Determinants of International Trade in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparison with South East Asia

Abstract:     
Underlying a model of decomposing a country’s trade performance into supply and demand conditions, our comparative analyses based on evidence from one-step system GMM estimations using unbalanced panel data from 44 sub-Saharan African (SSA) and 11 South East Asian (SEA) economies over the period 1995-2006 suggest that the trade performance of SSA is determined by internal supply, demand and import financing conditions. Export is explained by supply side factors but not by global demand where as import is driven by domestic demand but not by foreign supply access. However, SEA trade (exports and imports) is influenced by both domestic and international supply and demand side forces.

Keywords: Trade, Supply Capacity, Foreign Market, Panel Data, SSA

JEL Classification: E22, F15, F43

working papers series