Abstract

We employ hourly electricity load data for Switzerland as a real-time indicator of the economic effects of the lockdown following the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Our findings reveal that following the drastic lockdown, overall electricity use decreased by 4.6%, with a reduction of even 14.3% in the Canton of Ticino where the number of confirmed cases per capita was one of the highest in Switzerland and also stricter measures such as closures of construction sites and industrial companies were implemented on top of federal regulations. Looking at working days only, we estimate a Swiss-wide decrease in electricity consumption of 7.4%. Assuming industry, services, transport, and agriculture account for 67% of electricity demand, the 4.6% decrease in electricity use implies an almost 7% output reduction in these sectors. In addition, the reduced electricity imports and the change in the generation mix of neighbouring countries, also translates into reduced CO₂ emissions related to these imports. (JEL codes: C53, Q4, C3)

中文翻译：

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用电作为COVID-19相关封锁的经济负担的实时指标：来自瑞士的证据

摘要

我们使用瑞士的每小时电力负荷数据作为SARS-CoV-2传播后封锁的经济影响的实时指标。我们的发现表明，在严峻的封锁之后，总体用电量减少了4.6％，提契诺州的用电量甚至减少了14.3％，那里的人均确诊病例数是瑞士最高的病例之一，并且采取了更严格的措施关闭建筑工地和工业公司是在联邦法规的基础上实施的。仅在工作日，我们估计瑞士范围内的用电量减少7.4％。假设工业，服务业，交通运输业和农业占电力需求的67％，则用电量减少4.6％意味着这些部门的产量减少了近7％。此外，₂与这些进口有关的排放。（JEL代码：C53，Q4，C3）