Measuring and Analyzing Total Factor Productivity in West African Economies: The Trends, Shocks, and Policies

Touray, Alfusainey (2024): Measuring and Analyzing Total Factor Productivity in West African Economies: The Trends, Shocks, and Policies.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to measure and analyze the total factor productivity (TFP) trend for fourteen countries in the Economic Community of West African states from 2016 to 2022. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method is used to measure TFP using the CCR model. Among all the countries surveyed, Nigeria has the highest TFP and is the only country within the bloc that is optimally using factors of production while Niger has the lowest total factor productivity in the ECOWAS region within the study period. The study shows that the ECOWAS as a bloc is not efficiently using its factors of production to produce output, a reason why the region's growth has been low and volatile for decades since independence. The inefficiency is coming from the slack use of land as a factor of production. The study also shows that the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war had a profound impact on the total factor productivity in the ECOWAS bloc. Thus, there is a need for a land reform policy to get optimal returns from land usage in the region.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Total factor productivity, Data Envelopment Analysis, and CRR Model
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity > O47 - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth ; Aggregate Productivity ; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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