Ehrhart, HélèneLe Goff, MaëlanRocher, EmmanuelSingh, Raju Jan2014-02-032014-02-032014-01https://hdl.handle.net/10986/16810This paper aims at assessing the impact of migration on export performance and more particularly the effect of African migrants on African trade. Relying on a new data set on international bilateral migration recently released by the World Bank spanning from 1980 to 2010, the authors estimate a gravity model that deals satisfactorily with endogeneity. The results first indicate that the pro-trade effect of migration is higher for African countries, a finding that can be partly explained by the substitution between migrants and institutions (the existence of migrant networks compensating for weak contract enforcement, for instance). This positive association is particularly important for the exports of differentiated products, suggesting that migrants also play an important role in reducing information costs. Moreover, focusing on intra-African trade, the pro-trade effect of African migrants is larger when migrants are established in a more geographically and ethnically distant country. All these findings highlight the ability of African migrants to help overcome some of the main barriers to African trade: the weakness of institutions, information costs, cultural differences, and lack of trust.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOBARRIERS TO TRADEBILATERAL AGREEMENTBILATERAL TRADEBRAIN DRAINBUSINESS OPPORTUNITIESCITIZENSCITIZENSHIPCOMMODITIESCONSUMER GOODSCONTRACT ENFORCEMENTCOST REDUCTIONCOUNTRIES OF ORIGINCOUNTRY FIXED EFFECTSCOUNTRY OF DESTINATIONCOUNTRY OF ORIGINCOUNTRY RISKCOUNTRY TO COUNTRYDEVELOPED COUNTRIESDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPING COUNTRYDEVELOPMENT ECONOMICSDEVELOPMENT POLICYDIRECT ACCESSDISSEMINATIONECONOMETRICSECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC HISTORYECONOMIC RESEARCHECONOMICSETHNIC GROUPETHNIC GROUPSEXPORT GROWTHEXPORT MARKETSEXPORT MARKETS FOR PRODUCTSEXPORT PERFORMANCEEXPORTERSEXPORTSFOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTFOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTSFREE TRADEFREE TRADE AGREEMENTFREE TRADE AGREEMENTSGDPGLOBAL EXPORTSGRAVITY EQUATIONGRAVITY MODELGRAVITY MODELSGROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCTHEALTH CAREHOME COUNTRIESHOME COUNTRYHOST COUNTRIESHOST COUNTRYHUMAN RIGHTSHUMAN RIGHTS LEGISLATIONIMMIGRANTIMMIGRANTSIMMIGRATIONIMPACT OF MIGRATIONIMPACT OF TRADEIMPACT OF TRADE LIBERALIZATIONIMPORTSINCOMEINFORMATION ASYMMETRIESINSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENTINSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENTSINTERNATIONAL ECONOMICSINTERNATIONAL MIGRANTINTERNATIONAL MIGRANTSINTERNATIONAL MIGRATIONINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEWINTERNATIONAL TRADEINTERNATIONAL TRADINGINTRAREGIONAL TRADEJOB CREATIONLABOR FORCELABOR MARKETLDCSLEGAL FRAMEWORKLEGAL SYSTEMLIFE EXPECTANCYMARKET INFORMATIONMARKET RISKSMIGRANTMIGRANT POPULATIONSMIGRANTSMIGRATIONMIGRATION DATAMOVEMENTS OF PEOPLEMULTILATERAL TRADENATIONAL BORDERSNUMBER OF MIGRANTSOFFICIAL LANGUAGEOPPORTUNISTIC BEHAVIORPATTERN OF TRADEPOLICY DISCUSSIONSPOLICY RESEARCHPOLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPERPROGRESSRECENT IMMIGRANTSREGIONAL TRADEREMITTANCESREPUTATIONRESOURCE ALLOCATIONRESPECTSOCIAL PROTECTIONSOCIAL SECURITYTRADE AGREEMENTTRADE AGREEMENTSTRADE BARRIERSTRADE COSTSTRADE CREATIONTRADE EFFECTTRADE FACILITATIONTRADE FLOWSTRADE LIBERALIZATIONTRADE MISSIONSTRADE PERFORMANCETRADE RELATIONSHIPTRANSACTION COSTSTRANSPORTATIONUNDOCUMENTED MIGRATIONVALUE OF EXPORTSVALUE OF TRADEWAGESWORLD DEVELOPMENT INDICATORSWTOWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-6739