An Exploration of COVID-19 and Its Consideration as a Black Swan for the Construction Industry in Switzerland

An Exploration of COVID-19 and Its Consideration as a Black Swan for the Construction Industry in Switzerland

Adrian August Wildenauer, Josef Basl
DOI: 10.4018/IJDIBE.20210101.oa1
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Abstract

COVID-19 and its devastating yet unforeseeable effects affect the entire global economy value chain. Effects will be long-lasting and interfere with the way construction worked so far. Losses in the industry are expected to run into billions; spending on new buildings are predicted to decrease sharply and on a global long-term. COVID-19 is, depending on the viewpoint, either a “White Swan,” which is a probable event, causing massive consequences, or a “Black Swan,” which is additionally not foreseeable. The European Green Deal presented by the European Commission could serve as a new Marshall Plan to enable the long-awaited digitisation of the construction industry. A whole industry sector is called upon to undergo a digital empowerment within a very short period, for which other branches of industry have had years or even decades. Can this crisis serve as a spark for eventually starting the digitalisation of the construction industry?
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Overall Economic Impact Of Covid-19

The figures are impossible to gauge; for the Swiss economy alone, it is assumed that there will be a loss in net value added in the amount of app. CHF 33 billion for the year 2020, which is approximately Euro 30 billion (Schläper, 2020). This represents about 6% of Switzerland's Gross Domestic Product (CIA, 2021). An amount of almost CHF 1.9 billion in rental income will be lost this year, or the mutual tenancy agreements and the application of tenancy law is restricted due to legal crisis packages (BWO, 2020). Almost 140,000 working years of economic output has not been performed since 17.03.2020, the official day of the first Swiss lockdown (Schläper, 2020), with no end in sight and no comparable numbers for the second lockdown starting 18.01.2021. The general figures for the international community are not differing in large numbers (CCSA, 2020). The interim economic outlook forecasts are expecting a decline of at least 0.5% compared to the latest figures of 2019 (OECD, 2020).

The current crisis will have a significant impact (Altman, 2020), with almost halving the worldwide foreign direct investments in a pessimistic scenario and reducing international travel on a third of the original amount within a very short time frame. The World Trade Organization (WTO) predicts that global merchandise trade will decline between 13% and 32% in 2020, depending on the duration and depth of trade restrictions caused by the virus. The figures were published already in April 2020 and will be subject to an adjustment. Due to the complex interrelationships through linked value chains, the WTO assumes that these declines will be much higher with the biggest employment decline since 1945 (CCSA, 2020; WTO, 2020). Basically, it must be questioned whether the economy and the associated supply chains are so robust when a short-term interruption in supply chains leads to such dramatic long-term effects.

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