Building economic resilience to pandemic risk in Switzerland

This paper examines the scope for pandemic insurance in Switzerland, addressing the residual revenue losses faced by firms despite comprehensive fiscal and monetary policies during COVID-19. While these policies provided critical support, they failed to fully mitigate revenue declines from government-imposed business interruptions. We highlight how pandemic insurance could reduce firms' exposure to revenue shocks and lessen reliance on costly interventions. Drawing insights from the Swiss Elemental Pool, a successful framework of risk-pooling for natural catastrophes, we explore its applicability to pandemic risks. Given the systemic nature of pandemics, we argue that intertemporal risk-sharing, capital accumulation, and risk transfer to financial markets can support a viable public–private partnership (PPP) for pandemic insurance. While conceptually promising, such a PPP requires further empirical evaluation of costs, benefits, and policy interactions. A well-designed framework could enhance resilience to future pandemics and reduce the economic burden of ex-post interventions.