Health Vulnerability versus Economic Resilience to the Covid-19 pandemic: Global Evidence

Asongu, Simplice and Diop, Samba and Nnanna, Joseph (2020): Health Vulnerability versus Economic Resilience to the Covid-19 pandemic: Global Evidence.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand how countries have leveraged on their economic resilience to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The focus is on a global sample of 150 countries divided into four main regions, namely: Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, America and Europe. The study develops a health vulnerability index (HVI) and leverages on an existing economic resilience index (ERI) to provide four main scenarios from which to understand the problem statement, namely: ‘low HVI-low ERI’, ‘high HVI-low ERI’, ‘high HVI-high ERI’ and ‘low HVI-high ERI’ quadrants. It is assumed that countries that have robustly fought the pandemic are those in the ‘low HVI-high ERI’ quadrant and to a less extent, countries in the ‘low HVI-low ERI’ quadrant. Most European countries, one African country (i.e. Rwanda), four Asian countries (Japan, China, South Korea and Thailand) and six American countries (USA, Canada, Uruguay, Panama, Argentina and Costa Rica) are apparent in the ideal quadrant.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Novel coronavirus, health vulnerability, economic resilience
• Subjects: E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E1 - General Aggregative Models > E10 - General; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E1 - General Aggregative Models > E12 - Keynes ; Keynesian ; Post-Keynesian; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy > E20 - General; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy > E23 - Production; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I10 - General; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I18 - Government Policy ; Regulation ; Public Health

References

Agbe, G. M. K. A., (2020). “Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on poverty in MENA countries: focus on child poverty”, Partnership for Economic Policy https://www.pep-net.org/sites/pep-net.org/files/typo3doc/pdf/Literature_Review_Covid-19_Children.pdf(Accessed: 15/06/2020).

Amankwah-Amoah, J., (2020). “Note: Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! Responding to environmental shocks: Insights on global airlines’ responses to COVID-19”, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 143(November), 102098.

Asongu, S. A., Diop, S., &Nnanna, J., (2020).“The Geography of the Effectiveness and Consequences of COVID-19 Measures: Global Evidence”, Journal of Public Affairs: Forthcoming.

Asongu, S. A., Diop, S., (2020).“Covid-19 highlights another pandemic crisis in Africa: lack of care infrastructure”, African Governance and Development Institute Working Paper, Yaoundé.

Ataguba, J. E., (2020). “COVID-19 pandemic, a war to be won: understanding its economic implications for Africa”, Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, (2020) 18, pp. 325–328.

Bisong, A., Ahairwe, P.,&Njoroge, E.,(2020). “The impact of COVID-19 on remittances for development in Africa”. ECDPM Discussion Paper No.269. May.

Blackshaw J., Feeley A., Mabbs L., Niblett P., Atherton E., Elsom R., Hung E., &TedstoneA.(2020). “ExcessWeight and COVID-19: Insights from new evidence”. Public Health England, pp. 1-67. In Faculty Opinions, 28 Jul 2020. 10.3410/f.738390006.793577071.

Diop, S., & Asongu, S.A., (2020a).“The Covid-19 Pandemic and the New Poor in Africa: the Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back”. African Governance and Development Institute, WP/20/038, Yaoundé.

Diop, S., & Asongu, S.A., (2020b).“An Index of African Monetary Integration (IAMI)”, African Governance and Development Institute, WP/20/003, Yaoundé.

Diop, S., Asongu, S. A., &Nnanna, J, (2020). “Covid-19 Economic Vulnerability and Resilience Indexes: Global Evidence”, African Governance and Development Institute Working Paper, Yaoundé.

Farayabi, A. O., & Asongu, S. A., (2020). “The Economic Consequences of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Nigeria”, African Governance and Development Institute Working Paper No. 20/042, Yaoundé.

Craig, J., Kalanxhi, E., Osena, G., & Frost, I., (2020a). “Estimating critical care capacity needs and gaps in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic”, medRxiv(2020), doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.02.20120147.

Craig, J, Kalanxhi, E, Hauck, S., (2020b). “National estimates of critical care capacity in 54 African countries. ”medRxiv(2020), doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.13.20100727.

ILO (2020)."COVID-19 and the world of work: impact and policy responses", Downloaded at https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/briefingnote/wcms_738753.pdf.

International Monetary Fund (2020). "Regional economic outlook. Sub-Saharan Africa : COVID-19 : an unprecedented threat to development", April 2020.

Nicola M, Alsafi Z, Sohrabi C, Kerwan A, Al-Jabir A, Iosifidis C, Agha, M., & Agha, R. (2020). “The Socio-Economic Implications of the Coronavirus and COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review”. International Journal Surgery, 78(June), pp. 185-193.

Obeng-Odoom, F., (2020). “COVID-19, Inequality, and Social Stratification in Africa”, African Review of Economics and Finance, 12(1), pp. 1-12.

Odeyemi, F. A., Adekunle, I. A., Ogunbanjo, O. W., Folorunso, J. B., Akinbolaji, A., &Olawoye, I. B., (2020). “Gauging the Laboratory Responses to Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) in Africa”, Journal of Public Affairs; DOI: 10.1002/pa.2280.

Ozili, P. K., (2020). “COVID-19 in Africa: socioeconomic impact, policy response and opportunities”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-05-2020-0171.

Price, G. & van Holm, E. J. (2020). “The Effect of Social Distancing Onthe Spread of Novel Coronavirus: Estimates From Linked State-Level Infection And American Time Use Survey Data”, Urban Entrepreneurship and Policy Institute, University of New Orleans, New Orleans.

Tchamyou, V. S., (2017). “The Role of Knowledge Economy in African Business”. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 8(4), pp. 1189-1228.

Tchamyou, V. S., (2020). “Education, Lifelonglearning, Inequality and Financial access: Evidence fromAfrican countries”. Contemporary Social Science, 15(1), pp. 7-25.

Vos, R., Martin, W., &. Laborde, D., (2020). "How much will global poverty increase because of COVID-19 ?". Downloaded at: https://www.ifpri.org/blog/how-much-will-global-poverty- increase-because-covid-19.