Majune Kraido Socrates of the University of Nairobi has been selected as the winner of the 2020 Trade Economist Thematic Award, a new competition for specific research, which this year focused on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected trade and trade policy. His paper, “The Effect of Lockdown Policies on International Trade Flows from Developing Countries: Event Study Evidence from Kenya” was praised by the Selection Committee for its methodology and analysis. In his papers, Majune analysed how Kenya's imports and exports were affected by lock down measures that were imposed by trading partners to contain the spread of the virus.
The analysis over a one year period from July 1 2019, to June 30 2020, looked at a weekly series of product-by-country data for imports and exports, showing the introduction of lockdown measures by trading partners led to an average increase of weekly exports from Kenya by 12 percent and an average decline of imports by 28 per cent. This clearly indicates how Kenya's imports and exports were greatly affected by the lockdowb measures imposed on trading partners as an effort to contain the spread of the virus.
He receives a prize of Kes 630,000 (CHF 5,000).
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