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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Aid For Trade And Africa’S Trade Performance: Evidence From Bilateral Trade Flows With China And Oecd Countries☆, Adugna Lemi Jan 2018

Aid For Trade And Africa’S Trade Performance: Evidence From Bilateral Trade Flows With China And Oecd Countries☆, Adugna Lemi

Journal of African Trade

The optimism surrounding aid for trade (AfT) led scholars and practitioners to probe its link with trade performance of aid-recipient countries in Africa. In the absence of formal evaluation guidelines, most previous studies, using aggregate data, have looked into the impacts of AfT on exports and imports and found results consistent with the stated objectives of AfT. The present study investigates the nature of the link for the case of African countries using disaggregated AfT data from China and OECD member countries. The results show that flows of OECD aid to all sectors and to economic infrastructure have increased both …


Understanding Crude Oil Import Demand Behaviour In Africa: The Ghana Case, George Marbuah Jan 2018

Understanding Crude Oil Import Demand Behaviour In Africa: The Ghana Case, George Marbuah

Journal of African Trade

As in many African countries, crude oil importation is a major drain on the economy of Ghana. We estimate short-run and long-run import demand models for crude oil using data over the period 1980–2012. Results show that demand for crude oil is price inelastic in the short-run but elastic in the long-run. Other important drivers of crude oil import are the real effective exchange rate, domestic oil production and population growth. Income is found to be the strongest driver of crude oil demand. Policy implications of our results are presented.


Effect Of Exchange Rate Volatility On Trade In Sub-Saharan Africa☆, Bernardin Senadza, Desmond Delali Diaba Jan 2018

Effect Of Exchange Rate Volatility On Trade In Sub-Saharan Africa☆, Bernardin Senadza, Desmond Delali Diaba

Journal of African Trade

The volatile nature of exchange rates with the advent of floating regimes has received much attention in economic research. The volatility is generally perceived as negatively affecting international trade. While theoretical predictions and empirical outcomes appear mixed, the balance seems to tilt in favour of this perception. Applying the pooled mean-group estimator of dynamic heterogeneous panels technique to data for eleven Sub-Saharan African economies over the period 1993 to 2014, this paper uncovers no significant effects of exchange rate volatility on imports. In the case of exports, however, the study finds a negative effect of volatility in the short-run, consistent …


Oil Prices And African Stock Markets Co-Movement: A Time And Frequency Analysis, Grakolet Arnold Zamereith Gourène, Pierre Mendy Jan 2018

Oil Prices And African Stock Markets Co-Movement: A Time And Frequency Analysis, Grakolet Arnold Zamereith Gourène, Pierre Mendy

Journal of African Trade

This paper examines the co-movement between OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil prices and the six largest African stock markets. We used wavelet coherence to analyze the evolution of this relationship both in time and by frequency. Our results show that the co-movement between African stock markets and oil prices is relatively low, with the exception of emerging stock markets such as South Africa and Egypt. For most of the African stock markets, the co-movement takes place over large time scales and both during and after the U.S. financial crisis. At small scales, African stock markets could represent a …


Trade Dependence, Liberalization, And Exports Diversification In Developing Countries☆, Patrick N. Osakwe, Amelia U. Santos-Paulino, Berna Dogan Jan 2018

Trade Dependence, Liberalization, And Exports Diversification In Developing Countries☆, Patrick N. Osakwe, Amelia U. Santos-Paulino, Berna Dogan

Journal of African Trade

This paper explores the relationship between trade, trade liberalization, and exports diversification in developing and Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The non-parametric analyses indicate that developing countries that are more open to trade (based on trade intensity) tend to have more diversified exports structures than those that are classified as less open. However, for SSA countries the non-parametric test shows that countries that are more open to trade have less diversified exports structures. Regarding the parametric analysis, the findings provide further evidence that trade liberalization, in the form of lower tariffs, contributes to exports diversification in developing countries, and the results …


Trade Facilitation And Social Welfare In Africa☆, Daniel Sakyi, Isaac Bonuedi, Eric Evans Osei Opoku Jan 2018

Trade Facilitation And Social Welfare In Africa☆, Daniel Sakyi, Isaac Bonuedi, Eric Evans Osei Opoku

Journal of African Trade

Improving social welfare in the developing world remains a top priority on the global development agenda, as policymakers and international development partners worldwide strive to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Using data on 40 African countries over the period 2010–2015, this paper investigates the extent to which trade facilitation contributes to improving social welfare in Africa. To do so, we construct three indices of trade facilitation capturing infrastructure, institutions, and market efficiency from several primary indicators. With regard to social welfare, we use education (net primary school enrollment rate), child health (under-5 mortality rate), population health (life expectancy), …


How Well Does Observable Trade Data Measure Trade Friction Costs? Evidence From Member Countries Within The Economic Community Of West African States (Ecowas), Festus Ebo Turkson Jan 2018

How Well Does Observable Trade Data Measure Trade Friction Costs? Evidence From Member Countries Within The Economic Community Of West African States (Ecowas), Festus Ebo Turkson

Journal of African Trade

This paper is an empirical application of the micro-founded measure of trade costs by Head and Mayer (2004) and Novy (2013). The derived micro-founded measure, consistent with the Ricardian and heterogeneous firm's models of trade, captures all trade costs components that hitherto have been impossible to include in the gravity framework because of severe data limitations and the impracticability of measuring some of the trade cost components. Based on bilateral trade and production data from the Trade, Production, and Protection database by Nicita and Olarreaga (2007) over the period 1980–2003, the micro-founded estimate of relative bilateral trade cost measure computed …


Foreign Direct Investment, Productivity And The Technology Gap In African Economies, Christopher Malikane, Prosper Chitambara Jan 2018

Foreign Direct Investment, Productivity And The Technology Gap In African Economies, Christopher Malikane, Prosper Chitambara

Journal of African Trade

This paper investigates the impact of foreign direct investment on total factor productivity conditional on relative backwardness in a panel of 45 African countries over the period 1980–2012. We use two measures of relative backwardness, namely: the distance from technological frontier and the income gap. We apply the fixed-effects and two-step system GMM methods. We find a generally positive but weak effect of FDI on productivity growth. Meanwhile, the results do not support the convergence theory of Findlay (1978) and Wang and Blomstrom (1992), that relative backwardness would result in higher productivity growth via the adoption of foreign technologies.


Export Market Destination And Performance: Firm-Level Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa☆, Ousmanou Njikam Jan 2018

Export Market Destination And Performance: Firm-Level Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa☆, Ousmanou Njikam

Journal of African Trade

This paper uses a novel manufacturing firm-level survey data in 19 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries to explore the linkages among a number of export-market destinations (e.g., China, India, other Asia, EU, US, MENA, SSA excluding South Africa, and South Africa) and performance. The paper also examines differences between exporters and non-exporters performance and assesses self-selection. We find superior characteristics of exporters relative to non-exporters. Size, foreign ownership and past export experience enhance the propensity to export while continuing exporters outperform switching ones. Export destination matters: exporting to China leads to improvements in total factor productivity (TFP); India destination enhances the …


The Consequences Of Brexit For Africa: The Case Of The East African Community☆, Andrew Mold Jan 2018

The Consequences Of Brexit For Africa: The Case Of The East African Community☆, Andrew Mold

Journal of African Trade

How will Brexit impact on Africa? This paper looks at the available empirical evidence and carries out a Computable General Equilibrium simulation, focusing particularly on the prospects for the East African Community (EAC). The paper makes three main points. First, while the direct impacts through investment, trade and remittances are likely to be relatively small, African countries may benefit from the creation of new export opportunities. However, these are mainly in resource-intensive sectors that are not considered a priority for the development agendas of most African countries. Second, indirect consequences, through Brexit's impact on the global economy, its influence on …