Crisis-proof services: Why trade in services did not suffer during the 2008-2009 collapse

Andrea Ariu

No 284, Working Paper Research from National Bank of Belgium

Abstract: During the 2008-2009 crisis, trade in goods fell by almost 30%. In contrast, trade in business, telecommunication and financial services continued growing at their pre-crisis rates and only services related to transport declined. Using trade data at the firm-product-destination level for Belgium, I show that during the crisis the elasticity of services exports with respect to GDP growth in destination countries was significantly different from that of goods exports. In particular, the negative income shock in partner countries affected exports of goods but not exports of services. This difference is economically sizable: if goods exports had had the same elasticity to GDP growth as services exports, their fall during the 2008-2009 collapse would have been only half what was observed.

Keywords: Trade Collapse; Service Resilience; Trade in Services and Goods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F14 L80 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2015-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Crisis-proof services: Why trade in services did not suffer during the 2008–2009 collapse (2016)
Working Paper: Crisis-proof services: Why trade in services did not suffer during the 2008-2009 collapse (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbb:reswpp:201507-284

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