@article {2599,
	title = {ANALYSING SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA TRADE PATTERNSIN THE PRESENCE OF REGIONAL TRADEAGREEMENTS-THE CASE OF COMESA, SADC, ECCASAND ECOWAS},
	journal = {The African Finance Journal},
	volume = {17},
	year = {2015},
	pages = {41-65},
	abstract = {This paper uses data on the four largest Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) in\&nbsp;sub-Saharan Africa to argue that the dynamic form of the gravity equation is the\&nbsp;appropriate model to estimate the effect of RTAs on intra-African trade. The paper\&nbsp;also suggests a better approach to examining trade relationship between\&nbsp;members of RTAs and nonmembers. The paper uses System Generalized Methodof Moments estimator to overcome econometric issues associated with estimating\&nbsp;dynamic models with persistent variables. The paper reports three important\&nbsp;findings. First, a formal model selection test confirmed that the dynamic gravity\&nbsp;model performs better than the static version. Second, the creation of COMESA\&nbsp;and SADC has led to significant increase in trade among members. ECOWAS has\&nbsp;increased intra-ECOWAS trade but in total has reduced intra-African trade.\&nbsp;ECCAS has had a negative impact on both intra-ECCAS and extra-ECCAS\&nbsp;bilateral trade flows. Third, our proposed approach to examining member-nonmember\&nbsp;trade relationships provided the true estimates as compared to results\&nbsp;from employing the usual approach in the literature.},
	author = {AB Darku and AB Appau}
}
