Ict use and trade facilitationImpacts on bilateral trade of sub-sahara countries

  1. Margarita Billon 1
  2. Ernesto Rodriguez-Crespo 1
  1. 1 Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
    info

    Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

    Madrid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01cby8j38

Revista:
Estudios de economía aplicada

ISSN: 1133-3197,  1697-5731

Any de publicació: 2020

Títol de l'exemplar: Africa: economic transformations and development challenges

Volum: 38

Número: 2

Tipus: Article

DOI: 10.25115/EEA.V38I2.3238 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Altres publicacions en: Estudios de economía aplicada

Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible

Resum

This paper studies the impact of internet, mobile phones and broadband use on bilateral trade flows of 33 sub-Saharan countries over the period 2004–2014. We use a gravity model in which in addition to standard variables we investigate the joint impact of ICT use and trade facilitation on intra-trade flows. We find positive and significant effects for mobile phone subscriptions for the exporting country; positive impacts of broadband for both the exporting and importing countries and positive influence of internet use for the importing country. We also find a negative impact of trade facilitation on bilateral trade and an inverse relationship between ICT use and trade facilitation suggesting that the lack of trade facilitation might be hindering the potential benefits of ICT use in intra-Sub-Saharan African trade.

€ Mostra el finançament

Informació de finançament

Acknowledgments: We thank the useful comments received from two anonymous referees, as well as from the attendants to the First AMENET Meeting held in Tangier (Morocco) in November 2019. Rodriguez-Crespo thanks the Research Unit from the Autonomous University of Madrid for financial help to attend the workshop.

Finançadors

Referències bibliogràfiques

  • AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION. (2015) Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. At http://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/au/agenda2063.pdf AKER J, MBITI I. (2010) Mobile phones and economic development in Africa. Journal of economic Perspectives, 24(3): 207–232.
  • ANDERSON JE, MARCOUILLER D. (2002). Insecurity and the pattern of trade: An empirical investigation. Review of Economics and statistics, 84(2), 342–352.
  • ANDERSON JE, VAN WINCOOP E. (2003) Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle. American Economic Review, 93(1): 170–192.
  • BAIER S, BERGSTRAND JH. (2009) Bonus Vetus OLS: A simple method for approximating international trade–cost effects using the gravity equation. Journal of International Economics, 77(1): 77–85.
  • BAIER S, STANDAERT S. (2020). Gravity Models and Empirical Trade. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance.
  • BANKOLE F, KWEKU-MUATA OB, BROWN I. (2014a) The impact of information and communications technology infrastructure and complementary factors on Intra-African Trade. Information Technology for Development, 21(1): 12–28.
  • BANKOLE F, KWEKU-MUATA OB, Brown I. (2014b) The Impacts of Telecommunications Infrastructure and Institutional Quality on Trade Efficiency in Africa. Information Technology for Development, 21(1): 29–43.
  • BARNEKOW SE, KULKARNI KG. (2017). Why regionalism? A look at the costs and benefits of regional trade agreements in Africa. Global Business Review, 18(1): 99–117.
  • BOUËT A., COSNARD L, LABORDE D. (2017) Measuring trade integration in Africa. Journal of Economic Integration, 32(4): 937–977.
  • CELBIS G, NIJKAMP P, POOT, J. (2014) Infrastructure and trade: A meta-analysis. Region, 1(1): 25–64. CHACHA PW, & EDWARDS L. (2019). Exporting to fragile states in Africa: Firm‐level evidence. Review of Development Economics, 23(3): 1177–1201.
  • CHUNG KC, FLEMING P, FLEMING E. (2013) The impact of information and communication technology on international trade in fruit and vegetables in APEC. Asian‐Pacific Economic Literature, 27(2): 117–130.
  • CLARKE G, WALLSTEN S. (2006) Has the Internet increased trade? Developed and Developing country evidence. Economic Inquiry, 44(3): 465–484.
  • DEPKEN CA, SONORA RJ. (2005) Asymmetric effects of economic freedom on international trade flows. International Journal of Business and Economics, 4(2): 141–155.
  • DE SOUSA J. (2012) The currency union effect on trade is decreasing over time. Economics Letters, 117(3): 917–920.
  • DJANKOV S, FREUND C, PHAM CS. (2010) Trading on time. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 92(1): 166–173.
  • FELBERMAYR G, HEID B, LARCH M, YALCIN E. (2015) Macroeconomic potentials of transatlantic free trade: A high resolution perspective for Europe and the world. Economic Policy, 30(83): 491–537.
  • FREUND C, ROCHA N. (2011) What constrains Africa's exports?. The World Bank Economic Review, 25(3), 361–386.
  • FREUND C, WEINHOLD D. (2002) The Internet and International Trade in Services. American Economic Review, 92(2): 236–240.
  • FREUND C, WEINHOLD D. (2004) The effect of the Internet on International Trade. Journal of International Economics, 62(1): 171–189. HEAD K, MAYER T. (2014) Gravity equations: Workhorse, toolkit, and cookbook. In Handbook of international economics (Vol. 4, pp. 131–195). Elsevier.
  • HINSON RE, ADJASI C (2009) The Internet and Export: Some Cross-Country Evidence from Selected African Countries. Journal of Internet Commerce 8: 309–324.
  • HOEKMAN B, NJINKEU D. (2017) Integrating Africa: some trade policy research priorities and challenges. Journal of African Economies, 26(S2), ii12–ii39.
  • INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF). (2019) Regional economic outlook. Sub-Saharan Africa: recovery amid elevated uncertainty. World Economic and Financial Surveys April 2019. Washington DC. At https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO/SSA/Issues/2019/04/01/sreo0419
  • ISMAIL NW. (2020) Digital trade facilitation and bilateral trade in selected Asian countries. Studies in Economics and Finance. In press: https://doi.org/10.1108/SEF-10-2019-0406
  • PORTUGAL-PEREZ A, WILSON JS. (2012) Export performance and trade facilitation reform: Hard and soft infrastructure. World Development, 40(7): 1295–1307.
  • PORTUGAL-PEREZ A, WILSON JS. (2009) Why trade facilitation matters to Africa. World Trade Review, 8(3): 379–416.
  • RODRIGUEZ-CRESPO E, MARCO R, BILLON M. (2018) ICTs impacts on trade: a comparative dynamic analysis for internet, mobile phones and broadband. Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting and Economics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16081625.2018.1519636
  • RODRÍGUEZ-CRESPO E, MARTÍNEZ-ZARZOSO I. (2019) The effect of ICT on trade: Does product complexity matter?. Telematics and Informatics, 41: 182–196.
  • RODRIK D. (2011) The globalization paradox: why global markets, states, and democracy can't coexist. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
  • SECK A. (2016) Trade facilitation and trade participation: Are sub-Saharan African firms different?. Journal of African Trade, 3(1–2): 23–39.
  • SHEPHERD B. (2016) Infrastructure, trade facilitation, and network connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of African Trade, 3(1–2): 1–22.
  • SOUTER D, ADAM L, JAGUN A, TUSUBIRA T. (2012) ICTs for regional trade and integration in Africa. ICTs for regional trade and integration in Africa. In: E Yonazi, T Kelly, N Halewood, C Blackman. (2012) eTransform Africa: The Transformational Use of ICTs in Africa, pp. 130–145. World Bank and African Development Bank, Washington DC and Abidjan.
  • UNCTAD. (2019) Economic Development in Africa Report 2019. United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, Geneva.
  • UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA (UNECA). (2010) Assessing Regional Integration in Africa IV: Enhancing Intra-African Trade. UNECA, Addis Ababa.
  • VEMURI VK, SIDDIQI S. (2009) Impact of commercialization of the internet on international trade: A panel study using the extended gravity model. The International Trade Journal, 23(4): 458–484.
  • WILSON JS, MANN C, OTSUKI T. (2003) Trade facilitation and economic development: A new approach to measuring the impact. World Bank Economic Review, 17(3): 367–389.
  • WILSON JS, MANN C, OTSUKI T. (2005). Assessing the benefits of trade facilitation: A global perspective. World Economy, 28(6): 841–871.
  • WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO). (2019) Trade facilitation. Retrieved from: https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tradfa_e/tradfa_e.htm XING Z. (2018) The impacts of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and E-commerce on bilateral trade flows. International Economics and Economic Policy, 15(3): 565–586.
Fuente de los datos: Dialnet