New evidence in the relationship between trade openness and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Abstract This paper re-examines the effect of trade openness on food security in Sub-Saharan African countries. Panel data covering 37 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period from 2004 to 2018 were mobilized. We employ a system GMM approach to account for unobserved heterogeneity, correlated individual effects and potential endogeneity of the explanatory variables was adopted. As food security is a multidimensional concept, we used four indicators to capture it. To improve the robustness of the empirical results, we also used globalisation as an alternative factor to trade openness. The empirical results show that trade openness significantly improves food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, in the presence of political instability, a deterioration of the food security situation is observed. The results reveal also that the quality of institutions, economic growth, remittances, human capital and the importance of the agricultural sector are also factors favouring the level of food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Any policy aimed at trade openness must take into account the quality of institutions in order to achieve the expected results. JEL: C33; F14; Q18