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The Impact of Quarantine Policies on the Quality of Imports

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Bunting

    (New South Wales Treasury)

  • Kevin J. Fox

    (School of Economics, Australian School of Business, the University of New South Wales)

Abstract

In a contribution to the sparse literature on the impacts on consumers of quarantine restrictions, an innovative approach to analysing the effects of these policies on the prices and quality of imported products is proposed. Specifically, various index num- ber decompositions at different aggregation levels are considered for extracting quality changes from changes in the value of an imported good. Consistent with theory, an empirical application to mango imports for Australia reveals an increase in the quality of the imported bundle after the introduction of a new quarantine restriction. We be- lieve this to the first empirical evidence of the quality impact of biosecurity restrictions on imports.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Bunting & Kevin J. Fox, 2014. "The Impact of Quarantine Policies on the Quality of Imports," Discussion Papers 2014-01, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    • Handle: RePEc:swe:wpaper:2014-01
    as

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    File URL: http://research.economics.unsw.edu.au/RePEc/papers/2014-01.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Quarantine; trade barriers; index numbers; quality change;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy
    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General

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