Bio: Kwadwo Opoku joined CSPS in August 2019, prior to which he worked as an Economist at the Bank of Ghana.  Dr. Opoku has also consulted for international organizations including The World Bank Group and UNICEF, Ghana. He has presented research papers in international conferences including Centre for Studies of African Economies (CSAE) Development conference in Oxford University and UNU-WIDER conferences.

Research:  Dr. Opoku is interested in the analysis of public policies and how economic agents can be incentivized to participate in government programs of national interest. His recent work has focused on the labour market, education and gender issues; decomposition of sources of gendered differential probabilities and wages in different employment statuses; and intergenerational income mobility; taxation of informal sector workers; and mechanisms for extending pension coverage to informal sector workers.

Selected Publications: 

Gender wage gaps in Ghana: A comparison across different selection models (with Emmanuel Adu Boahen). WIDER Working Paper (No. 2021/10). https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2021-10-gender-wage-gaps-Ghana.pdf

Duration of Pre-University Education and Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment in Ghana (Emmanuel Boahen and Simone Schotte). Journal of International Development. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jid.3519

Wage and Employment Effects of Trade Liberalization: The Case of Ghanaian Manufacturing (with Charles Ackah and Ernest Aryeetey . In C. Ackah, & E. Aryeetey, Globalization, Trade and Poverty in Ghana (pp. 225-354). Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers. https://media.africaportal.org/documents/IDL-50244.pdf

Trade Costs and Intra-Regional Trade Flows in ECOWAS (with Charles Ackah and Ebo Turkson). Journal of West Africa Integration, 1(1), 1- 43. https://www.epau.ecowas.int/?page_id=443