labour/employment market outcomes in Ghana

Samuel Agyei-Mensah, University of Ghana
John K. Anarfi, University of Ghana
Adu Owusu Sarkodie, University of Ghana
Thomas Antwi Bosiakoh, University of Ghana

Employment is important in its own right as a source of income and as an instrument for attaining wellbeing. One tool with which to achieve this for individuals to attain their desired wellbeing is education. The purpose of this paper is therefore to examine how education, as one of the many variables, impacts on employment situation in Ghana, using Sen’s Capability Approach (CA). The CA is one of the leading contemporary frameworks for analyzing human wellbeing. Data for this study were generated from the Ghana Living Standards Survey-Round Five (GLSS 5) which provides valuable insights into living conditions in Ghanaian households based on a nationally representative sample of 8,687 households with 37,128 household members. The findings show that, higher educational level (SHS+) has the most significant coefficients on paid work with coefficients of the other educational levels on agricultural activities being higher than those of non-agricultural activities in Ghana.