Telecommunications services in Africa: The impact of multilateral commitments and unilateral reform on sector performance and economic growth

Alexander Keck and Calvin Djiofack-Zebaze

No ERSD-2006-10, WTO Staff Working Papers from World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of telecommunications liberalization in Africa on both sectoral performance and economic growth. Besides unilateral measures, we account for WTO commitments fostering the credibility of reforms. Actual regulatory quality plays a major role in bringing down prices and in improving access to telecommunication services in Africa. Competition, notably in the mobile telephony segment, also improves sector performance. Increasing access to mobile networks by 1 per cent translates into a 0.5 per cent increase in real GDP per capita. In Africa, multilateral commitments do not reflect recent reforms. However, at the global level, adherence to the WTO Reference Paper entails lower prices.

Keywords: Telecommunications services; liberalization; Africa; WTO; GATS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 F13 L96 O14 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:wtowps:ersd200610

DOI: 10.30875/61840682-en

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