World Trade Review

Table of Contents - July 2012 - Volume 11, Issue 03 (Symposium Issue: Standards and Non-Tariff Barriers in Trade)  

Review Article

A second look at the pesticides initiative program: evidence from Senegal

MELISE JAUDa1 c1 and OLIVIER CADOTa2 c2

a1 The World Bank

a2 University of Lausanne, CEPR, CEPREMAP, and FERDi

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the Pesticides Initiative Program has significantly affected the export performance of Senegal's horticulture industry. We apply two main microeconometric techniques, difference-in-differences and matching difference-in-differences, to identify the effect of the Pesticides Initiative Program on exports of fresh fruits and vegetables. We use a unique firm-level dataset containing data on sales, employment, and exports by product and destination markets, as well as firm enrolment year, over 2000–2008. The results suggest that while the program had no significant effect on exports pooled over all products and destinations, it had a positive effect when considering fresh fruits and vegetables exports to the European Union.

Correspondence:

c1 Email: mjaud@worldbank.org

c2 Email: olivier.cadot@unil.ch

Footnotes

This paper is part of a joint program of Switzerland's NCCR and the World Bank on the application of impact-evaluation methods to trade-related interventions. Cadot worked on this paper while at the World Bank's Trade Division. Without implicating them, we would like to express our thanks to Céline Carrère, Anne-Céola Disdier, Ana Fernandes, Julien Gourdon, Jaime de Melo, Marcelo Olarreaga, Alberto Portugal, Akiko Suwa-Eisenmann, two anonymous referees, and Jo Swinnen, editor of the WTR's special issue, for useful comments. We are also grateful to the European Commission and to Senegal's \iDirection Générale des Douanes and Agence Nationale de la Statistique et de la Démographie for access to their data.