About Me:

I am a Senior Lecturer in Economics and Head of the Department of Economics, Marketing & Services in the Faculty of Business Administration at the Pentecost University College, Ghana. I was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Economics at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, USA. I was a Lecturer in Economics in the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  I was a Data Technical Specialist at the USAID Office of Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade/Education (EGAT/E). I served as a Research Associate in the Department of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where I co-developed impact simulation and modeling tools to examine the social and economic implications of educational investments and returns. I have used these simulation models to trace the economic growth, externality, and non-market impacts of education in various academic papers that have been published in leading scholarly journals including Journal of Agriculture and Applied Economics and Journal of Development Studies.  I have developed a statistical methodology for measuring the total returns to investment in education, and have used it to write papers for publication in refereed journals including the Journal of Education Finance.

Qualifications:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), 2002, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Professional Memberships and Activities:

• Association for the Advancement for the African Women Economists (AAAWE)
• Board Chair, AAAWE- Ghana.

Research Interests:

My research focuses on the economics of education, human capital, and health, and the effects of gender inequality on economic development in developing countries.

I have published/co-authored several professional articles including social rates of return of investment in higher education, determinants of geographic poverty, and social outcomes of education and feedbacks on economic growth in Africa and Latin America.

I developed a statistical methodology for measuring the total returns to investment in education.

I co-authored a research in Mobile Money (MM) and the advantages for Ghanaian businesses and consumers over physical cash.  The Institute of Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) at the University of California – Irvine funded this project.  In it, we investigated MM uptake patterns in the second year of its re-introduction to Ghana, and explore the social and cultural interfaces between MM and existing money behaviors, including the savings and money transfer practices of Ghanaians from different socioeconomic classes.

I have presented several academic research papers at professional conferences in Ghana and abroad, and also chaired a session at the conference on “Economic Development in Africa”, organized by the Department of Economics,  Oxford University, Oxford, UK in March, 2015

Publications and Conferences:

• Appiah, Elizabeth N. (2018). “Female Labor Force Participation on Economic Growth in Developing Countries,” Global Journal of Human Social Sciences: Economics, Vol. 18 Issue 2 Version 1.0, 1-7.
• Appiah, Elizabeth N. (2017). “Effect of Health Expenditure on per capita GDP in Developing Countries,” Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 19(10), 93 – 104.
• Appiah, Elizabeth N. (2017). “The Effect of Education Expenditure on per capita GDP in Developing Countries,” International Journal of Economics and Finance 9(10), 136-144.
• Appiah, Elizabeth N., Dzokoto, Vivian, Chitwood, Laura & Imasiku Mwiya (2016). “The Changing Face of Money: Preferences for Different Payment Forms in Ghana and Zambia,” Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 18(4), 66-81.
• Appiah, Elizabeth N. and Omane-Antwi, K. (2014). “Higher Education and Development in Ghana: Development Outcomes and Policy,” Seventh annual International Applied Research Conference Proceeding
• Appiah, Elizabeth N. (2013). “Public and Private Incentives for Investment in Higher Education: Are They Sufficient, Especially for Black Males?” Journal of Education Finance, 39, No. 1, 47-72.
• Appiah, Elizabeth N. (2012). “Education Policies Matter in Ghana’s Economic Development,” Pentvars Business Journal, 6, No. 2, 36-56.
• Quantitative and Qualitative Research-The differences, paper presented at the Pentecost University College Reading Week, Seminar, Nov.13-17, 2017 (Presenter).
• Research paper on ‘Social and Private Rates of Return to Investment in Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Development Outcomes’, presented at GDN’s Global Development Conference: Quality and Inclusion for Changing Human Capital Needs, Lima, Peru, 17-18 March, 2016 (Presenter).
• Research paper on ‘Economic Empowerment of Women and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa’, presented at the United Nations University Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT) and the Consortium pour la Recherche  Economique et Sociale (CRES) 2^nd International Conference on “Sustainable Development in Africa”, Dakar, Senegal, 26-27 November 2015 (Presenter).
• Conference on “Economic Development in Africa”, organized by the Department of Economics, Oxford University, Oxford, UK, 3 – 5 March,  2015 (Chairperson at  a session).
• Conference on “Firms, Growth, and Markets in Africa”, organized by the Department of Economics, Oxford University, Oxford,  UK, 6 – 8 March, 2015 (Invited participant).
• National Council for Tertiary Education, Senior Academic Leadership Training, (TRAINING FOR HOD’S), Sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York, Accra, Ghana 1 – 4 November, 2015 (Participant).
• 7^th Annual International Applied Research Conference at the Koforidua Polytechnic, Ghana, 7 – 9 July, 2014 (Presenter).
• ‘Preference for, and use of MM and other payment forms in both Ghana and Zambia’, paper presented at the Conference on Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion, University of Irvine, California, 3 – 7 December 2012 (Presenter).

Books                  

• Appiah, Elizabeth N. (2017). Earnings by Field, Social and Private Rates of Return to Higher Education with Controls by Race and Gender, Deutschland, Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2017.
• Appiah, Elizabeth N. (2010). “Rising Rate of Private Universities in Ghana: The Case for Public Support,” Fifth International Conference on e-Learning (ICEL2010) in Conference proceedings, Penan, Malaysia, 11-13, July, 2010.
• Appiah, Elizabeth N. and Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong (2008). ‘Technical Efficiency in Ghanaian Secondary Schools’, Book Chapter, in the Economy of Ghana: Analytical Perspectives on Stability, Growth and Poverty. James Currey Publishers, 348-365.
• Appiah, Elizabeth, Walter McMahon, and Nanik Suwaryani (2004). Improving Education Finance in Indonesia, Policy Research Center, Institute for Research and Development, MONE UNICEF and UNESCO.
• Appiah, Elizabeth N. and McMahon, Walter W. (2002), ‘The Social Outcomes of Education and Feedbacks on Growth in Africa’, Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 38, No. 4, 27-68.
• Appiah, Elizabeth N. and Allen-Smith, Joyce (2002), ‘Economic and Social Outcomes of Investment in Education in the Dominican Republic,’ Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Vol. 34, No. 2, 372.
• Appiah, Elizabeth and Allen-Smith, Joyce (1997), “Determinants of Geographic Poverty: Evidence from Illinois,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 79, No.5, 1713.
• ‘Sustainable Development in Africa,’ paper presented at the Bureau of Africa, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington, DC, USA, May 2004 (Presenter).
• ‘Economics and Social Outcomes of Investment in Education in the Dominican Republic’ paper presented at the Southern Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics Meeting, Orlando, Florida, June 2002 (Presenter).