@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp13457,
            	author={Buchheim, Lukas and Krolage, Carla and Link, Sebastian},
            	title={Sudden Stop: When Did Firms Anticipate the Potential Consequences of COVID-19?},
            	year={2020},
	month={Jul},
            	institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)},
            	address={Bonn},
            	type={IZA Discussion Paper},
            	number={13457},
            	url={https://www.iza.org/publications/dp13457},
	abstract={COVID-19 hit firms by surprise. In a high frequency, representative panel of German firms, the business outlook declined and business uncertainty increased only when the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic led to domestic policy changes: The announcement of nation-wide school closures on March 13 caused by far the largest change in business perceptions. In contrast, business perceptions hardly reacted to any other potential source of information: Firms did not learn from foreign policy measures, even if they relied on inputs from China or Italy. The local, county-level spread of COVID-19 cases affected expectations and uncertainty, albeit to a much lesser extent than the domestic policy changes.},
	keywords={COVID-19;expectations;uncertainty;policy;firms},
            }