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The Impact of Agricultural Trade Liberalization on Agricultural Total Factor Productivity Growth in Africa

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  • Regret Sunge
  • Nicholas Ngepah

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of agricultural trade liberalization on agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) growth in Africa using panel data for 13 countries from 2005 to 2016. Our contribution is two-fold. Firstly, we analyse the impact of domestic agriculture support in the spirit of the Agreement on Agriculture. Secondly, we draw attention to the South–South versus South–North debate to the agriculture sector. We examine the impact of trade by source, split between trade within and outside Africa. We compute TFP growth for maize and rice using the Malmquist-data envelopment analysis approach. We then use the dynamic fixed effects approach to estimate panel auto-regressive-distributed-lag models. TFP computations show falling growth rates for both maize and rice. Evidence suggests that domestic agriculture support measures have positive output effects but negative productivity effects. We find that reducing trade-distorting agriculture support coupled with good governance significantly increases TFP growth. Accordingly, we appeal that domestic agriculture support is refocused from producer payments to infrastructure development. Furthermore, we document that South–South trade productivity gains match and can surpass South-North Trade. Hence we emphasize increasing intra-Africa agriculture trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Regret Sunge & Nicholas Ngepah, 2020. "The Impact of Agricultural Trade Liberalization on Agricultural Total Factor Productivity Growth in Africa," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 571-598, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:intecj:v:34:y:2020:i:4:p:571-598
    DOI: 10.1080/10168737.2020.1836671
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    Cited by:

    1. Lindikaya W. Myeki & Yonas T. Bahta & Nicolette Matthews, 2022. "Exploring the Growth of Agricultural Productivity in AFRICA: A Färe-Primont Index Approach," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Wenwu Zhang & Jiayin Wang & Xi Ou, 2024. "Trade liberalization, city size, and urban wage premium: evidence from China’s city and individual micro-data," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Espoir, Delphin Kamanda & Bannor, Frank & Sunge, Regret, 2021. "Intra-Africa agricultural trade, governance quality and agricultural total factor productivity: Evidence from a panel vector autoregressive model," EconStor Preprints 235617, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    4. Nick Vink, 2022. "African agricultural development: How are we contributing?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(4), pages 540-562, July.
    5. Liu, Zhen & Zhang, Meiling & Li, Qiuming & Zhao, Xing, 2023. "The impact of green trade barriers on agricultural green total factor productivity: Evidence from China and OECD countries," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 319-331.

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