The Sources and Magnitudes of Switzerland’s Gains from Trade

Artikel

This paper uses the modern workhorse model of quantitative trade theory (Eaton and Kortum, 2002) as a measurement tool to quantify Switzerland's gains from trade. I find that individual trading partners matter surprisingly little for Switzerland's welfare because of reallocation effects: if trade between Switzerland and some partner country is inhibited, other supplier countries step into the breach so that the losses are limited andtypically amount to less than 1%. The conclusions are different if one considers groups of countries such as for example the EU: participating in a multilateral 25% trade cost reduction increases Swiss welfare by 11% relative to the status quo. However, it must also be noted that in the case of non-participation, the actual welfare losses relative to the status quo are modest with less than 1%.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal: Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics ; ISSN: 2235-6282 ; Volume: 152 ; Year: 2016 ; Issue: 1 ; Pages: 1-21 ; Heidelberg: Springer

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Trade: General ; Neoclassical Models of Trade ; Empirical Studies of Trade
• Subject: gains from trade ; Switzerland ; development accounting

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Hepenstrick, Christian
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Springer
• (where): Heidelberg
• (when): 2016

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.1007/BF03399420
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/186054
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET