Food market integration in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU): a dynamic panel approach

Abstract

Our study examines the integration of food markets in West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and assesses the role of bilateral trade. In this study, we hypothesize that each country has a market. We adopted the framework borrowed from Ravallion using a dynamic panel model. The theoretical approach used is the law of one price. The main conclusion is that food markets are segmented in the short term and there is a possibility that they will be integrated in the long term. Furthermore, even if trade development tends to reduce the gap in food prices between countries, this reduction is not significant.

Keywords

• Trade
• food market integration
• law of one price
• dynamic panel
• WAEMU
• E64-F10-F15-Q18