|
Bouet, Antoine; Mishra, Santosh; Roy, Devesh. |
This paper addresses the question of whether Africa is an undertrading continent. We answer this question using a much-improved data set for obtaining predicted trade and by employing methods that correct for bias in estimates of undertrading. Our results indicate that globally Africa is an underexporter in our preferred Heckman specification. This result is robust to the addition of various controls and the application of variants of the gravity model of trade. We also looked for explanations for Africa’s undertrading. We found that accounting for transport and communication infrastructure reduced the undertrading effect for Africa, and in some specifications of the gravity model, the under-trading effect vanished altogether. Results from a semiparametric... |
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Gravity model; Undertrading; Trade related infrastructure; Market access; International Relations/Trade. |
Ano: 2008 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/42320 |