Intra-Sub-Saharan African Trade: is it too Little?

Foroutan, Faezeh; Pritchett, Lant

doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.jae.a036775

Cited by 168 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Moreover, and in line with Redding and Schott (2003) and Breinlich (2006), we find evidence of an indirect effect of market access on economic development through its positive effect on human 4 Although the latter is not undisputed, see e.g. Foroutan and Pritchett (1993) and Subramanian and Tamarisa (2003).…”

Section: See Http://econworldbankorg/wbsite/external/extdec/extresesupporting

confidence: 77%

“…For intra-SSA trade we find a clear positive effect of sharing a common border on trade flows (see e.g. Limao and Venables, 2001;Tamirisa, 2003 andForoutan andPritchett, 1993). For SSA-ROW trade we, however, find (surprisingly) a negative effect.…”

mentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Since 1970, the region's share in global trade (exports plus imports) has declined from about 4% to a mere 2% in (IMF, 2007. Through their detrimental effect on market access, high trade costs are generally viewed as one of the main causes for its poor trade performance (see Collier, 2002;Foroutan and Pritchett, 1993;Coe and Hoffmaister, 1999;Limao and Venables, 2001;Amjadi andYeats, 1995 andPortugal-Perez andWilson, 2008). Increasing SSA participation in world markets is viewed as very important to its future economic success (IMF, 2007; World Bank 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Economic Geography and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Bosker¹,

Garretsen²

2012

The World Bank Economic Review

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The physical or absolute geography of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is often blamed for its poor economic performance. A country's location however not only determines its absolute geography, it also pins down its relative position on the globe vis-à-vis other countries. This paper assesses the importance of relative geography, and access to foreign markets in particular, in explaining the substantial income differences between SSA countries. We base our empirical analysis on a new economic geography model. We first construct a measure of each SSA country's market access based on bilateral trade flows and then assess the relevance of market access for economic development. In doing so, we explicitly distinguish between the importance of access to other SSA markets and to the rest of world respectively. We find that market access, and notably intra-SSA market access, has a significant positive effect on GDP per capita. This indicates that improving SSA market access (e.g. by investing in intra-SSA infrastructure or through increased SSA integration) will have substantial positive effects on its future economic development. Terms of use: Documents inJEL Code: O10, O19, O55, F1.

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Section: See Http://econworldbankorg/wbsite/external/extdec/extresesupporting

confidence: 77%

mentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Economic Geography and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Bosker¹,

Garretsen²

2012

The World Bank Economic Review

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“…Melitz (2007) posits that the absence of a common language and the consequent presence of linguistic barriers can be a major obstacle to foreign trade. This result is consistent with the previous findings of Achay (2006), Eita and Jordaan (2007), Foroutan and Lant (1993), Martinez-Zarzoso and Nowak-Lehmann (2003) and Ram and Prasad (2000). In their empirical studies, these authors found a strong positive effect of the language variable and concluded that historical, cultural and colonial ties had a significant impact on the pattern of trade in their study samples.…”

Section: Estimation Results and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…In this case, an increase in the GDP per capita income of a COMESA member country raises the absorption capacity of the domestic market, resulting into lower exports. This result is consistent with the findings of Foroutan and Lant (1993). In a study on the effect of regional integration arrangements on trade in Sub-Saharan Africa, these authors found that a higher GDP per capita of an exporting country reduced the trade potential.…”

Section: Estimation Results and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Regional Economic Integration and Exports Performance in the COMESA Region (1980-2012)

Karamuriro¹

2015

IJBER

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Abstract:One of the major development challenges facing Africa has been the small and fragmented economies with low incomes and low level of intra-regional exports. In an effort to promote intra-regional exports, Africa has witnessed renewed momentum for regional integration. This study examines the effect of regional economic integration on exports in the COMESA region. It employs the fixed effects regression, random effects regression and instrumental variables GMM regression to estimate an augmented trade gravity model using panel data from 1980 to 2012. The study results show that the formation of COMESA trading bloc has promoted intra-regional exports, implying intra-COMESA export bias. Comparing pre-COMESA (1980-1993 and post-COMESA (1994-2012) periods, it was found that intra-COMESA exports have grown by approximately 35 percent since COMESA was formed. This suggests that in order to enhance export flows in the region, the process of economic integration should be deepened. Thus, there is need for increased investment in transport infrastructure that will reduce long distance cost of doing business. This would have a major impact on deepening integration of COMESA economies.

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English as a Global Language

Mélitz

2016

The Palgrave Handbook of Economics and Language

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How far has English already spread? How much further can we expect it to go? In response to the first question, this chapter tries to identify the areas of life where English already serves as a lingua franca in the world (more or less) and those where the language faces sharp competition and does not threaten to marginalize the other major languages. The former areas of life are international safety, the internal business of international organizations, internal communication within the international news industry, international sports and science. The latter areas are the press, television, the internet, publishing and international trade. As to the second question, about the future prospects of English, the chapter argues that the advance of English will depend heavily on the motives to learn the other major languages in the world as well. Based on the empirical evidence, the same model applies to the incentives to learn English and these other languages. On the important topic of welfare, the cultural market is the single one where it is arguable that the progress of English has gone too far. English dominance in the song, the cinema and the best-seller is indeed extraordinary and difficult to reconcile with the evidence popular attachments to home languages, which is otherwise strong and apparent.

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Intra-Sub-Saharan African Trade: is it too Little?

Cited by 168 publications

References 12 publications

Economic Geography and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Economic Geography and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional Economic Integration and Exports Performance in the COMESA Region (1980-2012)

English as a Global Language

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