It is now recognized that poverty reduction efforts in Africa are undermined by capital flight. Previous evidence has shown that trade misinvoicing is an important channel of capital flight. This study proposes to examine the magnitude, trend and patterns of capital flight through trade misinvoicing in Africa over the period 1970 to 2018 using disaggregated trade data from the United Nation’s COMTRADE database as well as the IMF’s Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS) database. The objective of the empirical investigation is to generate evidence that may help to better understand the phenomenon and identify ways to tackle the problem undermining domestic resource mobilization and the development of Africa. The proposed study involves three empirical exercises: (i) Estimation of trade misinvoicing at a disaggregated level by major trading partners, and by major export and import products, (ii) Estimating the lost tax revenue due to trade misinvoicing, and (iii) Analyzing the determinants of trade misinvoicing in Africa. The evidence from the study will shed light on which trading partners are involved, the commodities that are most affected by trade misinvoicing, and the factors affecting the phenomenon.
Related news
Related publications
Ndoricimpa, Arcade. 2024. The ugly side of the Africa-UAE (United Arab Emirates) gold trade: Gold export misreporting and smuggling. Resources Policy, 91, 104921. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2024.104921
Ndoricimpa, Arcade and Eduardo Araral. 2024. Determinants of illicit capital movement in China‐Africa trade: Evidence of trade misinvoicing. African Development Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8268.12747
Ndoricimpa, Arcade. 2024. Illicit capital movement through trade misinvoicing in Burundi: a disaggregated approach. Journal of Money Laundering Control, 27(3), 532–547. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMLC-03-2023-0056
Ndoricimpa, Arcade. 2022. Revisiting fiscal deficit sustainability in South Africa. Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEAS-10-2021-0217
Ndoricimpa, Arcade. 2022. Threshold effects of public debt on economic growth in South Africa: an application of a regression kink with an unknown threshold. Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEAS-04-2022-0106
Share this project:
Is any information on this page incorrect or outdated? Please notify Ms. Nel-Mari Loock at [email protected].