Why Can Mauritius Export Manufactures and Ghana Not?

• Published in: World economy Vol. 22; no. 7; pp. 981 - 993
• Main Author: Teal, Francis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK and Boston, USA Blackwell Publishers Ltd 01.09.1999; Basil Blackwell for the Trade Policy Research Centre, etc; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Exports; Ghana; International trade; Macroeconomics; Manufacturers; Manufacturing; Mauritania; Statistical analysis; Studies; Mauritius; Ghana; Africa
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-9701.00242
• ISSN: 0378-5920

The issue as to how sub-Saharan African countries can enter the market for manufacturers is one of the most important policy issues facing governments in Africa. There are at least four views as to the reason for the low levels of manufactured exports from the continent. The first is that Africa's low levels of skills and relative abundance of natural resources ensure that exporting manufacturers is unprofitable. It is possible that natural resource-intensive economies will be able to efficiently export the goods in processed form, essentially if transport costs are sufficiently high to outweigh other cost disadvantages. The second view is that African governments have created a high transaction costs environment in which export growth generally has been retarded. The third view sees the problem as the failure of policy to promote technological capabilities, by which is meant firm-specific learning, which is seen as the basis for a successful process of industrialization. Finally, a view which has its origins in new trade theory, is that the key to successful exporting is the technical efficiency of firms.