Spatial inefficiencies in Africa’s trade network

Tilman Graff

Journal of Development Economics, 2024, vol. 171, issue C

Abstract: I assess the efficiency of transport networks for every country in Africa. Using spatial data from various sources, I simulate trade flows over more than 70,000 links covering the entire continent. I maximise over the space of networks and find the optimal road system for every African state. My simulations predict that Africa would gain 1.3% of total welfare from reorganising its national road systems, and 0.8% from optimally expanding it by a tenth. I then construct a dataset of local network inefficiency and find that colonial infrastructure projects significantly skew trade networks towards a sub-optimal equilibrium today. I find suggestive evidence that regional favouritism played a role sustaining these imbalances.

Keywords: Trade; Infrastructure; Development; Optimal trade networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:171:y:2024:i:c:s0304387824000683

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103319

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