Has trade liberalization played a helpful, benign, or malign role on economic growth within the ECOWAS trading bloc?

Richard Eshun and George Tweneboah

The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, 2026, vol. 35, issue 2, 455-477

Abstract: This study explores whether trade liberalization has played a helpful, benign, or malign role on economic growth within the ECOWAS trading bloc. This is to understand whether the African Union idea to implement the African Continental free Trade Agreements is feasible. Previous studies have documented mixed results. This might be due to the absence of human capital development as a regressor in the regression equation in the context of ECOWAS in the trade-growth nexus. This study uses the Pooled Mean Group Autoregressive Distributed Lag bounds test to cointegration and utilize data spanning 2000-2021 for the relationship in question. The findings of the study shows that trade liberalization has positive effects on economic growth in the long run for ECOWAS region albeit insignificant effect in the short run. This implies that a greater part of the economic development in the region is external. Due to this, we recommend ECOWAS to remove trade barriers and promote trade internationally by minimizing and simplifying procedures and controls. Furthermore, the study reveal a positive and strong complementary relationship between foreign direct investment, gross fixed capital formation, and human capital development in promoting economic growth in the long run in the ECOWAS region.

Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1080/09638199.2024.2443411

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