Determinants of Household Socio-economic Status in an Urban Setting in Ghana

Abstract

The study sought to determine the contribution of asset ownership to household socioeconomic or wealth status. The study adopted a quantitative research approach to investigate the socioeconomic status of households. A sample of 443 households was selected using a simple random sampling technique, and interviewed. A structured questionnaire was used for the data collection. A Principal Component Analysis was carried out. The results showed that high socioeconomic scores tended to correspond with high income status of the households. Thus, households in communities with high infrastructure provision scored high on socioeconomic score 1. Socioeconomic score 2 was influenced by more informal opportunities. The flexibility of jobs may possibly open the communities with medium to low infrastructure provision to other aspects of socioeconomic resources and opportunities which may not be available to the communities with high infrastructure provision. Female headed households were more engaged in self-employed occupations. This explains the level of informality in the access to jobs by female headed households. In general, female headed households were not worse off than male headed households in terms of assets ownership. The relationship between asset ownership and socioeconomic status call for evidence based policy interventions.