The Demand for Imports and Exports in Africa: A Survey

DOI

10.2991/jat.k.200530.001How to use a DOI?

Keywords

African trade; export demand elasticity; import demand elasticity; survey

Abstract

To drive economic development, it is important for policy makers to have a good understanding of the linkages between imports, exports, and the rest of the economy. This is particularly true for Africa. The continent depends on exports of commodities to finance imports of manufactured goods for consumption and investment purposes. The importance of trade to African economies is underscored by one fact: the region has one of the highest ratios of imports and exports to gross domestic product. In this paper, we survey the literature on import and export demand elasticities and present a broad set of estimates for the countries of Africa. These estimates collected in our survey can support both academic research and policy making on the continent. They also provide a road map for future research on the determinants of trade flows on the continent. The results reveal large gaps in our understanding of the determinants of trade flows in the region—those gaps serve as pointers for future research.

Copyright

© 2020 African Export-Import Bank. Publishing services by Atlantis Press International B.V.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - JOUR
AU  - Michael Olabisi
AU  - W. Charles Sawyer
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/06/13
TI  - The Demand for Imports and Exports in Africa: A Survey
JO  - Journal of African Trade
SP  - 45
EP  - 59
VL  - 7
IS  - 1-2
SN  - 2214-8523
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/jat.k.200530.001
DO  - 10.2991/jat.k.200530.001
ID  - Olabisi2020
ER  -