STEG Project Policy Brief
• Research Theme 0: Data, Measurement, and Conceptual Framing,
Research Theme 2: Labour, Home Production, and Structural Transformation at the Level of the Household,
Research Theme 4: Trade and Spatial Frictions,
Research Theme 5: The Role of the Public Sector,
Cross-Cutting Issue 1: Gender,
Cross-Cutting Issue 3: Inequality and Inclusion
Trade Exposure and Social Cohesion: Evidence from Uganda
This project provides new evidence on the link between trade exposure and various dimensions of social cohesion, such as trust, identity and participation, in the context of Uganda. The study constructs measures of “exposure” to international price shocks for firms, workers and households and links it to data on public attitudes at locality levels. The underlying intuition of these exposure measures is that internationally trading firms as well as workers working at such firms, and household that consume more of imported goods, are more susceptible to this international price shocks, thus providing a causal pathway how trade may affect social cohesion. The results suggest that trade exposure is a relevant predictor of social cohesion and therefore trade shocks may cumulate into social disintegration.
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