exports and economic growth in ecowas : evidence … · 2016. 3. 11. · diversifying export...

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UNITED NATIONS NATIONS UNIES AFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING INSTITUT AFRICAIN DE DEVELOPPEMENT ECONOMIQUE ET DE PLANIFICATION (IDEP) By Mohammed M. SHERIF Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master of Arts Degree in Economic Policy and Management at the UN African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) Supervisor: Dipo T. BUSARI (PhD) April, 2008 EXPORTS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN ECOWAS : EVIDENCE FROM POOLED DATA ANALYSIS

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Page 1: EXPORTS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN ECOWAS : EVIDENCE … · 2016. 3. 11. · diversifying export products to knowledge-based products, build the region’s human ... des produits d’exportation

UNITED NATIONS NATIONS UNIES

AFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

INSTITUT AFRICAIN DE DEVELOPPEMENT ECONOMIQUE ET DE PLANIFICATION

(IDEP)

By

Mohammed M. SHERIF

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master of Arts

Degree in Economic Policy and Management at the UN African Institute for

Economic Development and Planning (IDEP)

Supervisor: Dipo T. BUSARI (PhD)

April, 2008

EXPORTS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN ECOWAS :

EVIDENCE FROM POOLED DATA ANALYSIS

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DEDICATION

This research work is dedicated to my beloved wife Mrs. Fanta S. Sherif and my

Children: Makanvine M. Sherif, Manyamoe M. Sherif and Abubakar M Sherif Jr.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All praise are due to Allah the most merciful, the most beneficent, the king of all kings

and master of the Day of Judgment whom by his infinite mercy bestowed upon me the

ability and wisdom to start and complete this research work successfully. First and

foremost, I'm very grateful to my able supervisor Dr. Dipo T. Busari (MA Coordinator)

who patiently accommodated my behaviors and me during the course of the research

work. Further, I must extend my sincere thanks and appreciations to him for his tireless

efforts in guiding me in the right path through out the stages that led to the successful

completion of this research work. My gratitude goes to the Director, the Deputy Director,

Administrator, professors and the entire staff of UNIDEP for their guidance and supports.

Words are inadequate to express my sincere thanks and appreciations to Dr. Toga G.

McIntosh (Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs) for securing the sponsorship for

my MA degree programme. Through God the Almighty and him, I found myself where I

am today. Further, I would like to sincerely express my gratitude to the entire steering

committee of the Liberia Emergency Capacity Building programme for their supports.

Over and above, I salute the government of Liberia for all the supports. My special

thanks and appreciations also go to Mr. Wilmot Reeves (National Economist, UNDP-

Liberia), Monique Cooper (Pro poor Economist, UNDP-Liberia) and Mr. Alusine Sheriff

(Data Analyst UNDP-Liberia) for accommodating me and my behaviors in ensuring that

the fees of my studies are paid on time.

I would like to express my profound thanks and appreciations to my parents Mr. Mulibah

Sherif (late) and Mrs. Ma-Nyamoe Kamara(late) whose means, I was brought to this

wonderful world for their good will prayers. My special and lovely recognition go to my

wife for being there for me through out the entire research work. Her insightful

comments and suggestions are worth mentioning.

It will be unfair if I failed to acknowledge the significant role my friends and colleagues

played during the course of this research work. I offer my heartfelt gratitude to all my

colleagues of the 2006/2007 MA Trainees for their very useful suggestions and

comments; to name but few: Angella Rwabutomize (Uganda), Evans Nyako Abosi

(Ghana) and Esther Nakayima (Uganda), Mamade Conde (Guinea), Oui Karim Diakite

(Cote D’Ivoire), Houdomta Momtamra (Chad), Kossi Sogpho (Togo), Amadu Gueye

(Senegal), Papa Layte (Senegal) and Malami Sadio (Senegal). Gratitude goes to my

mentor Mr. Sekou B. Korleh (Purchasing Manager, Free Port of Monrovia). His words of

courage and instrumental role for obtaining my sponsorship cannot be quantified. Hey! I

almost forgot; many thanks and appreciations go to my friend (Dad) Sheikh M.A Swaray

for his useful suggestions and comments. Also, I recognized the significant role played

by my friend Mohammed F. Konneh in the entire research work. Omaru F. Siryon

(Aston University, UK), thank you very much for your contribution. Gratitude to all that

played a part in this research work but were not mentioned. Finally, I take full

responsibility for whatever mistakes or error that maybe in this research work.

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Abstract

Over the years, there has been little or no structural transformation in ECOWAS’

exports. The domination of these exports by primary commodities and their low

international prices continue to make economies of the region more unstable and

vulnerable to external shocks. The share of ECOWAS in world trade remains very

insignificant.

This paper therefore uses Pooled fixed effects estimation methods to examine the impact

of exports on economic growth in ECOWAS from the period 1987 to 2004. The results

suggest that significant negative impacts of exports on economic growth are robust

empirical results. These results confirm the Prebisch (1959) and Sachs et al. (1995)

significant negative impacts of primary products exports on economic growth. The

findings also suggest that physical capital, labor, exchange rate and terms of trade are

important determinants of growth in the region. Human capital plays a negative role

indicating inadequate mechanisms to absorb the technologies associated with exports.

Free Trade Area plays a negative role reflecting loose nature of trade integration in the

region’s FTA. Finally, the study recommends that member states redirect efforts towards

diversifying export products to knowledge-based products, build the region’s human

resources and incorporate into their national plans not by mere signing but by full

implementation of the various trade agreements to foster a larger regional market.

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RESUME

Au fil des ans, les exportations de la CEDEAO ont connu peu, voire aucune

transformation structurelle. Le fait que ces exportations soient dominées par des produits

de base, de même que leur faible prix au niveau international contribuent à rendre les

économies de la sous région instables et vulnérables aux chocs externes. La part de la

CEDEAO dans le commerce international est infime.

Cet article utilise les méthodes d’estimation à effets fixes groupés, afin d’étudier

l’impact des exportations sur la croissance économique de la CEDEAO de 1987 à 2004.

Les résultats suggèrent que l’impact négatif important des exportations sur la croissance

économique se traduit par de solides résultats empiriques. Ces résultats confirment

l’impact négatif significatif des exportations des produits de base sur la croissance

économique, tel que souligné par Prebisch (1959) et Sachs-Warner (1995). Les résultats

suggèrent également que le capital physique, la main d’œuvre, le taux de change et les

termes de l’echange sont des déterminants importants de la croissance dans la sous

région. Le capital humain joue un rôle négatif qui indique la présence de mécanismes

inappropriés d’absorption des technologies associées aux exportations. Les zones de

libre -échange ont un rôle négatif qui est une indication de la nature relâchée de

l’intégration commerciale dans la zone de libre-échange de cette région. Enfin cette

étude recommande que les Etats membres réorientent leurs efforts vers la diversification

des produits d’exportation en produits impliquant du savoir, qu’ils renforce les

ressources humaines de cette région et l’intègrent dans leurs plans nationaux, non pas

simplement en y apposant leur signature, mais en mettant totalement en œuvre les

différents accords commerciaux afin de favoriser l’émergence d’un marché régional

plus large.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Export of goods and services exploit the opportunities to create high rate of economic

interactions with the rest of the world. This speeds the absorption of frontier

technologies, world best practices, and increasing returns to scale. Exports are also

considered to be source of foreign exchange earnings. Grossman et al (1991) asserted that

technological spillovers could come through imports and exports.

There has been little or no structural transformation in the export commodities of West

Africa. About 90 percent1 of these exports are primary commodities and their low

international prices have over the years made economies of the region more vulnerable in

the multilateral trading system. The multilateral trading system is directly or indirectly

compelling countries to adopt the doctrine of comparative advantage (liberalized

economies). Traditionally, West Africa has comparative advantage in primary

commodities, so that free trade implies it exports more of these primary commodities,

and imports more of manufactured commodities.

In terms of trade flow, trade between ECOWAS and the rest of Africa was steady around

29 percent of total exports and imports from 1996 to 2001. However, intra-ECOWAS

trade was very sluggish, registering the least rate of 24 percent of total value of exports

and imports. There were some sort of equilibrium in trade between ECOWAS and the

rest of Africa, but significant disequilibrium in trade between ECOWAS and countries

outside Africa, registering 154 percent (see figure 2.4 in chapter two). Imports into

ECOWAS constitute bulk of the total trade with countries outside Africa. This reflects

that countries in ECOWAS are more dependence on imported commodities (in most

cases consumer goods). Also the region’s trade integration is loose. Exports in the region

have been concentrated on the following primary commodities: petroleum, cocoa or

beans, gold, cotton, boxile, woods, café and iron ore.

Average growth rate of GDP per capital in ECOWAS has been fluctuating around the

neighborhood of negative 1 percent from 1987 to 2 percent in 2003; and the average

growth rate of export has also been fluctuating from negative 0.4 percent in 1988 to 15

percent in 1997 and from 3 percent in 1998 to 11 percent in 2003. On the whole,

ECOWAS average growth rate of GDP per capital from 1987 to 2004 stood at 0.4

percent, third highest among the five African regional organizations (see annex 2). The

fluctuations in the growth rates reflect poor economic performance in the region and are

largely influenced by external and internal factors. The internal factors include the

prolonged civil unrest in the region during the earlier parts of the 1990s particularly in

Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d Ivoire respectively; and mono culture

production with no value added. The external factors include the low international prices

for the primary commodities produced by the region; the Asian crisis that affected world

demand and supply; and the wait and see attitudes of development partners in releasing

1 The data were extracted from the official websites of ECOWAS, UNCOMTRADE and the works of Remi

Lang of UN Economic commission for Africa and O. J. Nnanna of the West African Monetary Institute in

Accra, Ghana.

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official development assistance to the region. On the overall, economies in the region

remained stagnant; hence the following concerns are raised: Have the fluctuations in the

export of goods and services negatively or positively affected growth in the region over

the period under review or are there some institutional factors responsible for the

persistent economic stagnancy? This paper addresses these concerns and the objective of

the study is to examine the impact of exports on Economic growth in ECOWAS from

1987 to 2004.

The period 1995 to 2004 registered an average current account balance of negative 6.6

percent of GDP in ECOWAS compared to Africa average of negative 1.2 percent of

GDP. ECOWAS registered the second highest current account deficit among the regional

organizations in Africa after CEMAC (negative 15.4 percent). In terms of fiscal balance,

The average budget deficit in ECOWAS for the period 2000 to 2003 was negative 4.4

percent of GDP and for 2004 the average stood at negative 2.4 percent of GDP as

compared to Africa average of negative 1.7 percent from 2000 to 2003 and negative 0.5

percent in 2004 (see table 2.2 and annex 2). ECOWAS registered the third best

performance in terms of fiscal balance from 2000 to 2003 after SADC that registered

negative 3.1 percent of GDP during the same period. In 2004, ECOWAS became second

best performer after CEMAC that registered a surplus of 3.2 percent of GDP. On the

average, the inflation rate in ECOWAS from 1990 to 2004 was 11.2 percent, the second

best performer in Africa after CEMAC that registered 4.4 percent on average. The

average inflation in ECOWAS was 7 percentage point lower than Africa’s average of

18.9 percent during the same period.

Many theoretical and empirical results show that the relationship between exports and

growth still remains a subject of controversy. This has further created an open debate on

the subject and this paper is motivated by the open debate. The study relies on the theory

of International trade which dates back to Adam Smith, David Ricardo, James Mill and

John Stuart Mills. Adam Smith’s theory states: a country H (Home) is said to have

Absolute Advantage over country F (Foreign) in the production of commodity X if the

required unit of labor to produce commodity X in home country is less than the required

unit of labor to produce commodity X in the foreign country. In addition, if the marginal

productivity in producing X in home country is greater than the marginal productivity of

producing X in foreign country. In this theory, the basis for trade is labor productivity.

David Ricardo considered the above theory as over generalization. He further asserted

that when a country has absolute advantage in producing the two commodities as claimed

by Adam Smith, than there is no need for trade. This is the limitation of the Adam Smith

theory. To account for this limitation, Ricardo now said that even when a given country

has absolute advantage in producing the two commodities there should be basis for trade.

He redefined the theory to Comparative Advantage. That is, each country specializes in

what it has comparative cost advantage in. In this theory, emphasis is on specialization.

Grossman et al (1991), Matsuyama (1992), and Walde et al (2005), concluded that the

effects of exports on growth have shown to be positive or negative under different

circumstances.

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Pooled fixed effects estimation methods were used and the results suggest that negative

effects of exports on growth are robust empirical results. This is in part due to the low

international prices for the region’s export products that have over the years made it

unstable and more vulnerable to external shocks. The result confirms the Prebisch (1959)

and Sachs et al. (1995) significant negative impact of primary products exports on

economic growth. It is also broadly consistent with the results of Sohn’s et al. (2006)

statistically significant negative impact of natural resource exports on growth. Gross

fixed capital formation as proxy for physical capital, labor, exchange rate and terms of

trade proved to be important determinants of growth. Free Trade Area plays a negative

role showing the loose nature of trade integration in the region’s FTA; gross secondary

school enrollment as proxy for human capital also plays a negative role indicating

inadequate mechanisms to transfer or absorb the technologies associated exports.

The study conducted sensitivity analyses on the original model in order to ascertain

whether the variable of interest, real exports to GDP ratio is robust to the exclusion of

certain conditioning variables (factor input variables of physical capital, human capital

and labor). Though factor inputs of gross fixed capital formation (proxy for physical

capital) and total labor proved to be important determinants of growth in the region

during the period under review, the results indicated that exclusion of these variables do

not significantly affect the signs and magnitudes of real exports to GDP ratio in the

region. Hence, the variable remains robust at five percent level of significance implying

that physical capital, human capital and labor did not jointly drive real exports to GDP

ratio over the period under review. Similarly, the study conducted the second test by

adding factor input variables (physical capital, human capital and labor) one at a time in

order to further ascertain the contribution of each factor input to the signs and magnitudes

of real exports to GDP ratio (from column two through five in table 4.8). The test results

indicated that among the three factor-input variables, only total labor drove exports to

GDP ratio over the period under review (see table 4.8). This implies that the region

exports were labor intensive.

The study recommends that member states redirect their efforts to diversifying export

products to knowledge based products. However, private sectors should be actively

involved in the diversification programme and also the process should be complemented

by other none trade factors such as sounds macroeconomic policies, institutional

framework, and so forth. The study further recommends that in order to derive the

technological transfers associated with exports, member states should exert efforts in

building the human resources of the region and improve the mechanisms necessary to

ease the transfers of technologies and learning-by-doing. Member states should also

incorporate not by mere signing but by implementing agreements governing free trade

area. This will create the facilities and mechanisms necessary to expedite the free

movements of goods and services in ECOWAS. It will also create an expanded market

which can allow for economic of large scale production (trade creation), fostering of

specialization, attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and having access to other larger

markets.

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TABLE OF CONTENT Pages

DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................................... I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ......................................................................................................................... III

ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................................. IV

RESUME ....................................................................................................................................................... V

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................ VI

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND ANNEXES ...................................................................................... X

LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................. XI

CHAPTER ONE GENERAL BACKGROUND ........................................................................................ 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ..................................................................................................... 2 1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................ 3 1.4 JUSTIFICATION AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ....................................................................... 3 1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY ..................................................................................................... 4

CHAPTER TWO TRADE AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN ECOWAS ................................. 5

2.1 OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 MACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN ECOWAS (1987 – 2004) .................................................. 6 2.3 RECENT EFFORTS TO FOSTER ECONOMIC INTEGRATION THROUGH TRADE .................................14

CHAPTER THREE REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................................................16

3.1 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE........................................................................................................16 3.2 EMPIRICAL PERSPECTIVE .............................................................................................................19

CHAPTER FOUR METHODOLOGY, RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ...........................................22

4.1 DATA CHARACTERISTICS AND SCOPE OF STUDY ..........................................................................22 4.2 THEORETICAL SOURCE FOR MODEL SPECIFICATION ...................................................................22 4.3 MODEL SPECIFICATION AND ESTIMATION TECHNIQUES..............................................................24 4.4 HYPOTHESIS OR RESTRICTION .....................................................................................................26 4.5 VARIABLE DEFINITIONS AND JUSTIFICATIONS .............................................................................26 4.6 RESULTS, DISCUSSIONS AND DIAGNOSTIC TESTS ........................................................................29

4.6.1 Stationary Test .......................................................................................................................29 4.6.2 Specification Test ...................................................................................................................30 4.6.3 Diagnostic Tests ....................................................................................................................31 4.6.4 Pooled regression Results and Discussions ...........................................................................33 4.6.5 Sensitivity Analysis ................................................................................................................38

CHAPTER FIVE POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION .......................................40

5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ..............................................................................................................40 5.2 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................................................................41 5.3 AREAS OF FURTHER RESEARCH AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ...............................................42 5.4 CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................43

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................44

ANNEXES ....................................................................................................................................................47

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LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND ANNEXES

Pages

A: FIGURES

FIGURE 2.1: AVERAGE GROWTH RATE OF REAL GDP PER CAPITAL VS AVERAGE GROWTH RATE OF REAL

EXPORTS ................................................................................................................................................ 7

FIGURE 2.2: AVERAGE CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE IN ECOWAS: 1995 – 2004 .................................... 9

FIGURE 2.3: ANNUAL AVERAGES OF CPI INFLATION IN ECOWAS: 1990 - 2004 .......................................11

FIGURE 2.4: INFLOW AND OUTFLOW OF TRADE IN ECOWAS: 1996 – 2001 ...............................................12

FIGURE 2.5: TREND OF AVERAGE TERMS OF TRADE IN ECOWAS .............................................................13

B: TABLES

TABLE 2.1: SECTORAL SHARE IN GDP AT CURRENT PRICES IN ECOWAS: 2000 -2004............................. 8

TABLE 2.2: FISCAL BALANCE IN THE ECOWAS SUB-REGION (% OF GDP) ..............................................10

TABLE 4.1: EXPECTED SIGNS AS DICTATED BY THEORY ............................................................................26

TABLE 4.2: RESULTS OF THE UNIT ROOT TESTS .......................................................................................30

TABLE 4.3: F-TEST RESULTS FOR EXCLUSION OF CONTROLLED VARIABLES ..............................................31

TABLE 4.4: BREUCH-GODFREY LM TESTS FOR CROSS-SECTIONAL HETEROSKEDASTICITY AND CROSS-

SECTIONAL CORRELATION ....................................................................................................................32

TABLE 4.5: TWO-WAY REDUNDANT FIXED EFFECTS TEST (CROSS-SECTION & PERIOD) ...........................32

TABLE 4.6: HAUSMAN CORRELATED RANDOM EFFECTS TEST (CROSS-SECTION & PERIOD) .....................32

TABLE 4.7: EXPORTS AND GROWTH IN ECOWAS: POOLED FIXED EFFECTS ESTIMATES ..........................33

TABLE 4.8: EXPORTS AND GROWTH IN ECOWAS: SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS .............................................38

C: ANNEXES

ANNEX 1: DATA DEFINITION AND SOURCES (1987 -2004) .......................................................................47

ANNEX 2: PERFORMANCE SCORE-CARD OF SOME REGIONAL GROUPINGS IN AFRICA ..............................48

ANNEX 3: PRINCIPAL EXPORT PRODUCTS IN ECOWAS ..........................................................................50

ANNEX 4: AVERAGE GROWTH RATE OF REAL GDP PER CAPITAL (ECOWAS VS SADC) .......................51

ANNEX 5: RESIDUAL-ACTUAL AGAINST FITTED .....................................................................................52

ANNEX 6: STABILITY TEST ......................................................................................................................53

ANNEX 7: EXPORTS AND IMPORTS IN ECOWAS (% OF TOTAL TRADE IN VALUE TERMS) .......................54

ANNEX 8: SUMMARY STATISTICS OF SERIES FOR INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES: 1987 – 2004 .......................55

ANNEX 9: RESIDUAL-CORRELATION MATRIX .......................................... ERREUR ! SIGNET NON DEFINI.

ANNEX 10: RESIDUAL-COVARIANCE MATRIX ........................................... ERREUR ! SIGNET NON DEFINI.

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LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ADB African Development Bank

CEEB Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic region

CEMAC Central African Economic and Monetary Community

COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa

ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States

EPA Economic Partnership Agreement

FTA Free Trade Area

GLS Generalized Least Squares

LDV Lagged Dependent Variable

NICs Newly Industrialized Countries

PLS Pooled Least Squares

S/N Serial Number

SADC Southern African Development Community

SADC Southern African Development Community

SUR Seemingly Unrelated Regression

TCP Trade and Custom Policy

TFP Total Factor Productivity

VAT Value Added Tax

WAMU West African Monetary Union

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CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Introduction

The relationship between trade and economic growth has become increasingly debated in

the policy and academic circles where policy makers, researchers and other development

practitioners have argued that, expanded trade holds the key to economic growth in

developing countries. According to Frankel et al. (1999), expanded trade is the conduit in

expanding the choices of consumers and firms.

The spectacular growth performances of the Far East Asian economies through trade

have also triggered the interests of many researchers to further examine the relationship

between trade and economic growth. To this end, few pertinent questions arise: first, does

trade positively or negatively affect economic growth? Second, is that growth import-led

or export-led? Conventionally, the answer would be that the growth is export-led. Despite

this conventional wisdom, results from many empirical studies remain mixed thereby

opening up the debate for further studies on the subject. Cyrus et al. (1996) raised the

problem of endongeneity: Does trade as measured in openness (import plus export,

divided by GDP) lead to growth or does growth lead to openness? They found out that

the effect of trade in openness on growth turns out even stronger when correcting for the

simultaneity, as compared to standard estimates.

In the mist of this debate, this study responds by looking at trade in export- oriented way.

In particular, the study examines the impact of exports on economic growth in the

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Exports of goods and services exploit the opportunities to create high rate of economic

interactions with the rest of the world which speeds the absorption of frontier

technologies, world best practices, and increasing returns to scale. Exports are also

considered to be source of foreign exchange earnings. Grossman et al. (1991) asserted

that technological spillovers could come through imports and exports.

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Over the past decades, growth rates of exports and GDP per capital in ECOWAS have

been fluctuating. About 90% of the region’s exports are primary commodities and the

low international prices for these commodities reflect negative implications on its current

account balance. The average growth rate of GDP per capital from 1987 to 1995 is

negative 0.22 percent and from 1995 to 2004 is 0.39 percent showing an increase of 0.17

percent. The average growth rate of exports from 1987 to 1995 is 8.07 percent and from

1995 to 2004 is 6.21 percent declining by 1.86 percent (detail in chapter two).

In its thirty years of existence, the Economic Community of West African States has

undertaken many initiatives to stimulate economic growth through the integration of

member states’ economies. Some of these initiatives include the declaration of Free

Trade Area (FTA), preparation for the adoption of custom union by end 2007 and

adoption of common currency for the Anglophone countries in the region by the year

2009. In the revised treaty, the FTA was declared to remove all trade barriers among

member states but each member maintains its external barrier with countries outside

ECOWAS.

Despite all these efforts, economies in the region remain weak, exports of goods and

services continue to fluctuate and there is significant amount of trade diversion. This

paper therefore investigates these and other related concerns.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

ECOWAS’s share (less than 1 percent) in World Trade in terms of value remains very

insignificant while trade keeps growing2. West Africa has over the years been more

vulnerable in the multilateral trading system. This is largely reflected in its insignificant

role. The multilateral trading system is directly or indirectly compelling countries to

adopt the doctrine of comparative advantage (liberalized economies). Traditionally, West

Africa has comparative advantage in primary commodities, so that free trade implies it

exports more of these primary commodities, and imports more of manufactured

2 See the official website of the WTO for detail http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/statis_e.htm

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commodities. Low international prices for these primary commodities are making the

region unstable and more vulnerable to external shocks.

The average term of trade from 1987 to 2004 is 108.21 (2000 = 100 index). Average

growth rate of GDP per capital in ECOWAS has been fluctuating around the

neighborhood of negative 1 percent from 1987 to 2 percent in 2003; and the average

growth rate of export has also been fluctuating from negative 0.4 percent in 1988 to 15

percent in 1997 and from 3 percent in 1998 to 11 percent in 2003 (see chapter two).

Hence, the following concerns are raised: Have the fluctuations in the export of goods

and services caused the persistent economic stagnancies in the region from 1987 to 2004

or caused some improvements in economic growth? Are there some institutional factors

responsible for these persistent economic stagnancies? The study addresses the foregoing

concerns.

1.3 Objective of the Study

The objective of the study is to examine the impact of exports on Economic Growth in

the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

1.4 Justification and Significance of the Study

Justification of the study is in twofold: First, the study seeks to investigate the effects of

exports on economic growth so as to ascertain what has endangered growth in the past

and what would further stimulate growth in the future. Second, the study responds to the

open debate on Export-Growth relationship in order to further investigate its validity and

robustness.

Evidence has shown that expanded trade holds the key to prosperity for development in

developing countries and it is the conduit of expanding the choices of consumers and

firms. In this connection, it becomes significant therefore that the study is conducted for

countries in the West African region where the need for development cannot be under

estimated. It is envisaged that the findings and conclusions drawn from this research may

provide useful policy implications for the region’s development and may also serve as

body of knowledge for other related research works.

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1.5 Organization of the study

The rest of the study is organized as follows: chapter two discusses briefly trade and

economic performance in ECOWAS; chapter three reviews related literature; chapter four

detailed the methodology, estimation procedures and discussions of results and chapter

five gives the summary of findings, policy recommendations, conclusion, areas of further

research and limitations.

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CHAPTER TWO

TRADE AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN ECOWAS

2.1 Overview

Since its inception, the Economic Community of West African States has undertaken

many initiatives through the Department of Trade and Customs Policy (TCP) to foster

economic integration in the region. Some of these initiatives include the declaration of

Free Trade Area (FTA), preparation for the adoption of custom union by end 2007 and

adoption of common currency for the Anglophone countries in the region by the year

2009. In the revised treaty, the FTA was declared to remove all trade barriers among

member states but each member maintains its external barrier with countries outside the

region or trade bloc. The Custom Union is to be adopted in order to have a common

external Tariff. This is basically intended to create the facilities and mechanisms

necessary to expedite the free movements of goods and services in ECOWAS. It is also

envisaged that once these agreements are fully implemented, it will create an expanded

market which will allow for economic of large scale production (trade creation),

diversification of production, fostering of specialization, attracting foreign direct

investment (FDI), and having access to other regional markets.

Despite these efforts by the community, the region is still being dominated by trade

diversions which further leads to economic of low scale production (mainly primary

commodities with no value added). Article 3 of the revised Treaty stipulates the

responsibilities of the Trade and Customs Policy Department. This Article clearly defines

the short, medium and long-terms objectives to be realized in order to ensure regional

integration. The TCP Department has always been at the center of the Community’s

integration policies since ECOWAS was established in 1975. The long-term mission of

the department is within the framework of the following fundamental basis3 of any

integration policy:

Free movement of persons and goods;

3 Extracted from the official website of ECOWA

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Promotion of intra-Community trade through the elimination of tariff and non

tariff barriers to imports and exports;

Facilitation of intra-Community trade through the simplification and acceleration

of customs clearance procedures;

Creation of a customs union by establishing a common external tariff and

instituting a common policy on trade with third countries;

Promotion of regional trade, harmonization of trade policy, and monitoring of

bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations;

Monitoring of level of application of the ECOWAS Community levy and

payment of compensation for losses incurred by Member States;

Harmonization of customs and fiscal regulations;

Adoption of a policy to ensure effective monitoring of informal trade

Tourism development; Establishment of an ECOWAS Solidarity Fund.

2.2 Macroeconomic Performance in ECOWAS (1987 – 2004)

The average annual growth rates of real GDP per capital and real exports from 1987 to

2004 showed fluctuating trends (see figure 2.1). ECOWAS average growth rate of GDP

per capital for the same period stood at 0.4 percent, third highest among the five African

regional organizations. The fluctuating trends in the growth rates reflect poor economic

performance which was largely influenced by both external and internal factors. The

internal factors is in part due to the prolonged civil unrest in the region during the earlier

parts of the 1990s particularly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d IVoire

respectively; and mono culture production with no value added. The external factors to a

large extent include the low international prices of the primary commodities produced by

the region; the Asian crisis that affected world demand and supply; and the wait and see

attitudes of development partners in releasing official development assistance to the

region.

Intermittently, there were some positive trends in economic performance from 1994 to

2004 spurred by some levels of improvements in the political and macroeconomic

situations in the region. Despite the sluggish start in 1987 through 1993, strong signs of

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economic recovery started emerging in 1994 and peak in 1996. The sluggish start is

attributed to both internally and externally determined factors mentioned earlier.

Figure 2.1: Average Growth rate of Real GDP per capital Vs Average Growth rate of

Real Exports4

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

20

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

Avg Growth rate of Exports

Avg GDPP Growth rate

Source: World Development Indicator, 2006

With the exceptions of 1988, 1992, 1998 and 2002 where exports declined significantly,

the study observes that for every time there is a peak in average growth rate of exports,

there is a decline in the average growth rate of GDP per capital with the sense that,

fluctuations in the average growth rate of exports are contributing to the fluctuations in

the average growth rate of real GDP per capital. The substantial negative decline in the

average growth rate of real exports in 1992 is in part attributed to the low level of exports

experienced by the region (characterized by political and macroeconomic instabilities in

some parts). On the overall, economic performance in ECOWAS remain vulnerable and

unstable during these periods.

4 These trends represent 13 countries in ECOWAS (Liberia and Niger are excluded because of data

unavailability)

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Table 2.1 depicts the sectoral share in GDP (%) at current market prices from 2000 to

2004. The average rates of contribution of the industrial and service sectors to GDP at

current prices stood at 21.8 percent and 46.6 percent respectively. Agriculture and

manufacture accounted for 31.7 percent and 8.4 percent respectively.

Table 2.1: Sectoral share in GDP at current prices in ECOWAS: 2000 -2004

(Percentage distribution)

Agriculture Industry of which Services

Annual Aver Annual Aver Manufacture Annual Aver

__________________________________________________________________

Benin 35.9 14.1 8.9 50.0

Burkina Faso 31.3 18.6 12.6 50.2

Cape Verde 11.2 14.9 4.7 73.8

Cote d’Voire 24.7 23.3 17.5 52.0

Gambia, The 33.2 13.3 5.3 53.5

Ghana 36.0 25.2 9.8 38.8

Guinea 21.4 31.7 3.7 46.9

Guinea Bissau 42.1 15.9 11.9 42.0

Liberia - - - -

Mali 36.3 24.0 8.0 39.7

Niger 39.9 12.1 6.3 48.0

Nigeria 27.8 49.2 4.0 23.0

Senegal 19.2 21.8 13.6 59.0

Sierra Leone 46.0 21.0 2.1 33.0

Togo 38.4 19.7 9.0 41.9

ECOWAS 31.7 21.8 8.4 46.6

Source: Author’s calculation from SSOAC, 2006

Note: Annual Aver – Annual average

The period 1995 to 2004 registered an average current account balance of negative 6.6

percent of GDP in ECOWAS compared to Africa average of negative 1.2 percent of

GDP. ECOWAS registered the second highest current account deficit among the regional

organizations in Africa after CEMAC (negative 15.4 percent). Through out the period, all

the member states experienced current account deficits. However, some member states

such as Nigeria and Cote dIVoire performed relatively well in reducing their current

account deficits, registering the least deficits of 0.5 percent of GDP and 1.3 percent of

GDP respectively. This is followed by Ghana, Gambia and Senegal with deficits of 5.1

percent of GDP, 5.2 percent of GDP and 5.3 percent of GDP respectively. Other member

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states experienced high and deteriorating current account deficits (see figure 2.2). The

low deficits experienced by Nigeria is attributed to export earnings from oil revenue

during the period while that of Cote dIVoire is attributed to export earnings from the

cocoa revenue, being one of the world largest suppliers of cocoa.

Figure 2.2: Average Current Account Balance in ECOWAS: 1995 – 2004

(%GDP)5

-12

-10

-8

-6

-4

-2

0

BEN BFA CPV CIV GMB GHA GIN GNB LIB MLI NER NGA SEN SLE TGO

Source: Author’s computation from SSOAC6, 2006

The average budget deficit in ECOWAS from 2000 to 2003 was negative 4.4 percent of

GDP and for 2004 the average stood at negative 2.4 percent of GDP as compared to

Africa average of negative 1.7 percent from 2000 to 2003 and negative 0.5 percent in

2004 (see table 2.2 and annex 2). ECOWAS registered the third best performance from

2000 to 2003 after SADC that registered negative 3.1 percent of GDP during the same

5 BEN-BENIN; BFA-BURKINA FASO; CPV-CAPE VERDE; CIV-COTE D’VOIRE; GMB-GAMBIA;

GHA-GHANA; GIN-GUINEA; GNB-GUINEA BISSAU; LIB-LIBERIA; MLI-MALI; NER-NIGER;

NGA-NIGERIA; SEN-SENEGAL; SLE-SIERRA LEONE; TGO-TOGO 6 Selected Statistics on African Countries, African Development Bank annual statistical publication.

Volume XXV, 2006

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period. In 2004, ECOWAS became second best performer after CEMAC that registered a

surplus of 3.2 percent of GDP. Table 2.2 further revealed that only Nigeria and Togo

registered surpluses in their fiscal balances in 2004 with 7.7 percent of GDP and 1.9

percent of GDP respectively. Again, the exports earnings from the oil revenue played

significant role in reducing Nigeria’s fiscal and external gaps.

The issue of budget deficit sustainability is not a new phenomenon in ECOWAS member

states. Over the years, efforts have been exerted by many member states to reduce their

budget deficits through “demand” and “Supply”. The demand side has to do with the

control of current and capital expenditures through vigorous implementation of ‘Public

Financial Management System. The supply side has to do with increase in the state

resources through tax reforms which include broadening the tax base to make taxation

progressive and improvement in the tax collections. Given the level of commitments by

member states to provide basic social services or to eradicate poverty, attempts made to

have budget deficit at a sustainable level so far yielded no fruitful results.

Table 2.2: Fiscal Balance in the ECOWAS sub-region (% of GDP)

Surplus (+)/Deficit (-) Surplus (+)/Deficit (-)

Average

2000-2003 2004

Benin -1.9 -1.9

Burkina Faso -3.9 -4.3

Cape Verde -7.6 -1.5

Cote d’Voire -1.1 -1.8

Gambia, The -6.2 -5.7

Ghana -5.9 -3.1

Guinea -4.4 -4.9

Guinea Bissau -12.4 -8.4

Liberia - -

Mali -2.8 -2.7

Niger -3.3 -3.5

Nigeria -1.1 7.7

Senegal -0.8 -2.0

Sierra Leone -8.3 -3.5

Togo -0.8 1.9

ECOWAS -4.4 -2.4

Source: Author’s calculation from SSOAC, 2006

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Consumer price index as depicted in figure 2.3 shows changes (inflation) in the cost of

acquisition of a basket of goods and services purchased by the average consumer in

individual member state from 1990 to 2004. On the average, the inflation rate in

ECOWAS for the period was 11.2 percent, the second best performer after CEMAC that

registered 4.4 percent on average. The average inflation in ECOWAS was 7 percentage

point lower than Africa’s average of 18.9 percent during the same period. The study

further observes that during these periods, the region experienced relative stability in

average CPI inflation rates particularly the WAMU countries (except Guinea Bissau).

This is spurred by their vigorous implementation of the macroeconomic stabilization

policies. Some of the non WAMU countries like Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra

Leone did little to reduce the double digit inflation rates with average inflation rates of

25.9 percent, 10.5 percent, 25.4 percent and 31.2 percent respectively.

Figure 2.3: Annual averages of CPI Inflation in ECOWAS: 1990 - 2004

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

BEN BFA CIV GNB MLI NER SEN TGO CPV GMB GHA GIN LIB NGA SLE

Source: Author’s computation from SSOAC, 2006

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In terms of trade, ECOWAS traded significantly outside Africa from 1996 to 2001

registering a rate of 154 percent of the total value of exports and imports (see figure 2.4).

Trade between ECOWAS and the rest of Africa was steady around 29 percent of total

exports and imports. However, intra-ECOWAS trade was very sluggish registering the

least rate of 24 percent of total value of exports and imports. There is some sort of

equilibrium in trade between ECOWAS and the rest of Africa but highly significant

disequilibrium in trade between ECOWAS and countries outside Africa. Imports into

ECOWAS constitute bulk of the total ECOWAS trade with countries outside Africa

reflecting negatively on the region’s trade balance (see annex 7 for detail on the share of

exports in the region’s total trade). This further suggests that the region is more

dependence on imports and in most cases consumer goods.

Figure 2.4: Inflow and outflow of Trade in ECOWAS: 1996 – 2001

(As percentage of total value of exports and imports)

Source: Author’s computation from ECOSTAT, 2006

In addition, there is loose trade integration in ECOWAS’ FTA. That is, over the years

there have been more road blocks to trade in the region which can be attributed to

24 29

154

Intra-ECOWAS trade Trade with other African Countries

Trade outside Africa

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member states failure to implement at the fullest various agreements reached on trade.

Exports in the region have been concentrated on few products and in particular primary

commodities including petroleum, cocoa or beans, gold, cotton, boxile, café and iron ore.

Among these products, petroleum constitutes 70 percent of total exports (1996 – 2004)7.

Terms of trade on average tend to worsen or deteriorate over time as shown in Figure 2.5

below. This is consistent with the assertion made by Prebisch (1960): “expanding

primary production capacity in least developed countries would worsen the terms of trade

of these countries than they would otherwise be, reflecting negatively on their balance of

payments which would also have trickle down effects on their economic growths”.

Figure 2.5: Trend of Average terms of trade in ECOWAS

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

Terms of trade

Source: World Development Indicator, 2006

7 Nigeria is an outlier in this case. The data were extracted from the official websites of ECOWAS,

UNCOMTRADE and the work of Remi Lang of UN Economic commission for Africa.

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However, the study assumes that the shift in world demand would also affect negatively

or positively the terms of trade in the region.

2.3 Recent Efforts to foster Economic Integration through Trade8

At the Accra meeting in 2004, the Department of Trade and Customs Policy of the

ECOWAS commission was mandated by the Council of Ministers to prepare the

negotiations toward the signing of an economic partnership agreement (EPA) between

the European Union and ECOWAS (to be signed before 1st January 2008). The EPA

covers all the areas of activity of the Department of TCP and others. It would appear to

be a catalyst that can give added force to all the programmes currently implemented by

the Department (free trade zone, common external tariff, customs union, policy

harmonization, competition and investment policy, and so on). Since the beginning of

2007, the main challenge of the Department had been the adequate preparation for the

negotiations. To this end, this activity was given priority in the 2007 budget.

At the Ouagadougou meeting in January 2008, the Heads of State and Government had

reaffirmed their willingness to sign the EPA that is development-oriented to promote

regional integration. At the meeting held in Nouakchott on February 15, 2008, the

ECOWAS Ministers reiterated the need for the development dimension of the EPA and

underscored the followings:

Improvement of the productive sectors in the agricultural, industrial, cottage

industry and service sectors;

The development of infrastructure (energy, roads, railways);

The upgrading of the enterprises;

Building of the capacities of the private sector and facilitation of its access to

financial resources;

Compensation for losses of tax revenue

Other elements were also given priority in the 2007 budget, namely adoption of three

texts that were crucial to efforts of deepening regional integration in the ECOWAS

8 This section benefits greatly from the official website of ECOWAS

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zone, to conduct a study on informal trade, and the organization of the 5th ECOWAS

Trade Fair in Ouagadougou.

At the fifth ECOWAS Trade Fair in Ouagadougou on March 15, 2008, the need for

effective information dissemination in order to facilitate true intra-community trade was

underscored. This is consistent with the theme of the fair: “Consolidating Intra

Community Trade through Information, communication and Technology (ICT)”.

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CHAPTER THREE

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Despites numerous studies by many researchers, the relationship between Trade and

Growth remains a subject of controversy particularly in the empirical literature. This

section reviews the theoretical and empirical literature of the relationship between

Exports and Economic Growth.

3.1 Theoretical Perspective

The study relies on the theory of International trade which dates back to Adam Smith ,

David Ricardo, James Mill and John Stuart Mills who presented the nature of trade in a

simplified terms like, two countries; two products; and domestic values proportional to

labor time. Their models explained the gains to be derived from specializations and trade.

Adam Smith’s theory (Absolute cost Advantage) states: a country H (Home) is said to

have Absolute Advantage over country F (Foreign) in the production of commodity X if

the required unit of labor to produce commodity X in home country is less than the

required unit of labor to produce commodity X in the foreign country. In addition, if the

marginal productivity in producing X in home country is greater than the marginal

productivity of producing X in foreign country. In this theory, the basis for trade is labor

productivity.

David Ricardo considered the above theory as over generalization. He further asserted

that when a country has absolute advantage in producing the two commodities as claimed

by Adam Smith, than there is no need for trade. This is the limitation of the Adam Smith

model. To account for this limitation, Ricardo now said that even when a given country

has absolute advantage in producing the two commodities there should be basis for trade.

He redefined the theory to Comparative Advantage. That is, each country specializes in

what it has comparative cost advantage in. In this theory, emphasis is on specialization.

Grossman et al. (1991), Matsuyama (1992), and Walde et al. (2005), concluded that the

effects of exports on growth have shown to be positive or negative under different

circumstances.

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Hultman (1967) concluded that this conventional International trade theory is based on a

number of static assumptions that may be inconsistent with the dynamic export models.

He further asserted that most of the export models imply that the major line of causation

is from exports to internal economic growth while the conventional trade theory

emphasized on exports occurring as a result of domestic conditions.

The Traditional Trade Theory known as the Classical and Neoclassical models

maintained that trade between countries take effect as a result of reallocation of resources

between the home and export sectors. These models further maintained that trade

occurred within the static framework of productive resources and constant technical

knowledge in quantity and quality. In order to incorporate these assumptions into the

dynamic version of exports models that allow for growth, modification is required for

such static assumptions.

The ‘Factor Intensity Theory’ (Hechsher-Ohlin) emphasized trade between regions. The

theory states: “a region (or country) tends to export items the production of which

requires relatively large amount of the factors of production that the region possesses in

relative abundance; it imports items which embody the scarce factor of production”.

Ohlin conviction was that “trade promoted growth through local adaptation of industry to

the basic conditions of production”. He further believed that trade contributes

significantly to production and in the process each trading region reaps some gains.

Following the spectacular success story of many emerging countries that became newly

industrialized countries (NICs) in the 1970s and 1980s, theoretical consensus on exports

and growth emerged among the neoclassical economists. This consensus is referred to as

the causal link between exports and growth. The neoclassical economists stress the

hypothesis that exports are a key factor in promoting productivity growth. However,

some explanations on the relationship between exports and growth were forwarded as

follows:

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First, they believe that exports concentrate investment in the sector of a given country in

which it has comparative advantage. If such country specializes in this sector,

productivity will increase. Second, the interactions of the domestic economy with the rest

of the world in higher exports growth will allow a country to gain from economies of

scale. Third, the growth of exports is seen to have a significant influence on the

productivity of a given economy through externalities of exports on other sectors,

Bhagwati (1978). Fourth, strong presence of a country in the international competition by

higher exports provides the incentives for the introduction of technological change. Giles

et al. (2000) argued that outward oriented trade policy may as well give access to

advanced technologies via learning by doing and management best practices.

Additionally, two approaches have been put forward regarding the relationship between

exports and growth: The first is the Keynesian approach which states that output level

will improve via multiplier effect if aggregate exports are injected into the circular flow

of income of a given economy. The second approach maintains that higher level of

exports increases foreign exchange earnings which has positive implications on a balance

of payment or allow the imports of essential inputs into the production system that will

yield higher value.

According to the Endogenous growth theory, trade via exports and Foreign Direct

Investment increase knowledge spillovers across countries through which productivity of

physical capitals as well as human capital can also be increased. With additional learning-

by-doing effects, productivity of endogenous growth factors can be further expanded.

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3.2 Empirical perspective9

The debate in the empirical literature regarding the relationship between trade and

economic growth cannot be over emphasized. In the works of Grossman et al (1991),

Matsuyama (1992), and Walde et al. (2005), it became theoretically clear that the effects

of trade on growth have shown to be positive or negative under different circumstances.

Sohn et al. (2006) paper on Trade Structure, FTA and Growth: implications to East Asia,

responded to the open debate on the relationship between trade and growth by following

the lead of Lederman et al. (2003) in removing some of the confusions that arose. They

argued that the mixed results of the econometric evidence on the link between trade and

growth come due to two main aspects. First, the problem of definition of trade; second,

many of the empirical estimation attempts so far failed to isolate the pure impact of trade

on economic growth, arguing that measures in trade openness or volume are significantly

influenced by non-trade factors such as macroeconomic variables and institutional

variables. Trade structure variables (primary products exports over total exports or GDP,

FTA index, Human capital over labor, physical capital over labor and Export Herfindahl

index) were introduced by them to examine trade on growth. They found out that those

trade structure variables representing the Hecksher-Ohlin type of trade-growth

relationship show strong evidence of positive effects on growth. However, when natural

resource abundance variable is combined with the Hecksher-Ohlin variable, it shows a

significantly negative impact on economic growth. Free Trade Area also enhances growth

in their studies in the global economy but show very weak role in the East Asian region.

They maintained that there could be loosest trade integration in the East Asian region

regarding their FTA.

Nath (2005), in his paper on Trade, Foreign Direct Investment and Growth in 13

transition Economies of the CEEB region, indicates that among the variables of interest,

trade has significant positive effect on per capital real GDP growth. He used pooled Time

9 Parts of this empirical review were selected from the work of Sebastian Edwards who

selected some empirical works on exports, GDP growth and world market conditions: University of California, Los Angeles, -Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXXI(sept.1993)

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Series Cross-section estimation with the sample period of 1990 – 2003. Kohli et al.

(1989) used Feder’s model to estimate the relationship between exports and GDP growth

for 41 countries using the sample period 1960- 70 and 1970 -81. The sample was

basically divided into “outward oriented” and “non-outward oriented” countries. Their

findings were that, exports always significant for earlier period and not significant in the

later period.

Gray et al. (1988) adopted Kavoussi’s 1985 exports decomposition techniques on the

sample period 1967 – 73 and 1973 – 83. They divided the countries in two fronts: those

facing “above average” represent high world demand and those “below average”

represent low world demand. Their findings indicate that the spearman coefficient show

significantly positive sign for those countries above average world demand; and

insignificant for those facing low would demand conditions. Rana, (1988) comments on

the paper of Balassa (1985) by adopting a pooled time series estimation procedures on a

balanced sample of 43 countries for before and after 1973. He used OLS and random

effects procedures and the findings indicate that all estimates of exports are significantly

positive; those for post 1973 period are smaller than those for earlier period.

Ram (1987), adopted a production function approach on time series and cross sections

with a sample period of 1960 – 1973. He divided the sample in “before oil shock” (1960

– 72) and “after oil shock” (1973 – 82). The sample was also divided between low and

middle income countries. The findings concluded that in the majority of cases, the

estimated coefficient of exports for the period 1973 – 82 exceeds that of the earlier

period.

Kavoussi (1985) decomposes sources of exports growth using sample period 1967 -

1977. The study constructs outward orientation ranking and classified countries between

those facing “favorable” and “unfavorable” market conditions. The study compute

spearman rank coefficient between outward orientation and GDP growth in two periods:

1967 – 73 and 1973 – 77. The findings show that countries facing favorable market

conditions exhibited a significant stronger correlation between exports and GDP growth

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than those facing unfavorable conditions. Ram (1985) used the production function

framework on 73 countries for the sample period of 1960 – 70 and 1970 – 77. The

breakdown of sample was justified by oil shock. The findings indicate that for both

periods the coefficient of exports was significantly positive; but higher for the period

1970 – 77.

Balassa (1985) adopted the production function approach with exports as regressor by

comparing results for sample of 11 countries in 1960 – 73 with results of sample of 43

countries (that were adversely affected by the 1973 oil shock) for the period 1973 – 79.

He found out that the coefficient for exports is positively significant and higher in the

1973 – 79 period than the earlier period.

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CHAPTER FOUR

METHODOLOGY, RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

This section contains the over all description of the methodological framework adopted

for the study.

4.1 Data Characteristics and scope of study

Due to the unavailability of enough data point, it is difficult if not impossible for the

study to conduct any meaningful time series analysis. Hence, pooled time-series and

cross-sectional data is used10

. Documentary secondary data for the period 1987 – 2004 is

used. This period is chosen for the study due to data availability and reliability. During

the period, the sub-region under went many economic transformations starting with the

Structural Adjustment Programme in the 1980s followed by the outward oriented growth

strategies in the 1990s. The study considers thirteen countries11

in the West African sub-

region taken into account individual country’s peculiarities. Annex 1 presents the

principal sources of data for the study.

4.2 Theoretical Source for Model Specification

The study adopts it framework from the traditional Neoclassical Growth Theory of Solow

(1956), revisited recently by many researchers among which is Barro (1991). Barro

included human capital (H) and defined it as average level of skilled labor.

Hornstein et al. (1996) asserted that growth in total-factor productivity (TFP) is usually

well thought-out to represents output growth not accounted for by the growth in inputs.

Considering the macro model ),,( HLKFAY tttt , Total Factor Productivity (TFP) is

equal to ),,(/ HLKFY ttt . Similarly, considering the model ),,,( XHLKFAY tttt , TFP

is equal to ),,,(/ XHLKFY ttt ; where Y, K, and L are measures of output, capital stock,

labour and human capital respectively. X measures real exports over GDP ratio, A is the

measure of TFP and F (.) is the production function. The above implies that the Solow

residual is a measure of TFP and this TFP is presumed to change over time. There is

10

Following the lead of Hiranya Nath, (2005) 11

Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’Voire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali,

Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo

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however disagreement in the literature over the question of whether the Solow residual

measures technology shocks. Efforts to change the inputs, like Kt, to adjust for utilization

rate and so forth, have the consequence of changing the Solow residual and thus the

measure of TFP. Nonetheless, the idea of TFP is well defined for each model of this kind.

TFP is not necessarily a measure of technology since the TFP could be a function of other

things like exports, or monetary shocks, or the political party in power and even

institutional factors. In the context of this study, TFP represents the variable of interest

and other conditioning variables (these conditioning or controlled variables are defined in

section 4.3). Generally, in the context of neoclassical spirit, the aggregate production

function is typically specified as

),),(),(()( ttLtKFtY (1)

The above expression is an analytical simplification which makes it possible to

summarize detailed information about complex process of economic growth within a

simple unified framework. Differentiating the logarithm of equation (1) with respect to t,

we obtain

Ft

F

L

L

F

L

L

F

K

K

F

K

K

F

Y

Y 1...

; (2)

dtdXX /.

is the time derivative of the respective variable.

Specifying equation (1) in the Hicks neutral form, we have

))(),(()()),(),(( tLtKFtAttLtKF (3)

where A(t) represents total factor productivity (TFP) and measures the shift in the production

function F at given levels of inputs. Taking log derivatives with respect to time yields the

following expression:

A

A

L

L

F

L

L

F

K

K

F

K

K

F

Y

Y

....

(4)

Consequently, the last term on the right hand side of equation (2) is interpreted in equation (4) as

the growth rate of TFP. This implies that equation (4) can be written as

,TFPof

rategrowth

labourof

rategrowth

capitalof

rategrowth

GDPof

rategrowth

LK (5)

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4.3 Model Specification and Estimation Techniques

Base on the foregoing theoretical framework of the Neoclassical Growth Model, the

study builds on the Pooled Time-Series Cross-Section estimation model used by Nath

(2005)12

, by the inclusion of institutional variable of FTA and the use of exports to GDP

ratio instead of exports plus imports over GDP. In particular, ordinary least squares

technique is used with the help of eviews6 software.

The Pooled Time-Series model is implicitly specified as follows:

itititiit zxy ''; (6)

Where, ity is the growth rate of per capital real GDP; i is the country fixed effect; itx is

a variable of interest (total exports over GDP), itz is a vector of control variables (Terms

of trade, exchange rate, CPI inflation, gross fixed capital formation over GDP, gross

secondary school enrollment ratio, Labor, government final consumption and FTA

index); i represents individual country and t represents time period.

Explicitly we have the model as:

itititititititiit LNERTOTLTLGSSEGDPGFCFLFTAGDPRXLGrowth //

ititit UGOVCPI (7)

The results of the Hausman test for fixed versus random effects (see tables 4.5 and 4.6)

showed that the fixed effect has no redundancy in the model as oppose to the correlated

random effect; hence, the study adopts the country fixed specific effects.

Many issues and concerns have been raised regarding the empirical methodology on

exports and growth. One of such is the use of time invariant initial conditions. Barro

(1991), concluded that time invariant initial conditions are important for subsequent

growth. Berg et al. (1999) asserted that inclusions of more than one initial condition may

be important for growth and macroeconomic performance in transition economies.

12

He looked at 13 transition economies in the CEEB region whereas this study looks at 13 economies in

the ECOWAS sub region.

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Even though these time invariant initial conditions have been prominent in many

empirics of growth particularly in dynamic panel estimation, this study leaves them out in

favor of country specific fixed effects13

. Inclusion of too many initial conditions may

render coefficients estimates of the model useless. The effects of initial conditions taper

off as time passes; hence, their inclusion may not be appropriate in the long-run

investigation. In addition, this study leaves time invariant initial conditions because the

cross sections are less than the time period. Arellano and Bond (1991)’s method is

appropriate when the cross sections are greater than the time period or when there are

large size of cross sections.

According to Nath (2005), country specific fixed effects model takes care of time

invariant country specific factors but the model may still surfer from omitted variable

problem; this may arise as a result of not including some important time variant control

variables. While exclusion of some important variables lead to omitted variable problem,

inclusion of some may as well lead to the problem of colinearity. Subsequently, the issue

of multicollinerity may arise thereby rendering individual coefficient insignificant with

high R2. Evidence from both the theoretical and empirical perspectives suggest that, the

short coming of including too many variables in the model may lead to lack of degree of

freedom that may eventually lead to imprecise estimation of the model coefficients. To

address all of these concerns, the study adopts David Hendry’s “general-to-specific”

approach by applying sequence of redundant variables test (F-tests) to arrive at the

parsimonious specification suitable under the data set. The general-to-specific approach

is not applied to the variables of interest instead; it is applied only to the control

variables. The study tests for the redundancy of each controlled variable by observing the

F-test results of such variable and the behaviors of the coefficients of the variable of

interest. This process continues until a parsimonious specification is arrived at.

13

As asserted by Nath(2005), there may be country specific fixed effects that may capture some of the

differences in institutions that are evolved across economies in a given region. Further, individual country-

specific intercepts i capture any combination of time invariant variables that have been omitted

knowingly or not from the regression model.

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In the region, there are differences in growth experiences which may give rise to

variations of variables in the model. There may also be common factors that affect

countries in the region given the similarities in political, cultural and geographical

systems. These concerns are addressed by testing GroupWise heteroskedasticity and

cross-sectional correlation. To address the issue of serial autocorrelation, pooled Durbin-

Watson (DW) and LM test statistics are used.

4.4 Hypothesis or restriction

Table 4.1: Expected signs as dictated by theory

S/N Variable Restriction

1 Total Exports/GDPit (theory not conclusive) 1

2 Log FTA Indexit (theory not conclusive) 2

3 GFCF/GDPit 03

4 GSSEit 04

5 Log Total LABORit 05

6 TOTit 06

7 Log Nominal exchange rateit (theory not conclusive) 7

8 CPI Inflationit (theory not conclusive) 8

9 GOV/GDPit (theory not conclusive) 9

4.5 Variable definitions and Justifications

Growth Rate of per capital real GDP: The Growth Rate of per capital real GDP is

calculated by taking the first log differences of per capital real GDP and multiplied by

100. This variable is used as the dependent or left hand side variable and it is denoted in

the model as LGrowth.

Total real exports over GDP: The ratio of total real exports to GDP ratio reflects the

Rybzynski and Hecksher-Ohlin type of trade-growth relationship. This measure tests the

“Dutch Disease” or “Sachs et al. (1995)” assertion that explains the negative effect of a

given country’s natural resource exports on economic growth. Consistent with this

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assertion, a negative sign is expected. When exports are diversified (with value), then a

positive sign is envisaged; and when exports are dominated by natural resources (with no

value or not competitive on the international market), then a negative relation with

economic growth is envisaged. For this study, a negative relation with economic growth

is expected since 90 percent14

of the region’s exports are dominated by primary

commodities.

Free Trade Area (FTA) Index: Sohn et al. (2006) measured FTA index in their studies

by taking the ratio of the sum of FTA member countries’ GDP to the GDP of each

country within the bloc. If a given country has no FTA, the index remains 1. In their

study, they found that FTA enhances growth. Joseph Nye theory on Regional integration

indicates that FTA can foster specialization, and economic of large scale production. This

variable is used to validate the robustness of this claim. However, trade diversion can

distort FTA that may reflect negatively on economic growth. Consequently, the study

examines the positive or negative role of FTA in ECOWAS.

Factor Abundance Exports (Human Capital): According to Barro (2001), human

capital enhances growth. Consistent with this, the study uses Human capital under factor

abundance. To construct Human capital, gross secondary school enrollment ratio is used

as proxy and it is denoted in the model as GSSE. A positive relationship with economic

growth is expected. It should however be noted that there are still disagreements on the

usage of gross secondary school enrollment ratio as proxy for human capital. Some

believed that spending in secondary education does not have immediate impact on

growth; that is, it has lagged periods.

Factor Intensity Exports (Physical Capital): As dictated by theory (Hechsher-Ohlin),

factor intensity of a given country entails the ratio of capital- intensive goods to ratio of

labor-intensive goods exports. However, given the peculiar situation of the sub-region on

14

The data were extracted from the official websites of ECOWAS, UNCOMTRADE and the works of

Remi Lang of UN Economic commission for Africa and O. J. Nnanna of the West African Monetary

Institute in Accra, Ghana.

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the unavailability of data on exports of both capital intensive and labor intensive goods,

we use gross fixed capital formation over GDP ratio as proxy for Physical Capital and it

is denoted in the model as GFCF. The study expects a positive relationship with

economic growth.

Terms of Trade: In the model, terms of trade is denoted as TOT and is defined as the

ratio of price of exports to imports calculated on the same base year. According to the

Prebisch-Singer theory, there was and would continue to be a secular decline in the terms

of trade of primary-commodity exporters due to a combination of low income and price

elasticities of demand. The ECOWAS’ terms of trade for its primary products exports on

average tend to worsen over time. Evidence has shown that an increase in a given

country’s terms of trade may stimulate factor accumulation and prolonged its economic

growth, Broda (2003). Consistent with the above, the variable is suitable for the study

and a positive relationship with economic growth is expected.

CPI Inflation: CPI inflation is denoted in the model as CPI. Mankiw (2003) asserted that

CPI inflation measures prices level that reflects the cost of consumer goods relative to the

same basket of goods in the base year. CPI inflation is used as proxy for inflation in order

to examine the macroeconomic stabilization policy in the ECOWAS region. According to

theory, inflation makes the value of money worthless and it has a negative effect on

growth. It is expected that CPI will have a negative relationship with economic growth in

the study.

Total Labor: TL represents total labor in the model and it is adopted in the study

because of its important role in the export-growth relationship. According to the

neoclassical growth theory, as labor, capital and total factor productivity of a given

economy increase, total output increases. This variable is important for the study in that

majority of the region exports are labor intensive. It is expected that total labor force will

have a positive relationship with economic growth.

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Government final consumption: Gov represents government final consumption in the

model and it measures the size of government which affects economic growth through a

short run aggregate demand stimulus. Nath (2005) in his study found size of government

to be statistically significant and positively correlated with economic growth.

Nominal Exchange rate: According to the International trade theory, devaluation of

exchange rate can stimulate economic growth but only under the condition that supply

response is effective. Exchange rate variable is included in the model to reflect price

competitiveness in the international markets and examine its influence on economic

performance via export channel in ECOWAS. However, there are still disagreements in

the empirical literature on the positive influence of exchange rate on economic growth in

developing countries given that, gestation periods for their traded goods are very long.

Others maintained that it depends on the measurement of exports (when measured in

value a positive sign is expected and a negative sign is expected when measured in

quantity). The study measured export variable in value terms and to this end, a positive

correlation between economic growth and exchange rate is expected.

4.6 Results, Discussions and Diagnostic tests

4.6.1 Stationary Test

Table 4.2 presents the results of the unit root tests for all the variables under the data set.

These results indicate the absence of a unit root, as LLC (Levin, Lin, Chu), IPS (Im,

Pesaran, Shin), ADF (Augmented Dickey Fulley) and PP (Philip Peron) reject the null

hypothesis of a unit root at the conventional 5 percent level of significance. The variables

are stationary and there are no substantial variations in each unit over time. The data

show good time series and cross sectional properties in level; hence, the use of

cointegration and ECM (Error Correction Model) do not arise. In carrying out the unit

root tests, the following assumptions were considered under the common and individual

roots. The common root is associated with the LLC and HZ type of tests and it estimates

with the assumption that all the series have common autoregressive structure whereas the

individual root is associated with the IPS, ADF and PP tests type and these tests type

assume different autoregressive coefficients in each series during estimation. The

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variables are all stationary in levels after controlling for the specification of the unit root

tests by choosing between sets of exogenous regressors to be included.

Table 4.2: Results of the Unit Root Tests

Variable Test method/Type

HZ LLC IPS ADF PP

LGROWTHit -8.3453

*** -6.4328

*** 90.0530

*** 108.765

***

RXit -3.5815***

-4.2028***

59.9606***

37.3876*

GFCFit -9.7116***

-8.3673***

107.464***

118.842***

LFTAit -3.0272***

-2.5403***

48.9538***

LLABORit -1.8706**

37.3638*

GSSEit -1.8997**

37.3533* 36.7397

*

CPIit 7.4441***

GOVit -8.2506***

-5.2577***

69.2871***

93.8655***

LNERit 5.3572***

TOTit -4.9753***

-3.1851***

45.6855***

39.5630***

Source: Author’s computation

Note: * significant at ten percent; ** significant at five percent and *** significant at one

percent. HZ: Hadri Z-statistic; LLC: Levin, Lin, Chu; IPS: Im, Pesaran, Shin; ADF:

Augmented Dickey Fulley and PP: Philip Perron.

4.6.2 Specification Test

As mentioned earlier, David Hendry’s general-to-specific approach is adopted by

applying a sequence of redundant variable tests (F-Tests) to arrive at the parsimonious

specification. The study estimates the general model that includes all the variables;

thereafter, tests the redundancy of each controlled variable or group of controlled

variables. It is importance to note here that while growth theory provides some sort of

guidance, there are differences in growth experience across countries in West Africa;

hence, the choice of appropriate controlled variables seems to be a difficult task. Previous

empirical works showed that growth in transition economies may be affected by many

factors some of which include, initial conditions, macroeconomic, institutional, and

structural reform factors. This study is concerned with the macroeconomic and

institutional factors.

The F-test results revealed that all the controlled variables proved significant to be

included in the pooled regression model (see table 4.3). However, government final

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consumption proved to be redundant in the model as it makes the study to suspect the

possibility of a linear relationship with any other variable in the model; hence, the pooled

regression model is estimated without government final consumption.

Table 4.3: F-test results for exclusion of controlled variables

Category Variable F-statistics Degree of P-value

Freedom

1 2 3 4

Macroeconomic LCPI Inflation 22.93 (1,212) 0.00

Variables Govt. consumption 4.40 (1,212) 0.04

Terms of trade 16.81 (1,212) 0.00

LNominal exchange rate 6.11 (1,212) 0.01

Other controlled LFTA 26.05 (1,212) 0.00

Variables Gross secondary sch. 16.42 (1,212) 0.00

Enrollment

LLabor 32.26 (1,212) 0.00

Gross fixed capital 40.55 (1,212) 0.00

Formation

Source: Author’s computation Note: FTA-Free Trade Area

4.6.3 Diagnostic Tests

The test results for cross-sectional heteroskedasticity and cross-sectional correlation are

presented in Table 4.4. The result for cross-sectional heteroskedasticity was based on the

variance-covariance matrix of the estimated residuals obtained from the feasible GLS

estimation (see annex 10). The cross-sectional correlation result was based on the

correlation matrix of the estimated residuals obtained from the feasible GLS estimation

(see annex 9) with cross-section variances as weights. Though the two results accept the

null hypothesis of no heteroskedasticity across countries and no cross-sectional

correlation, there is still presence of correlation across observations and differing

variances from the residuals of correlation matrix and covariance matrix. For example,

the variance of Guinea Bissau (2.64) is twice higher than that of Benin (0.10). To correct

for these, the study uses “cross-section seemingly unrelated regression (SUR)” as

weights.

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Table 4.5 presents the two way redundant fixed effects results and it revealed that the

three statistic values and their associated P-values strongly reject the null hypothesis that

the effects are redundant. Table 4.6 presents the Hausman test results for correlated

random effects. The results accept the null hypothesis that the correlated random effects

are redundant in the model. Hence, the fixed effects model is maintained for the study.

Table 4.4: Breuch-Godfrey LM Tests for cross-sectional heteroskedasticity and

Cross-sectional correlation

Null Hypothesis F-Statistics Degree of P-value

Freedom

1. There is no cross-sectional 0.52 (12, 5) 0.84

Heteroskedasticity

2. There is no cross-sectional 2.42 (2, 3) 0.24

Correlation

Source: Author’s computation

Table 4.5: Two-way Redundant Fixed Effects test (cross-section & period)

Effects Testing F-Statistics Degree of P-value

Freedom

Cross-section/Period 1.79 (29,196) 0.011

Cross-section only 11.08 (12,213) 0.000

Cross-section/period chi 54.55 29 0.003

Squares

Source: Author’s computation

Table 4.6: Hausman Correlated Random Effects test (cross-section & period)

Effects Testing Chi-square Chi-square d.f P-value

Cross-section Random 0.00 8 1.00

Period Random 0.00 8 1.00

Cross-section and Period Random 12.55 8 0.12

===============================================================

Source: Author’s computation

Independent Variables Test Method

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4.6.4 Pooled regression Results and Discussions

Table 4.7: Exports and Growth in ECOWAS: Pooled Fixed effects Estimates

Sample period: 1987 – 2004

Dependent variable: 1st log difference of real GDP per capital growth rate

Source: Author’s computation

Note: The numbers in parentheses are the t-statistics. * Significant at ten percent; **

significant at five percent and *** significant at one percent.

In Table 4.7, the pooled regression results are presented and include coefficient estimates,

t-statistics and other relevant statistics obtained from two different estimation methods.

Column 1 represents estimates obtained from the pooled Least Squares (PLS) without

weights assigned. Column 2 includes estimates from the Feasible Generalized Least

Squares (GLS) with seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) as weights and column 3

PLS GLS(SUR) GLS(SUR)

Lagged log of real GDP per

capital growth rate

-0.138***

(-2.432)

Real Exports/GDP ratio (RX) -0.003

[-0.712]

-0.002***

[-2.236]

-0.003***

[-3.045]

Gross fixed capital

formation/GDP (GFCF)

0.012

[1.427]

0.012***

[6.176]

0.011***

[5.431]

Consumer price Inflation (CPI) -0.004

[-1.114]

-0.005***

[-5.032]

-0.005***

[-4.960]

Gross secondary school

enrollment (GSSE)

-0.009

[-1.111]

-0.009***

[-3.677]

-0.010***

[-4.512]

Log of Free Trade Area (LFTA) -1.427***

[-2.956]

-1.776***

[-5.289]

-2.010***

[-5.413]

Log of Labor force (Llabor) 1.172*

[1.607]

1.657***

[5.470]

1.122***

[3.527]

Nominal Exchange rate 0.243*

[1.674]

0.158***

[3.027]

0.277***

[5.238]

Terms of Trade Index (TOT) 0.004

[1.289]

0.005***

[4.059]

0.004***

[3.412]

R2

0.17 0.66 0.65

Adjusted R2 0.09 0.62 0.61

S.E of Regression 0.81 1.03 1.04

F-Statistic 2.26 20.30 17.49

Prob(F-statistic) 0.01 0.00 0.00

D-W statistic 2.20 2.10 ----

LM-Statistic ----- ----- 0.33

No. of observations 234 234 221

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represents the inclusion of the lagged dependent variable (LDV) under the Feasible

Generalized Least Squares. The standard errors are estimated using Panel Corrected

Standard Errors that are robust to contemporaneously correlated errors and panel

heteroskedastic errors.

The results indicate that under the simple Pooled Least Squares, the variable of interest,

real exports over GDP ratio in the presence of other controlled variables is negatively

correlated with real GDP per capital growth rate, but the coefficient is insignificant.

However, under the feasible Generalized Least Squares method, real exports variable is

statistically significant and negatively correlated with growth. After including the lagged

dependent variable (LDV), the variable also shows a statistically significant and negative

relationship with real GDP per capital growth rate. In the three cases, the magnitudes of

the coefficients are very small.

A one percent point increase in exports to GDP ratio Under the GLS, reduces real GDP

per capital growth rate by 0.002 percentage point while under the GLS with lagged

dependent variable, a one percent point increase in exports to GDP ratio reduces real

GDP per capital growth rate by 0.003 percentage point. This is in part attributed to

exports of the region being dominated by primary commodities and the low international

prices for these primary commodities over the years made the region more unstable and

vulnerable to external shocks. This result confirms Prebisch (1959) and Sachs

et al.(1995) significant negative impact of primary products (natural resource) exports on

economic growth. It is also broadly consistent with the findings of recent empirical

works. In particularly, Sohn et al. (2006) found natural resource exports to be statistically

significant and negatively correlated with growth. Lederman et al. (2003) also confirms

the same results in their works on trade structure and economic growth.

Among the controlled variables, Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) is statistically

significant and has positive effect on per capital real GDP growth rate under the GLS and

GLS with lagged dependent variable (LDV). Under both the GLS and LDV, a one

percent point increase in gross fixed capital formation to GDP ratio, leads to a 0.01

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percentage point increase in real GDP per capital growth rate; implying that factor input

of capital accumulation is very significant in explaining the growth of the sub-region.

This result is consistent with the neoclassical growth framework.

A highly significant positive effect of labor is robust to any estimation method. Under the

PLS, a ten percent point increase in total labor leads to 117.2 percentage point increase in

real GDP per capital growth rate whereas under the GLS and GLS with LDV, a one

percent point increase in labor will increase real GDP per capital growth rate by 165.7

percent and 112.2 percentage points respectively. From the magnitudes of the

coefficients, the study observed that growth in the region has been along labor expansion

path. Further, the products in the region over the years have been labor intensive. As

dictated by the neoclassical growth theory, this result also confirms that factor input is

very significant in explaining growth in the sub-region.

Gross secondary school enrollment ratio used as proxy for human capital is statistically

highly significant under the GLS and GLS with LDV but negatively correlated with

growth and the magnitudes of the coefficients are much smaller. This is not consistent

with the insights provided by the growth framework. However, the negative effects of

human capital on growth in the region are in part due to the inadequate mechanisms for

transferring new knowledge and promoting learning –by-doing. In addition, secondary

school education is a low human productivity in the region given the high demand for

highly skilled and trained human resource to compete with the speed of globalization.

This result is broadly consistent with the results of Hausman, et al (2005); whose findings

revealed that low human capital and weak mechanisms for technology transfer and

learning-by-doing in developing countries have been shown to hamper productivity.

Furthermore, spending in the secondary education sector in developing countries does not

have immediate impact on growth. In other words, this proxy has lagged periods. There is

however, disagreement on the use of gross secondary school enrollment ratio as proxy for

human capital in least developed and developing countries.

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This study disprove the growth enhancing effects of Free Trade Area in ECOWAS as it is

statistically highly significant but negatively correlated with economic growth. The

negative impact of FTA on economic growth in ECOWAS is to a large extent the lack of

binding commitments of member states to implement the FTA agreement reached. That

is, there is loose trade integration in ECOWAS which has over the years seen more road

blocks to trade. There are lots of road blocks to free movements of goods and services in

the region. This result accords well with recent empirical works of Sohn et a.l (2006),

whose findings revealed that FTA enhances growth and is relevant in the global economy

but in the case of East Asian region, it plays a weak role due to the loosest trade

integration of Asian Free Trade Area.

Among the macroeconomic variables, consumer price inflation is significant under the

GLS and GLS with LDV. It is negatively correlated with real GDP per capital growth

rate but the magnitude of the coefficient is very small. The small magnitude is spurred by

the vigorous implementation of the macroeconomic stabilization policies in the region

particularly the WAMU countries.

Nominal exchange rate is statistically significant and positively correlated with growth.

The study can however jump into logic by concluding that the exchange rate devaluation

adopted by many member states in the late 1980s and the early 1990s might have had

some positive effects on economies in the region though the supply response of many

countries for their traded goods are very long. Further, the fact that export is measured in

value terms, might have contributed to the positive correlation on growth.

Terms of trade shows statistically highly significant positive effects on growth under

GLS and GLS with LDV. However, the magnitudes of the coefficients are very small.

This is largely attributed to the level of deterioration experienced by the region during the

period. Further, the low international prices for the region’s exports caused serious

deteriorations over the years. This result shows the growth enhancing effects of the

region’s openness to trade. The result also accords well with previous studies such as

Broda (2003).

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The lagged dependent variable was included to determine the long-run effects of the

independent variables on growth15

. This can be calculated by multiplying the estimated

coefficient of each of the independent variables by

)1(

1

where

is the estimated

coefficient of lagged dependent variable. The results of the long run effects show that the

magnitudes of the coefficients of many of the exogenous variables are relatively larger as

compare to the static model.

The study reports the R2, standard error of regression, F-statistics, D-W statistics and LM

–Statistics for the regression results. The R2

results under the GLS (66 percent) and GLS

with LDV (65 percent) show that the model is adequate and it explains more than two-

thirds of the variation in economic growth of member states in ECOWAS. The standard

error of regression (1.03) represents approximately three percent of the mean value of

real GDP per capital growth rate. The D-W and L-M statistics all fall within the zone of

no serial correlation suggesting a good model fit.

15

Since the Time period is relatively large (consistent with T ), the LS estimates is consistent for the

dynamic error panel model.

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4.6.5 Sensitivity Analysis

Table 4.8: Exports and Growth in ECOWAS: Sensitivity Analysis

Dependent variable: 1st log difference of real GDP per capital growth rate

Independent Variables Number of tests conducted

1 2 3 4 5

Lagged log of real GDP per

capital growth rate

-0.138***

[-2.432]

Real Exports/GDP ratio

(RX)

-0.002**

[-1.886]

-0.004***

[-3.584]

-0.003***

[-2.804]

-0.002***

[-2.363]

-0.003***

[-3.045]

Gross fixed capital

formation/GDP (GFCF)

0.011***

[5.554]

0.012***

[6.176]

0.011***

[5.431]

Consumer price Inflation

(CPI)

-0.003***

[-3.249]

-0.006***

[-6.662]

-0.005***

[-4.933]

-0.005***

[-5.031]

-0.005***

[-4.960]

Gross secondary school

enrollment (GSSE)

-0.008***

[-3.677]

-0.010***

[-4.512]

Log of Free Trade Area

(LFTA)

-1.622***

[-5.188]

-1.484***

[-5.079]

-1.543***

[-5.225]

-1.776***

[-5.281]

-2.010***

[-5.413]

Log of Labor force (Llabor) 1.340***

[4.490]

1.336***

[4.787]

1.657***

[5.470]

1.122***

[3.527]

Nominal exchange rate 0.288***

[7.315]

0.219***

[4.846]

0.186***

[3.680]

0.158***

[3.027]

0.278***

[5.238]

Terms of Trade Index

(TOT)

0.003***

[2.889]

0.005***

[4.354]

0.005***

[4.067]

0.005***

[4.059]

0.004***

[4.412]

R2

0.58 0.68 0.67 0.66 0.65

Adjusted R2 0.54 0.65 0.64 0.62 0.61

S.E of Regression 1.03 1.03 1.03 1.03 1.03

F-Statistic 17.39 24.97 23.19 20.30 17.49

Prob (F-statistic) 0.000 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

D-W statistic 2.01 2.08 2.09 2.10 ------

LM-Statistic ------ --- ---- 0.12

No. of observations 234 234 234 234 234

Source: Author’s computation using Eviews6

Note: The numbers in parentheses are the t-statistics. * Significant at ten percent;

** significant at five percent and *** significant at one percent.

As represented in column one of table 4.8 above, the study conducted sensitivity analysis

on the original model in order to ascertain whether the variable of interest, real exports to

GDP ratio is robust to the exclusion of certain conditioning variables (factor-input

variables of physical capital, human capital and labor).

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Though factor inputs of gross fixed capital formation (proxy for physical capital) and

total labor proved to be important determinants of growth in the region during the period

under review, the results indicated that exclusion of these variables do not significantly

affect the signs and magnitudes of real exports to GDP ratio in the region. Hence, the

variable remains robust at five percent level of significance implying that physical

capital, human capital and labor did not jointly drive real exports to GDP ratio over the

period under review. The study however noted that the reduction in the model fitness as

shown by the results in column one is attributed to the exclusion of the aforementioned

traditional factor input variables.

Similarly, the study conducted the second test by adding factor input variables (physical

capital, human capital and labor) one at a time in order to further ascertain the

contribution of each factor input to the signs and magnitudes of real exports to GDP ratio

(from column two through five). The test results indicated that among the three factor-

input variables, only total labor drove exports to GDP ratio over the period under review

(see table 4.8). This implies that the region exports were labor intensive. Further, the

overall fitness of the model increased as the R2 of the original model increased from 66

percent to 68 percent and the DW statistic is within the zone of no serial correlation. The

increase in the robustness of real exports to GDP ratio is in part attributed to the region

exports being labor intensive or labor driven over the period under review. On the other

hand, gross fixed capital formation (proxy for physical capital) and gross secondary

school enrollment (proxy for human capital) proved to have no much impact on the

robustness of real exports to GDP ratio (though their inclusions reduced slightly the sign

and magnitude of the real exports to GDP ratio).

Since column two represents the robust model, its dynamic version was estimated by

adding the LDV. The signs and magnitudes of the coefficients of real exports to GDP

ratio and the controlled variables remain robust. The overall fitness of the model also

remained robust. Even though there were some slight reductions and increments in the

signs and magnitudes of real exports to GDP ratio, it remains robust to the entire

sensitivity test.

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CHAPTER FIVE

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary of findings

In the presence of controlled variables, the pooled regression results indicate that

significant negative effect of real exports to GDP ratio on economic growth are robust

empirical results for countries in the ECOWAS region. This is largely attributed to the

fact that exports of the region are being dominated by primary commodities and the low

international prices for these commodities over the years had made economies of the

region unstable and more vulnerable to external shocks. The result confirms the Prebisch

(1959) and Sachs et al. (1995) significant negative impact of primary commodities

(natural resources) exports on economic growth. It is also broadly consistent with the

results of Sohn’s et al (2006) and Lederman et al (2003) statistically significant negative

impact of natural resource exports on growth.

Gross fixed capital formation, total labor force, exchange rate and terms of trade appear

to be important determinants of growth in the region as they show positive signs and

proved statistically highly significant. Human capital showed a negative impact on

growth which is contrary to the insights provided by the growth theory. The negative

impact of human capital suggests that there are inadequate mechanisms for transferring

new knowledge into the region and promoting learning-by-doing. In addition, secondary

school education is a low human productivity in the region given the high demand for

highly skilled and trained human resource to compete with the speed of globalization.

This result is broadly consistent with the results of Hausman, et al. (2005) whose findings

revealed that low human capital and weak mechanisms for technology transfer and

learning-by-doing in developing countries have been shown to hamper productivity.

Furthermore, spending in the secondary education sector in developing countries does not

have immediate impact on growth. In other words, this proxy has lagged periods. There is

however, disagreement on the use of gross secondary school enrollment ratio as proxy for

human capital in least developed and developing countries.

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Significant negative impact of consumer price inflation was also robust in the region but

the magnitude was much smaller implying that inflation in the region was battled to some

minimum level through sounds macroeconomic stabilization policies (particularly the

WAMU countries).

The study conducted sensitivity analysis on the original model in order to ascertain

whether the variable of interest, real exports to GDP ratio is robust to the exclusion of

certain conditioning variables (factor input variables of physical capital, human capital

and labor). Though factor inputs of gross fixed capital formation (proxy for physical

capital) and total labor proved to be important determinants of growth in the region

during the period under review, the results indicated that exclusion of these variables do

not significantly affect the signs and magnitudes of real exports to GDP ratio in the

region. Hence, the variable remains robust at five percent level of significance implying

that physical capital, human capital and labor did not jointly drive real exports to GDP

ratio over the period under review. Similarly, the study conducted the second test by

adding factor input variables (physical capital, human capital and labor) one at a time in

order to further ascertain the contribution of each factor input to the signs and magnitudes

of real exports to GDP ratio (from column two through five). The test results indicated

that among the three factor-input variables, only total labor drove exports to GDP ratio

over the period under review (see table 4.8). This implies that the region exports were

labor intensive.

5.2 Policy recommendations

The results of the study have important policy implications for the region. In order for the

region to derive and improve the growth enhancing effects of exports, the study

recommends the followings:

Diversification of export products to value added: Member states in the region

should redirect their efforts by transforming the current export products into

knowledge based products. This can be done through sound diversification

programme. However, in this diversification programme, emphasis should be

made on the involvement of the private sectors. It is however important to note

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that diversifications need to be complemented by other none trade factors such as

sounds macroeconomic and institutional policies.

Building the region’s human resources: In order to absorbed new technological

transfers and learning-by-doing associated with exports, efforts should be exerted

by member states in the sub-region to build the human resources and also increase

the mechanisms for technological transfers. Concentration should not only be on

secondary education but also tertiary education given the high demand for highly

skilled and trained human resources in the region to compete with the speed of

globalization.

Incorporation of Free Trade Agreement into National Plans: Member states

should incorporate not by mere signing but by full implementation of agreements

governing Free Trade Area. This will create the facilities and mechanisms

necessary to expedite the free movements of goods and services in ECOWAS. It

will also create an expanded market which can allow for economic of large scale

production (trade creation), fostering of specialization, attracting foreign direct

investment (FDI) and having access to other larger markets.

5.3 Areas of further research and limitations of the study

The paper did not address the problem of endongeneity. Literatures suggest that when

taking into account endongeneity, appropriate instruments should be included in the

growth equations. The limited number of cross section in the study did not permit

estimation of the dynamic version of the model and there is no suitable data for such

instruments for now. Hence, it is left for future studies. Arellano and Bond (1991)

method is appropriate when there is large N and smaller T [N<T]. In this case, N is less

than T (where N is number of cross sections and T is time period), so the Arellano and

Bond 1991’s method is not appropriate for this study. Further areas of study could be the

re-estimation of the dynamic models using the appropriate instruments as suggested by

Arellano and Bond (1991). Another area of study could be examining sectoral

contributions to exports growth in ECOWAS.

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Additional limitation of the study is the unavailability of long time series data for all the

fifteen countries in West Africa which led to the exclusion of the Republic of Liberia and

Niger Republic. Also due to the aggregate nature of the study, there may be some short

comings in explaining the peculiarities in individual country’s trade policy. However, the

study ensured that these limitations will not cause any significant disparities in the

findings.

5.4 Conclusion

The conclusion drawn from the empirical analysis is that over the years, fluctuations in

exports have negatively affected economic growth in the sub-region. This is in part

attributed to the region’s export structures being concentrated on primary commodities

such as petroleum, cotton, iron ore, and gold.

Pooled estimation technique was used to examine the effects of exports on economic

growth using data for 13 countries in the ECOWAS region. Applying fixed effects

estimation methods for the period 1987 - 2004, the results revealed that negative effects

of exports to GDP ratio and Free Trade Area on growth are robust results for the region.

Gross fixed capital formation, total labor force, exchange rate and terms of trade proved

to be important determinants of economic growth in the region. Gross secondary school

enrollment ratio is statistically highly significant but negatively correlated with economic

growth. The negative impact of gross secondary school enrollment on growth in the

region is in part attributed to the inadequate mechanisms to transfer or absorb new

technologies. Consumer price Inflation negatively affected growth but the magnitude is

much smaller indicating sounds macroeconomic stabilization policies.

The broader implication of the results is that if member states failed to redirect their

efforts in diversifying export products to knowledge-based products, economic growth

will be affected negatively both in the short run and long run.

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ANNEXES

Annex 1: Data definition and sources (1987 -2004)

Variable Definition Sources

Real GDP (constant 2000 US$) World Development Indicators

Real GDP per capital “ World Development Indicators

RX/GDP Real exports/GDP World Development Indicators

(Constant 2000 US$)

GFCF/GDP Gross fixed capital World Development Indicators

Formation/GDP

TL Total Labor force World Development Indicators

FTA index FTA member countries’ total World Development Indicators

GDP/GDP

Terms of Trade Export price index/import World Bank Africa Database,

Price Index (2000=100) 2006

CPI inflation Consumer price inflation ADB Selected Statistics for

All items (2000 = 100) African countries, 2006

GSSE Gross Secondary School ADB Selected Statistics for

enrollment African countries, 2006

NEER Nominal exchange rate ADB Selected Statistics for

(Annual average) African countries, 2006

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Annex 2: Performance score-card of some regional groupings in Africa (Annual Av.)

Real GDPP growth (%) C/A (%GDP) F/B (%GDP) CPI Inflation

[1987-2004] [1995-2004] [2000-03] [04] [1990 -2004]

===============================================================

ECOWAS 0.4 -6.6 -4.3 -2.4 11.2

Benin 0.4 -6.8 -1.9 -1.9 6.0

Burkina Faso 0.7 -9.1 -3.9 -4.3 3.6

Cape Verde 2.7 -9.6 -7.6 -1.5 5.3

Cote d’Voire -1.3 -1.3 -1.1 -1.8 4.9

Gambia 0.3 -5.2 -6.2 -5.7 6.9

Ghana 2.0 -5.1 -5.9 -3.1 25.9

Guinea 1.0 -5.9 -4.4 -4.9 8.1

Guinea Bissau -0.8 -11.2 -12.4 -8.4 25.7

Liberia - - - 10.5

Mali 1.5 -7.3 -2.8 -2.7 2.8

Niger -6.3 -3.3 -3.5 3.8

Nigeria 1.4 -0.5 -1.1 7.7 25.4

Senegal 0.6 -5.3 -0.8 -2.0 3.3

Sierra Leone -3.1 -8.5 -8.3 -3.5 31.2

Togo -0.5 -9.7 -0.8 1.9 5.0

SADC 1.0 -4.2 -3.1 -3.9 185.5

Angola 0.5 6.6 4.6 5.1 12.8

Botswana 5.0 8.7 2.1 -0.7 9.7

DR Congo -5.3 -3.4 -3.4 -3.8 2300.9

Lesotho 3.2 -20.6 -1.2 3.3 9.8

Malawi 0.5 -7.7 -6.4 -8.2 26.1

Mozambique 4.7 -16.8 -5.9 -4.4 26.4

Mauritius 4.4 0.2 -7.1 -20.4 6.7

Madagascar -0.8 -6.2 -3.5 -4.8 14.2

Namibia 0.8 4.8 -4.0 -3.4 9.3

Swaziland 1.5 -2.0 -2.9 -2.7 9.4

Tanzania 1.3 -6.3 -1.9 -3.5 16.9

Zambia -0.6 -12.5 -4.8 -2.8 58.2

Zimbabwe -1.3 -2.4 -7.2 -7.0 88.6

South Africa 0.2 -1.1 -1.7 -1.5 8.5

CEMAC 2.0 -15.4 2.6 3.2 4.4

Cameroon -1.6 -2.7 1.9 -0.6 4.3

Central African Rep. -1.6 -3.9 -1.8 -2.3 3.3

Equatorial Guinea 11.5 -57.8 12.2 12.5 6.8

Gabon -0.5 9.0 6.5 7.5 3.8

Chad 2.2 -21.4 -5.6 -1.2 4.0

Source: Author’s computation from SSOAC16

, 2006

Note: C/A – Current Account; F/B – Fiscal Balance; CPI – Consumer Price Inflation

16

Selected Statistics on African Countries, African Development Bank annual statistical publication.

Volume XXV, 2006

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Performance score-card of some regional groupings in Africa (Annual Avg)

Real GDP growth (%) C/A (%GDP) F/B (%GDP) CPI Inflation

[1987-2004] [1995-2004] [2000-2003] [04] [1990 -2004]

===============================================================

COMESA 0.4 -4.5 -4.9 -3.7 146.9

Burundi -1.4 -5.6 -3.6 -4.3 12.6

Comoros -0.7 -6.5 -3.6 -3.0 3.7

DR Congo -5.3 -3.4 -3.4 -3.8 2300.9

Djibouti -3.0 2.0 -2.3 1.0 3.6

Egypt 2.3 0.2 -5.3 -6.0 8.7

Eritrea -9.3 -31.9 -22.4 -

Ethiopia 1.3 -3.1 -7.1 -3.8 5.9

Kenya 0.1 -2.2 -0.6 0.3 13.9

Libya 1.6 9.7 8.5 5.0 7.5

Madagascar -0.8 -6.2 -3.5 -4.8 14.2

Malawi 0.5 -7.7 -6.4 -8.2 26.1

Mauritius 4.4 0.2 -4.5 -5.3 6.7

Rwanda 0.8 -6.5 -1.2 -0.2 13.0

Seychelles 2.4 -12.0 -9.4 -1.5 2.7

Sudan 3.2 -13.8 -0.4 1.2 55.9

Swaziland 1.5 -2.0 -2.9 -2.7 9.4

Uganda 3.0 -5.3 -4.4 -1.8 11.7

Zambia -0.6 -12.5 -4.8 -2.8 58.2

Zimbabwe -1.3 -2.4 -7.2 -7.0 88.6

Memorandum items:

Africa -1.2 -1.7 -0.5 18.9

Source: Author’s computation from SSOAC17

, 2006 and World Dev. Indicators, 2006

Note: C/A – Current Account; F/B – Fiscal Balance; CPI – Consumer Price Inflation

17

Selected Statistics on African Countries, African Development Bank annual statistical publication.

Volume XXV, 2006

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Annex 3: Principal export products in ECOWAS

HS-4

lines Product description

2709 Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude.

1801 Cocoa beans, whole or broken, raw or roasted.

2710 Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, other than crude;

7108 Gold (including gold plated with platinum) unwrought or in semi-

manufactured forms, or in powder form.

5201 Cotton not carded or combed.

2711 Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons.

8905 Light-vessels, fire-floats, dredgers, floating cranes…

1803 Cocoa paste, whether or not defatted.

2606 Aluminum ores and concentrates.

1604 Prepared or preserved fish; caviar and caviar substitutes

Source: UNCOMTRADE, and ECOSTAT.

Note: This table also benefited from the work of Remi Rang of UNECA

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Annex 4: Average growth rate of real GDP per capital (ECOWAS Vs SADC)

-8

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

6

8

1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

SADC

ECOWAS

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Annex 5: Residual-Actual against Fitted

-.3

-.2

-.1

.0

.1

.2

-1.00

-0.75

-0.50

-0.25

0.00

0.25

0.50

88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04

Residual Actual Fitted

Residual graph

-.25

-.20

-.15

-.10

-.05

.00

.05

.10

.15

.20

88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04

RESID_BEN Residuals

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Annex 6: Stability test

-8

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

6

8

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

CUSUM 5% Significance

-0.4

0.0

0.4

0.8

1.2

1.6

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

CUSUM of Squares 5% Significance

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Annex 7: Exports and Imports in ECOWAS (% of total trade in value terms)

Intra-ECOWAS Trade

Year Exports Imports

1996 10.86 11.25

1997 12.66 10.93

1998 14.59 10.54

1999 10.08 12.44

2000 8.40 16.79

2001 9.25 13.61

Trade with other African countries

Year Exports Imports

1996 14.69 13.94

1997 16.20 13.02

1998 18.53 13.01

1999 13.59 15.29

2000 9.59 19.60

2001 8.70 18.53

Trade outside Africa

Year Exports Imports

1996 73.65 76.42

1997 75.44 77.22

1998 69.50 78.95

1999 76.67 82.13

2000 82.62 78.93

2001 77.12 75.98

Source: ECOSTAT, 2005

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Annex 8: Summary Statistics of Series for individual countries: 1987 – 2004

Growth GFCF CPI Inflatio LLABOR EXPORTS TOT

BENIN

Mean 0.07 18.12 77.22 14.70 26.57 92.68

Standard dev 0.42 6.40 25.75 0.18 13.40 8.7

[Max, Min] [0.53, -1.09] [30.9,2.42] [112.5,48.1] [14.97,14.4] [58.01,9.98] [106.2,78.2]

BURKINA

Mean 0.12 19.61 83.77 15.29 23.99 117.06

Standard dev 0.55 8.93 17.80 0.15 12.32 7.69

[Max, Min] [1.02, -0.83] [48.40,5.32 [109.1,63.4] [15.54,15.1] [44.29,4.90] [131.0,100.0]

CAPE

VERDE

Mean 0.38 18.93 75.36 11.77 25.19 99.85

Standard dev 0.30 7.98 22.60 0.13 13.27 0.67

[Max, Min] [0.85, -2.3] [34.45,5.42] [104.7,44.4] [11.98,11.6] [48.92,8.87] [100.2,97.2]

COTE

D’IVOIR

Mean -2.1 18.58 80.22 15.50 25.67 104.7

Standard dev 0.47 7.66 23.11 0.15 11.39 22.56

[Max, Min] [0.73, -0.85] [39.74,7.99] [115.5,49.8] [15.71,15.2] [47.23,12.9] [131.3,66.2]

GAMBIA

Mean 0.04 17.98 81.76 13.08 24.63 99.37

Standard dev 0.47 8.70 24.31 0.19 11.16 2.59

[Max, Min] [0.91, -1.07] [43.35,5.35] [118.9,31.4] [13.37,12.8] [49.60,10.2] [100.0,88.9]

GHANA

Mean 0.36 18.28 65.77 15.86 25.17 108.68

Standard dev 0.14 7.99 68.34 0.14 11.91 11.43

[Max, Min] [0.63, 0.09] [42.44,8.50] [215.2,4.10] [16.07,15.6] [51.05,9.1] [132.2,88.95]

GUINEA

Mean 0.16 16.74 77.53 15.08 26.95 121.15

Standard dev 0.27 4.51 31.19 0.15 12.47 21.53

[Max, Min] [0.58, -0.45] [24.11,8.57] [122.7,19.8] [15.28,14.8] [53.27,9.2] [157.9,99.5]

G. BISSAU

Mean -0.22 16.37 52.66 13.09 26.15 103.98

Standard dev 1.80 4.50 46.95 0.15 11.67 29.4

[Max, Min] [1.56, -6.70] [22.78,8.50] [115.8,0.80] [13.34,12.9] [49.42,8.5] [181.1,68.6]

MALI

Mean 0.27 17.36 84.84 15.28 26.62 108.99

Standard dev 0.75 4.79 16.61 0.13 10.49 12.44

[Max, Min] [1.68, -0.92] [27.33,8.30] [106.9,62.5] [15.49,15.1] [50.37,8.5] [130.8,84.5]

NIGERIA

Mean 0.23 19.05 59.16 17.45 29.50 77.51

Standard dev 0.53 6.00 53.72 0.14 14.09 21.88

[Max, Min] [1.35, -0.62] [35.21,7.70] [161.1,3.30] [17.66,17.2] [55.06,8.6] [124.8,44.3]

SENEGAL

Mean 0.10 20.78 86.11 15.10 30.90 116.89

Standard dev 0.43 7.38 16.36 0.14 13.89 15.23

[Max, Min] [0.64, -0.82] [44.70,8.50] [106.1,67.2] [15.32,14.9] [59.90,8.9] [134.7,98.4]

S. LEONE

Mean -0.62 19.20 45.60 14.42 28.96 137.78

Standard dev 1.45 7.00 40.53 0.10 13.38 49.23

[Max, Min] [0.86, -3.87] [38.98,5.60] [105.4,0.50] [14.64,14.3] [63.64,8.9] [291.2,74.5]

TOGO Mean -0.12 18.83 77.72 14.41 28.81 118.08

Standard dev 1.23 5.21 21.63 0.17 14.38 18.54

[Max, Min] [2.14, -3.41] [29.93,10.4] [104.4,54.4] [14.67,14.1] [62.94,9.9] [144.1,91.9]

OVER ALL

Mean 0.04 18.45 72.90 14.69 26.93 108.21

Standard dev 0.85 6.78 36.39 1.38 12.49 24.98

[Max, Min] [2.14, -6.70] [48.40,2.42] [215.2,0.50] [17.66,11.6] [63.64,4.90] [291.2,44.3]

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Annex 9: Residual-Correlation Matrix

Annex 10: Residual-Covariance Matrix

Annex 10: Residual-Covariance Matrix

BEN BFA CPV CIV GMB GHA GIN GNB MLI NGA SEN SLE TGO

BEN 1.000000 0.420717 0.187650 0.015723 -0.259762 -0.270354 0.184648 -0.112972 -0.130580 -0.103980 0.086877 -0.358677 0.005696

BFA 0.420717 1.000000 0.190696 0.338187 0.198249 0.350833 0.132107 0.330257 0.093357 0.234119 -0.089132 -0.166965 -0.039007

CPV 0.187650 0.190696 1.000000 0.080451 0.156975 -0.032347 0.427355 -0.213786 0.160155 -0.175372 -0.167231 -0.414547 -0.101268

CIV 0.015723 0.338187 0.080451 1.000000 0.160049 0.096731 0.302713 0.009189 0.324017 0.024589 0.062442 -0.389660 0.234340

GMB -0.259762 0.198249 0.156975 0.160049 1.000000 0.344414 -0.170299 0.299679 0.264491 0.432889 0.141280 -0.164130 -0.227184

GHA -0.270354 0.350833 -0.032347 0.096731 0.344414 1.000000 -0.065565 0.111082 -0.023151 0.484936 -0.277967 -0.102260 -0.354034

GIN 0.184648 0.132107 0.427355 0.302713 -0.170299 -0.065565 1.000000 -0.094733 0.129156 0.024036 0.159641 -0.552547 0.175980

GNB -0.112972 0.330257 -0.213786 0.009189 0.299679 0.111082 -0.094733 1.000000 -0.029600 0.135695 0.012332 -0.089431 0.267462

MLI -0.130580 0.093357 0.160155 0.324017 0.264491 -0.023151 0.129156 -0.029600 1.000000 0.064673 -0.086548 -0.416082 0.166451

NGA -0.103980 0.234119 -0.175372 0.024589 0.432889 0.484936 0.024036 0.135695 0.064673 1.000000 0.117045 -0.172316 -0.021475

SEN 0.086877 -0.089132 -0.167231 0.062442 0.141280 -0.277967 0.159641 0.012332 -0.086548 0.117045 1.000000 -0.123335 0.363234

SLE -0.358677 -0.166965 -0.414547 -0.389660 -0.164130 -0.102260 -0.552547 -0.089431 -0.416082 -0.172316 -0.123335 1.000000 -0.264957

TGO 0.005696 -0.039007 -0.101268 0.234340 -0.227184 -0.354034 0.175980 0.267462 0.166451 -0.021475 0.363234 -0.264957 1.000000

BEN BFA CPV CIV GMB GHA GIN GNB MLI NGA SEN SLE _TGO

BEN 0.097134 0.065718 0.017266 0.001834 -0.031566 -0.025957 0.013844 -0.057237 -0.027762 -0.016810 0.009540 -0.168063 0.001947

BFA 0.065718 0.251200 0.028216 0.063429 0.038742 0.054168 0.015929 0.269081 0.031919 0.060867 -0.015739 -0.125812 -0.021446

CPV 0.017266 0.028216 0.087155 0.008888 0.018069 -0.002942 0.030351 -0.102601 0.032254 -0.026856 -0.017394 -0.183995 -0.032796

CIV 0.001834 0.063429 0.008888 0.140038 0.023353 0.011151 0.027252 0.005590 0.082715 0.004773 0.008233 -0.219227 0.096199

GMB -0.031566 0.038742 0.018069 0.023353 0.152025 0.041369 -0.015974 0.189949 0.070350 0.087553 0.019408 -0.096212 -0.097171

GHA -0.025957 0.054168 -0.002942 0.011151 0.041369 0.094901 -0.004859 0.055629 -0.004865 0.077492 -0.030170 -0.047362 -0.119641

GIN 0.013844 0.015929 0.030351 0.027252 -0.015974 -0.004859 0.057875 -0.037048 0.021196 0.002999 0.013531 -0.199847 0.046442

GNB -0.057237 0.269081 -0.102601 0.005590 0.189949 0.055629 -0.037048 2.642683 -0.032825 0.114425 0.007063 -0.218572 0.476962

MLI -0.027762 0.031919 0.032254 0.082715 0.070350 -0.004865 0.021196 -0.032825 0.465358 0.022885 -0.020801 -0.426734 0.124560

NGA -0.016810 0.060867 -0.026856 0.004773 0.087553 0.077492 0.002999 0.114425 0.022885 0.269073 0.021391 -0.134383 -0.012220

SEN 0.009540 -0.015739 -0.017394 0.008233 0.019408 -0.030170 0.013531 0.007063 -0.020801 0.021391 0.124131 -0.065330 0.140387

SLE -0.168063 -0.125812 -0.183995 -0.219227 -0.096212 -0.047362 -0.199847 -0.218572 -0.426734 -0.134383 -0.065330 2.260313 -0.436977

TGO 0.001947 -0.021446 -0.032796 0.096199 -0.097171 -0.119641 0.046442 0.476962 0.124560 -0.012220 0.140387 -0.436977 1.203366

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