Determinants of the industrial production of the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU)

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the determinants of the manufacturing value added (MVA) of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries over the period 2006-2020, in a context where industrialization is important in African country development programs. The General Lest Square (GLS) method and System Generalized Method of Moment (SGMM) are used. The results indicate that the sources of manufacturer production are the total public debt, external public debt and the growth rate of the population. Also, they reveal that obstacles are the internal public debt, low control of corruption, private sector credit and trade opening rate. Further, they indicate that the low control of corruption negatively influences the effects of different types of debt on MVA. It therefore implies that these countries reduce the accumulation of internal debt, invest a large part of the external debt and the credit to the private sector in industrialization, adopt better trade policies and apply more rigorous in the control of corruption.