The Competitiveness of Gambia’s Agricultural Products in Global Trade. An Incentive for Economic Progress

      Аннотация: Why do nations trade? and How should a nation conduct its trade policy? are the two most central questions in International and Agricultural Economics. The agricultural export growth and development in The Gambia is paramount because of its effect on domestic and international trade and economic stability. The main objective of the book was to reveal and evaluate the sources and determinants of rapid economic advancement and higher productivity for Gambia’s export competitiveness. The first part of the empirical analysis adopts the application of ADF, Unit Root, and Granger Causality tests to determine the positive effects of export expansion, agricultural development, government spending on education, and foreign direct investment (FDI), using the VAR model. Findings reveal that the analysed [independent] variables determine Gambia’s economic progress at a rate of 72.09%. The second part calculates and analyses the Balassa Indices for Gambia’s agricultural export competitiveness for the period 1995-2014. The findings were impressive as most of the products recorded higher comparative advantages over those of other competitive nations.

Ключевые слова: Balassa, comparative advantage, Economic growth, Export competitiveness, sustainability