The Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on International Trade and Production in the Age of Industry 4.0: New Evidence from European Countries

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Wuhan region of China has significantly affected the exports and production of countries. Digitalization and technological developments have increased with the Industry 4.0, and COVID-19 measures accelerated this process. In this study, the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic have been investigated on international trade and production in European countries and Turkey. Accordingly, the cointegration relations between variables were examined with Westerlund panel cointegration test. As a result of the cointegration test, it is determined that there are long-term relationships between variables. The causality relationships between variables are analyzed with the Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality test. Causality analyses show that there is a unidirectional causality relationship from COVID-19 cases and deaths to export, while there is a unidirectional causality relationship from COVID-19 cases to production. The empirical findings demonstrate that COVID-19 outbreak has a significant impact on production and export processes in European countries and Turkey.

Citation

Şeker, A. (2022), "The Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on International Trade and Production in the Age of Industry 4.0: New Evidence from European Countries", Yakut, E. (Ed.) Industry 4.0 and Global Businesses, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 125-136. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-326-120211009