Agricultural Imports, Agriculture Productivity and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

Authors

Esther N. Mwangi^{1, 2, *,} , Fuzhong Chen^1, , Daniel M. Njoroge³

¹School of International Trade and Economics, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China

²Department of Business and Economics, Karatina University, Karatina, Kenya

³Institute of Food Bioresources Technology, Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Nyeri, Kenya

^*Corresponding author. Email: esthermwangi2013@gmail.com; emwangi@karu.ac.ke

DOI

10.2991/jat.k.200902.001How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Agricultural import; agriculture productivity; economic growth; Granger causality; Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This study investigates the causal links among agricultural imports, agriculture productivity, and economic growth in 40 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1990–2015. Granger causality tests are applied to infer direction of causality, and the generalized two-stage least squares instrumental variable technique is employed to estimate the effects while controlling for endogeneity. The bootstrapping procedure is used to deal with cross-sectional dependence. The results reveal bidirectional causality between agricultural imports and agriculture productivity in the full sample, and in middle- and low-income non-oil-exporting countries. The relationship between agricultural imported inputs and agriculture productivity is positive and significant. In addition, unidirectional causality from agricultural imports to economic growth is observed in the full sample and middle-income non-oil exporters. The growth elasticity of agricultural imports is about 1.0 in the full sample and 1.3 in the middle-income group. These results then cast new light on the importance of agricultural imports for growth and development in the African region.

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  - Esther N. Mwangi
AU  - Fuzhong Chen
AU  - Daniel M. Njoroge
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/09/08
TI  - Agricultural Imports, Agriculture Productivity and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa
JO  - Journal of African Trade
SP  - 15
EP  - 28
VL  - 7
IS  - 1-2
SN  - 2214-8523
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/jat.k.200902.001
DO  - 10.2991/jat.k.200902.001
ID  - Mwangi2020
ER  -