Export policy cooperation in a pandemic: the good, the bad and the hopeful

Abstract

We develop a model in which vaccine-producing firms from different developed countries supply vaccines to the developing world during a pandemic. Exporting countries experience a negative externality from incomplete global vaccination, which they try to mitigate by exporting vaccines to developing countries. A cooperative export policy is compared to the alternative regimes of non-cooperation and non-intervention. When the negative externality is low, cooperation among exporting countries is worse for global welfare than non-intervention. However, at high externality levels, export policy cooperation is globally superior to non-cooperative export subsidization. It then even has the potential to maximize global welfare.