Journal of African Trade

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Volume 5, Issue 1-2, December 2018, Pages 35 - 53

Trade facilitation and social welfare in Africa☆

Authors
Daniel Sakyia, *, dsakyi.cass@knust.edu.gh, Isaac Bonuedib, s7isbonn@uni-bonn.de, Eric Evans Osei Opokuc, ericopoku2-c@my.cityu.edu.hk
aDepartment of Economics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, PMB, Kumasi, Ghana
bCentre for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Walter-Flex-Str. 3, 53113 Bonn, Germany
cDepartment of Economics and Finance, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
*Corresponding author.
Corresponding Author
Received 30 June 2017, Revised 26 July 2018, Accepted 12 August 2018, Available Online 4 November 2018.
DOI
10.1016/j.joat.2018.08.001How to use a DOI?
Keywords
F13; F14; I30; C33
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.

Copyright
© 2018 Afreximbank. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc/4.0/).

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<Previous Article In Issue
Next Article In Issue>
Journal
Journal of African Trade
Volume-Issue
5 - 1-2
Pages
35 - 53
Publication Date
2018/11/04
ISSN (Online)
2214-8523
ISSN (Print)
2214-8515
DOI
10.1016/j.joat.2018.08.001How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2018 Afreximbank. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc/4.0/).

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - JOUR
AU  - Daniel Sakyi
AU  - Isaac Bonuedi
AU  - Eric Evans Osei Opoku
PY  - 2018
DA  - 2018/11/04
TI  - Trade facilitation and social welfare in Africa☆
JO  - Journal of African Trade
SP  - 35
EP  - 53
VL  - 5
IS  - 1-2
SN  - 2214-8523
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joat.2018.08.001
DO  - 10.1016/j.joat.2018.08.001
ID  - Sakyi2018
ER  -