IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-00270506.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

South-South Trade: Geography Matters

Author

Listed:
  • Souleymane Coulibaly

    (UNIL - Université de Lausanne = University of Lausanne)

  • Lionel Fontagné

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPII - Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales - Centre d'analyse stratégique)

Abstract

Intra-subsaharan African trade appears to be very limited, an outcome that is often justified on the grounds of the size of the exporting and the importing economies. If that were the explanation, there would be no untapped trade potential. We argue instead that the main determinant of this ‘missing trade' is geography. Being landlocked (and poor) translates into very high trade costs. In this paper, we try to measure the impact of geographical impediments on South–South trade. We focus on the intra and extra regional trade of the countries belonging to the West African Economic and Monetary Union, which have been involved in an integration process since the early days of their independence. We derive and estimate an Armington-based model highlighting the impact of geography and infrastructures on bilateral trade flows within this region.

Suggested Citation

  • Souleymane Coulibaly & Lionel Fontagné, 2006. "South-South Trade: Geography Matters," Post-Print hal-00270506, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00270506
    DOI: 10.1093/jae/eji030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Greenaway, David & Milner, Chris R, 1990. "South-South Trade: Theory, Evidence, Policy," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 5(1), pages 47-68, January.
    2. Redding, Stephen & Venables, Anthony J., 2004. "Economic geography and international inequality," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 53-82, January.
    3. J. Vernon Henderson, Zmarak Shalizi, and Anthony J. Venables, 2001. "Geography and development," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 81-105, January.
    4. Lionel Fontagné & Michaël Pajot & Jean-Michel Pasteels, 2002. "Potentiels de commerce entre économies hétérogènes : un petit mode d'emploi des modèles de gravité," Economie & Prévision, La Documentation Française, vol. 0(1), pages 115-139.
    5. Foroutan, Faezeh & Pritchett, Lant, 1993. "Intra-sub-Saharan African Trade: Is It Too Little?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 2(1), pages 74-105, May.
    6. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    7. Keith Head & Thierry Mayer, 2000. "Non-Europe: The magnitude and causes of market fragmentation in the EU," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 136(2), pages 284-314, June.
    8. Havrylyshyn, Oli, 1985. "The direction of developing country trade : Empirical evidence of differences between South-South and South-North trade," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 255-281, December.
    9. Jeffrey D. Sachs, 2001. "Tropical Underdevelopment," NBER Working Papers 8119, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Limao, Nuno & Venables, Anthony J., 1999. "Infrastructure, geographical disadvantage, and transport costs," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2257, The World Bank.
    11. Agnès Bénassy‐Quéré & Maylis Coupet, 2005. "On the Adequacy of Monetary Arrangements in Sub‐Saharan Africa," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 349-373, March.
    12. Lionel Fontagné & Michaël Freudenberg & Nicolas Peridy, 1997. "Trade Patterns Inside the Single Market," Working Papers 1997-07, CEPII research center.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maarten Bosker & Harry Garretsen, 2012. "Economic Geography and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 26(3), pages 443-485.
    2. Paul Friesen & Stephen Kosempel, 2010. "A Calibrated Trade Model of Agglomeration," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 714-729, September.
    3. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Lafourcade, Miren, 2003. "Core-Periphery Patterns of Generalized Transport Costs: France, 1978-98," CEPR Discussion Papers 3958, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Xubei Luo, 2004. "The role of infrastructure investment location in China's western development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3345, The World Bank.
    5. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2004. "The empirics of agglomeration and trade," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 59, pages 2609-2669, Elsevier.
    6. Kristian Behrens, 2011. "International Integration And Regional Inequalities: How Important Is National Infrastructure?," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 79(5), pages 952-971, September.
    7. Jesús López-Rodríguez & J. Andrés Faíña, 2000. "Regional Income Disparities in Europe: What Role for Location?," Regional and Urban Modeling 283600059, EcoMod.
    8. Burhan Can Karahasan & Fırat Bilgel, 2020. "Market access and regional dispersion of human capital accumulation in Turkey," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 1073-1101, August.
    9. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Lafourcade, Miren, 2001. "Transport Cost Decline and Regional Inequalities: Evidence from France," CEPR Discussion Papers 2894, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Redding, Stephen & Schott, Peter K., 2003. "Distance, skill deepening and development: will peripheral countries ever get rich?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 515-541, December.
    11. Elbadawi, Ibrahim & Mengistae, Taye & Zeufack, Albert, 2006. "Market access, supplier access, and Africa's manufactured exports : an analysis of the role of geography and institutions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3942, The World Bank.
    12. Stephen J. Redding, 2010. "The Empirics Of New Economic Geography," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 297-311, February.
    13. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2014. "Gravity Equations: Workhorse,Toolkit, and Cookbook," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 131-195, Elsevier.
    14. Cipollina, Maria & Salvatici, Luca, 2007. "EU and developing countries: an analysis of preferential margins on agricultural trade flows," Working Papers 7219, TRADEAG - Agricultural Trade Agreements.
    15. Enrico Spolaore & Romain Wacziarg, 2009. "The Diffusion of Development," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(2), pages 469-529.
    16. C. Duvivier & S. Li & M.-F. Renard, 2013. "Are workers close to cities paid higher nonagricultural wages in rural China?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(30), pages 4308-4322, October.
    17. Felbermayr, Gabriel & Gröschl, Jasmin, 2013. "Natural disasters and the effect of trade on income: A new panel IV approach," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 18-30.
    18. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 691-751, September.
    19. Disdier, Anne-Celia & Mayer, Thierry, 2007. "Je t'aime, moi non plus: Bilateral opinions and international trade," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 1140-1159, December.
    20. Redding, Stephen & Venables, Anthony J., 2004. "Economic geography and international inequality," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 53-82, January.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F11 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Neoclassical Models of Trade
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    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:hal:journl:hal-00270506. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.