IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-21-01011.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does ICTs diffusion increase bilateral trade in Africa? Empirical evidence using an augmented gravity model

Author

Listed:
  • Jacques Simon Song

    (University of Dschang, Cameroon)

  • Hervé William Mougnol A Ekoula

    (University of Yaoundé II, Soa, Cameroon)

  • Adalbert Abraham Ghislain Melingui Bate

    (University of Dschang, Cameroon)

Abstract

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Africa has increased considerably over the past two decades, and has been the subject of an extremely fruitful literature. In this article, we examine their effect on bilateral trade of goods and services observed in 32 African countries. To achieve this, we specify and estimate an augmented gravity model by the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML), Negative Binomial (NEGBIN) and Zero Inflated Poisson (ZIP) estimators over the period 1995-2019. The theory of trade openness is highlighted to assess the determinants of the bilateral trade in Africa. Our results show that the use of ICTs, measured by the penetration of mobile phones, fixed phones, broadband and the Internet, significantly increases the bilateral trade in Africa. We suggest investing more in telecommunication infrastructures and strengthening the public-private partnership, in order to reduce the costs of accessing and using new ICTs.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacques Simon Song & Hervé William Mougnol A Ekoula & Adalbert Abraham Ghislain Melingui Bate, 2022. "Does ICTs diffusion increase bilateral trade in Africa? Empirical evidence using an augmented gravity model," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 42(2), pages 810-826.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-21-01011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2022/Volume42/EB-22-V42-I2-P69.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. José De Sousa & Julie Lochard, 2009. "Histoire coloniale et commerce international," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 60(3), pages 635-645.
    2. Jeremiah O. Ejemeyovwi & Evans S. Osabuohien, 2020. "Investigating the relevance of mobile technology adoption on inclusive growth in West Africa," Contemporary Social Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 48-61, January.
    3. Jon Haveman & David Hummels, 2004. "Alternative hypotheses and the volume of trade: the gravity equation and the extent of specialization," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 37(1), pages 199-218, February.
    4. Abeliansky, Ana L. & Hilbert, Martin, 2017. "Digital technology and international trade: Is it the quantity of subscriptions or the quality of data speed that matters?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 35-48.
    5. Martina Lawless, 2010. "Deconstructing gravity: trade costs and extensive and intensive margins," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(4), pages 1149-1172, November.
    6. A. Porojan, 2001. "Trade Flows and Spatial Effects: The Gravity Model Revisited," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 265-280, July.
    7. repec:boc:pcon20:13 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Baldwin, Richard, 2007. "Trade Effects of the Euro: a Comparison of Estimators," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 22, pages 780-818.
    9. 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, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(1), pages 83-116.
    10. María Pía Olivero & Yoto V. Yotov, 2012. "Dynamic gravity: endogenous country size and asset accumulation," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(1), pages 64-92, February.
    11. Fernandes, Ana M. & Mattoo, Aaditya & Nguyen, Huy & Schiffbauer, Marc, 2019. "The internet and Chinese exports in the pre-ali baba era," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 57-76.
    12. Wang, Yao & Li, Jie, 2017. "ICT’s effect on trade: Perspective of comparative advantage," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 96-99.
    13. Abeliansky, Ana Lucia & Barbero, Javier & Rodriguez-Crespo, Ernesto, 2021. "ICTs quality and quantity and the margins of trade," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1).
    14. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    15. Alan V. Deardorff, 2011. "Determinants of Bilateral Trade: Does Gravity Work in a Neoclassical World?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Robert M Stern (ed.), Comparative Advantage, Growth, And The Gains From Trade And Globalization A Festschrift in Honor of Alan V Deardorff, chapter 24, pages 267-293, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    16. Robert C. Feenstra, 2002. "Border Effects and the Gravity Equation: Consistent Methods for Estimation," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 49(5), pages 491-506, November.
    17. Sergio Correia & Paulo Guimarães & Tom Zylkin, 2020. "Fast Poisson estimation with high-dimensional fixed effects," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 20(1), pages 95-115, March.
    18. Linghui Tang, 2006. "Communication Costs and Trade of Differentiated Goods," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 54-68, February.
    19. Caroline Freund & Diana Weinhold, 2002. "The Internet and International Trade in Services," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 236-240, May.
    20. Caselli, Francesco & Esquivel, Gerardo & Lefort, Fernando, 1996. "Reopening the Convergence Debate: A New Look at Cross-Country Growth Empirics," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 363-389, September.
    21. George R. G. Clarke & Scott J. Wallsten, 2006. "Has the Internet Increased Trade? Developed and Developing Country Evidence," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 44(3), pages 465-484, July.
    22. Helpman, Elhanan, 1988. "Trade Patterns under Uncertainty with Country Specific Shocks," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(3), pages 645-659, May.
    23. Egger, Peter H. & Lassmann, Andrea, 2012. "The language effect in international trade: A meta-analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 221-224.
    24. 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.
    25. Henri Njangang & Yann Nounamo, 2020. "Is information and communication technology a driver of industrialization process in African countries?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(4), pages 2654-2662.
    26. Xianhai Huang & Xueyin Song & Xinyue Hu, 2018. "Does “Internet Plus” Promote New Export Space for Firms? Evidence from China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 26(6), pages 50-71, November.
    27. Baier, Scott L. & Bergstrand, Jeffrey H., 2009. "Bonus vetus OLS: A simple method for approximating international trade-cost effects using the gravity equation," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 77-85, February.
    28. Vinod, H. D., 1999. "Statistical analysis of corruption data and using the Internet to reduce corruption," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 591-603.
    29. Narcyz Roztocki & Piotr Soja & Heinz Roland Weistroffer, 2019. "The role of information and communication technologies in socioeconomic development: towards a multi-dimensional framework," Information Technology for Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 171-183, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Suárez-Varela, Marta & Rodríguez-Crespo, Ernesto, 2022. "Is dirty trade concentrating in more polluting countries? Evidence from Africa," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 728-744.
    2. Abeliansky, Ana Lucia & Barbero, Javier & Rodriguez-Crespo, Ernesto, 2021. "ICTs quality and quantity and the margins of trade," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1).
    3. Narayan, Seema & Nguyen, Tri Tung, 2016. "Does the trade gravity model depend on trading partners? Some evidence from Vietnam and her 54 trading partners," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 220-237.
    4. Silviano Esteve-Pérez & Salvador Gil-Pareja & Rafael Llorca-Vivero & Jordi Paniagua, 2021. "Has the Euro paid off? A study of the trade-induced welfare effects of the EMU," Working Papers 2103, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    5. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2014. "Gravity Equations: Workhorse,Toolkit, and Cookbook," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 131-195, Elsevier.
    6. Joël Cariolle & Michele Imbruno & Jaime de Melo, 2020. "Bilateral digital connectivity and firm participation in export markets," Working Papers hal-03182438, HAL.
    7. Kareem, Fatima Olanike & Martinez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada & Brümmer, Bernhard, 2016. "Fitting the Gravity Model when Zero Trade Flows are Frequent: a Comparison of Estimation Techniques using Africa's Trade Data," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 230588, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    8. Delgadillo Chavarria, Carlos Bruno, 2019. "El Efecto de la Mediterraneidad sobre el Flujo Comercial Internacional: Evidencia Empírica Internacional y para América del Sur (1990-2016) [The Effect of Landlocked Country Status on International," MPRA Paper 96294, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Sep 2019.
    9. Visser, Robin, 2019. "The effect of the internet on the margins of trade," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 41-54.
    10. Herman, Peter R. & Oliver, Sarah, 2023. "Trade, policy, and economic development in the digital economy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    11. Delgadillo Chavarria, Carlos Bruno, 2019. "El Efecto de la Mediterraneidad sobre el Flujo Comercial Internacional: Evidencia Empírica Internacional y para América del Sur (1990-2016) [The Effect of Landlocked Country Status on International," MPRA Paper 96093, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Sep 2019.
    12. Abeliansky, Ana L. & Hilbert, Martin, 2017. "Digital technology and international trade: Is it the quantity of subscriptions or the quality of data speed that matters?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 35-48.
    13. Jonathan Timmis, 2012. "The Internet and International Trade in Goods," Discussion Papers 12/08, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    14. Tamaş Anca, 2020. "Why should the gravity model be taught in business education?," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 14(1), pages 422-433, July.
    15. Jonathan Timmis, 2012. "The Internet and International Trade in Goods," Discussion Papers 12/03, University of Nottingham, School of Economics.
    16. Silviano Esteve‐Pérez & Salvador Gil‐Pareja & Rafael Llorca‐Vivero & José Antonio Martínez‐Serrano, 2020. "EMU and trade: A PPML re‐assessment with intra‐national trade flows," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(10), pages 2574-2599, October.
    17. Beniamino Quintieri & Giovanni Stamato, 2023. "Are preferential agreements beneficial to EU trade? New evidence from the EU–South Korea treaty," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(12), pages 3511-3541, December.
    18. J. M. C. Santos Silva & Silvana Tenreyro, 2022. "The Log of Gravity at 15," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 21(3), pages 423-437, September.
    19. Silviano Esteve-Pérez & Salvador Gil-Pareja & Rafael Llorca-Vivero, 2020. "Does the GATT/WTO promote trade? After all, Rose was right," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(2), pages 377-405, May.
    20. Sadok ACHOUR & Dr. Fatima HADJI, 2021. "Determinants of trade flows to Agadir Agreement countries: gravity model three-way approach," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(2(627), S), pages 125-134, Summer.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Africa; Gravity model; ICTs; Trade.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-21-01011. 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: John P. Conley (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.