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Evaluating Africa’s comparative advantage in travel service exports

Author

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  • Johan Fourie

    (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch)

Abstract

This paper tests the hypothesis that African countries reveal a comparative advantage in travel service exports empirically. The UNCTAD 2007 Handbook of Statistics (2008) is used to calculate revealed comparative advantage for 186 countries over 10 tradable service sectors using three different measures of the Balassa index. The results indicate that many African countries reveal a strong comparative advantage in travel service exports. Particularly, a band of countries with a vertical axis from South Africa to Ethiopia and a band of countries with a horizontal axis in the Sahel reveal promising results. If African countries are to benefit from the growth in world service exports, researchers and policy makers should note the massive potential for African travel exports, especially in the smaller destinations. Policies – including regional initiatives – to promote sustained growth in travel service exports are therefore of critical importance.

Suggested Citation

  • Johan Fourie, 2009. "Evaluating Africa’s comparative advantage in travel service exports," Working Papers 06/2009, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers78
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    File URL: https://www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers/2009/wp062009/wp-06-2009.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2009
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    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. African tourism
      by Johan Fourie in Johan Fourie's Blog on 2012-04-14 15:39:50
    2. Explaining African tourism
      by Johan Fourie in Johan Fourie's Blog on 2012-04-14 15:39:50

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Johan Fourie & María Santana-Gallego, 2013. "The determinants of African tourism," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 347-366, September.
    2. Osama Elsalih & Kamil Sertoglu & Mustafa Besim, 2021. "Determinants of comparative advantage of crude oil production: Evidence from OPEC and non‐OPEC countries," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 3972-3983, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tourism; international trade; revealed comparative advantage; sub-Saharan Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • N77 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Africa; Oceania

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