Africa's Oil Abundance and External Competitiveness

This paper examines the structural competitiveness of oil-rich economies in sub-Saharan Africa relative to other major oil-exporting developing countries, and investigates reasons for systematic differences in the non-oil export performance across these economies. The analysis reveals that oil-rich Africa lags behind other oil-exporters in terms of diversification, global market share and the overall investment climate. The poor performance of their nonoil sector can be largely attributed to weak infrastructure and institutional quality. The results also show that institutional quality is a significant determinant of the extent to which oil abundance affects the competitiveness of the non-oil sector; thereby explaining the divergent experiences of oil-rich economies across the world. This implies that oil wealth does not necessarily weaken the non-oil tradable sector; countries may mitigate the impact of Dutch disease and benefit from oil booms if revenues are used prudently to reduce oil dependence.Oil producing countries;Oil exporting countries;Financial institutions;Terms of trade;Export diversification;Foreign investment;oil exports, export performance, export structure, world exports, oil exporters, oil export, total exports, exporting countries, merchandise exports, export share, exporters, free trade, export growth, oil revenues, international trade, export competitiveness, free trade agreement, export sectors, per capita income, trade agreement, trade flows, bilateral trade, trade agreements, exporting developing countries, oil shock, trading partners, export volume, global competitiveness, export data, exporting country, exporter, oil-exporting countries, export sector, oil exporting, free trade agreements, trade policies, net exports, trade facilitation, tariff structures, petroleum exports, export flows, external shocks, trade values, real exports, oil exporter, export shares, merchandise export, global trade, political economy, net exporter, share of world exports, world economy, corruption control, exports of goods, manufactured exports, trade liberalization, net exporter of oil, trade performance, importing countries, oil export volume, international trade policy, export structures, exchange rate movements, economic integration, trade barriers, nontariff barriers, export base, multiple sources, pattern of trade, trade reform, trading partner, trade classification, annual export growth, oil prices, oil- exporting countries, trade partners, trade links, world trade, export deflator, bilateral trade flows, export flow, tradable goods, international markets, factor analysis, world market, total export, trade effects, export goods, international standard, global market, value of trade, trade structures, unit labor costs, real effective exchange rate, export concentration, diversified export base, investor protection, regional integration