Measuring Transaction Costs of International Trade for 9 West African Countries

In this study, we determined the effect of total compliance costs on the current value of imports for 9 West African countries. As a result, we managed to measure the estimated change in value of import after administrative reform and more importantly the total efficiency gained due to administrative reform using partial equilibrium framework and price elasticity of demand equation. It showed that countries that have higher total compliance cost, take longer to import and have a more price elastic demand to import such as Cameroon and Nigeria, would benefit more from administrative reform. Next, we calculated the total efficiency gained on their current value of GDP. We understood that total efficiency gained on the value of GDP is about 1% of most of these countries. And the total efficiency gained on their value of import is between 2%-5%. Lastly we measure the total value of efficiency gained as a percentage of Development AID received.