The effects of human capital on commercial integration in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper aims to examine the influence of human capital (considering the education and health spending) on intra-sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) trade. To achieve this, we used a gravity model augmented by variables linked to human capital, using the Poisson random-effects estimator as the evaluation method. We have three main results. (1) Human capital has a positive effect on these exchanges. (2) The share of education spending in primary and secondary cycles has a greater effect on trade than expenditure in the graduate cycle. Spending on vocational training contributes more to developing exchanges than spending in academic training. (3) A high proportion of the workforce in the primary sector disadvantages intra-SSA trade.