Logo
Munich Personal RePEc Archive

The COVID-19 crisis: what explains cross-country differences in the pandemic’s short-term economic impact?

Niermann, Lennart and Pitterle, Ingo A. (2021): The COVID-19 crisis: what explains cross-country differences in the pandemic’s short-term economic impact? Published in: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Working Papers No. WP 174 (10 August 2021)

This is the latest version of this item.

[thumbnail of MPRA_paper_109165.pdf]
Preview
PDF
MPRA_paper_109165.pdf

Download (859kB) | Preview

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the most universal health and socio-economic crisis in recent history. However, the magnitude of the economic damage has differed widely; some countries were hit particularly hard, while others have managed to weather the storm much better. In this paper, we employ a cross-country analysis to identify factors that help explain the differences in the growth impact of the COVID-19 shock. Our findings underscore the critical role of balancing health and economic concerns in managing the pandemic as both a country’s exposure to the coronavirus and the stringency of containment measures are strongly correlated with its growth performance. In addition, our results shed light on several aspects of economic resilience. Good governance, provision of fiscal support and strong macroeconomic fundamentals all helped cushion the economic impact. By contrast, a lack of economic diversification – reflected in overreliance on the tourism sector or oil production – has significantly amplified the shock.

Available Versions of this Item

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact us: mpra@ub.uni-muenchen.de

This repository has been built using EPrints software.

MPRA is a RePEc service hosted by Logo of the University Library LMU Munich.