Customs

Date
Jun 2016
In this paper, we estimate the effects of custom-related delays on firms'exports. In so doing, we use a unique dataset that consists of the universe
of Uruguay's export transactions over the period 2002-2011 and includes
precise information on the actual time it took for each of these transactions
to go through customs. We account for potential endogeneity of these
processing times by exploiting the conditional random allocation of
shipments to different verification channels associated with the use of riskbased control procedures. Results suggest that delays have a significant
negative impact on firms' exports along several dimensions. Effects are
more pronounced on sales to newer buyers.