The socio-economic determinants of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic

Viktor Stojkoski; Zoran Utkovski; Petar Jolakoski; Dragan Tevdovski; Ljupco Kocarev

In order to reduce the impact of the disease spread, most governments implemented social distancing restrictions such as closure of schools, airports, borders, restaurants and shopping malls [1]. In the most severe cases there were even lockdowns -all citizens were prohibited from leaving their homes. This subsequently lead to a major economic downturn: stock markets plummeted, international trade slowed down, businesses went bankrupt and people were left unemployed. While in some countries the implemented restrictions had a significant impact on reducing the expected shock from the coronavirus, the extent of the disease spread in the population greatly varied from one economy to another, as illustrated in Fig 1. A multitude of social and economic criteria have been attributed as potential determinants for the observed variety in the coronavirus outcome. Some experts say that the hardest hit countries also had an aging population [2, 3] , or an underdeveloped healthcare system [4, 5] . Others emphasize the role of the natural environment [6, 7] . In addition, while the developments in most of the countries follow certain common patterns, several countries are notably outliers, both in the number of documented cases and in the disease outcome.Having in mind the ongoing debate, a comprehensive empirical study of the critical socio-economic determinants of the coronavirus pandemic would not only provide a glimpse on their potential impact, but would also offer a guidance for future policies that aim at preventing the emergence of epidemics.