Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/326767 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
UNU-MERIT Working Papers No. 2021-008
Publisher: 
United Nations University (UNU), Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT), Maastricht
Abstract: 
Governments around the world have taken drastic measures to contain the spread of the new Coronavirus. Policy responses to the pandemic could affect local food prices in sensitive ways. We hypothesize that mobility restrictions reduce trade, which increases food price dispersion and prices in regionally integrated markets, but not in segmented markets. We use WFP price data of 798 retail markets in 47 low to middle income countries to test if and how food prices were affected by the stringency of COVID- 19 measures. We assess market segmentation based on pre-COVID-19 price data and measure government responses using the Oxford Coronavirus Government Response Tracker. Our results show that more stringent policy responses increase food prices for integrated and less remote markets but not for segmented markets. The impact of the stringency of policy reposes on food prices is mediated by reductions in mobility and moderated by markets' pre-Corona dependency on trade.
Subjects: 
COVID-19
Prices
Food
Market Integration
Public Policy
JEL: 
H12
D4
Q11
Q18
D04
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-sa Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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