Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

The Economic Impact of the Pandemic in Rwanda: An Analysis of Firm-Level VAT Data

Show simple item record

dc.creator Mascagni, Giulia
dc.creator Lees, Adrienne
dc.date 2022-05-05T12:03:15Z
dc.date 2022-05-05T12:03:15Z
dc.date 2022-04-20
dc.date.accessioned 2022-05-26T08:55:43Z
dc.date.available 2022-05-26T08:55:43Z
dc.identifier Giulia Mascagni, Adrienne Lees, The Economic Impact of the Pandemic in Rwanda: An Analysis of Firm-Level VAT Data, Journal of African Economies, 2022, ejac009, DOI: 10.1093/jae/ejac009
dc.identifier https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17374
dc.identifier https://academic.oup.com/jae/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jae/ejac009/6571042
dc.identifier Governance
dc.identifier 10.1093/jae/ejac009
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/199164
dc.description There are substantial differences in the spread of the covid-19 pandemic and policy responses to it between high- and low-income countries. While evidence on the former is growing, there remain more unanswered questions on the latter. This paper addresses this gap by providing insights on the impact of the pandemic in Rwanda, based on firm-level administrative data from Value Added Tax (VAT) returns. We find that VAT sales in 2020 declined by 11.4 % compared to 2019. These losses are particularly associated with a lockdown imposed around April 2020, after which sales quickly rebounded to pre-crisis levels once restrictions were lifted. In absolute terms, the economic cost is concentrated among the largest firms. However, small firms have been most affected in proportional terms. Disaggregating our results further, we show that firms in accommodation and food, transport services, wholesale and retail trade, as well as those registered in the capital, have been particularly affected by the crisis. Overall, the decline in sales translated to a similarly large percentage loss in VAT revenue for the government.
dc.language en
dc.publisher Oxford University Press
dc.rights Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights Journal of African Economies
dc.subject Governance
dc.title The Economic Impact of the Pandemic in Rwanda: An Analysis of Firm-Level VAT Data
dc.type Article


Files in this item

Files Size Format View
ejac009.pdf 1.324Mb application/pdf View/Open

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record

Search DSpace


Advanced Search

Browse