Trade and growth in West Africa in the 1980s

The classical school regards international trade as the main engine of growth. But modern empirical studies have failed to show any simple and generally consistent correlation between foreign trade statistics and macro-economic aggregates such as savings, Investment, consumption and growth¹. The more generally accepted view is that development through trade where it occurred was partly the consequence of favourable internal environment. What are the prospects for growth through trade in West Africa in the 1980s?     

Trade protection and tax evasion: Evidence from Kenya,Mauritius, and Nigeria

We examine the effect of trade protection rates on evasion in three African countries Kenya, Mauritius, and Nigeria. In capturing the effect of trade protection on tariff evasion, we use a much improved measure of trade protection (MAcMap-HS6 2001 and 2004). For two of these countries, this dataset allows the novelty of using variation in trade protection across product, time, and trading partners leading to significantly refined estimates of evasion elasticity relative to existing studies on tariff evasion. We find a robust evidence for positive elasticity of evasion with respect to tariffs in Kenya and Nigeria with relatively weaker evidence for Mauritius. Our results match the rankings of countries in institutional quality. Greater responsiveness of evasion to the level of tariffs is established in Nigeria (comparatively weak institutional quality) vis-à-vis Kenya, and in Kenya vis-à-vis Mauritius (comparatively good institutional quality). This pattern is preserved even when focusing on same set of trading partners and same set of imported products for the three countries. This result is robust to controlling for protection on related products (that creates incentives/ opportunities for evasion) and also for degree of differentiation of the product and some other characteristics.     

Exploring consumer ethics in Ghana,West Africa

Consumer ethics is a growing area of research that focused almost exclusively on consumers in the United States and, to a lesser degree, Europe and Asia. In this paper, we introduce an African element to the consumer ethics discourse by drawing on survey responses from over 300 Ghanaian consumers to explore their ethical beliefs and judgements. We analysed these data using regression techniques. Our findings show that Ghanaian consumers exhibit lower levels of ethics compared with their America counterparts, especially when the unethical actions facilitate the achievement of their goals. While Ghanaian consumers recognize the value of moral rules, they are prone to suspending their ethical positions as they deem necessary in a particular context. Implications for marketing strategy and future research are discussed.     

Trade reform,infrastructure investment,and structural transformation in Africa: Evidence from Guinea-Bissau

This study examines the impacts of trade reform and infrastructure investment on structural transformation and poverty alleviation in Guinea-Bissau using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model. We found that partial or complete tariff rate cuts accompanied by a scaling-up infrastructure investment funded by debt only positively impact macro-and micro-outcomes but do not generate structural transformation. Conversely, trade reform and infrastructure investment funded by a mix of debt and tax rates on the firm's income generate structural transformation with labor reallocation from agriculture to non-agricultural sectors. This structural transformation pattern favors the poor and contributes to reducing income inequality over time.     

Transmission of Rice Prices from Thailand into West African Markets: The Case of Benin,Mali, and Senegal

ABSTRACT

The integration of West African rice market to the world market is assessed in order to derive the implication for food security. To this end, the transmission of rice price changes on the world market to selected markets in West Africa was examined to test for the presence of transaction costs. Using the two-regime threshold cointegration procedure on monthly price data, evidence in support of the hypothesis of asymmetric price transmission was found between Thailand and some West African markets. Price increases on the world market were more quickly transmitted to domestic price than were price decreases in Benin and Mali, suggesting short-run dynamic inefficiencies and the presence of transaction costs. In Senegal, the adjustment was linear, suggesting greater integration with the world rice market. The results suggest that West African governments should design and implement adequate policies to develop the domestic rice sector, improve market infrastructures in order to reduce their country dependency to international markets and ensure food security.     

Consumer Culture Plots in Television Advertising from Nigeria and South Africa

The goal of this study is to respond to Taylor's recognition of the dearth of cross-national advertising and globalization studies in emerging markets. To fill this theoretical gap in the literature, we employ semiology to evaluate the plots and stories used in promoting global consumer culture in television advertisements from the two major economic powers in sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria and South Africa. Unlike previous cross-national advertising and globalization studies that suggest that advertising is a reflection of cultural and global consumerism values, our findings suggest that advertisements reflect a romanticized view of middle-ground politics promoted by political establishments both at the national and the international level. We also found that the reflection of middle-ground politics in advertisements may be more prevalent in countries undergoing major ideological change.