Governance, Infrastructure and Regional Integration: The Case of CEMAC

The objective of this study is to determine the effects of governance and physical infrastructure on regional integration, more specifically trade integration in the CEMAC region. The approach used is based on the gravity model augmented with the Pseudo Maximum Likelihood method of the Fish Law (PPML). This model is estimated on a panel of Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) countries and its main partners over the period 2006-2016. The results thus obtained show that governance is a barrier to integration and maritime openness has a positive and significant effect on trade integration. It has resulted in 7.7 times the community’s trade.