Trade Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis : Evidence from a New Data Set
This paper presents new high-frequency data on trade policy changes targeting medical and food products since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, documenting how countries used trade policy instruments in response to the health crisis on a week...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/342251607972979213/Trade-Policy-Responses-to-the-COVID-19-Pandemic-Crisis-Evidence-from-a-New-Data-Set http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34942 |
| Summary: | This paper presents new high-frequency
data on trade policy changes targeting medical and food
products since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,
documenting how countries used trade policy instruments in
response to the health crisis on a week-by-week basis. The
data set reveals a rapid increase in trade policy activism
in February and March 2020 in tandem with the rise in
COVID-19 cases, but also uncovers extensive heterogeneity
across countries in their use of trade policy and the types
of measures used. Some countries acted to restrict exports
and facilitate imports, others targeted only one of these
margins, and many did not use trade policy at all. The
observed heterogeneity suggests numerous research questions
on the drivers of trade policy responses to COVID-19, the
effects of these measures on trade and prices of critical
products, and the role of trade agreements in influencing
trade activism. |
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