Swiss Trade During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Early Appraisal

Büchel, Konstantin; Legge, Stefan; Pochon, Vincent; Wegmüller, Philipp (September 2020). Swiss Trade During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Early Appraisal (CRED Research Paper 30). Bern: CRED - Center for Regional Economic Development

[img]
Preview
Text
CRED_Research_Paper_Nr._30.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY).

Download (577kB) | Preview

This study uses trade data from Switzerland's Federal Customs Administration to examine the impact of COVID-19 on international goods trade between January and July 2020. We show that Swiss trade during that period fell by 11% compared to 2019, and that the contraction following the “Federal Lockdown” in mid-March was considerably steeper than the Swiss trade collapse in the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in September 2008. Exploiting country variation in the spread of COVID-19, the stringency of containment measures, and Swiss trade flows, we document that the pandemic adversely affected both the demand and supply side of foreign trade. We discuss several channels at work and show that our COVID-19 measures are correlated with country-specific consumer and producer confidence series, which explain considerable heterogeneity in the observed trade dynamics.

Item Type:

Working Paper

Division/Institute:

11 Centers of Competence > Center for Regional Economic Development (CRED)
03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Department of Economics > Institute of Economics > Economic Policy and Regional Economics
03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Department of Economics > Institute of Economics

UniBE Contributor:

Büchel, Konstantin

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics

Series:

CRED Research Paper

Publisher:

CRED - Center for Regional Economic Development

Language:

English

Submitter:

Melanie Moser

Date Deposited:

05 May 2021 14:37

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:50

Uncontrolled Keywords:

COVID-19, Trade, Switzerland

JEL Classification:

E32, F14, H12, I18

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/154795

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/154795

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback