The Impact of Quarantine Policies on the Quality of Imports

27 Pages Posted: 10 Feb 2014

See all articles by Daniel Bunting

Daniel Bunting

NSW Treasury

Kevin J. Fox

UNSW Australia Business School, School of Economics

Date Written: January 18, 2014

Abstract

In a contribution to the sparse literature on the impacts on consumers of quarantine restrictions, an innovative approach to analyzing the effects of these policies on the prices and quality of imported products is proposed. Specifically, various index number 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 believe this to the first empirical evidence of the quality impact of biosecurity restrictions on imports.

Keywords: Quarantine, trade barriers, index numbers, quality change

JEL Classification: C43, Q18, Q57, F13, D40

Suggested Citation

Bunting, Daniel and Fox, Kevin J., The Impact of Quarantine Policies on the Quality of Imports (January 18, 2014). UNSW Australian School of Business Research Paper No. 2014-01, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2382385 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2382385

Daniel Bunting

NSW Treasury ( email )

Level 27 Governor Macquarie
1 Farrer Place
Sydney NSW, 2000
Australia

Kevin J. Fox (Contact Author)

UNSW Australia Business School, School of Economics ( email )

High Street
Sydney, NSW 2052
Australia
(02)9385-3320 (Phone)
(02)9313-6337 (Fax)

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