The EGC-ISSER socio-economic panel household survey is a joint effort between the Economic
Growth Center at Yale University and the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research
at Legon (Accra, Ghana).
The data sets provide a foundation for the investigation of the large set of issues that have
remained outside the scope of scientific analysis because of the short time frame and narrow
methodological focus of most existing surveys in developing countries.
The survey is meant to remedy a major constraint on the understanding of development in lowincome
countries - the absence of detailed, multi-level and long-term scientific data that follows
individuals over time and describes both the natural and built environment in which the
individuals reside. Most data collection efforts are short-term - carried out a one point in time;
are limited in scope – collecting information on only a few aspects of the lives of the persons in
the study; and when there are multiple rounds of data collection, individuals who leave the study
area are dropped. This latter means that the most mobile people are not included in existing
surveys and studies, perhaps substantially biasing inferences about who benefits from and who
bears the cost of the development process. The goal of this project, which aims to follow all
individuals, or a random subset, over time using a comprehensive set of survey instruments is
thus to shed new light on long-run processes of economic development.
The report covers information on the first wave of interviews on 5,009 households in all the ten
regions of Ghana. Funding for the Ghana Panel Survey is provided by the Economic Growth
Center at Yale. The survey was designed collaboratively between the EGC and ISSER. ISSER
supervised and carried out the survey