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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of natural resources on foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa. Decomposing the measures of natural resource, in terms of contribution to GDP (oil rent (OR), mineral rent (MR) and forest rents (FRs)) and export drive (fuel exports (FE) and minerals export), with the objective of obtaining quantitative estimates of their relationship with FDI, we considered the effect of regional or trade blocks on the continent and control for trade openness, financial market development and infrastructure.

Using annual panel data of 49 African countries over the period 1980-2011 and employing the system GMM estimation technique.

The authors show that after allowing for effect of trade or regional block formation, natural resources in its composite form (ORs, MRs, forest rents (FRs), FEs and minerals export) influences FDI in Africa. Quantitatively, we demonstrate that though natural resources (compositely) influences FDI, the different measures of natural resource differ significantly in terms of their marginal contribution in attracting FDI to the continent especially to different trade blocks. The authors provide that in the presence of certain type of natural resources, trade openness or banking sector credit expansion or infrastructural development is less desirable whilst regional or trade blocks strongly moderate the effect of financial market development and infrastructural development on FDI flow on the continent.

The authors employed a broad data set to provide evidence of the association between natural resources in its composite form and well as its various component and FDI to African after accounting for regional/trade blocks.

This paper aims to find out how the legal system interacts with other institutions in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Africa.

The authors use annual panel data of 49 African countries over the period 1980 to 2011, and use the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique and pooled panel data regression.

The authors find that the source of a country’s legal system deters FDI inflow as institutions alone cannot bring in the needed quantum of FDI. In terms of trading blocs, it was found that there is negative significant relationship between institutional quality and FDI for South African Development Community (SADC) as well as Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) countries.

For policy implications, the results suggest that reliance on institutions alone cannot project the continent to attract the needed FDI.

Empiricists have devoted considerable effort to estimating the relationship between institutions and FDI on the African continent, but this paper seeks to ascertain the effect of legal systems and institutional quality within African specific trade and regional blocks.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), types of foreign direct investment (FDI) – greenfield investments (GFIs) and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) – and economic growth in 49 African countries between 2003 and 2017.

In the study, panel data fixed effects and generalized method of moments estimation techniques are used in order to test the hypotheses.

Using country-level data obtained from the World Development Indicators, The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and World Governance Indicators websites, the authors find that IFRS and the types of FDI are significantly related to economic growth. Moreover, our results provide evidence that the effect of GFIs and M&As on growth is influenced by IFRS positively.

With a handful of exceptions, most African countries do not have active stock markets. Therefore, the authors were unable to determine the effect of capital markets on growth.

FDI has the potential to contribute to economic growth and quality of life. Our findings suggest that policymakers should create incentives for attracting FDI and effective enforcement of IFRS in order to unleash the benefits of FDI on their economies.

The study provides important insights into the effects of types of FDI on the economic growth of African countries and into the role that IFRS play on this relationship.

This paper aims to use the approach based on the application of the law of gravity for the study of the flows of export and the effects of the RTAs.

In this paper, the authors evaluate the effects of RTAs on exports between members and non-members taking into account the Vinerian specification. The authors also try to estimate the impact of the recent economic crisis on the flows of export and the success of the RTAs. The authors use a model of static and dynamic gravity for 40 countries and six RTAs during the period 1980-2011.

Definitely the proliferation of RTAs will continue to be one of the driving forces that will constitute the political system and the global economy in the following years. It indicates a process that implies the merger of economies separated in bigger regions of free trade. Regional integration is seen as beneficial in many senses and is the major economic objectives in addition to presenting a stabilizing factor in international relations.

The gravity model is estimated using the last techniques of panel data which takes into account the endogeneity of the effects of integration and the existence of dynamic effect.

This paper aims to examine the road ahead for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), focusing on its potential opportunities and challenges. It is intended to help the AfCFTA’s effective implementation by highlighting the major areas of intervention for State Parties.

The paper analyses relevant economic, political and legal research sources on regional integration in Africa and offers some personal views of the author to evaluate the past, present and future of the AfCFTA.

The paper shows that the AfCFTA can support its State Parties’ industrialization and diversification, better integrate micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to regional value chains, create jobs, encourage sustainable investments and help its State Parties have common positions on global issues and achieve development. But, it also shows the challenges facing the AfCFTA, which include infrastructure gap, revenue and job losses, overlapping membership of State Parties in Regional Economic Communities, cumbersome customs systems, difficulty to cross African borders, fledgling MSMEs and inadequate technical capacity on trade policy. Accordingly, it recommends that State Parties continuously take various actions to address these challenges and maximize the multiple benefits of the AfCFTA.

The paper provides a comprehensive and up-to-date appraisal of the opportunities and challenges of the AfCFTA, both in the context of the history of regional integration in Africa and the recent global shocks that adversely impacted the continent (COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine).

The main goal of this paper is to examine the evolution of Latin American productive integration in terms of the regional value added incorporated in intra-regional exports of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. In addition, the study traces the trade and productive integration trajectories for each of these countries from 1995 to 2015.

Based on the use of OECD’s global ICIO input-output tables, this paper applies the methodological framework by Wang et al. (2018) for the analysis of trade flows at the bilateral level, which allows breaking down the value of gross exports of each sector-country, depending on the origin of the value added contained in exports, as well as their use.

The estimates show very low shares of value added from regional partners in the intra-regional exports of the countries studied. Conversely, the weight of the value added incorporated in these exports by countries outside the region has increased in tandem with China’s expanding involvement in Latin America. This development, along with the downward trend in domestic value added incorporated in exports, indicates a lack of a regional integration process of any depth.

This article addresses an economic problem of conventional importance from a global value chain perspective using a novel methodology based on the use of global input–output tables.

Using panel data for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) member states, the present study explored the role of RCEP negotiations on tourism development.

A dynamic econometric model, namely the panel autoregressive dynamic lag model (PARDL) has been used. To test for panel causality, Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality tests were used.

Through the use of a dynamic econometric model, namely the PARDL, the results show that the RCEP negotiations, growth rates, as well as international trade contribute towards tourism development. Furthermore, the Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality tests confirm the existence of a bidirectional causal link between tourism development and RCEP negotiations. Finally, a unidirectional causal link is observed between tourism development and international trade.

This existing evidence on the topic seems to be very scant and limited to specific regions and particular regional trade agreements. This paper thus fills an important gap in the literature by advancing evidence about the effects of the RCEP on international tourism flows across member countries.