Access to finance is critical to successful development in Africa. This paper presents recent trends in various aspects of development finance and provides a critical assessment of the costs of meeting the Millennium Development Goals in the region. It also examines recent proposals for...

Since the Uruguay Round, African countries have been concerned about the rules and operations of the multilateral trading system and are beginning to realize that they have to be active in the negotiation process to protect their interests. Consequently, several countries in the region have been...

Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models are widely used for trade policy analyses and recommendations. Simulation results from these models have also been used as a basis for offering advice to African countries on what positions to take in multilateral trade negotiations. There is however...

Recent theoretical literature suggests that aid, geography, and resource endowments affect diversification of exports in Africa. This paper examines the validity of these popular views using a System-GMM methodology and panel data for African countries. The evidence suggests that aid, the...

Erosion of trade preferences currently being enjoyed by LDCs and some developing countries remain an important area in the on-going trade negotiations. The different positions regarding the preference erosion question besides being informed by political economy considerations are also founded on...

This paper explores the relationship between trade, trade liberalization, and exports diversification in developing and Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The non-parametric analyses indicate that developing countries that are more open to trade (based on trade intensity) tend to have more...

A small-open-economy model is developed to examine how the method of food aid disbursement affects labor employment, food security and aggregate welfare, in recipient countries, in an environment in which private sector firms pay efficiency wages to induce effort. Two forms of food aid delivery...

Trade policy has been a very contentious issue in the discourse on African development. Using panel data for 33 African countries spanning the period 1986-2000, we examine the relationship between trade liberalization and macroeconomic instability in Africa. We focus on instabilities in output,...

This study provides a quantitative estimate of the potential economic consequences of multilateral trade reform under the WTO for Africa using a framework that explicitly incorporates issues of concern to the region, such as preference erosion, loss of tariff revenue, and trade facilitation. It...