31 May 2022
Brown Bag Seminar, 12:30, Anna Nussbaum Auditorium, World Trade Institute, Hallerstrasse 6, Bern, Switzerland


Inventories, Demand Shocks Propagation and Amplification in Supply Chains

by Asst. Prof Alessandro Ferrari, University of Zurich. Alessandro Ferrari received his PhD at the European University Institute in 2020 and has been an assistant professor at the University of Zurich since. He works on macroeconomics and international trade, with a particular interest in the macroeconomic consequences of firms’ behaviour.

I study the role of industries position in supply chains on the transmission of final demand shocks. First, I use a shift-share design based on destination specific final demand shocks and destination shares to show that shocks amplify upstream. Quantitatively, I find, upstream industries respond to final demand shocks up to three times as much as final goods producers. To organize the reduced form results, I develop a tractable production network model with inventories and study how the properties of the network itself and the cyclicality of inventories interact to determine whether final demand shocks amplify or dissipate upstream. I test the mechanism both by directly estimating the model and in reduced form and I find evidence of the role of inventories in explaining heterogeneous output elasticities.

Biography of the speaker
Alessandro received his PhD at the European University Institute in 2020 and has been an assistant professor at the University of Zurich since. He works on macroeconomics and international trade, with a particular interest in the macroeconomic consequences of firms behaviour.

We strongly encourage you to attend this event on-site.
In case you cannot be present in person, you can use the following Zoom link to tune in virtually:
Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87382374514?pwd=NmVzbHRNVGFqNWU3WXNDcERrR0JDdz09
Meeting ID: 873 8237 4514
Passcode: 093487

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