TITLE:
Does Agriculture Really Matter for Economic Growth in Congo Brazzaville?
AUTHORS:
Edwige Kamitewoko
KEYWORDS:
Agricultural Production, Economic Growth, ARDL, Congo Brazzaville
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.12 No.2,
April
22,
2022
ABSTRACT: African countries are expected to be having a
comparative advantage when it comes to agricultural products. If this is true,
specializing in agriculture can increase
output levels. However, the effect of agriculture on growth has yielded
various research interests and the results differ from country to country. The present study investigates the impact of
agriculture on economic growth in Congo Brazzaville using the
Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimation technique, employing secondary data from 2005 to 2018.
Different variables are used such as agricultural value added, the industrial
value added, gross fixed capital formation and Corruption Perceptions Index. The
results suggest that in the short run; agricultural is significant at the 5%
level and has a positive impact on economic growth. Similarly, its lag is also
significant at the 1% level and negatively
impacts growth. In the long run, on the other hand, agricultural
production (agricultural value added) has a negative and insignificant effect
on economic growth. Thus, the agricultural sector plays an important role in the early stages of economic
development, and when the economy has
developed, agriculture plays a minimal role. It is evident from the
results of this paper that agriculture is an engine for growth in the short run and should eventually be supported by other
macroeconomic policies to promote
economic growth in the long run. Congolese farmers must increase productivity in the agriculture sector which plays a primordial role in
production and employment in order to enable the development of the industrial
sector and therefore boost economic growth.