IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-22-00385.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does international trade stimulate structural change in Africa?

Author

Listed:
  • Doukoure Charles Fe

    (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Statistique et d'Economie Appliquée (ENSEA))

  • Romain Kouakou N'guessan

    (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Statistique et d'Economie Appliquée (ENSEA))

Abstract

While several empirical studies established a strong link between trade and growth, few studies have looked at the relationship between international trade and African structural change. This study attempts to shed empirical light on this latest relationship. It proposes a theoretical relationship between international trade and structural change through the channel of the percentage of manufactured products in total exports. Based on a panel model of 31 African countries from 1995 to 2017, empirical results show that the number of products shipped remains the catalyst for structural change in Africa. However, this factor has a marginal effect. So, yes, international trade can stimulate structural change in Africa, but it is necessary to move ahead by adding value to trading products to make progress and strength structural change.

Suggested Citation

  • Doukoure Charles Fe & Romain Kouakou N'guessan, 2023. "Does international trade stimulate structural change in Africa?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(1), pages 644-663.
  • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-22-00385
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2023/Volume43/EB-23-V43-I1-P54.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roman, Zoltan, 1969. "A Note on Measuring Structural Changes," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 15(3), pages 265-268, September.
    2. Comunale, Mariarosaria & Felice, Giulia, 2022. "Trade and structural change: An empirical investigation," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 58-79.
    3. Yunfang Hu & Kazuo Mino, 2014. "Capital Accumulation and Structural Change in a Small Open Economy," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(5), pages 634-656, December.
    4. Nadege Desiree Yameogo & Tiguune Nabassaga & Abebe Shimeles & Mthuli Ncube, 2014. "Diversification and Sophistication as drivers of structural transformation for Africa: The Economic Complexity Index of African Countries," Journal of African Development, African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), vol. 16(2), pages 1-31.
    5. Reto Foellmi & Josef Zweim�ller, "undated". "Structural Change and the Kaldor Facts of Economic Growth," IEW - Working Papers 111, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    6. Grossman, Gene M & Helpman, Elhanan, 1991. "Endogenous Product Cycles," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(408), pages 1214-1229, September.
    7. Grossman, Gene M & Helpman, Elhanan, 1991. "Endogenous Product Cycles," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(408), pages 1214-1229, September.
    8. Zoltan Roman, 1969. "A Note On Measuring Structural Changes," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 15(3), pages 265-268, September.
    9. RUI MaO & YANG YAO, 2012. "Structural Change In A Small Open Economy: An Application To South Korea," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 29-56, February.
    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. Chen, Hung-Ju, 2019. "Innovation and FDI: Does the Target of Intellectual Property Rights Matter?," MPRA Paper 94692, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Leonard F.S. Wang & Arijit Mukherjee, 2014. "Patent Protection, Innovation and Technology Licensing," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3-4), pages 245-254, December.
    3. Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 1991. "Quality Ladders and Product Cycles," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 557-586.
    4. Hélène Latzer, 2016. "Beyond the Arrow effect: a Schumpeterian theory of multi-quality firms ," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01387266, HAL.
    5. Chen, Hung-Ju, 2018. "Innovation And Imitation: Effects Of Intellectual Property Rights In A Product-Cycle Model Of Skills Accumulation," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(6), pages 1475-1509, September.
    6. Alcalá, Francisco & Solaz, Marta, 2018. "International Relocation of Production and Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 13422, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Gancia, Gino & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 2005. "Horizontal Innovation in the Theory of Growth and Development," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 111-170, Elsevier.
    8. de Pineres, Sheila Amin Gutierrez, 1999. "Externalities in the agricultural export sector and economic growth: a developing country perspective," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 257-267, December.
    9. Olga Slivko & Bernd Theilen, 2014. "Innovation or imitation? The effect of spillovers and competitive pressure on firms’ R&D strategy choice," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 112(3), pages 253-282, July.
    10. Amit Batabyal & Peter Nijkamp, 2014. "Technology, Learning, and Long Run Economic Growth in Leading and Lagging Regions," ERSA conference papers ersa14p893, European Regional Science Association.
    11. Chu, Angus C., 2012. "Global Poverty Reduction And Pareto-Improving Redistribution," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 605-624, September.
    12. Pol Antràs, 2005. "Incomplete Contracts and the Product Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1054-1073, September.
    13. Benedikt Heid, 2014. "Essays on International Trade and Development," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 55.
    14. Van Biesebroeck, Johannes & Zhang, Lijun, 2014. "Interdependent product cycles for globally sourced intermediates," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 143-156.
    15. Alexander B. Darku, 2021. "International trade and income convergence: Sorting out the nature of bilateral trade," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 5337-5348, October.
    16. Tybout, James R., 1991. "Researching the trade - productivity link : new directions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 638, The World Bank.
    17. Borota, Teodora, 2010. "Innovation and Imitation in a Model of North-South TradeRecent evidence on world trade patterns reveals North-South specialization across," Working Paper Series 2010:6, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    18. Maryam Asghari, 2012. "Environmental Kuznets Curve and Growth Source in Iran," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 59(5), pages 609-623, December.
    19. Lai, Edwin L. -C., 1998. "International intellectual property rights protection and the rate of product innovation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 133-153, February.
    20. Takanori Shimizu & Hisayuki Okamoto, 2005. "An analysis of stability of the north-south growth model of trade: Saddle-path stability of the generalized grossman-helpman model with skilled and unskilled labours," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 299-317.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    International trade; Structural change;

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • F4 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance

    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-22-00385. 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.