Trade in Services and Sectoral Employment in Africa : How Institutions Matter

This paper examines the effect of trade in services on employment by economic sectors in African countries (1991 to 2019). Driscoll and Kraay's method is used to control for spatial dependence across African countries, error autocorrelation, and heteroscedasticity. The results show that service exports have a positive effect on total employment, service employment, and industrial employment, while they contribute negatively to agricultural employment. The results show that an increase in service imports leads to a decrease in total employment and agricultural employment while it leads to an increase in service employment. The policy implication of results suggest the need to support the export of services, in particular the export of communication services in the services sector and in the industrial sector. In addition, African countries should encourage the import of communication services and the import of transport services