While suppressing the spread of the virus, empirical analysis shows that these public health measures affect economic activity. Province-level data on exports show that during the Alpha and Omicron COVID-19 waves of infections, restrictions were more likely to affect economic activity negatively. The correlation between de jure government restrictions, measured by a government lockdown stringency index, and provincial exports performance, measured by year-on-year export growth relative to the 2019 level, is weak during normal times, but turned strongly negative during the Alpha and Omicron waves of infections.
søndag 16. oktober 2022
The World Bank: Reforms for Recovery. East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, October 2022
China continues to resort to mass testing and local mobility restrictions to suppress the spread of COVID-19. This zero COVID policy is motivated by the concerns that a spike in infections could overwhelm health system capacity especially in rural areas where the number of unvaccinated people among vulnerable groups remains significant and few have attained immunity conferred by prior infections.
While suppressing the spread of the virus, empirical analysis shows that these public health measures affect economic activity. Province-level data on exports show that during the Alpha and Omicron COVID-19 waves of infections, restrictions were more likely to affect economic activity negatively. The correlation between de jure government restrictions, measured by a government lockdown stringency index, and provincial exports performance, measured by year-on-year export growth relative to the 2019 level, is weak during normal times, but turned strongly negative during the Alpha and Omicron waves of infections.
While suppressing the spread of the virus, empirical analysis shows that these public health measures affect economic activity. Province-level data on exports show that during the Alpha and Omicron COVID-19 waves of infections, restrictions were more likely to affect economic activity negatively. The correlation between de jure government restrictions, measured by a government lockdown stringency index, and provincial exports performance, measured by year-on-year export growth relative to the 2019 level, is weak during normal times, but turned strongly negative during the Alpha and Omicron waves of infections.
