Enabling trade across borders and food security in Africa
Isaac Bonuedi,
Kofi Kamasa and
Eric Opoku
Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, 2020, vol. 12, issue 5, No 17, 1140 pages
Abstract:
Abstract Widespread food insecurity remains a daunting challenge in Africa, despite significant gains in global efforts to eliminate hunger over the last three decades. This paper examines the effects of easing trade across borders – through reductions in documents, time, and costs to export and import – on food security outcomes in Africa. To control for endogeneity, this paper employs the first-difference instrumental variable estimator based on panel data covering 45 African countries over the period 2006–2015. The results reveal that poor trade facilitation constitutes a significant driver of food insecurity in Africa. In particular, ineffective trade facilitation is associated with significant increments in the prevalence of undernourishment and depth of food deficit, as well as reductions in dietary energy supply adequacy and access to sanitation facilities. The results show that food availability and food access are significantly hampered by higher documentation requirements and lengthier export and import times. The results suggest that reductions in delays from documentary and border compliance promise to be the most effective trade facilitation reforms to enhance food security in Africa.
Keywords: Food security; Trade facilitation; First-difference instrumental variable; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C36 F13 O24 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)
Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12571-020-01095-y 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:ssefpa:v:12:y:2020:i:5:d:10.1007_s12571-020-01095-y
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ulture/journal/12571
DOI: 10.1007/s12571-020-01095-y
Access Statistics for this article
Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food is currently edited by R.N. Strange
More articles in Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food from Springer, The International Society for Plant Pathology
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().