Determinants of Agricultural Imports in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Gravity Model

Esther N. Mwangi

African Journal of Economic Review, 2021, vol. 09, issue 2

Abstract: Import dependency on agricultural products in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been increasing over the last two decades raising a lot of concern on the determinants of agricultural imports and their impact on economic growth. This study examines the determinants of agricultural imports in SSA by applying an augmented gravity model on a panel data for 37 SSA countries over the period 1995-2018. The results show that economic size measured by GDP, arable land endowment, membership to regional trade agreement, cultural proximity measured by sharing of a common language, inflation and governance quality influence agricultural imports positively and are significant. Furthermore, population growth of trading partners, geographical proximity measured by distance between the trading countries, transport costs measured by whether a country is landlocked or not, and agriculture productivity of the importing country negatively influence bilateral agricultural imports flow in SSA. These findings are crucial in understanding agricultural trade flows and formulating sound policies aimed at promoting international agricultural trade for economic growth and development in SSA.

Keywords: International; Relations/Trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/315801/files/Mwangi.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:afjecr:315801

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.315801

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in African Journal of Economic Review from African Journal of Economic Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().