COVID-19, Public Procurement Regimes, and Trade Policy
This paper analyzes a prominent dimension of the initial policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic observed in many countries: the imposition of export restrictions and actions to facilitate imports. Weekly data on the use of trade policy instrument...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/370161610741846300/COVID-19-Public-Procurement-Regimes-and-Trade-Policy http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35026 |
| Summary: | This paper analyzes a prominent
dimension of the initial policy response to the COVID-19
pandemic observed in many countries: the imposition of
export restrictions and actions to facilitate imports.
Weekly data on the use of trade policy instruments during
the first seven months of the COVID-19 pandemic
(January-July 2020) are used to assess the relationship
between the use of trade policy instruments and attributes
of pre-crisis public procurement regulation. Controlling for
country size, government effectiveness and economic factors,
the analysis finds that use of export restrictions targeting
medical products is strongly positively correlated with the
total number of steps and time required to complete
procurement processes in the pre-crisis period. Membership
in trade agreements encompassing public procurement
disciplines is associated with actions to facilitate trade
in medical products. These findings suggest that future
empirical assessments of the drivers of trade policy during
the pandemic should consider public procurement systems. |
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