IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_8363.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Electricity Use as a Real Time Indicator of the Economic Burden of the Covid-19-Related Lockdown: Evidence from Switzerland

Author

Listed:
  • Benedikt Janzen
  • Doina Maria Radulescu

Abstract

We employ hourly electricity load data for Switzerland as a real time indicator of the economic effects of the lockdown following the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Our findings reveal that following the drastic lockdown, overall electricity use decreased by 4 per cent, with a reduction of even 11.3 per cent in the Canton of Ticino where the number of confirmed cases per capita was one of the highest in Switzerland and also stricter measures such as closures of construction sites and industrial companies were implemented on top of federal regulations. Looking at working days only, we estimate a Swiss-wide decrease in electricity consumption of 6.3 per cent. Assuming industry, services, transport and agriculture account for 67 per cent of electricity demand, the 4 per cent decrease in electricity use implies a 6 per cent output reduction in these sectors. In addition, the reduced electricity imports and the change in the generation mix of neighbouring countries, also translates into reduced CO2 emissions related to these imports.

Suggested Citation

  • Benedikt Janzen & Doina Maria Radulescu, 2020. "Electricity Use as a Real Time Indicator of the Economic Burden of the Covid-19-Related Lockdown: Evidence from Switzerland," CESifo Working Paper Series 8363, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8363
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp8363.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kovacs, Roxanne & Dunaiski, Maurice & Tukiainen, Janne, 2020. "Compulsory face mask policies do not affect community mobility in Germany," EconStor Preprints 218945, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    2. Tiba, Sofien & Omri, Anis, 2017. "Literature survey on the relationships between energy, environment and economic growth," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1129-1146.
    3. Csereklyei, Zsuzsanna, 2020. "Price and income elasticities of residential and industrial electricity demand in the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    4. Baranzini, Andrea & Weber, Sylvain & Bareit, Markus & Mathys, Nicole A., 2013. "The causal relationship between energy use and economic growth in Switzerland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 464-470.
    5. Sophia Chen & Ms. Deniz O Igan & Mr. Nicola Pierri & Mr. Andrea F Presbitero, 2020. "Tracking the Economic Impact of COVID-19 and Mitigation Policies in Europe and the United States," IMF Working Papers 2020/125, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Michael Lokshin & Iván Torre, 2021. "Opening-Up Trajectories and Economic Recovery: Lessons after the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 67(3), pages 332-369.
    2. Benedikt Janzen & Doina Maria Radulescu, 2021. "Effects of Covid-19 Related Government Response Stringency and Support Policies: Evidence from European Firms," CESifo Working Paper Series 9116, CESifo.
    3. Robert Lehmann & Sascha Möhrle, 2022. "Forecasting Regional Industrial Production with High-Frequency Electricity Consumption Data," CESifo Working Paper Series 9917, CESifo.
    4. Janzen, Benedikt & Radulescu, Doina, 2022. "Effects of COVID-19 related government response stringency and support policies: Evidence from European firms," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 129-145.
    5. Menezes, Flavio & Figer, Vivian & Jardim, Fernanda & Medeiros, Pedro, 2022. "A near real-time economic activity tracker for the Brazilian economy during the COVID-19 pandemic," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Menezes, Flavio & Figer, Vivian & Jardim, Fernanda & Medeiros, Pedro, 2022. "A near real-time economic activity tracker for the Brazilian economy during the COVID-19 pandemic," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    2. Łukasz Nazarko & Eigirdas Žemaitis & Łukasz Krzysztof Wróblewski & Karel Šuhajda & Magdalena Zajączkowska, 2022. "The Impact of Energy Development of the European Union Euro Area Countries on CO 2 Emissions Level," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-12, February.
    3. Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Michael Lokshin & Iván Torre, 2021. "Opening-Up Trajectories and Economic Recovery: Lessons after the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 67(3), pages 332-369.
    4. Shanshan Guo & Yanfang Zhang & Xiangyan Qian & Zhang Ming & Rui Nie, 2019. "Urbanization and CO2 emissions in resource-exhausted cities: evidence from Xuzhou city, China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 99(2), pages 807-826, November.
    5. Sebastian Doerr & Leonardo Gambacorta & José María Serena Garralda, 2021. "Big data and machine learning in central banking," BIS Working Papers 930, Bank for International Settlements.
    6. Smyth, Russell & Narayan, Paresh Kumar, 2015. "Applied econometrics and implications for energy economics research," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 351-358.
    7. Eva Litavcová & Jana Chovancová, 2021. "Economic Development, CO 2 Emissions and Energy Use Nexus-Evidence from the Danube Region Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-23, May.
    8. Steve Cicala, 2020. "Powering Work From Home," Working Papers 2020-147, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    9. Beyer, Robert C.M. & Franco-Bedoya, Sebastian & Galdo, Virgilio, 2021. "Examining the economic impact of COVID-19 in India through daily electricity consumption and nighttime light intensity," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    10. Sohail Abbas & Shazia Kousar & Amber Pervaiz, 2021. "Effects of energy consumption and ecological footprint on CO2 emissions: an empirical evidence from Pakistan," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 13364-13381, September.
    11. Atanu Ghoshray & Yurena Mendoza & Mercedes Monfort & Javier Ordoñez, 2018. "Re-assessing causality between energy consumption and economic growth," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, November.
    12. Frank Kelly, 2022. "Resource pooling in electricity grids: wind, storage and transmission," Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 100(3), pages 461-463, April.
    13. Fateh Belaïd & Christophe Rault & Camille Massié, 2022. "A life-cycle theory analysis of French household electricity demand," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 501-530, April.
    14. Leal, Patrícia Hipólito & Marques, António Cardoso, 2020. "Rediscovering the EKC hypothesis for the 20 highest CO2 emitters among OECD countries by level of globalization," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 36-47.
    15. Marques, António Cardoso & Fuinhas, José Alberto & Neves, Sónia Almeida, 2018. "Ordinary and Special Regimes of electricity generation in Spain: How they interact with economic activity," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 1226-1240.
    16. Anna Scherbina, 2021. "Assessing the Optimality of a COVID Lockdown in the United States," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 177-201, July.
    17. Nicoletta Batini & Francesco Lamperti & Andrea Roventini, 2020. "Reducing risk while sharing it: a fiscal recipe for the EU at the time of COVID-19," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-04090084, HAL.
    18. Yi Zuo & Ying-ling Shi & Yu-zhuo Zhang, 2017. "Research on the Sustainable Development of an Economic-Energy-Environment (3E) System Based on System Dynamics (SD): A Case Study of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-23, September.
    19. Irene M. Zarco-Soto & Fco. Javier Zarco-Soto & Pedro J. Zarco-Periñán, 2021. "Influence of Population Income on Energy Consumption and CO 2 Emissions in Buildings of Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-18, September.
    20. Bricongne, Jean-Charles & Meunier, Baptiste & Pouget, Sylvain, 2023. "Web-scraping housing prices in real-time: The Covid-19 crisis in the UK," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(PB).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid-19; economic indicator; electricity load; CO2 emissions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • C30 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8363. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.