Agricultural Exports and Economic Growth in Burkina Faso

Abstract

The objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between agricultural exports and economic growth in Burkina Faso. It employs Solow (1956) production function model augmented agricultural exports as a theoretical framework for the analysis. For the empirical analysis, we studied the long-term relationship between agricultural exports and economic growth in Burkina Faso through the cointegration test of Johansen (1988). The data used in this investigation cover the period 1970 to 2018 and come from the database of the World Bank and FAO. The results showed that there is a long-term relationship between the variables of the model. As a result, we have estimated a vector error-correction model that shows a positive relationship between agricultural exports and economic growth. The results of the Granger causality test show that it is exports that affect economic growth in Burkina Faso. Thus, it is suggested to policy makers to support agricultural producers through agricultural subsidies or export promotion policies.

Keywords: agricultural exports, economic growth, Burkina Faso

DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-22-02

Publication date: November 30^th 2019