American Trade Policy Towards Sub Saharan Africa-A Meta
Analysis of AGOA
Edgar F. A. Cooke 1
Dphil Student, University of Sussex
Comments are Welcome
Draft: July 30, 2011
Abstract: Twelve econometric studies investigating the impact of agoa presented in
this paper have reported 174 different estimates. In testing for publication bias and
whether there is a genuine empirical impact of agoa we resort to a meta-analysis. The
meta-analysis provides us with a formal means of testing for publication bias and an
empirical effect. The result shows significant publication bias in the selected studies.
However, in a few cases the test for a genuine effect is passed successfully. The results of
the meta-analysis indicates that agoa increased the trade of beneficiaries by 13.2%.
Keywords: Trade preference regimes, African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA),
Publication bias, Meta-Regression Analysis, Funnel plot, Study effect
Journal of Economic Literature Classification: F10, F13
1Paper prepared for presentation at the fifth MAER-NET colloquium in Cambridge, September 16 - 18, 2011.