IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_11891.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Shocked by COVID: Exporting Along Global Value Chains

Author

Listed:
  • Holger Breinlich
  • Jun Du
  • Oleksandr Shepotylo

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of protectionist policies on exports within global value chains (GVCs), using the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment. Leveraging UK customs data (2017–2020) and a shift-share identification strategy, we estimate an elasticity of exports with respect to intermediate imports of 0.4. A one standard-deviation increase in COVID restrictions in sourcing countries led to a 3.7% decline in intermediate exports. These findings reveal a paradox: policies aimed at self-sufficiency can harm export performance by disrupting supply chains. The study highlights the vulnerabilities of GVCs and the unintended consequences of protectionist trade policies, offering insights into the trade-offs between resilience and open trade networks.

Suggested Citation

  • Holger Breinlich & Jun Du & Oleksandr Shepotylo, 2025. "Shocked by COVID: Exporting Along Global Value Chains," CESifo Working Paper Series 11891, CESifo.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11891
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp11891.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vasco M Carvalho & Makoto Nirei & Yukiko U Saito & Alireza Tahbaz-Salehi, 2021. "Supply Chain Disruptions: Evidence from the Great East Japan Earthquake," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(2), pages 1255-1321.
    2. Raphael Lafrogne-Joussier & Julien Martin & Isabelle Mejean, 2023. "Supply Shocks in Supply Chains: Evidence from the Early Lockdown in China," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 71(1), pages 170-215, March.
    3. Christoph E. Boehm & Aaron Flaaen & Nitya Pandalai-Nayar, 2019. "Input Linkages and the Transmission of Shocks: Firm-Level Evidence from the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(1), pages 60-75, March.
    4. Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham & Isaac Sorkin & Henry Swift, 2020. "Bartik Instruments: What, When, Why, and How," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(8), pages 2586-2624, August.
    5. Lebastard, Laura & Matani, Marco & Serafini, Roberta, 2023. "GVC exporter performance during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of supply bottlenecks," Working Paper Series 2766, European Central Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bricongne, Jean-Charles & Carluccio, Juan & Fontagné, Lionel & Gaulier, Guillaume & Stumpner, Sebastian, 2025. "From macro to micro: Large exporters coping with global crises," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    2. Bas, Maria & Fernandes, Ana & Paunov, Caroline, 2024. "How resilient was trade to COVID-19?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    3. Hongyong ZHANG & Thi Thanh Ha DOAN, 2023. "Global Sourcing and Firm Inventory during the Pandemic," Discussion papers 23018, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Chacha, Peter Wankuru & Kirui, Benard Kipyegon & Wiedemann, Verena, 2024. "Supply Chains in Times of Crisis: Evidence from Kenya’s Production Network," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    5. Joaquín Blaum & Federico Esposito & Sebastian Heise, 2025. "Input Sourcing Under Supply Chain Risk: Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing Firms," Staff Reports 1141, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    6. Meier, Matthias & Pinto, Eugenio, 2024. "COVID-19 Supply Chain Disruptions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    7. de Lucio, Juan & Díaz-Mora, Carmen & Mínguez, Raúl & Minondo, Asier & Requena, Francisco, 2023. "Do firms react to supply chain disruptions?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 902-916.
    8. Cajal-Grossi, Julia & Del Prete, Davide & Macchiavello, Rocco, 2023. "Supply chain disruptions and sourcing strategies," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    9. Mitsuyo ANDO & Kazunobu HAYAKAWA & Shujiro URATA & Kenta YAMANOUCHI, 2025. "Intra-firm Networks during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Discussion papers 25040, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    10. Muhammad Nadeem Sarwar, 2023. "An Evaluation of Different Tax Reform Proposals in Pakistan using CGE Model," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 62(3), pages 309-330.
    11. Abhijit Chakraborty & Tobias Reisch & Christian Diem & Pablo Astudillo-Estévez & Stefan Thurner, 2024. "Inequality in economic shock exposures across the global firm-level supply network," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    12. Alex Nikolsko‐Rzhevskyy & Oleksandr Talavera & Nam Vu, 2023. "The flood that caused a drought," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(4), pages 965-981, October.
    13. Matteo Coronese & Davide Luzzati, 2022. "Economic impacts of natural hazards and complexity science: a critical review," LEM Papers Series 2022/13, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    14. Julian Di Giovanni & Galina Hale, 2022. "Stock Market Spillovers via the Global Production Network: Transmission of U.S. Monetary Policy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(6), pages 3373-3421, December.
    15. Banu Demir & Beata Javorcik & Tomasz K. Michalski & Evren Ors, 2024. "Financial Constraints and Propagation of Shocks in Production Networks," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(2), pages 437-454, March.
    16. Sebestyén, Tamás & Szabó, Norbert & Braun, Emese & Bedő, Zsolt, 2024. "Lokális reziliencia számítása térbeli általános egyensúlyi modell felhasználásával [Measuring local resilience with a spatial computable general equilibrium model]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(11), pages 1222-1253.
    17. Hayato Kato & Toshihiro Okubo, 2022. "The Resilience of FDI to Natural Disasters Through Industrial Linkages," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(1), pages 177-225, May.
    18. Gabriel Baratte & Lionel Fontagné & Raphaël Lafrogne-Joussier, 2024. "Reorganizing global supply-chains: Who, What, How, and Where," Working Papers halshs-04851449, HAL.
    19. Alfaro, Laura & García-Santana, Manuel & Moral-Benito, Enrique, 2021. "On the direct and indirect real effects of credit supply shocks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(3), pages 895-921.
    20. Bartesaghi, Paolo & Clemente, Gian Paolo & Grassi, Rosanna & Luu, Duc Thi, 2022. "The multilayer architecture of the global input-output network and its properties," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 304-341.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid-19; mercantilism; exports; shift-share;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ces:ceswps:_11891. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.