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Cross-Border Shopping: Evidence and Welfare Implications for Switzerland

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  • Ariel Burstein
  • Sarah M. Lein
  • Jonathan Vogel

Abstract

Consumers access foreign goods by purchasing them domestically or shopping abroad. We present new facts on cross-border shopping by Swiss households showing, for example, that prices of identical products are lower in neighboring countries, cross-border shopping shares fall with distance to the border, and price gaps and cross-border shopping shares rose following the 2015 Swiss Franc appreciation. We use a simple model of cross-border shopping to quantify how variation across space in cross-border shopping results in heterogeneous changes in cost-of-living in response to changes in international prices such as the 2015 Swiss Franc Appreciation and the 2020 Covid-19-related closing of the border.

Suggested Citation

  • Ariel Burstein & Sarah M. Lein & Jonathan Vogel, 2024. "Cross-Border Shopping: Evidence and Welfare Implications for Switzerland," NBER Working Papers 33006, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33006
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F41 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Open Economy Macroeconomics
    • F60 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - General

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