Ghana Cocoa farmers—income, expenditure relationships

This paper examines the hypothesis [Hill, 1963, 1971 pp. 21–29] that the cocoa farmer of Ghana is to be regarded as a rural capitalist rather than a stereotyped peasant producer. To test this, one aspect of entrepreneurial behaviour of particular interest to the economist is selected, viz. low marginal propensity to consume. The limited evidence on Ghana cocoa farmers’ income and expenditure is analysed to see whether these individuals do in fact exhibit the low consumption propensities typical of the entrepreneurial class. In view of the limitations inherent in the data, conclusions can only be tentative but at the very least no refutation of the hypothesis is apparent.