Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2022.2077792
COVID-19 pandemic–related policy stringency and economic decline: was it really inevitable?
Ujkan Q. Bajra
Florin Aliu
Boštjan Aver
Simon Čadež
Sažetak
The coronavirus outbreak in 2020 shattered economies, public
health and public well-being worldwide literally overnight. In
response to the pandemic, most countries implemented a delicate
balance of policy stringency and economic support to ensure
public health, social security and a vibrant economy. With the
pandemic slowly phasing out, our article explores the effectiveness
of various governmental strategies for ensuring economic
growth. The proposed econometric model is tested using panel
quarterly data for 49 (37 OECD þ 12 non-OECD) countries for all
four quarters of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021. Our findings
show that policy stringency and economic support are both negatively
associated with economic growth. We also find that the
stringency was largely responsive, oriented to preventing the collapse
of health systems after infections had already become widespread,
not towards saving human lives by preventing soaring
levels of infection. While our findings appear to lend support for
the view that a trade-off between human lives and the economy
was inevitable, we also challenge this view by evidence that
some countries were able to secure a double dividend of maintaining
public health and a vibrant economy by a prudent farsighted
stringency policy of preventing the virus outbreak.
Ključne riječi
Policy stringency; economic policy; COVID-19 pandemic; economic growth; public health
Hrčak ID:
303741
URI
Datum izdavanja:
31.3.2023.
Posjeta: 352 *