Abstract This paper investigates the impact of institutions and trade policies on Global Value Chain (GVC) participation in a panel of 15 countries in West Africa from 2000 to 2018. Deploying a gravity model, the results indicate that institution has a positive and significant impact, with a 1% increase in the institutions index leading to 0.11 unit increase in GVC participation. For trade policy, a 1% increase in tariff reduces GVC participation by 0.052 units. While regional trade agreements such as the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) constrains GVC participation by about 0.01 units, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) significantly increases GVC participation by about 0.005 units. The agricultural sub-sector was found to drive the aggregate GVC participation in West Africa. There is need to improve GVC participation by harmonizing and implementing lower tariffs, improving infrastructure and technology within a framework of qualitative institutions.
Olarinde et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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