IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/10589.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Health Crisis, Mobility Restrictions, and Group Trade : Evidence from Small-Scale Cross-Border Transactions in the Great Lakes Region

Author

Listed:
  • John C. Keyser
  • Charles Kunaka
  • Walkenhorst,Peter

Abstract

The mobility restrictions and health measures imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic have had highly adverse impacts on small-scale cross-border trade. One coping strategy that traders have pursued is to engage in group trade, that is to combine their loads and cross the border using a larger cart or vehicle. This paper uses a cross-sectional data set derived from a survey of traders at the borders between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi and Rwanda to assess the determinants of participation in group trade. The findings from the econometric analysis point to association membership, business registration, and motorized transport as being important factors for traders’ participation in new cooperative trade arrangements. Moreover, successful group traders have been in a position to increase their incomes by reaching new clients and obtaining higher prices. These results suggest that policy efforts to promote group trade could usefully focus on enhancing the integration of small-scale traders into regional supply chains. However, group trade has mainly benefitted the better-off segments of the trader population, so that any assistance projects to enhance group trade risk further increasing the income gap in border communities.

Suggested Citation

  • John C. Keyser & Charles Kunaka & Walkenhorst,Peter, 2023. "Health Crisis, Mobility Restrictions, and Group Trade : Evidence from Small-Scale Cross-Border Transactions in the Great Lakes Region," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10589, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10589
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099248310112322309/pdf/IDU-ed71d948-a8b4-4b7d-940b-0d82654733e0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aker, Jenny C. & Klein, Michael W. & O'Connell, Stephen A. & Yang, Muzhe, 2014. "Borders, ethnicity and trade," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-16.
    2. Bonadio, Barthélémy & Huo, Zhen & Levchenko, Andrei A. & Pandalai-Nayar, Nitya, 2021. "Global supply chains in the pandemic," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    3. Sami Bensassi & Joachim Jarreau & Cristina Mitaritonna, 2019. "Regional Integration and Informal Trade in Africa: Evidence from Benin’s Borders," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 28(1), pages 89-118.
    4. Fischer, Elisabeth & Qaim, Matin, 2012. "Linking Smallholders to Markets: Determinants and Impacts of Farmer Collective Action in Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1255-1268.
    5. Walther, Olivier J. & Tenikue, Michel & Trémolières, Marie, 2019. "Economic performance, gender and social networks in West African food systems," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Stephen S. Golub, 2012. "Entrepôt Trade and Smuggling in West Africa: Benin, Togo and Nigeria," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(9), pages 1139-1161, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter Walkenhorst, 2023. "Disability, Empathy and Trade: Evidence from Small-Scale Cross-Border Transactions in Uganda," Journal of Economic Development, The Economic Research Institute, Chung-Ang University, vol. 48(4), pages 1-17.
    2. Croke,Kevin & Garcia Mora,Maria Elena & Goldstein,Markus P. & Mensah,Edouard Romeo & O'Sullivan,Michael B., 2020. "Up before Dawn : Experimental Evidence from a Cross-Border Trader Training at the Democratic Republic of Congo?Rwanda Border," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9123, The World Bank.
    3. Bensassi, Sami & Jarreau, Joachim, 2019. "Price discrimination in bribe payments: Evidence from informal cross-border trade in West Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 462-480.
    4. Sami Bensassi & Joachim Jarreau, 2019. "Price discrimination in bribe payments: Evidence from informal cross-border trade in West Africa," Post-Print hal-02390008, HAL.
    5. Eberhard-Ruiz, Andreas & Moradi, Alexander, 2019. "Regional market integration in East Africa: Local but no regional effects?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 255-268.
    6. Tasew Tadesse, 2023. "Explaining Customs Tax Evasion in Ethiopia: The Effect of Trade Tax, Law Enforcement, and Product Characteristics," Global Journal of Emerging Market Economies, Emerging Markets Forum, vol. 15(3), pages 330-353, September.
    7. Cyril Chalendard, 2015. "Use of internal information, external information acquisition and customs underreporting," Working Papers halshs-01179445, HAL.
    8. George, Ammu & Li, Changtai & Lim, Jing Zhi & Xie, Taojun, 2021. "From SARS to COVID-19: The evolving role of China-ASEAN production network," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    9. Bühler, Mathias, 2024. "Who Benefits from Free Trade?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    10. Zamani, Omid & Chibanda, Craig & Pelikan, Janine, 2021. "Investigating Alternative Poultry Trade Policies in the Context of African Countries: Evidence from Ghana," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315173, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. K. Gayathri Reddy & Varsha, P. S. & L. N. Sudheendra Rao & Amit Kumar, 2019. "Exploring dimension, perceived individual tension and capacity building measure of women empowerment in India," Asian Journal of Empirical Research, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(5), pages 111-131, May.
    12. Kifle T. Sebhatu & Fatemeh Taheri & Tekeste Berhanu & Miet Maertens & Steven Van Passel & Marijke D'Haese, 2021. "Beyond focus: Exploring variability of service provision of agricultural cooperatives," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(2), pages 207-231, June.
    13. Carlos Omar Trejo-Pech & Roselia Servín-Juárez & Álvaro Reyes-Duarte, 2023. "What sets cooperative farmers apart from non-cooperative farmers? A transaction cost economics analysis of coffee farmers in Mexico," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-24, December.
    14. Cristina Mitaritonna & Sami Bensassi & Joachim Jarreau, 2017. "Regional Integration and Informal Trade in Africa: Evidence from Benin's Borders," Working Papers 2017-21, CEPII research center.
    15. Xiang Li & Sun Sheng Han & Hao Wu, 2019. "Urban consolidation, power relations, and dilapidated residential redevelopment in Mutoulong, Shenzhen, China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(13), pages 2802-2819, October.
    16. Zhanping Hu & Qian Forrest Zhang, 2024. "Alternative agrifood systems and the economic sustainability of farmers' cooperatives: The Chinese experience," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 7447-7460, December.
    17. Chiputwa, Brian & Spielman, David J. & Qaim, Matin, 2015. "Food Standards, Certification, and Poverty among Coffee Farmers in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 400-412.
    18. Erik Braun & Emese Braun & András Gyimesi & Zita Iloskics & Tamás Sebestyén, 2023. "Exposure to trade disruptions in case of the Russia–Ukraine conflict: A product network approach," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(10), pages 2950-2982, October.
    19. Takeshima, Hiroyuki & Liverpool-Tasie, Lenis Saweda O., 2015. "Fertilizer subsidies, political influence and local food prices in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Nigeria," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 11-24.
    20. Abigail Gbemisola. Adeyonu & Timothy O. Agboola & Blessing O. Fadeyi & Bashir A. Tijani & Elizabeth Fisayo Oladapo, 2021. "Influence of membership of cooperative society on farmers’ income in rural areas of Kwara State, Nigeria," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 8(3), pages 84-89, March.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10589. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.