Regional Integration and Informal Trade in Africa: Evidence from Benin's Borders

Cristina Mitaritonna (), Sami Bensassi () and Joachim Jarreau

Working Papers from CEPII research center

Abstract: Regional trade is low in sub-saharan Africa. But a large share of regional trade is informal, i.e. not recorded in offcial data. This paper studies the relationship between trade barriers and informality of trade. We use an original survey of informal transactions across Benin's land borders, which provides the first direct and comprehensive account of trade volumes and product coverage for this type of trade. We combine this data with official trade records and exploit variation across products and countries to measure the impact of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade on informality. Increasing tariffs on a given product by 10% makes it about 12% more likely that this product is imported informally rather than formally. Non-tariff measures also increase informality. Our results also suggest that compliance costs, aside from tariffs and regulations, contribute to explain informality.

Keywords: Informal Trade; Regional Integration; Trade Facilitation; Evasion; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F15 H26 O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int and nep-iue
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Related works:
Working Paper: Regional Integration and Informal Trade in Africa: Evidence from Benin’s Borders (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cii:cepidt:2017-21

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