IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/inrsre/v43y2020i6p587-631.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regional Integration: Do Intra-African Trade and Migration Improve Income in Africa?

Author

Listed:
  • Blaise Gnimassoun

Abstract

Regional integration in Africa is a subject of great interest, but its impact on income has not been studied sufficiently. Using cross-sectional and panel estimations, this article examines the impact of African integration on real per capita income in Africa. Accordingly, we consider intra-African trade and migration flows as quantitative measures reflecting the intensity of regional integration. To address the endogeneity concerns, we use a gravity-based, two-stage least-squares strategy. Our results show that, from a long-term perspective, African integration has not been strong enough to generate a positive, significant, and robust impact on real per capita income in Africa. However, it does appear to be significantly income-enhancing in the short and medium terms but only through intercountry migration. These results are robust to a wide range of specifications.

Suggested Citation

  • Blaise Gnimassoun, 2020. "Regional Integration: Do Intra-African Trade and Migration Improve Income in Africa?," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 43(6), pages 587-631, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:inrsre:v:43:y:2020:i:6:p:587-631
    DOI: 10.1177/0160017619874852
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0160017619874852
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0160017619874852?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dramane Coulibaly & Blaise Gnimassoun & Valérie Mignon, 2018. "Growth-enhancing Effect of Openness to Trade and Migrations: What is the Effective Transmission Channel for Africa?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 27(4), pages 369-404.
    2. Andrei Shleifer & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Rafael La Porta, 2008. "The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 285-332, June.
    3. Barattieri, Alessandro, 2014. "Comparative advantage, service trade, and global imbalances," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 1-13.
    4. Alberto Alesina & Johann Harnoss & Hillel Rapoport, 2016. "Birthplace diversity and economic prosperity," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 101-138, June.
    5. Kleibergen, Frank & Paap, Richard, 2006. "Generalized reduced rank tests using the singular value decomposition," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 97-126, July.
    6. Docquier, Frédéric & Lodigiani, Elisabetta & Rapoport, Hillel & Schiff, Maurice, 2016. "Emigration and democracy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 209-223.
    7. Winford H. Masanjala & Chris Papageorgiou, 2008. "Rough and lonely road to prosperity: a reexamination of the sources of growth in Africa using Bayesian model averaging," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(5), pages 671-682.
    8. Enrico Spolaore & Alberto Alesina & Romain Wacziarg, 2000. "Economic Integration and Political Disintegration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1276-1296, December.
    9. Paul R. Masson, 2019. "Currency Unions in Africa: Is the Trade Effect Substantial Enough to Justify Their Formation?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Macroeconomic Modelling and Monetary and Exchange Rate Regimes, chapter 7, pages 243-262, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Dollar, David & Kraay, Aart, 2003. "Institutions, trade, and growth : revisiting the evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3004, The World Bank.
    11. Sanderson, Eleanor & Windmeijer, Frank, 2016. "A weak instrument F-test in linear IV models with multiple endogenous variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 190(2), pages 212-221.
    12. Ross Levine, 1997. "Financial Development and Economic Growth: Views and Agenda," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 688-726, June.
    13. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1999. "The Quality of Government," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 222-279, April.
    14. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry & Ries, John, 2010. "The erosion of colonial trade linkages after independence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 1-14, May.
    15. Paul A. Samuelson, 1958. "An Exact Consumption-Loan Model of Interest with or without the Social Contrivance of Money," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66, pages 467-467.
    16. Andrews,Donald W. K. & Stock,James H. (ed.), 2005. "Identification and Inference for Econometric Models," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521844413.
    17. Francesc Ortega & Giovanni Peri, 2016. "Openness and income: The roles of trade and migration," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Economics of International Migration, chapter 10, pages 309-329, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    18. David H. Romer & Jeffrey A. Frankel, 1999. "Does Trade Cause Growth?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 379-399, June.
    19. Calderon, Cesar & Liu, Lin, 2003. "The direction of causality between financial development and economic growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 321-334, October.
    20. Ross Levine & Norman Loayza & Thorsten Beck, 2002. "Financial Intermediation and Growth: Causality and Causes," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Leonardo Hernández & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Norman Loayza (Series Editor) & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel (Se (ed.),Banking, Financial Integration, and International Crises, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 031-084, Central Bank of Chile.
    21. Michel Beine & Serge Coulombe, 2007. "Economic integration and the diversification of regional exports: evidence from the Canadian--U.S. Free Trade Agreement," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 93-111, January.
    22. Anthony J. Venables, 2003. "Winners and losers from regional integration agreements," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(490), pages 747-761, October.
    23. John C. Anyanwu, 2014. "Does Intra‐African Trade Reduce Youth Unemployment in Africa?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(2), pages 286-309, June.
    24. James Feyrer, 2019. "Trade and Income—Exploiting Time Series in Geography," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 1-35, October.
    25. Puga, Diego & Venables, Anthony J, 1998. "Trading Arrangements and Industrial Development," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 12(2), pages 221-249, May.
    26. Antonio N. Bojanic, 2012. "The impact of financial development and trade on the economic growth of Bolivia," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 15, pages 51-70, May.
    27. John Luke Gallup & Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew Mellinger, 1999. "Geography and Economic Development," CID Working Papers 1, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    28. Irwin, Douglas A. & Tervio, Marko, 2002. "Does trade raise income?: Evidence from the twentieth century," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 1-18, October.
    29. Spilimbergo, Antonio & Londono, Juan Luis & Szekely, Miguel, 1999. "Income distribution, factor endowments, and trade openness," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 77-101, June.
    30. Gallup, John L. & Sachs, Jeffrey D. & Mellinger, Andrew, "undated". "Geography and Economic Development," Instructional Stata datasets for econometrics geodata, Boston College Department of Economics.
    31. Santos Silva, J.M.C. & Tenreyro, Silvana, 2010. "On the existence of the maximum likelihood estimates in Poisson regression," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 310-312, May.
    32. Do, Quy-Toan & Levchenko, Andrei A., 2004. "Trade and financial development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3347, The World Bank.
    33. Longo, Robert & Sekkat, Khalid, 2004. "Economic Obstacles to Expanding Intra-African Trade," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1309-1321, August.
    34. Robert E. Hall & Charles I. Jones, 1999. "Why do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output Per Worker than Others?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 114(1), pages 83-116.
    35. Beck, Thorsten, 2002. "Financial development and international trade: Is there a link?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 107-131, June.
    36. Jaime DE MELO & Yvonne TSIKATA, 2014. "Regional integration in Africa: Challenges and prospects," Working Papers P93, FERDI.
    37. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2001. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1369-1401, December.
    38. 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.
    39. Gallup, John & Sachs, Jeffrey, 1999. "Geography and Economic Development," Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) Papers 294434, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.
    40. Athanasios Vamvakidis, 1999. "Regional Trade Agreements or Broad Liberalization: Which Path Leads to Faster Growth?," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 46(1), pages 1-3.
    41. Gallup, J.L. & Sachs, J.D. & Mullinger, A., 1999. "Geography and Economic Development," Papers 1, Chicago - Graduate School of Business.
    42. Vamvakidis, Athanasios, 1998. "Regional Integration and Economic Growth," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 12(2), pages 251-270, May.
    43. Jeffrey Frankel & Andrew Rose, 2002. "An Estimate of the Effect of Common Currencies on Trade and Income," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(2), pages 437-466.
    44. Edwards, Sebastian, 1992. "Trade orientation, distortions and growth in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 31-57, July.
    45. Rasha Torstensson, 1999. "Growth, knowledge transfer and European integration," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 97-106.
    46. Dollar, David & Kraay, Aart, 2003. "Institutions, trade, and growth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 133-162, January.
    47. John Anyanwu, 2014. "Working Paper 201 - Does Intra-African Trade Reduce Youth Unemployment in Africa ?," Working Paper Series 2107, African Development Bank.
    48. 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.
    49. John Anyanwu, 2003. "Estimating the Macroeconomic Effects of Monetary Unions: The Case of Trade and Output," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 15(2‐3), pages 126-145.
    50. Freund, Caroline & Bolaky, Bineswaree, 2008. "Trade, regulations, and income," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 309-321, October.
    51. 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.
    52. Noguer, Marta & Siscart, Marc, 2005. "Trade raises income: a precise and robust result," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 447-460, March.
    53. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    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. Blaise Gnimassoun, 2019. "How to Boost the Impact of Intra-African Trade on Income in Africa?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 541-557, July.
    2. Coulibaly, Dramane & Gnimassoun, Blaise & Mignon, Valérie, 2020. "The tale of two international phenomena: Migration and global imbalances," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).

    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. Blaise Gnimassoun, 2018. "Regional Integration: Do intra-African trade and migration improve income in Africa?," Working Papers hal-04141790, HAL.
    2. Blaise Gnimassoun, 2019. "How to Boost the Impact of Intra-African Trade on Income in Africa?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 541-557, July.
    3. Blaise Gnimassoun & John C. Anyanwu, 2019. "The Diaspora and economic development in Africa," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 155(4), pages 785-817, November.
    4. Blaise Gnimassoun & John Anyanwu, 2019. "Working Paper 308 - The Diaspora and Economic Development in Africa," Working Paper Series 2434, African Development Bank.
    5. Dramane Coulibaly & Blaise Gnimassoun & Valérie Mignon, 2018. "Growth-enhancing Effect of Openness to Trade and Migrations: What is the Effective Transmission Channel for Africa?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 27(4), pages 369-404.
    6. Blaise Gnimassoun & C. John Anyanwu, 2018. "The Diaspora And Economic Development In Africa," Working Papers hal-04141793, HAL.
    7. Lionel Fontagné & Gianluca Santoni, 2019. "Agglomeration economies and firm-level labor misallocation," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 251-272.
    8. Sabine Deij & Jakob B. Madsen & Laura Puzzello, 2021. "When are instruments generated from geographic characteristics in bilateral relationships invalid?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(4), pages 437-452, June.
    9. Stimpfle, Alexander & Stadelmann, David, 2015. "The Impact of Fundamental Development Factors on Different Income Groups: International Evidence," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113128, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    10. Jasmin Katrin Gröschl, 2013. "Gravity Model Applications and Macroeconomic Perspectives," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 48.
    11. 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.
    12. Stephen Knowles & P. Dorian Owen, 2010. "Which Institutions are Good for Your Health? The Deep Determinants of Comparative Cross-country Health Status," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(4), pages 701-723.
    13. 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.
    14. Nils Herger & Roland Hodler & Michael Lobsiger, 2008. "What Determines Financial Development? Culture, Institutions or Trade," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 144(3), pages 558-587, October.
    15. Dramane Coulibaly & Blaise Gnimassoun & Valérie Mignon, 2018. "The tale of two international phenomena: International migration and global imbalances," Working Papers 2018-02, CEPII research center.
    16. Coulibaly, Dramane & Gnimassoun, Blaise & Mignon, Valérie, 2020. "The tale of two international phenomena: Migration and global imbalances," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    17. Daniel Oto Peralías & Daniel Oto-Peralías & Diego Romero-Ávila, 2012. "Tracing the Link between Government Size and Growth: The Role of Public Sector Quality," EcoMod2012 4015, EcoMod.
    18. James Feyrer, 2019. "Trade and Income—Exploiting Time Series in Geography," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 1-35, October.
    19. Francesc Ortega & Giovanni Peri, 2016. "Openness and income: The roles of trade and migration," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Economics of International Migration, chapter 10, pages 309-329, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    20. Matthias Busse & José L. Groizard, 2008. "Technology Trade in Economic Development," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 569-592, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    income per capita; trade; international migration; economic integration; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E64 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Incomes Policy; Price Policy
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:inrsre:v:43:y:2020:i:6:p:587-631. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.