The empire strikes back: French‐African trade after independence

• Author: Emmanuelle Lavallée,Julie Lochard
• Published date: 01 February 2019
• Date: 01 February 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/roie.12381

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© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/roie Rev Int Econ. 2019;27:390–412.

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INTRODUCTION

In the second half of the twentieth century, sub‐Saharan Africa’s (SSA) economic performance has

been lagging behind. Today, per capita GDP levels are well below those of other major developing re-

gions. SSA is also marginalized in international trade. It accounts for only 1.1 percent of world exports

and 1.4 percent of world imports.1 The causes of this “African Tragedy” (Bairoch, 1995) put forward

in the literature are diverse and range from political instability to poor education through ethnic diver-

sity or poor infrastructures. A number of papers also emphasize that colonial history had persistent ef-

fects on current economic outcomes (see Nunn, 2009 for a review), suggesting that colonization could

explain part of the African poor economic performance. However, it is still unclear why colonization

can continue to matter today. Possible explanations are related to the existence of multiple equilibria

and path dependence or the lasting impact of institutions and cultural norms (Nunn, 2009). Focusing

on international trade, this paper investigates another channel, that is, the economic and political in-

fluence of former colonial powers in newly independent States.

Received: 19 July 2017

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Revised: 23 July 2018

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Accepted: 29 August 2018

DOI: 10.1111/roie.12381

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The empire strikes back: French‐African trade after

independence

Emmanuelle Lavallée1

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Julie Lochard2

1DIAL, LEDa, IRD, Université Paris‐

Dauphine, Université PSL, Paris, France

2Erudite, University of Paris‐Est Créteil,

Créteil, France

Correspondence

Emmanuelle Lavallée, DIAL, LEDa, IRD,

Université Paris‐Dauphine, Université PSL,

75016 Paris, France.

Email: emmanuelle.lavallee@dauphine.fr.

JEL Classification: F10, F14, F54, N47

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of foreign influence on trade,

focusing on the close relations between France and its for-

mer colonies in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). It shows that

between 1960 and 1989—the golden age of French‐

African relations—France exported more to its former

SSA colonies than to any comparable countries, while

they did not export more to France. This excess of French

exports concerned a large variety of products, and particu-

larly luxury goods and products in which France was least

competitive. An investigation of the underlying mecha-

nisms shows that migration explains most of this addi-

tional trade.

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LAVALLÉE and LOCHARD

Indeed, the trade distortions induced by colonial links are largely documented in the literature.

Mitchener and Weidenmier (2008) find that belonging to an empire doubled trade during the Age of

High Imperialism (1870–1913). Several papers show that independence reduces colonial trade, but

stress that its effect is gradual. Head, Mayer, and Ries (2010) find that trade between a former colony

and its colonizer is reduced by 65 percent on average after four decades, but that post‐colonial trade

does not exhibit immediate significant changes. In the same vein, Lavallée and Lochard (2015) show

that independence reduces trade (imports and exports) with the former colonial power and that this

effect is mainly driven by former French colonies. Their results also confirm the gradual deterioration

of colonial trade, but indicate that it is slower and less important for imports than for exports of for-

mer colonies. These results are consistent with extensive empirical evidence that, even today, former

colonies still trade disproportionately with their former colonizer.2 This feature is particularly salient

for former French colonies in SSA (de Sousa & Lochard, 2012).

Foreign influence could explain this trade pattern. Indeed, several recent papers highlight the impact

of foreign influence on trade (see, e.g., Antràs, & Padró i Miquel, 2011; Berger, Easterly, Nunn, &

Satyanath, 2013). For instance, Berger et al. (2013) provide evidence that increased political influence,

due to CIA intervention during the Cold War, was used to create a larger foreign market for American

products. Following CIA intervention, imports from the United States increased dramatically while

total exports to the United States were unaffected. Beyond the United States, did the influence of other

powers, such as the USSR, the United Kingdom or France, determine the pattern and evolution of third

country’s trade? France and its influence on former colonies in SSA after the 1960s offer an interesting

case in this regard. Contrary to developments in former colonies located in other parts of the world,

France maintained strong economic and political links with its former colonies in SSA at least until

the end of the 1980s. At the time of independence, in the context of the Cold War, the objective of the

French government was to establish a network of allied republics in SSA (Bat, 2012). Independence

agreements and post‐colonial relationships reflected this concern in both political and economic terms.

Political manifestations of French influence ranged from cooperation agreements and French military

interventions to personal and friendly ties between French and African top‐level officials. Economic

manifestations included, among other things, development assistance and common monetary arrange-

ments. This post‐colonial French influence in SSA is likely to have affected trade.

To the best of our knowledge, the impact of French post‐colonial influence on trade has never been

explored, at least in a comprehensive empirical manner.3 The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it

intends to test whether French influence distorted French exports towards its former colonies in SSA

after independence and to isolate the products that were the most affected. Second, it aims to explain

the drivers of this French‐African trade gap. We consider a number of potential drivers, including

development assistance, migrations, inter‐personal ties between French and African officials, military

interventions, and political proximity.

To examine the consequences of French post‐colonial influence on trade, we use data on French

bilateral aggregate and sectoral exports with 188 partner countries over the period 1960–2007 (1962–

2007 for sectoral data). We find that France’s exports were distorted in favour of its former colonies in

SSA until the end of the 1980s. Indeed, our results indicate that France exported significantly more to

its former colonies in SSA, relative to other former French colonies and to other comparable countries.

This trade distortion is robust to the introduction of additional explanatory variables and the use of

other methods of estimation. In particular, we show that this trade gap is neither merely an effect of

prior colonial status, nor related to multilateral resistance effects. Our findings are also supported by

a falsification exercise, where we find no trade distortion between France and francophone countries

that are not former French colonies in SSA. Analysis at the sectoral level reveals that the French‐

African trade gap covers a large variety of products, ranging from capital goods, such as machinery