Global trade contracted quickly and severely during the global crisis. This paper, using a unique dataset of French firms, matching together export data with firm-level credit constraints, shows that most of the 2008-2009 trade collapse is accounted by the unprecedented demand shock and by...

The unprecedented drop in international trade during the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 has mainly been analysed at the macroeconomic or sectoral level. However, exporters who are heterogeneous in terms of productivity, size or external financial dependence should be...

Growing current account imbalances within the euro area between 1999 and 2007 were not driven by divergences in export performance between surplus and deficit countries. While current account dynamics are highly correlated with unit labour costs (ULC) and imports, it is not the case for exports....