Trade openness and growth in a small economy: Evidence from Malawi

Economists often debate whether a country should pursue a discriminatory regional trade or the broader multilateral trade expansion. This paper contributes to the discourse by presenting empirical evidence on the impacts of regional and multilateral trade openness on economic growth of expansion in Malawi. Using the ARDL‐EC model and data spanning the period 1995–2020, the estimates show that the impact of multilateral trade openness on the long‐run growth rate is positive and statistically significant. At the disaggregated level, the results show that both intra‐ and extra‐African merchandise trade openness have positive and significant impact on the long‐run growth rate. The evidence also suggests that the impact of a change in the level of intra‐African merchandise trade openness on long‐run growth is larger than that of a similar change in the level of extra‐African merchandise trade openness. Thus, our results suggest that policymakers can pursue both regional and multilateral trade expansions simultaneously to accelerate Malawi's economic growth. To augment the benefits of trade, however, we recommend that policymakers focus on deepening intra‐African trade integration and diversifying the country's export base beyond the primary commodities; and to increase the processing of export products to enhance the dynamic benefits to spur faster growth.