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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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).
    4. 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.
    5. Bernard, Tanguy & Spielman, David J., 2009. "Reaching the rural poor through rural producer organizations? A study of agricultural marketing cooperatives in Ethiopia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 60-69, February.
    6. 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.
    7. 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. 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.
    3. Dinesh Dhakal & David O’Brien & Peter Mueser, 2021. "Government Policy and Performance of Agricultural Cooperatives: A Case Study in Chitwan District, Nepal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Kumse, Kaittisak & Suzuki, Nobuhiro & Sato, Takeshi & Demont, Matty, 2021. "The spillover effect of direct competition between marketing cooperatives and private intermediaries: Evidence from the Thai rice value chain," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    5. 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.
    6. Guyo Godana Dureti & Martin Paul Jr. Tabe‐Ojong & Enoch Owusu‐Sekyere, 2023. "The new normal? Cluster farming and smallholder commercialization in Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(6), pages 900-920, November.
    7. Jiang, Meishan & Li, Jingrong & Mi, Yunsheng, 2024. "Farmers’ cooperatives and smallholder farmers’ access to credit: Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    8. Yuanyuan Peng & H. Holly Wang & Yueshu Zhou, 2022. "Can cooperatives help commercial farms to access credit in China? Evidence from Jiangsu Province," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 70(4), pages 325-349, December.
    9. Herbert, Ainembabazi & Asten, Piet & Vanlauwe, Bernard & Ouma, Emily & Blomme, Guy & Birachi, Eliud & Manyong, Victor M. & Macharia, Ibrahim, 2015. "Improving the adoption of agricultural technologies and farm performance through farmer groups: Evidence from the Great Lakes Region of Africa," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 210939, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Biggeri, Mario & Carraro, Alessandro & Ciani, Federico & Romano, Donato, 2022. "Disentangling the impact of a multiple-component project on SDG dimensions: The case of durum wheat value chain development in Oromia (Ethiopia)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    11. Abebaw, Degnet & Haile, Mekbib G., 2013. "The impact of cooperatives on agricultural technology adoption: Empirical evidence from Ethiopia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 82-91.
    12. Aniseh S. Bro & Daniel C. Clay & David L. Ortega & Maria C. Lopez, 2019. "Determinants of adoption of sustainable production practices among smallholder coffee producers in Nicaragua," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 895-915, April.
    13. Abebayehu Girma Geffersa, 2024. "Does cooperative membership enhance inorganic fertilizer use intensity? Panel data evidence from maize farmers in Ethiopia," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(2), pages 327-361, June.
    14. 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.
    15. Sami Bensassi & Joachim Jarreau, 2019. "Price discrimination in bribe payments: Evidence from informal cross-border trade in West Africa," Post-Print hal-02390008, HAL.
    16. Sharvari Patil & Mita Mehta & Garima Pancholi & Abhineet Saxena, 2025. "Unveiling the dynamics of farmer producer organizations in India: a systematic review of status, challenges, and future directions," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, December.
    17. Linlin Fu & Wenhuan Peng & Xinjie Shi, 2022. "Do cooperatives exclude small-scale farming households? Evidence from Fuchuan County, Guangxi Province," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(8), pages 1-14, August.
    18. Fischer, Elisabeth & Qaim, Matin, 2012. "Gender, Agricultural Commercialization, and Collective Action in Kenya," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126659, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Wachira Petcho & Sylvia Szabo & Kyoko Kusakabe & Vimolwan Yukongdi, 2019. "Farmers’ Perception and Drivers of Membership in Rice Production Community Enterprises: Evidence from the Central Region, Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, October.
    20. Wanglin Ma & Awudu Abdulai, 2017. "The economic impacts of agricultural cooperatives on smallholder farmers in rural China," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 537-551, September.

    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.