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The External Sector of Africa's Economy pp 3–19Cite as

The Economic Value of Regional Integration in Africa

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Abstract

Economic welfare is assumed to be pursued by an African country considering or evaluating its Regional Integration Arrangement (RIA) membership. The proposed approach assigns to imputed residuals computed from pre-integration trend lines the change in after reform per-capita GDP and gives an estimate of the economic gain that arises from the integration initiative for each member country. The timing of the gain is also identified starting from the year of integration enactment. For the sampling period 1970–2016, the results show that members of the UEMOA benefitted significantly and rapidly from the reform of 1994 while CEMAC countries reaped a significantly lesser gain. Considerable gains also accrued to EAC members over the period 1978–2016.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There is debate regarding multiple membership of many African countries in more than one RIA, the African Union seeking rationalization through single membership while countries adhere to the policy of multiple membership. So far, no argumentation for or against has prevailed.

  2. 2.

    There is an abundant literature on regional integration. Brenton and Hoffman (2016), Afessorgbor (2017), Draper (2010), Kritzinger-van Niekerk (undated), the East African Community (2002), the Economic Commission for Africa (2004), Lindberg and Scheingold (1971) Schiff and Winters (2003), Teunissen (1996), Volz (2011), and the World Bank examine the nature and process of regional integration. The gains from regional integration are evaluated by Fernandez (1997), Lloyd and Maclaren (1996), Mistry (1996, 2000), Mwasha (2008), and Yang and Gupta (1995).

  3. 3.

    Alternative econometric techniques are proposed by Aitken and Lowry (1973), Balassa (1974), Resnick and Truman (1973), Winters (1984), Coe and Moghadam (1993), Carrere (2004), Tegoum et al. (2013), Afesorgbor (2017).

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  1. CREPOL – Center for Research on Political Economy, Dakar Yoff, Senegal

    Diery Seck

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  1. CREPOL - Center for Research on Political Economy, Dakar, Senegal

    Diery Seck

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Seck, D. (2019). The Economic Value of Regional Integration in Africa. In: Seck, D. (eds) The External Sector of Africa's Economy. Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97913-7_1

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