KCG Recently Started a Further Research Project on Trade and Sustainable Development in Ghana

© Bartosz Hadyniak- istock

With a specific focus on Africa, KCG researchers were involved in several research projects focusing on trade and foreign direct investment as well as their impact in Africa in 2018/2019. The projects were financially supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ GmbH). As to trade, KCG researchers carried out a first project focusing on Ghana from late 2018 to mid-2019, in cooperation with Dr. Charles Ackah (University of Ghana). They investigated the role of trade for a key aspect of development, namely working conditions of Ghanaian firms. Their core findings which were summarised in a research report “Can Trade Foster Development? Firm-level Evidence for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana” was published in June 2019. The report provided new evidence on the benefits of exporting and importing among Ghanaian manufacturing SMEs and some suggestions for the related policies.

To deepen their related research, KCG researchers, Prof. Holger Görg, Ph.D., Prof. Aoife Hanley, Ph.D., and Cecília Hornok, Ph.D., recently started a follow-up project on trade impact in Ghana, again in cooperation with Dr. Charles Ackah (University of Ghana). The follow-up project aims at investigating the relationship between trade and sustainable development on site. More concretely, the project focuses on two key research questions. First, is trade correlated with the socially and ecologically sustainable behaviour of the companies involved? And secondly, does trade allow companies to improve their international market competitiveness through product differentiation and thus to operate in a more sustainable way? A unique firm-level dataset for Ghana will be used for the analysis. First results are expected in Summer/Fall 2020.