The University of Nairobi student Majune Kraido Socrates has been selected as the winner of the 2020 Trade Economist Thematic Award.
This is a new competition for specific research, focusing on how the coronavirus pandemic has affected trade and trade policy.
The selected panel lauded Majune’s papers, which elaborated on the effects of lockdown to trade among other issues.
Majune’s papers was dubbed “The Effect of Lockdown Policies on International Trade Flows from Developing Countries.“
He received a prize of Sh630,000 (CHF 5,000)
In his papers, Majune analysed how Kenya’s imports and exports were affected by lockdown measures that were imposed by trading partners to contain the spread of the virus.
The analysis is based on a weekly series of product-by-country data for imports and exports over a one-year period from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020.
The paper shows that the introduction of lockdown measures by trading partners led to an average increase of weekly exports from Kenya by 12 per cent and an average decline of imports by 28 per cent.
The decline in imports was mainly caused by disruption of imports by sea from countries that introduced lockdown measures.
However, for the import and export of food commodities, a notable increase was recorded of 18 per cent and 25 per cent respectively, indicating how demand for food commodities sustained Kenya’s exports.
Overall, Kenyan exports to countries that had more stringent public health policy responses were significantly lower while imports from these countries were significantly higher.
The Selection Committee found the paper outstanding both methodologically and analytically, in addition to being well written.