Economic Integration And Intra-Regional Agricultural Trade In West Africa

ABSTRACT

There has been an increase in West Africa trade on the global value chain but not so on the intra-regional level. This study which is motivated, among others, by the debate on the role of Economic integration as a determinant of bilateral trade performance, provides an empirical investigation on the effects of trade cost, trade policy and infrastructure quality on bilateral trade flows in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the period 2006 to 2015. The augmented gravity model of trade was adopted to explain the effect of economic integration in facilitating and promoting intra-regional agricultural trade flow; which was estimated using the following estimation technique such as pooled regression, one-way fixed effect, 3-way fixed effect, least square dummy variable, panel fixed effect, panel random effect and Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood techniques. Results from the various estimation technique shows that weighted average distance (trade cost) has a negative relationship on intra-regional trade while the stock of regional road infrastructure has a positive relationship. The study recommends that ECOWAS finances should be invested in improving road transportation to boost intra-regional agricultural trade instead of developing free trade zones to help facilitate intra-regional agricultural trade in the region.