Trade facilitation and social welfare in Africa☆

Trade Facilitation Effects on International Trade: Evidence From Lower-Middle and Upper-Middle-Income Countries

“…The coefficient for population density is negative and insignificant in most models, as shown by Columns 1, 2, 4, 5. This confirms the results of previous studies, according to which an increasing population without correspondingly increase resources (e.g., land, infrastructure, and social amenities among others) puts pressure on existing scarce resources, which tends to lower the quality of life, thus lowering a country's total exports (Sakyi, Bonuedi,& Opoku, 2018). Hansen p-value 0.352 0.899 0.487 0.987 0.380 Source: Authors' calculations based on data obtained from the World Bank's data and data constructed from quality of air, port, railroad and road, availability of latest technologies, business ICT use, mobile telephone subscriptions/100 pop, individuals using internet, firm-level technology absorption, cost to export, time to export, document to export, government efficiency, burden of customs procedures, burden of government regulation, irregular payments and bribes, prevalence of trade barriers and transparency of government policymaking.…”

The Effects of Trade Facilitation on Trade Performance in Africa

“…It is important to note that trade if effectively facilitated has several benefits: it improves trade performance (see, e.g., Santos-Paulino, 2002;Wilson et al, 2003;Portugal-Perez and Wilson, 2009;Freund and Rocha, 2011;Portugal-Perez and Wilson, 2012;Seck, 2017); 8 leads to increased income/growth (see Frankel and Romer, 1999;Dollar and Kraay, 2004;Kim and Lin, 2009;Heshmati and Peng, 2012;Herzer, 2013;Sakyi et al, 2015;Sakyi et al, 2017;Santos-Paulino, 2017;Zhou, 2018); reduces unemployment, poverty and inequality (Dollar and Kraay, 2003;Viet, 2015;Zhou, 2018) and improves social welfare (Sakyi et al, 2018). Moreover, increased trade flows resulting from effective trade facilitation, for instance, could lead to a reduction in poverty and inequality directly.…”

“…Ineffective trade facilitation factors, such as undue customs delays and poor administration, insufficient/inefficient transport and telecommunication system, too many documentations and bureaucratic procedural activities, inadequate coordination between government agencies and corruption (see, e.g., Djankov et al, 2006;Buyonge and Kireeva, 2008;UNCTAD, 2008;Teravaninthorn and Raballand, 2009;Portugal-Perez and Wilson, 2012;UNECA, 2013;Shepherd, 2016;Sakyi et al, 2018), are major possible causes of Africa's inability to fully reap the trade opportunities that globalization presents, making Africa notably a very high cost trading zone. Despite these factors contributing to the region's poor trade performance, the World Bank (2006) had also blamed this outcome on poor design and execution of trade policies.…”

“…Third, African countries have for years been characterized by poverty, inequality and poor performance in terms of school enrollment, child health, life expectancy and human development among several other social welfare challenges (Sakyi et al, 2018). According to Sakyi et al (2018), improving trade facilitation in Africa is associated with better social welfare outcomes. This is the case because high trade costs associated with poor trade facilitation can have adverse effect on the well-being of individuals in Africa.…”

A terminal level analysis of service quality at Nigerian seaports

“…For Africa, over 90% of the continents' exports and imports are done through the sea and hence improving the quality of services provided by seaports and their terminals is non-negotiable (African Ports Evolution 2016). Moreover, given that international trade if effectively facilitated is vital for economic and social welfare outcomes in Africa (see for example, Hoekman and Shepherd 2015;Sakyi et al 2017;Sakyi et al 2018), enhancing the quality of services provided at African seaport terminals remain very essential. Notwithstanding, most African seaports and their terminals are bedevilled with challenges that result in delays, inefficiency and low service quality leading to the marginalisation of Africa in the global market (Chikere et al 2014; African Development Bank's first Transport Forum 2015; Abdourahamane 2015).…”