ABSTRACT
The exports sector plays a vital role in economic growth and development in Ghana. NonTraditional Exports (NTEs) is essential in expanding the exports sector. Hence, this paper
applied the augmented gravity model of trade to investigate the determinants of Non-Traditional
Exports (NTEs) growth in Ghana. A panel dataset of Ghana and her 78 major trading partners
from 2004 to 2016 was used. The Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood regression (PPML) was
used to reveal the effect that variables such as economic size, transportation cost, regional
trading blocs, and institutional quality have on Non-Traditional Exports in Ghana. The estimates
uncovered that NTEs flows increased significantly with the expansion of variables such as GDP
of Ghana, trading partner’s GDP and trading partner’s population. Also, NTEs growth is
positively associated with low transportation cost (distance), sharing a common border, common
official language and high level of importing country trade openness index. Moreover, high level
of the trading partner institutional quality variables such as political stability and absence of
violence and rule of law facilitates NTEs positively whereas a high level of regulatory quality
control affects NTEs negatively. Regional trading bloc’s variables such as ASEAN, EU, and
ECOWAS have significant trade creating potential. Finally, the findings revealed that Ghana’s
NTEs have unexploited exports potential with 45 out of the 78 trading partners used in the study.
The study recommended that policymakers should implement initiatives that will enhance
Ghana’s NTEs to countries with unexhausted trade potentials. With regards to the exhausted
trade potential destination, policies that make exports diversification a focal point should be implemented to enable the recapturing of the exhausted markets destination.
Edu, F (2021). Empirical Investigation into the Determinants of Non-Traditional Exports Growth in Ghana: A Gravity Model of Trade Approach. Afribary.com: Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://afribary.com/works/empirical-investigation-into-the-determinants-of-non-traditional-exports-growth-in-ghana-a-gravity-model-of-trade-approach
Frontiers, Edu. "Empirical Investigation into the Determinants of Non-Traditional Exports Growth in Ghana: A Gravity Model of Trade Approach" Afribary.com. Afribary.com, 04 Apr. 2021, https://afribary.com/works/empirical-investigation-into-the-determinants-of-non-traditional-exports-growth-in-ghana-a-gravity-model-of-trade-approach . Accessed 10 Apr. 2021.
Frontiers, Edu. "Empirical Investigation into the Determinants of Non-Traditional Exports Growth in Ghana: A Gravity Model of Trade Approach". Afribary.com, Afribary.com, 04 Apr. 2021. Web. 10 Apr. 2021. < https://afribary.com/works/empirical-investigation-into-the-determinants-of-non-traditional-exports-growth-in-ghana-a-gravity-model-of-trade-approach >.
Frontiers, Edu. "Empirical Investigation into the Determinants of Non-Traditional Exports Growth in Ghana: A Gravity Model of Trade Approach" Afribary.com (2021). Accessed April 10, 2021. https://afribary.com/works/empirical-investigation-into-the-determinants-of-non-traditional-exports-growth-in-ghana-a-gravity-model-of-trade-approach