IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jouafr/v5y2018i1d10.1016_j.joat.2018.08.001.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trade facilitation and social welfare in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Sakyi

    (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology)

  • Isaac Bonuedi

    (University of Bonn)

  • Eric Evans Osei Opoku

    (City University of Hong Kong)

Abstract

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), and human development (human development index). The system-GMM estimation technique is employed in order to address the problem of endogeneity. The main finding is that better trade facilitation results in improved social welfare outcomes. Our findings suggest that effective trade facilitation reforms, targeted particularly at improving infrastructure, institutions, and market efficiency, will likely be associated with improvements of social welfare in Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Sakyi & Isaac Bonuedi & Eric Evans Osei Opoku, 2018. "Trade facilitation and social welfare in Africa," Journal of African Trade, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 35-53, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jouafr:v:5:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1016_j.joat.2018.08.001
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joat.2018.08.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1016/j.joat.2018.08.001
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.joat.2018.08.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade facilitation; Social welfare; System-GMM; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jouafr:v:5:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1016_j.joat.2018.08.001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.atlantis-press.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.