IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/sjecst/v156y2020i1d10.1186_s41937-020-00069-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Swiss trade during the COVID-19 pandemic: an early appraisal

Author

Listed:
  • Konstantin Büchel

    (Department of Economics & Center for Regional Economic Development (CRED), University of Bern)

  • Stefan Legge

    (Department of Economics, SIAW Institute, University of St.Gallen)

  • Vincent Pochon

    (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO))

  • Philipp Wegmüller

    (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO))

Abstract

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. Examining cross-country variation in Covid-19 cases, 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, while trade restrictions and exchange rate fluctuations played no major role behind the rapid decline of Swiss trade in the first half of 2020.

Suggested Citation

  • Konstantin Büchel & Stefan Legge & Vincent Pochon & Philipp Wegmüller, 2020. "Swiss trade during the COVID-19 pandemic: an early appraisal," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 156(1), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sjecst:v:156:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1186_s41937-020-00069-3
    DOI: 10.1186/s41937-020-00069-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s41937-020-00069-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s41937-020-00069-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 691-751, September.
    2. Jonathan Eaton & Samuel Kortum & Brent Neiman & John Romalis, 2016. "Trade and the Global Recession," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(11), pages 3401-3438, November.
    3. Maliszewska,Maryla & Mattoo,Aaditya & Van Der Mensbrugghe,Dominique, 2020. "The Potential Impact of COVID-19 on GDP and Trade : A Preliminary Assessment," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9211, The World Bank.
    4. Adrian Jäggi & Martin Schlegel & Attilio Zanetti, 2019. "Macroeconomic surprises, market environment, and safe-haven currencies," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 155(1), pages 1-21, December.
    5. Sebastian Benz & Frédéric Gonzales & Annabelle Mourougane, 2020. "The Impact of COVID-19 international travel restrictions on services-trade costs," OECD Trade Policy Papers 237, OECD Publishing.
    6. David S Jacks & Krishna Pendakur, 2010. "Global Trade and the Maritime Transport Revolution," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 745-755, November.
    7. Ana P. Fernandes & Heiwai Tang, 2020. "How Did the 2003 SARS Epidemic Shape Chinese Trade?," CESifo Working Paper Series 8312, CESifo.
    8. Michael A. Clemens & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2004. "Why did the Tariff--Growth Correlation Change after 1950?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 5-46, March.
    9. Rudolfs Bems & Robert C. Johnson & Kei-Mu Yi, 2013. "The Great Trade Collapse," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 375-400, May.
    10. Miklós Koren & Rita Pető, 2020. "Business disruptions from social distancing," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-14, September.
    11. Irwin, Douglas A., 2002. "Long-run trends in world trade and income," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 89-100, March.
    12. Sandra Hanslin Grossmann & Sarah M. Lein & Caroline Schmidt, 2016. "Exchange rate and foreign GDP elasticities of Swiss exports across sectors and destination countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(57), pages 5546-5562, December.
    13. Freund, Caroline, 2009. "The trade response to global downturns : historical evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5015, The World Bank.
    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. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Anamaria Diana Sova & Robert Sova, 2024. "The Covid‐19 pandemic and European trade flows: Evidence from a dynamic panel model," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 2563-2580, July.
    2. Abdullah Altun & Pinar Tat & Halit Yanikkaya, 2023. "The Role of Covid-19 Policy Responses on GVC Participation: The Turkish Experience," Working Papers 2023-01, Gebze Technical University, Department of Economics.
    3. Alexandre Olbrecht, 2021. "Human Suffering and Natural Experiments: How Empirical Economics can unmask the devastation of Covid-19," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 47(4), pages 461-463, October.
    4. Oleksandr SHNYRKOV & Oleksii CHUGAIEV, 2020. "Resilience Of The Eu Exports To Ukraine Under The Covid-19 Pandemic," EURINT, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 7, pages 80-100.
    5. Daniel Goller & Stefan C. Wolter, 2021. "“Too shocked to search” The COVID-19 shutdowns’ impact on the search for apprenticeships," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 157(1), pages 1-15, December.
    6. de Lucio, Juan & Mínguez, Raúl & Minondo, Asier & Requena, Francisco, 2022. "Impact of Covid-19 containment measures on trade," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 766-778.
    7. Taeil Kim & Sunghwa Park & Hanna Kim & Janghan Kwon, 2023. "Estimating the Impact of COVID-19 on International Trade: Cases of Major Countries Using the SUR Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-17, December.
    8. Wegmüller, Philipp & Glocker, Christian & Guggia, Valentino, 2023. "Weekly economic activity: Measurement and informational content," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 228-243.

    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. Borin, Alessandro & Di Nino, Virginia & Mancini, Michele & Sbracia, Massimo, 2016. "The Cyclicality of the Income Elasticity of Trade," MPRA Paper 73000, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Joseph F. Francois & Julia Wörz, 2011. "Shifts in International Trade and Value Added from 1995 to 2007: Insights into the Drivers of Growth," Focus on European Economic Integration, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 3, pages 37-56.
    3. Åsa Johansson & Eduardo Olaberría, 2014. "Global Trade and Specialisation Patterns Over the Next 50 Years," OECD Economic Policy Papers 10, OECD Publishing.
    4. Anna Watson, 2021. "Trade credit, trade income elasticity and the international transmission of shocks," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(4), pages 687-733, December.
    5. Åsa Johansson & Eduardo Olaberría, 2014. "Long-term Patterns of Trade and Specialisation," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1136, OECD Publishing.
    6. Rudolfs Bems & Robert C Johnson & Kei-Mu Yi, 2010. "Demand Spillovers and the Collapse of Trade in the Global Recession," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 58(2), pages 295-326, December.
    7. Ariu, Andrea, 2016. "Crisis-proof services: Why trade in services did not suffer during the 2008–2009 collapse," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 138-149.
    8. Patrice Ollivaud & Cyrille Schwellnus, 2015. "Does the post-crisis weakness of global trade solely reflect weak demand?," OECD Journal: Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2015(1), pages 269-267.
    9. Zymek, Robert, 2015. "Factor proportions and the growth of world trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 42-53.
    10. Kevin Hjortshøj O’Rourke, 2018. "Two Great Trade Collapses: The Interwar Period and Great Recession Compared," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 66(3), pages 418-439, September.
    11. Liu, Dan & Meissner, Christopher M., 2015. "Market potential and the rise of US productivity leadership," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 72-87.
    12. Anna Watson, 2019. "Financial Frictions, the Great Trade Collapse and International Trade over the Business Cycle," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 19-64, February.
    13. Jaime Martínez-Martín, 2016. "Breaking down world trade elasticities: a panel ECM approach," Working Papers 1614, Banco de España.
    14. Nadia Garbellini & Enrico Marelli & Ariel Luis Wirkierman, 2014. "Domestic demand and global production in the Eurozone: A multi-regional input-output assessment of the global crisis," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 336-364, May.
    15. Jutta Günther & Maria Kristalova & Udo Ludwig, 2019. "Structural stability of the research & development sector in European economies despite the economic crisis," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(5), pages 1415-1432, November.
    16. Marc Auboin & Floriana Borino, 2018. "The Falling Elasticity of Global Trade to Economic Activity: Testing the Demand Channel," CESifo Working Paper Series 7228, CESifo.
    17. Auboin, Marc & Borino, Floriana, 2017. "The falling elasticity of global trade to economic activity: Testing the demand channel," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2017-09, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    18. Joseph F Francois & Julia Worz, 2011. "Structural Components of International Trade Growth 1995–2009," Chapters, in: Ewald Nowotny & Peter Mooslechner & Doris Ritzberger-Grünwald (ed.), Post-Crisis Growth and Integration in Europe, chapter 22, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. O'Rourke, Kevin, 2017. "Two Great Trade Collapses: The Interwar Period & Great Recession Compared," CEPR Discussion Papers 12286, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Peter A.G. van Bergeijk, 2019. "Deglobalization 2.0," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18560.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid-19; Trade; Switzerland;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    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:spr:sjecst:v:156:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1186_s41937-020-00069-3. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.