International Demand Spillovers in South-South Exports: Application to Sub-Saharan Africa and Developing Asia

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing how export performance of developing countries differs across destinations. With application to Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, we first employ a gravity equation to break down each region's export performance, separating the contribution of foreign market access from internal supply capacity. Then, we identify the key determinants of countries' export performance, both theoretically and empirically. Our contribution is to introduce demand spillovers that help market access to improve supply conditions. Regression reveals a positive interaction between the two components, with a higher elasticity of exports with respect to market access in the particular case of South-South trade flows.