IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2020-030.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Competition, Competitiveness and Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Reda Cherif
  • Sandesh Dhungana
  • Xiangming Fang
  • Mr. Jesus R Gonzalez-Garcia
  • Yuanchen Yang
  • Mustafa Yenice
  • Jung Eun Yoon

Abstract

Does greater product market competition improve external competitiveness and growth? This paper examines this question by using country-and firm-level data for a sample of 39 sub-Saharan African countries over 2000–17, as well as other emerging market economies and developing countries, and finds that an improvement in domestic competition is associated with a signficant increase in real GDP per capita growth rate, achieved mainly through an improvement in export competitiveness and productivity growth. Price levels, including of essential items, are also generally lowered with an increase in competition. Moreover, at the firm-level, evidence shows that greater competition—proxied through a decline in corporate market power—is associated with an increase in firm’s investment and the labor’s share in output. These effects are more pronounced in the manufacturing sector and among domestic firms compared to foreign firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Reda Cherif & Sandesh Dhungana & Xiangming Fang & Mr. Jesus R Gonzalez-Garcia & Yuanchen Yang & Mustafa Yenice & Jung Eun Yoon, 2020. "Competition, Competitiveness and Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa," IMF Working Papers 2020/030, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2020/030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=49019
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Azanaw Mengistu & Hector Perez-Saiz, 2018. "Financial Inclusion and Bank Competition in Sub-Saharan Africa," IMF Working Papers 2018/256, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Ali Saggay & Almas Heshmati & Mohamed Dhif, 2007. "Effects of trade liberalization on domestic prices: Some evidence from Tunisian manufacturing," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 54(1), pages 148-175, March.
    3. Mr. Federico J Diez & Jiayue Fan & Carolina Villegas-Sánchez, 2019. "Global Declining Competition," IMF Working Papers 2019/082, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Thomas J. Holmes & James A. Schmitz, 2010. "Competition and Productivity: A Review of Evidence," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 619-642, September.
    5. Philippe Aghion & Matias Braun & Johannes Fedderke, 2008. "Competition and productivity growth in South Africa," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 16(4), pages 741-768, October.
    6. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "International Trade and Firm Performance: A Survey of Empirical Studies since 2006," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 2, pages 43-87, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Johannes Fedderke & Nonso Obikili & Nicola Viegi, 2018. "Markups and Concentration in South African Manufacturing Sectors: An Analysis with Administrative Data," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 86(S1), pages 120-140, January.
    8. Villegas-Sanchez, Carolina & Díez, Federico & Fan, Jiayue, 2019. "Global Declining Competition," CEPR Discussion Papers 13696, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. A. P. Lerner, 1934. "The Concept of Monopoly and the Measurement of Monopoly Power," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 1(3), pages 157-175.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiaoyang Zhu, 2023. "Financial development and declining market dynamics: Another dark side of “too much finance”?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 275-309, July.

    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. Kaku Attah Damoah & Giorgia Giovannetti & Marco Sanfilippo, 2021. "Markup Dispersion and Firm Entry: Evidence from Ethiopia," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(2), pages 299-327, April.
    2. Cincera, Michele & Ince, Ela & Santos, Anabela, 2024. "Revisiting the innovation-competition nexus: Evidence from worldwide manufacturing and service industries," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 586-603.
    3. Johannes Fedderke & Yang Liu, 2018. "Inflation in South Africa: An Assessment of Alternative Inflation Models," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 86(2), pages 197-230, June.
    4. Liliana Varela, 2018. "Reallocation, Competition, and Productivity: Evidence from a Financial Liberalization Episode," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(2), pages 1279-1313.
    5. Fedderke, Johannes W., 2018. "Exploring unbalanced growth: Understanding the sectoral structure of the South African economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 177-189.
    6. Joze Damijan & Jozef Konings & Aigerim Yergabulova, 2020. "Increasing market power in Slovenia: Role of diverging trends between exporters and non‐exporters," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 1327-1345, May.
    7. Chortareas, Georgios & Noikokyris, Emmanouil & Rakeeb, Fathima Roshan, 2021. "Investment, firm-specific uncertainty, and market power in South Africa," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 389-395.
    8. Pedro Bento, 2020. "Competition, Innovation, and the Number of Firms," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 37, pages 275-298, July.
    9. Bournakis, Ioannis & Tsionas, Mike, 2022. "Productivity with Endogenous FDI Spillovers: A Novel Estimation Approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    10. Tosapol Apaitan & Chanont Banternghansa & Archawa Paweenawat & Krislert Samphantharak, 2020. "Common Ownership, Domestic Competition, and Export: Evidence from Thailand," PIER Discussion Papers 140, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Liliana Varela, 2018. "Reallocation, Competition, and Productivity: Evidence from a Financial Liberalization Episode," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 85(2), pages 1279-1313.
    12. Ronald R. Kumar & Peter J. Stauvermann, 2020. "Economic and Social Sustainability: The Influence of Oligopolies on Inequality and Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-23, November.
    13. João Jungo & Mara Madaleno & Anabela Botelho, 2022. "Financial Regulation, Financial Inclusion and Competitiveness in the Banking Sector in SADC and SAARC Countries: The Moderating Role of Financial Stability," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-24, March.
    14. Vladimír Peciar, 2021. "Empirical investigation into market power, markups and employment," MUNI ECON Working Papers 2021-03, Masaryk University, revised Feb 2023.
    15. Reddy, Ketan & Sasidharan, Subash, 2024. "Global value chains, productivity and markup: Evidence from India," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PB), pages 250-271.
    16. Tendai Gwatidzo & Witness Simbanegavi, 2024. "Financial inclusion and banking sector competition in South Africa," Working Papers 11061, South African Reserve Bank.
    17. Schwab, Daniel & Werker, Eric, 2018. "Are economic rents good for development? Evidence from the manufacturing sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 33-45.
    18. Ronald R. Kumar & Peter J. Stauvermann, 2022. "Imperfect Competition, Real Estate Prices and New Stylized Facts," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, February.
    19. Simeon D. Alder, 2016. "In the Wrong Hands: Complementarities, Resource Allocation, and TFP," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 199-241, January.

    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:imf:imfwpa:2020/030. 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: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.html .

    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.