Institutional Quality and Intra-Regional Trade Flows: Evidence from ECOWAS

This study investigates the effect of currency union on intra-regional trade integrations in West Africa. The empirical analysis also examines the interaction effect of institutional quality on currency union-trade flows nexus in the West African region over the period of 1996 - 2019.The study employs a Driscoll-Kraay standard error estimator technique on data obtained from the IMF direction of trade statistics and World Bank governance indicators. The study findings suggest that all the gravity variables (Gross domestic product, population, and distance) are in line with a priori expectations; currency union dummy produced a positive association with intra-regional trade integrations; real effective exchange rate appreciation boosts trade performance, and the interaction of currency union and institutional quality produced a positive impact on intra-regional trade flows among the countries in the West African region. Among the disaggregated institutional quality index, the rule of law and political stability have a significant impact on trade flows. The rule of law influenced trade flows positively, while political stability influenced trade flows negatively. The study concludes that the Rose effect of a common currency on trade exists in West Africa and that the level of institutional quality also subscribes to the currency union trade flows relationship.

This paper analyses to which extent domestic institutions affect trade flows. We use two complementary approaches, one focusing on the size of total trade flows and one focusing on bilateral trade patterns (gravity equation). Besides, we control for two other domestic policy variables: trade policy and domestic infrastructure. We find that the quality of institutions has a positive and significant impact on a country’s level of openness. Domestic tariffs have no statistically significant impact on their own, but do affect total trade flows when combined with good institutions. Domestic institutions also have a positive and significant impact on bilateral trade flows, but the parameter of our institution variables is reduced by almost a half and may turn insignificant when the quality of domestic infrastructure is included in the regression.

This Paper analyses to which extent domestic institutions affect trade flows. We use two complementary approaches, one focusing on the size of total trade flows and one focusing on bilateral trade patterns (gravity equation). We also control for two other domestic policy variables: trade policy and domestic infrastructure. We find that the quality of institutions has a positive and significant impact on a country's level of openness. Domestic tariffs have no statistically significant impact alone, but do affect total trade flows when combined with good institutions. Domestic institutions also have a positive and significant impact on bilateral trade flows, but the parameter of our institution variables is reduced by almost a half and may turn insignificant when the quality of domestic infrastructure is included in the regression.

SummaryThis paper studies the effect of institutions on trade flows, using a gravity model approach. Standard gravity equations incorporate factors such as geographical proximity, language, trade policy and common history as explanatory factors for variation in bilateral trade that reflect the costs of trade across geographical and cultural distance. We extend this type of analysis by focusing on the relevance of the quality of governance and the extent of familiarity with the resulting framework of rules and norms in explaining variation in bilateral trade patterns. More specifically, we test whether institutional homogeneity and institutional quality have an independent impact on the trade volume between pairs of countries. We find that having a similar institutional framework promotes bilateral trade by 13%, on average. Furthermore, a better quality of formal institutions tends to coincide with more trade. Depending on being either importer or exporter, an increase in overall institutional quality of one standard deviation from the mean leads to an estimated increase of 30–44% in bilateral trade.

This article examines the impact of institutional quality on bilateral trade flow between Malaysia and selected 25 African Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries. Four institutional qualities were selected from World Governance Indicators with other trade predictors from the period from 1985 to 2016. Using gravity model of trade and Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimation method (PPML) technique, the results confirm that government effectiveness, regulatory quality and political stability have an adverse effect on bilateral trade flow among the OIC countries in Africa. On the other hand, these institutional quality variables were considered as a strength for Malaysian economic growth. Therefore, better institutional quality reforms are needed among OIC member countries in Africa in order to accelerate trade, economic growth and development in their region.

On the political economy of trade agreements: A de jure and de facto analysis of institutions

This paper analyzes the trade creation and trade diversion effects of the regional trade agreements (RTAs) in Asia and their effects on intra-regional trade flows using annual trade data for the period 1980-2009. The research will attempt to achieve the following objectives: (a) analyze the major RTAs in Asia and their effects on intra-regional trade flows. (b) use a gravity model to estimate the trade creation and trade diversion effects of various RTAs on trade flows within and across member groups; and (c) measure the effect of RTAs on members' trade with other Asian countries. The findings of this study are, for the most part, consistent with findings of previous studies on the Asian trade flows. The coefficients of real GDP, population, and distance had expected signs and magnitudes in all models estimated.

Recent trade disruptions and their consequences on supply chains show the importance of stable trade relations for exporters' economic planning and importers' supply security. Both instability in trading partners' economic and institutional environment and differences between them are likely to exacerbate these disruptions. We investigate the role of exporters' institutional quality (IQ) and its similarity with importers' IQ in the stability of trade links. We focus on the trade links of agri‐food products exported from sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries to the European Union (EU‐28) and consider three dimensions of IQ: ‘government selection, monitoring, and replacement’; ‘efficiency of policy formulation and implementation’; and ‘respect of citizens and state for institutions’. Using a discrete‐time duration model, we show that the duration of SSA exports to the EU‐28 increases with higher exporters' IQ and similarity of trading partners' IQ. The strongest impact of exporters' IQ is associated with ‘government selection, monitoring, and replacement’. In terms of the similarity of trading partners, ‘respect of citizens and state for institutions’ has the largest impact on trade durations. Our findings suggest that the improvement of countries' IQ may boost the stability of trade relationships. Moreover, the similarity of IQs between trading partners supports the stability of trade links and should be carefully considered when establishing new trade relations.

Since the 1990’s, institutional factors have been regarded as playing important roles in stimulating foreign direct investments (FDI). However, empirical studies on their importance in affecting FDI are still lacking, especially in regards to small open economies. This paper attempts to investigate the role of institutions in regards to the inflow of FDI in Malaysia’s small open economy of Malaysia. Using the bounds testing approach (ARDL model), empirical findings reveal that a long-run relationship exists between FDI and institutional variables. Several institutional variables are found to play prominent roles in influencing the inflow of FDI, namely governmental stability, bureaucracy and corruption. Thus, providing and maintaining the quality of domestic institutions alongside the implementation of FDI friendly policies would be beneficial to Malaysian economic growth stemming from foreign investment.

پتانسیل تجاری اتحادیه اکو: کاربردی از رگرسیون فضایی پویا با در نظرگرفتن اثرات سرریز فضایی

There is some empirical evidence showing that remittances, on average, were about 0.5 percent of GDP in countries with a corruption index higher than the median level, compared to 1.9 percent in countries with a level of corruption lower than the median. It is also arguable, that an improvement in economic institutions would facilitate economic freedom and in turn, reduce the costs of transactions associated with remittances in recipient countries. The quality of institutions in developing countries therefore, could be an important determinant of remittances, which are now considered an essential source of external finance in these countries. Thus, this paper explores the role of institutions in driving the flow of remittances to developing countries. The study uses a sample of 90 countries, and data from the World development Indicators (WDI) and Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) indicators databases. The paper estimates both static and dynamic representations of a reduced form model for the determinants of remittances. The static panel models are estimated using the fixed effects estimator, whereas the dynamic models, represented by autoregressive-distributed lag models, are estimated using a generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator. The results show that an improvement in the quality of institutions in charge of the conduct of monetary policy has a positive impact on remittances, and that this impact increases with the quality of such institutions. The estimates also show that an improvement in the operations of institutions of government leads to an increase in the inflow of remittances, which suggests that a decrease in direct government control or participation in the private sector has positive impact on remittances. Sound monetary policy and an effective government are critical to economic freedom, and these results seem to suggest that migrants tend to send remittances in order take advantage of macroeconomic environments that are favorable to better economic performance. Furthermore, the findings provide evidence, albeit a weak one, which suggests that an improvement in the legal system and property rights may be associated with an increase in remittances, but that the effect is lower for countries with an index value greater than the median level. Ergo, to the extent that remittances have become an important source of external finance, policies promoting sound and accountable local institutions should be a priority for policy makers in developing countries.

PurposeThis study examines how institutional quality influences variability in financial development among economies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).Design/methodology/approachEmpirical estimations verifying various relationships are performed using the limited information maximum likelihood (LIML) estimation technique.FindingsThe results suggest that institutional quality enhances the pace of financial development among economies in the sub-region all things being equal. In a further micro-level analysis where components of institutional quality index are examined separately, the study’s results suggest that effective governance, regulatory quality, rule of law and accountability tend to have a significant positive impact on financial sector development.Research limitations/implicationsFindings of the study suggest that policies geared towards improving governance and regulatory institutions can augment development of the financial sector among economies in SSA; governments and policymakers are therefore encouraged to resource noted institutions to play effective roles for the development of the financial sector.Originality/valueCompared to related studies, this study reorients existing paradigm, which emphasizes the role of governance and institutional variables in the economic growth discourse. The authors’ empirical inquiry rather focuses on how governance and institutional structures influence regional financial development dynamics. Specifically, this study differs from most macro-level studies found in literature because it examines the impact of hitherto unexamined governance and institutional variables on financial development among economies in SSA.

One of the ways to reduce international trade barriers is through the Free Trade Area (FTA). Collectively, ASEAN already has five FTAs with trading partners outside Southeast Asia. This study intends to analyze the effect of free trade agreements between ASEAN and China, South Korea, Japan, India, and Australia – New Zealand (ASEAN+5 FTA). The implications of an FTA are explained using the concepts of trade creation and trade diversion through economic integration. The trade gravity model is expanded with three dummy variables to determine whether trade creation and trade diversion occur in the formation of each of these FTAs. Static panel data regression is used to analyze the effect of Free Trade Agreements on intra-regional trade flows, export flows to non-members, and import flows from non-FTA members. The fixed effect model is applied to overcome endogeneity problems, while the PPML estimator is chosen to get the best estimation results amid heteroscedasticity and zero trade flow problems that usually occur in trade flows. Estimation results show that the trade creation effect occurs only in ACFTA and AIFTA, while other FTAs harm member countries through trade diversion. Therefore, further evaluation and efforts regarding the use of FTAs are needed to achieve the goals of FTAs.

As prior researchers have suggested, a firm’s success in an international market depends on how well its strategy fits the nonmarket environment, such as formal institutions. This paper examines the determinants of formal institutions around new areas of economic activities. Specifically, we propose a framework for understanding how the quality of formal institutions in promoting entrepreneurship drives the focus of such institutions concerning initial coin offering (ICO), which is emerging as a popular fundraising method. The paper uses inductive analysis to examine how nonmarket factors—such as a jurisdiction’s tax haven nature, regulators’ perceptions of ICOs as threats to national or political interests, and trade and industry associations—might moderate the relationship between the quality of institutions and the focus of such institutions regarding ICOs. One of this study’s key findings is that an economy’s quality of entrepreneurship-related institutions, perceived threats to national/political interests, and tax haven nature lead to different policy orientations. Consequently, regulators assign different importance when promoting crypto-entrepreneurship and dealing with associated risks. Regulators focusing mainly on promoting crypto-ventures have taken measures to enrich the blockchain ecosystem and provided tax and non-tax incentives to attract such ventures. Regulators focusing mainly on dealing with crypto-venture risks rely on a regulatory sandbox and close regulatory monitoring of such ventures.

The authors examine the impacts of quality of institutions, border and transport efficiency, physical and communication infrastructure on overall and intra-Africa trade covering 44 African countries and their 173 trade partners for the periods 2000–2014. Aggregate indicators are derived for the quality of economic institutions, border and transport efficiency, physical and communication infrastructure using principal component analysis. The findings disclose that intra-Africa and overall Africa's trade robustly determined by the quality of institutions, border and transport efficiency, physical and communication infrastructure. The estimates also indicate that the marginal effect of the quality of institutions, physical and communication infrastructure on trade flow appears to be increasing in GDP per capita. In contrast, the marginal effect of border and transport efficiency on trade decreases in GDP per capita. The authors compute the simulation of improving each indicator to the best performer in the sample. Their findings are robust to estimation method conducted to account for potential endogeneity.