IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v45y2015icp22-37.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trade volume and economic growth in the MENA region: Goods or services?

Author

Listed:
  • Karam, Fida
  • Zaki, Chahir

Abstract

This paper explores the macroeconomic and sectoral effects of goods and service trade on the economic performance of MENA countries for the period 1960–2011. While the MENA region has been widely neglected in the trade and growth literature, this paper offers a decomposition of MENA GDP growth in order to disentangle the contributions of both service and goods trade. The results show a positive association between real GDP and both service and goods trade. The interaction term between trade in goods and trade in services is negative, suggesting that as goods trade increases, the marginal effect of service trade on real GDP decreases. However, the overall effect of service trade on real GDP is positive. The decomposition of GDP growth reveals a greater impact of goods trade, although service trade is important, and for most countries greater than the effect of tertiary enrolment.

Suggested Citation

  • Karam, Fida & Zaki, Chahir, 2015. "Trade volume and economic growth in the MENA region: Goods or services?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 22-37.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:45:y:2015:i:c:p:22-37
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2014.10.038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999314003952
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2014.10.038?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arnold, Jens M. & Javorcik, Beata S. & Mattoo, Aaditya, 2011. "Does services liberalization benefit manufacturing firms?: Evidence from the Czech Republic," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 136-146, September.
    2. Jens Matthias Arnold & Beata Javorcik & Molly Lipscomb & Aaditya Mattoo, 2016. "Services Reform and Manufacturing Performance: Evidence from India," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(590), pages 1-39, February.
    3. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    4. David H. Romer & Jeffrey A. Frankel, 1999. "Does Trade Cause Growth?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 379-399, June.
    5. Harrison, Ann, 1996. "Openness and growth: A time-series, cross-country analysis for developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 419-447, March.
    6. N. Gregory Mankiw & David Romer & David N. Weil, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 407-437.
    7. Simeon Djankov & Caroline Freund & Cong S. Pham, 2010. "Trading on Time," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(1), pages 166-173, February.
    8. Edwards, Sebastian, 1998. "Openness, Productivity and Growth: What Do We Really Know?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(447), pages 383-398, March.
    9. Robert E. Baldwin, 2004. "Openness and Growth: What's the Empirical Relationship?," NBER Chapters, in: Challenges to Globalization: Analyzing the Economics, pages 499-521, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Romain Wacziarg, 2001. "Measuring the Dynamic Gains from Trade," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 15(3), pages 393-39-429.
    11. Mattoo, Aaditya & Rathindran, Randeep, 2006. "Measuring Services Trade Liberalization and Its Impact on Economic Growth: An Illustration," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 21, pages 64-98.
    12. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew Warner, 1995. "Economic Reform and the Process of Global Integration," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(1, 25th A), pages 1-118.
    13. Jong-Wha Lee, 1993. "International Trade, Distortions, and Long-Run Economic Growth," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 40(2), pages 299-328, June.
    14. Joseph Francois & Julia Woerz, 2008. "Producer Services, Manufacturing Linkages, and Trade," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 199-229, December.
    15. Joseph F. Francois & Lutger Schuknecht, 1999. "Trade in Financial Services: Procompetitive Effects and Growth Performance," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 99-028/2, Tinbergen Institute.
    16. Francisco Rodríguez & Dani Rodrik, 2001. "Trade Policy and Economic Growth: A Skeptic's Guide to the Cross-National Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2000, Volume 15, pages 261-338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Felix Eschenbach & Bernard Hoekman, 2006. "Services Policy Reform and Economic Growth in Transition Economies," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 142(4), pages 746-764, December.
    18. Ingo Borchert & Batshur Gootiiz & Aaditya Mattoo, 2014. "Policy Barriers to International Trade in Services: Evidence from a New Database," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 162-188.
    19. Hoekman, Bernard & Mattoo, Aaditya, 2008. "Services trade and growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4461, The World Bank.
    20. Dollar, David, 1992. "Outward-Oriented Developing Economies Really Do Grow More Rapidly: Evidence from 95 LDCs, 1976-1985," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(3), pages 523-544, April.
    21. Eschenbach, Felix & Hoekman, Bernard, 2005. "Services policy reform and economic growth in transition economies, 1990-2004," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3663, The World Bank.
    22. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    23. Nordås, Hildegunn Kyvik, 2010. "Trade in goods and services: Two sides of the same coin?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 496-506, March.
    24. Dan Ben-David, 1993. "Equalizing Exchange: Trade Liberalization and Income Convergence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(3), pages 653-679.
    25. Bayraktar, Nihal & Wang, Yan, 2006. "Banking sector openness and economic growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4019, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Linda Akoto & Daniel Sakyi, 2019. "Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Trade Balance in Post-liberalization Ghana," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 54(3), pages 177-205, August.
    2. Merve Aksoylar Baysoy & Sumru Altug, 2021. "Growth Spillovers for the MENA Region: Geography, Institutions, or Trade?," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 59(3), pages 275-305, September.
    3. Pinar Deniz & Thanasis Stengos & M. Ege Yazgan, 2021. "Revisiting the link between output growth and volatility: panel GARCH analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 743-771, August.
    4. Jala Youssef & Chahir Zaki, 2019. "Between Stabilization and Allocation in the MENA Region: Are Competition Laws Helping?," Working Papers 1319, Economic Research Forum, revised 21 Aug 2019.
    5. Michel Lioussis & Mònica Serrano, 2022. "Services trade contribution on global income generation (2000 - 2014) Abstract: This paper investigates the contribution of services trade to the variation of global income generation for the period o," UB School of Economics Working Papers 2022/423, University of Barcelona School of Economics.
    6. Merve Aksoylar Baysoy & Sumru Altug, 2019. "Growth Spillovers in the MENA Region," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1909, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    7. Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel, 2019. "Macroeconomic Institutions: Lessons from World Experience for MENA Countries," Working Papers 1311, Economic Research Forum, revised 21 Aug 2019.
    8. Kollie, Genesis B., 2022. "International Trade, Economic Growth and Governance: Evidence from ECOWAS Member Countries," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 10(3), June.
    9. Amélie GUILLIN & Isabelle RABAUD & Chahir ZAKI, 2022. "Does the Depth of Trade Agreements Matter for Trade in Services? Evidence from the MENA Region," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2984, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    10. Sinan Esen & Korhan Gokmenoglu, 2016. "Financial Centres Index and GDP Growth," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(4), pages 198-206, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jacob Kolster, 2015. "North Africa - Working paper - Trade Volume and Economic Growth in the MENA Region: Goods or Services?," Working Paper Series 2157, African Development Bank.
    2. Charles Ackah, & Oliver Morrissey, 2007. "Trade Liberalisation is Good for You if You are Rich," Discussion Papers 07/01, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    3. Bianka Dettmer, 2012. "Business services outsourcing and economic growth: Evidence from a dynamic panel data approach," Jena Economics Research Papers 2012-049, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    4. Capolupo, Rosa, 2009. "The New Growth Theories and Their Empirics after Twenty Years," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-72.
    5. Rao, B. Bhaskara & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2011. "Globalization and growth in the low income African countries with the extreme bounds analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 795-805, May.
    6. Robert Mullings & Aruneema Mahabir, 2016. "Growth by Destination: The Role of Trade in Africa’s Recent Growth Episode," NBS Discussion Papers in Economics 2016/01, Economics, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University.
    7. Mullings, Robert & Mahabir, Aruneema, 2018. "Growth by Destination: The Role of Trade in Africa’s Recent Growth Episode," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 243-261.
    8. Mr. Andrew Berg & Anne O. Krueger, 2003. "Trade, Growth, and Poverty: A Selective Survey," IMF Working Papers 2003/030, International Monetary Fund.
    9. John Knight & Sai Ding, 2008. "Why has China Grown so Fast? The Role of Structural Change," Economics Series Working Papers 415, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    10. Bekaert, Geert & Harvey, Campbell R. & Lundblad, Christian, 2005. "Does financial liberalization spur growth?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 3-55, July.
    11. Samargandi, Nahla & Fidrmuc, Jan & Ghosh, Sugata, 2015. "Is the Relationship Between Financial Development and Economic Growth Monotonic? Evidence from a Sample of Middle-Income Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 66-81.
    12. Eriṣ, Mehmet N. & Ulaṣan, Bülent, 2013. "Trade openness and economic growth: Bayesian model averaging estimate of cross-country growth regressions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 867-883.
    13. Francis Teal & Måns Söderbom, 2003. "Openness and Human Capital as Sources of Productivity Growth: An Empirical Investigation," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/2003-06, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    14. Rendón Obando, Hernando & Ramírez Franco, Luz Dary, 2017. "Impacto de la inversión extranjera directa y del grado de apertura de la economía sobre el crecimiento económico para América Latina 1980-2010/Impact of Foreign Direct Investment and Openness Degree o," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 35, pages 217-244, Enero.
    15. Abo-Zaid Salem M, 2011. "The Trade-Growth Relationship in Israel Revisited: Evidence from Annual Data, 1960-2004," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 6(3), pages 63-93, February.
    16. Chan-Hyun Sohn & Hongshik Lee, 2010. "Trade Structure, FTAs, and Economic Growth," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(s1), pages 683-698, August.
    17. Moritz Schularick & Solomos Solomou, 2011. "Tariffs and economic growth in the first era of globalization," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 33-70, March.
    18. Jakob B. Madsen, 2009. "Trade Barriers, Openness, and Economic Growth," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 76(2), pages 397-418, October.
    19. Chang, Roberto & Kaltani, Linda & Loayza, Norman V., 2009. "Openness can be good for growth: The role of policy complementarities," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 33-49, September.
    20. Klaus Wälde & Christina Wood, 2004. "The empirics of trade and growth: where are the policy recommendations?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 275-292, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:45:y:2015:i:c:p:22-37. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.