Effects of free trade on export efficiency of COMESA member-states

Stein Masunda and Gabriel Mhonyera ()
Additional contact information
Gabriel Mhonyera: University of Johannesburg

Journal of Shipping and Trade, 2024, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Regional integration in Africa is deepening, and the existing regional groupings are making frantic efforts to remove barriers to trade. One way in which trade among countries can be promoted is through the establishment of free trade areas with member-states. However, regulatory quality that supports international trade in most African countries is exceptionally low. This study investigates the effect of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) free trade area (FTA) on the bilateral export efficiency of member-states over the period 1997–2021. The results obtained using a stochastic frontier specification of the gravity model and panel data of 16 exporting COMESA member-states show a positive effect of the COMESA free trade area on export efficiency. In addition, the study finds regulatory quality to have a positive impact on export efficiency. Controlling for regulatory quality, the results also show that the FTA stimulates export efficiency. Hence, non-FTA COMESA members ought to contemplate joining the FTA in order to expand their respective exports with other member-states to their maximum potential.

Keywords: Export efficiency; COMESA; Regulatory quality; Stochastic frontier gravity model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F1 F15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s41072-024-00164-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:josatr:v:9:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1186_s41072-024-00164-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://jshippingandtrade.springeropen.com/

DOI: 10.1186/s41072-024-00164-1

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Shipping and Trade is currently edited by Kee-Hung Lai

More articles in Journal of Shipping and Trade from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().