Supplementary Trade Benefits of Multi-Memberships in African Regional Trade Agreements

ABSTRACT

Few papers have investigated the trade effects of multi-memberships of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), but none has done this in an Africa-wide manner. This paper investigates the supplementary trade effects of multi-memberships of RTAs after controlling for single-membership for all African RTAs. We use (1) overall number of RTAs by country pair; (2) dummies of number of RTAs; and (3) number of RTA memberships by countries within each RTA grouping, in a panel of 53 African countries from 1995 to 2014. The gravity models are estimated with the Eicker-White robust covariance Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) which is superior to previous ones. All the estimates concur that multi-memberships have significant additional intra-Africa trade benefits which increase with the number of memberships. The implication is that although RTAs enhance trade in Africa, it is only a second-best to a complete integration of the African continent. A complete dismantling of politically induced trade barriers and even inter-RTA boundaries within Africa will yield significant intra-Africa trade benefits. The results support the ongoing efforts in Africa in pursuing a “one Africa” vision. Such efforts have to transcend regional integration and pursue the ideal of an integrated Africa for the full trade benefits to be realized.     

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and export diversification

This paper explores the effect of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) on export diversification in Sub-Saharan Africa. The existing empirical studies suggest that AGOA has had a positive effect on the overall volume of trade between Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States. However, the economic development literature emphasizes the importance of export diversification for developing countries; therefore, it is important to understand the effects of AGOA on the extensive margin of trade (i.e. the number of distinct products a country exports). Our empirical results suggest that AGOA does contribute to export diversification, specifically through its apparel provision. Countries that are eligible for the AGOA apparel provision export not only more apparel products, but also more non-apparel products to the USA. Thus, AGOA contributes to export diversification at the extensive margin of trade with the USA.     

进口竞争与多产品企业出口二元边际

运用2000~2006年中国工业数据库和海关数据库的匹配面板数据,本文研究了进口竞争与多产品企业出口二元边际的关系。研究发现:(1)进口竞争显著提高了多产品企业出口的集约边际和扩展边际,且对集约边际的促进作用更强;(2)区分贸易类型的研究发现,相比于一般贸易,进口竞争对加工贸易的边际促进效应更加显著;(3)分行业回归的结果表明,具有比较优势的行业,进口竞争对出口边际的促进效应更为显著。使用系统GMM模型控制可能存在的内生性,发现进口竞争对集约边际和扩展边际的促进作用依然稳健。     

Governance and Globalisation

Unlike the large literature on ‘democracy and trade’, there is a much smaller literature on the effect of the level of democracy in a nation on the level of its foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow. These few studies reveal mixed empirical results, and surprisingly only one study has examined bilateral FDI flows. Moreover, few of these studies use multiple governance indicators separating the ‘pluralism’ effect of democratic institutions from the ‘good governance’ effect, there are no studies on democratic institutions’ various effects on the level of FDI relative to trade, and there are no studies of democratic institutions’ various effects on the selection of countries into FDI. We focus on three contributions. First, we examine the simultaneous effects of the World Bank's (six) Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGIs) – which allow separating the effects of pluralism from those of five other good governance measures – on bilateral trade, FDI and FDI relative to trade using state‐of‐the‐art gravity specifications. Second, we find strong evidence that – after accounting for host governments’ effectiveness in various roles of good governance – a higher level of pluralism as measured by the WGIs’ Voice and Accountability Index reduces trade levels, likely by increasing the ‘voice’ of more protectionist less‐skilled workers, but not FDI levels. Moreover, we find qualitatively different effects of other WGIs – such as political stability – on trade versus FDI flows. Third, we account for firm heterogeneity alongside a large number of zeros in bilateral FDI flows using recent advances in gravity modelling. We distinguish between the (country) intensive and extensive margins and show that pluralism affects FDI inflows negatively at the intensive margin, but positively at the extensive margin.     

Challenges of Doing Business in Africa: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a systematic review of challenges to doing business in Africa. It complements the extant literature by answering two critical questions: what are the linkages between the ease of doing business and economic development; and what are the challenges to doing business in Africa? In providing answers to these questions, the nexus between the ease of doing business and economic development is discussed in six main strands, namely: wealth creation and sharing; opportunities of employment; balanced regional and economic development; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and GDP per capita; standards of living and exports. Moreover, challenges to doing business are articulated along the following lines: (i) issues related to the cost of starting a business and doing business; (ii) shortage of energy and electricity; (iii) lack of access to finance; and (v) high taxes and low cross-border trade.     

Rue the ROOs: Rules of origin and the gains (or losses) from trade agreements

ABSTRACT

This article provides three-good, three-country examples of trade in both intermediate inputs and final goods. These show the adverse effects that rules of origin (ROOs) can have, even in a world where every country has a free trade agreement (FTA) with every other country. ROOs may cause ubiquitous FTAs to yield a level of welfare, for everyone, that is worse than if there were no FTAs at all, and all trade were subject to common nondiscriminatory tariffs. Thus, the move to an ever increasing number of FTAs may be reducing world welfare.     

Capital Flows and Economic Growth in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The study examines the differential effects of capital flows on economic growth in Ghana over the period 1970–2014 using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL). Breakpoint unit root tests are employed to cater for structural change and breaks in time series. Afterwards, these break dates are fed into the ADRL model as dummy variables to allow for the computation of a more robust cointegrating vector. The findings indicate that in both the short and long run capital flows (i.e. FDI, aid, and external debt) have negative effects on economic growth. However, remittances exhibit positive insignificant elasticity in all the regressions. Further, the empirical results show that while the impact of trade, gross capital formation and population growth on growth are mixed, that of inflation is negative. The results of the study are consistent with the idea that the impact of capital flows in Africa has been exaggerated.     

Economic integration agreements and the margins of international trade

One of the main policy sources of trade–cost changes is the formation of an economic integration agreement (EIA), which potentially affects an importing country's welfare. This paper: (i) provides the first evidence using gravity equations of both intensive and extensive (goods) margins being affected by EIAs employing a panel data set with a large number of country pairs, product categories, and EIAs from 1962 to 2000; (ii) provides the first evidence of the differential (partial) effects of various “types” of EIAs on these intensive and extensive margins of trade; and (iii) finds a novel differential “timing” of the two margins' (partial) effects with intensive-margin effects occurring sooner than extensive-margin effects, consistent with recent theoretical predictions. The results are robust to correcting for potential sample-selection, firm-heterogeneity, and reverse causality biases.     

An Evaluation of the Opportunities and Obstacles for Investments in the Maputo Development Corridor (MDC)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify and investigate potential obstacles and opportunities for local and international investors in the Maputo Development Corridor (MDC).

This study focuses exclusively on the Maputo-Mpumalanga Corridor axis which could be considered as an important nucleus of the eastern region of Southern Africa. The possibility of co-operation concerning the Corridor offers both South Africa and Mozambique-which have until recently both experienced less than optimal internal trade relations-the opportunity for enhanced competitiveness.

This study therefore attempts to measure the perceptions of potential investors to identify both the obstacles and opportunities regarding the process of economic development involving the Maputo-Mpumalanga Corridor in attracting investments.     

Trade facilitation and the extensive margin

The literature on trade facilitation has mostly focused on implications for trade volumes. However, recent theoretical contributions have emphasized that trade costs – such as transaction costs related to cross-border trade procedures – affect both the traded volumes of ‘old’ goods (the intensive margin) and the range of traded goods (the extensive margin). This article therefore tests whether trade facilitation affects the extensive margin by counting the number of 8-digit products that are exported from developing to EU countries, and using this as the dependent variable in an estimation. Moreover, it also tests whether the extensive margins in differentiated and homogeneous goods are affected in the same way by transaction costs. Estimation results suggest that if export transaction costs – proxied by the number of days needed to export a good – declined by 1%, the number of exported differentiated and homogeneous products would rise by 0.6% and 0.3%, respectively. Policy simulations further illustrate that if all countries were as efficient at the border as the most efficient country at the same level of development, the number of exported differentiated and homogeneous products would increase by 62% and 26%, respectively.     

The effect of WTO on the extensive and the intensive margins of trade

We use 6-digit bilateral trade data to document the effect of WTO/GATT membership on the extensive and intensive product margins of trade. We construct gravity equations for the two product margins motivated by Chaney (2008). The empirical results show that standard gravity variables provide good explanatory power for bilateral trade on both margins. Importantly, we show that the impact of the WTO is concentrated almost exclusively on the extensive product margin of trade, i.e. trade in goods that were not previously traded. In our preferred specification, WTO membership increases the extensive margin of exports by 25%. At the same time, WTO membership has a negative impact on the intensive margin. Based on novel comparative statics results about how fixed and variable trade costs impact the product margins of trade, our results suggest that WTO membership works by reducing primarily the fixed rather than the variable costs of trade.     

Trade-Related Training for Trainers in Export Development and Promotion in Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop an appropriate training mechanism for the development of the export/international trade sectors in Sudan. One of the activity components identified was the training of trainers in exporting/international marketing in selected sectors. In an effort to develop the most useful export development training program, an intensive needs assessment study was undertaken. The results of the study suggest that groups of respondents who share similar characteristics can be identified and profiled, and based on similar levels knowledge and skills they will be subjected to an intensive type of short export development and promotion training. Upon receiving the necessary training, the trainers will then train trainees in the field of international trade and export development.     

Modelling the Extensive Margin of World Trade: New Evidence on GATT and WTO Membership

Recent literature has argued that, contrary to the results of a seminal paper by Rose (2004), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/World Trade Organization (WTO) membership does promote bilateral trade, at least for developed economies and if membership includes non‐formal compliance. We review the literature to identify open issues. We then develop a simple extension of the gravity model that gives rise to an extensive country margin of trade separating positive trade from zero trade country pairs. The model is used to identify WTO membership effects at both the intensive and the extensive margins. Empirical estimation of this model, based on Poisson pseudo‐maximum likelihood methods with exporter and importer fixed effects, allows us to readdress the empirical issue of whether GATT/WTO membership does or does not promote trade. We find that GATT membership was successful on the extensive margin of world trade but not on the intensive margin. For the recent WTO episode (1995–2008), we find consistent and robust evidence for a substantial trade‐creating role of membership which is driven primarily by the intensive margin. WTO membership results in higher bilateral trade of about 40 per cent.     

An exhibitors perspective: factors affecting selection of industrial trade shows in India and the importance of spot sales

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To identify the factors affecting the selection of trade shows in India and the role of spot sales in decision-making.

Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a primary approach. It has been done with the help of data collected from exhibitors’ responses to a standard questionnaire (appendix) through offline mode. Finally, the collected data was used for analysis with the help of SPSS 21. Multivariate data analysis techniques such as factor analysis, correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling were used in the study.

Findings: The findings of the study revealed that perceived show value was the most important factor of selecting a trade show followed by measurable cost, timing and lastly show attractions. Spot sales were found to make a significant impact on the participating decision-making process. Some of the subjective factors such as facilities within the venue and connectivity to the venue made an impact on the exhibitors' selection of trade shows.

Practical implications: Organising a trade show requires a lot of money and effort and thus it becomes important that such events be successful. Thus, the study could be used by trade show organizers to attract exhibitors for participating in their show.

Originality/value: Although research studies have been conducted on the motives for participating in a trade show in the U.S. and Europe, very few were found relating to the identification of factors affecting the decision to participate. This number becomes still smaller when one considers the case of the growing Indian economy. Looking into these aspects, this study can be considered new and thus its originality remains high.     

Effect of financial development on international trade in Africa: Does measure of finance matter?

Although improving international trade on the back of financial sector development is one of the preoccupations of countries in Africa, empirical literature on financial development-trade nexus has not been rigorous in examining how finance shapes trade. In this study, we examine the effect of financial development on international trade in Africa relying on data for 46 countries over the period 1980–2015. Results from our system generalized method of moments reveal differential effects of finance on trade. In particular, we notice that, private credit does not promote trade while domestic credit positively affects trade. These effects are robust to measures of trade. Thus, improving the level of private (domestic) credit dampens (amplifies) exports and trade openness. However, we also find a U-shaped relationship between private credit and trade measures suggesting that financial sector development may be detrimental (helpful) to trade for economies with low (high) level of private credit.     

U.S.-Africa trade balance and the J-curve: An asymmetry analysis

ABSTRACT

For the first time in the body of literature, we consider bilateral trade balance models of the US with each of her 20 trading partners from Africa and try to assess the J-curve phenomenon. After applying the linear and nonlinear ARDL approaches, we find support for the J-curve effect in three partners from the linear models. However, support rises to eight partners when we shift to nonlinear models. Furthermore, we find short-run asymmetric effects of exchange rate changes in almost all models and significant long-run asymmetric effects in half of the partners.     

融入产品内国际分工体系如何影响企业出口的二元边际——基于两步系统动态GMM估计方法的研究

本文利用WIOD的宏观投入产出数据和大样本微观企业合并数据, 采用两步系统动态GMM估计方法分析融入产品内国际分工体系对我国企业出口二元边际的影响.研究结果发现, 融入全球产品内分工体系显著促进企业集约边际的增长, 但没有促进扩展边际的增长; 融入全球产品内分工体系促进加工贸易企业及港澳台、 外资企业集约边际的扩张, 抑制国有和集体企业扩展边际的增长.     

Product Innovativeness,Trade Show Strategy and Trade Show Performance

Abstract

This study examines the effects of product innovativeness and trade show strategy on trade show performance. Based on a sample from the information technology industry in Taiwan, the results show that companies marketing innovative products focus on the trust and relationship building toward visitors and trade show organizers. In addition, information communication and relationship building strategies toward visitors affect perceived trade show performance. Finally, product innovativeness has a direct effect on perceived trade show performance in addition to the effect through trade show strategies.     

The Developmental Impact of Asian Drivers on Kenya with Emphasis on Textiles and Clothing Manufacturing

(1251) Paul Kamau with Dorothy McCormick and Nicolas Pinaud Kenya has enjoyed a relatively diversified economy (at least by SSA standards), with light manufacturing industries in particular playing a significant growing role. The rise of Asian competition (locally, regionally and on third‐country markets), partly due to the erosion of trade preferences for clothing and footwear, has raised fresh policy challenges. The specific relevance of the clothing industry in the analysis of China’s and India’s impact on Africa is manifold: this is a low‐skilled labour‐intensive industry, and hence an avenue for African economies’ diversification; the competition from Asian producers vis‐à‐vis the SSA clothing industry is felt at the local, regional and global level (on third‐country markets): it is therefore direct and indirect; also, the Asian Drivers’ impact on African clothing industries has both a trade and investment dimension while being competitive and complementary.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Value of Multinational Companies: Lessons from a Sub-Saharan African Environment

ABSTRACT

The issue of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an approach for businesses to independently take actions that lead to better levels of societal development as well as higher value creation for the business, particularly in developing countries has gained much advocacy. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between CSR and business value of multinational companies (MNCs) in sub-Saharan Africa. The study adopted quantitative research methodology and using multiple regression analysis, findings show that CSR can positively and significantly predict business values in the multinational subsidiaries. These values include direct (economic value) and indirect (human capital value and reputational business value). This paper therefore contributes to a novel CSR index from the perspective of business value and sustainability of MNCs in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) environment. Thus, the paper recommends MNCs operating in Africa to enhance their social investment through their CSR strategy with the aim that CSR must not be regarded as a cost center, but an investment instrument that can accrue various dividends.