TARC workshop: COVID-19 and Developing Countries

19th June 2020 11.30 - 16.00 BST

Public Policies, Institutions and Developing Countries: What are the strategic challenges to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic?

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the health, social fabric of society, and the economy of countries across the globe. All countries to date have reported COVID-19 infected cases, but they have followed different trajectories, as both their exposure to the virus, response, and level of preparedness have differed. Developing countries in particular are likely to be hit hardest, and the impact can be more long-lasting aggravating existing challenges.

The response of countries to control the spread of COVID-19 has been to impose movement restrictions (‘lockdown’). How effective mobility restrictions have been in halting the spread of COVID-19 in developing countries? How do optimal policies to control the spread of the pandemic vary across countries? And how do they depend on factors such as demography, comorbidities, health system strength as well as poverty? Has lockdown policies affected conflict?

Revenue mobilization in developing countries has been an urgent issue over the years but now with the pandemic it becomes more even more challenging as governments announce relief measures to ease the impact of the pandemic. To what extent relief measures reach households and more vulnerable groups in particular? How are attitudes towards taxation changing in response to the crisis?

These are some of the important issues the workshop addressed. Click on the links to download the presentations.

Workshop Programme

11:30 - 12:00 Tushar Bharati University of Western Australia Business School

Pandemic Catch-22: How effective are mobility restrictions in halting the spread of COVID-19 in developing countries?

12:10 - 12:40 Enerelt Murakami JICA Research Institute Tokyo Japan

The potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the welfare of remittance-dependent households in the Philippines.

12:50 - 13:20 Giulia Mascagni International Centre for Tax and Development & Institute of Development Studies, UK

Tracking Covid-19’s implications in Africa: Tax burdens, tax attitudes, and the reach of tax relief.

14:00 - 14:30 Ingvild Almås & Tillmann von Carnap Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden

The Macroeconomics of Pandemics in Developing Countries: an Application to Uganda.

14:40 - 15:20 David Lagakos University of California, USA

How should policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic differ in the developing world?

15:30-16:00 Rohit Ticku Chapman University, USA

Shutdown Policies and worldwide conflict.

16.15 Workshop close