Effects of economic freedom and ease of doing business on trade in global value chains: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

Inspired by the recent drastic shift in international trade from traditional to global value chains, this study analyzed the effects of economic freedom and ease of doing business on participation and position of sub-Saharan Africa in global value chains. Panel data from 41 sub-Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2018 were used. The study utilized a tobit estimator along with a fixed effects estimator. The findings show that economic freedom—namely, better regulation and sound money—positively influence the countries' participation in global value chains. Moreover, improving ease of doing business, such as by decreasing customs duties and simplifying procedures to register new businesses, enhances the countries' level of participation and their efforts to move upstream along the global value chains. The results are robust to different specifications. Therefore, sub-Saharan African countries should promote economic freedom and ease of doing business to participate in and reap benefits offered by the current wave of globalization. Specifically, sub-Saharan African countries should further reduce the number of procedures required to register new businesses, decrease tariffs and non-tariffs barriers to trade in global value chains to enhance their participation and position along global value chains.