Has ECOWAS Promoted Trade among Its Members?

Dean M Hanink and J Henry Owusu

Journal of African Economies, 1998, vol. 7, issue 3, 363-83

Abstract: This paper reports the results of an examination of the direction of trade within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The examination was conducted in order to determine whether ECOWAS is effective in enlarging trade among its members. Such an effect would indicate that the type of integration efforts that promote trade among industrial countries may also be applicable in less-developed regions. The paper provides an overview of ECOWAS and contains a description of recent directional trade patterns within the region using the trade intensity index (TII). That measure, in turn, is analysed using a spatial interaction model specified as a tobit regression. Our measure of TII indicates that trade flows within the region are strong when considered on a relative basis. However, a comparison of recent trade flows to earlier ones indicates that a very similar pattern of trade flows existed before ECOWAS was formed. Our primary finding, therefore, is that ECOWAS has not been effective in promoting trade among its members. Copyright 1998 by Oxford University Press.

Date: 1998
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:oup:jafrec:v:7:y:1998:i:3:p:363-83

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of African Economies is currently edited by Francis Teal

More articles in Journal of African Economies from Centre for the Study of African Economies Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().