Endogenous Product Adjustment and Exchange Rate Pass-Through

Andreas Freitag and Sarah Lein

No 17250, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We document how product quality responds to exchange rate movements and quantify the extent to which these quality changes affect the aggregate pass-through into export prices. We analyze the substantial sudden appreciation of the Swiss franc post removal of the 1.20-CHF-per-euro lower bound in 2015 using export data representing a large share of the universe of goods exports from Switzerland. We find that firms upgrade the quality of their products after the appreciation. Furthermore, they disproportionately remove lower-quality products from their product ranges. This quality upgrading and quality sorting effect accounts for a substantial share of the total pass-through one year after the appreciation. We cross-check our results with the microdata underlying the Swiss export price index, which includes an adjustment factor for quality based on firms' reported product replacements, and obtain similar results.

Keywords: Large exchange rate shocks; Exchange rate pass-through; quality adjustment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E3 E31 E50 F14 F41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-04
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Related works:
Journal Article: Endogenous product adjustment and exchange rate pass-through (2023)
Working Paper: Endogenous Product Adjustment and Exchange Rate Pass-Through (2022)
Working Paper: Endogenous Product Adjustment and Exchange Rate Pass-Through (2022)
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