IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eecrev/v163y2024ics0014292123002830.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Covid and productivity in Europe: A responsiveness perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Cooper, Russell
  • Horn, Carl-Wolfram
  • Indraccolo, Leonardo

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of Covid-19 on manufacturing output, employment and productivity across a set of European countries. Using a quantitative firm dynamics model with endogenous entry and exit, key parameters of adjustment costs and market power are estimated to match country-specific responsiveness of firms to exogenous shocks. The estimated model is used to simulate the effects of the Covid-19 shock, with and without policy measures. As seen through counterfactual exercises, the main impact of the policy interventions, treated here as work-sharing schemes targeted to low profitability firms and “no-firing” obligations, was to mitigate the drop in aggregate employment by keeping firms in business. Depending on the country, we calculate that the aggregate drop in employment would have been between 1.0 and 1.9 percentage points higher without policy support. We do not find evidence of adverse productivity effects from these interventions. From these counterfactuals, we establish the importance of targeted subsidies and the sensitivity of employment responses to firm beliefs.

Suggested Citation

  • Cooper, Russell & Horn, Carl-Wolfram & Indraccolo, Leonardo, 2024. "Covid and productivity in Europe: A responsiveness perspective," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:163:y:2024:i:c:s0014292123002830
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2023.104655
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292123002830
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2023.104655?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:163:y:2024:i:c:s0014292123002830. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eer .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.