Trade Openness by Destination, Economic Growth and Human Development

This book is about examining the impact of trade openness by destination on human development in Sub Saharan African countries’ strategic partnerships. Trade openness and human development are interlinked and the channels of impact can be either direct by widening the choices of living standards or indirect through channels such as economic growth. In the indirect channel, this book seeks to answer whether an improvement in the local domestic macroeconomic policies that target economic growth coupled with enhanced trade integration towards Sub Saharan African countries’ strategic partners have actually led to an improvement in human development. Considering that trade openness, economic growth and human development are interrelated, we demonstrated this framework in a three-equation simultaneous equation modelling using multiple equation generalized method of moments. We found that Sub Saharan African countries’ trade integration towards China offers wider opportunities for human development while for the indirect channel, we found that there was need for inclusive economic growth policies that incorporate human development elements.