Multi-membership and effectiveness of regional trade agreements in Western and Southern Africa: a comparative study of ECOWAS and SADC

Sylvanus Afesorgbor and Peter Bergeijk

No 1, Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Berlin 2011 from Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics

Abstract: Using a gravity model for 35 countries and the years 1995-2006 we estimate the impact of regional trade agreements in Africa (in particular ECOWAS and SADC) and compare this to the a benchmark of North South trade integration (Europe's preferential trade agreement). We find that - ECOWAS and SADC membership significantly increases bilateral trade flows (and by more than for example preferential trade agreements with the EU do), - SADC membership has a stronger impact compared to ECOWAS and - that the impact of multi-membership critically depends on the characteristics of the overlapping RTA We find a positive impact if an additional membership complements the integration process of the original RTA: overlapping memberships had a significant positive effect on bilateral trade within the ECOWAS bloc but it is insignificant for SADC.

Keywords: Sub Sahara Africa; regional economic integration; South-South trade; North-South trade intra-regional trade; gravity model; international trade; multi-membership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-int
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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