Trade crisis?: what trade crisis?

Behrens, Kristian, Corcos, Gregory and Mion, Giordano (2013) Trade crisis?: what trade crisis? Review of Economics and Statistics, 95 (2). pp. 702-709. ISSN 0034-6535

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Abstract

We investigate the dramatic 2008–2009 trade collapse using microdata from a small open economy, Belgium. Belgian trade essentially fell because of reduced quantities and unit prices, rather than fewer firms involved in international transactions, fewer trading partners per firm, or fewer products traded. Our difference-in-difference results point to a fall in the demand for tradables – especially durables and capital goods – as the main driver of the recent collapse. Finance and involvement in global value chains played only minor roles. Firm-level exports-to-turnover and imports-to-intermediates – as well as exports-to-production and imports-to-production – ratios reveal a comparable collapse of domestic and cross-border operations. Access to credit affected both types of activities to the same extent. Overall, our results point to a general fall in demand and not a crisis of Belgian cross-border trade per se.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/rest
Additional Information:	© 2012 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Divisions:	Geography & Environment Spatial Economics Research Centre Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
JEL classification:	F - International Economics > F0 - General > F01 - Global Outlook F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F10 - General F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F14 - Country and Industry Studies of Trade
Date Deposited:	20 Mar 2012 11:37
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 00:18
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/42664

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