Volume 27, Issue 4, November 2019, Pages 979–988
Lesfran Sam Wanilo Agbahoungba1 and Barthélémy Biao2
1 Economic and Management Research Unit (LAREG), University of Parakou, Benin
2 Economic and Management Research Unit (LAREG), University of Parakou, Benin
Original language: English
Copyright © 2019 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Understanding the causal link between trade liberalization and economic performance enables a better analysis of the likely impact of the former on the latter and vice versa. It is also highly important for analyzing the potential of trade liberalization to improve people's well-being in the mid-long term. Thus, this paper seeks to analyze the causal relationship between trade liberalization and economic performance in the ECOWAS zone. The Granger causality approach has been applied to this end on a panel including twelve (12) countries over the period 2000-2017. The results show that trade liberalization does not cause any of the economic performance variables examined in the study. This raises the challenge for economic policy makers to rigorously assess trade agreements and policies and to take into account certain macroeconomic aspects and country-specific characteristics of the West African community.
Author Keywords: Trade liberalization, Economic performance, Granger causality, ECOWAS.
Lesfran Sam Wanilo Agbahoungba1 and Barthélémy Biao2
1 Economic and Management Research Unit (LAREG), University of Parakou, Benin
2 Economic and Management Research Unit (LAREG), University of Parakou, Benin
Original language: English
Copyright © 2019 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Understanding the causal link between trade liberalization and economic performance enables a better analysis of the likely impact of the former on the latter and vice versa. It is also highly important for analyzing the potential of trade liberalization to improve people's well-being in the mid-long term. Thus, this paper seeks to analyze the causal relationship between trade liberalization and economic performance in the ECOWAS zone. The Granger causality approach has been applied to this end on a panel including twelve (12) countries over the period 2000-2017. The results show that trade liberalization does not cause any of the economic performance variables examined in the study. This raises the challenge for economic policy makers to rigorously assess trade agreements and policies and to take into account certain macroeconomic aspects and country-specific characteristics of the West African community.
Author Keywords: Trade liberalization, Economic performance, Granger causality, ECOWAS.
How to Cite this Article
Lesfran Sam Wanilo Agbahoungba and Barthélémy Biao, “Trade Liberalization and Economic Performance in the ECOWAS Zone: A Granger Causality Analysis,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 979–988, November 2019.
