RELIGION, INEQUALITY, AND POVERTY IN GHANA: THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

Religion could influence poverty by fostering certain norms, values and providing information that could affect productivity, labour force participation, and asset accumulation. This study sought to achieve three purposes: (1) to describe the nature of poverty and inequality among the various religious denominations; (2) assess the effect of religious affiliation on poverty in Ghana; and (3) to determine the impact of religious affiliation on the level of educational attainment in Ghana. The study used nationally and regionally representative data from the sixth round of the Ghana Living standard survey. Foster-Greer-Thorbecke formula was used to compute the levels of poverty; Gini, Palma, and Generalized entropy indices were used to assess the level of inequality among the various religious denominations; multilevel mixed-effect logistic and multilevel mixed-effect ordered logistic models were used to assess the effect of religious affiliation on poverty and the levels of educational attainment respectively. The study found that: (1) compared to those who are not affiliated with any religious denomination, in urban areas, affiliation with a religious denomination exerts a negative influence on the incidence of poverty;(2) affiliation with Muslim religion increases the odds of the incidence of poverty; (3) except Muslims, compared to the unaffiliated, affiliation with a religious denomination increases the odds of attaining higher level of education. The study concludes that religious affiliation has a negative influence on the incidence of poverty for those who live in urban areas in Ghana. This negative effect passes through higher level of educational attainment.

Keywords: religious affiliation, poverty, inequality, educational attainment, multilevel mixed-effect ordered logistic model, urban area