COVID-19 and regional shifts in Swiss retail payments

Sébastien Kraenzlin, Christoph Meyer and Thomas Nellen

Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, 2020, vol. 156, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: Abstract This paper analyzes card payments to the retail sector in Switzerland during the COVID-19 crisis. We provide evidence on aggregate effects and regional shifts. Pronounced shifts—which persisted post-lockdown—can be observed from urban to suburban and rural areas and among cantons. Data allow us to identify directly two sources of shifts: “tourists and business travelers” and “e-commerce.” We indirectly identify additional sources: infection risk, lockdown measures, working from home, shopping tourism, and cash substitution. The COVID-19 crisis seems to have reinforced pre-existing trends that may have faster than anticipated effects on the economy. Our analysis underscores the usefulness of real-time card payment data to inform policymakers.

Keywords: COVID-19; Lockdown; Card payment data; Regional sale shifts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E21 E42 E65 E71 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s41937-020-00061-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
Working Paper: COVID-19 and regional shifts in Swiss retail payments (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sjecst:v:156:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1186_s41937-020-00061-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/41937

DOI: 10.1186/s41937-020-00061-x

Access Statistics for this article

Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics is currently edited by Marius Brülhart

More articles in Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics from Springer, Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().