posted on 2024-09-05, 20:44authored byAmrita Saha, Marco Carreras, Evert-jan Quak
We conduct a review of different support measures adopted by 59
countries as an immediate response to the COVID-19 pandemic
using an inclusive development lens across five key areas – health
and safety, welfare, finance and credit, taxes and fees and structural
measures. Using the information that a policy response was
announced or implemented immediately, we propose and provide
proxy measures for ‘access’, ‘short-term cover’ and ‘medium- to
long-term adequacy’ using secondary data. Then, we construct a
COVID-19 Response Inclusiveness (CRI) score – to capture the
extent of ‘inclusiveness’ inherent in the support across populations,
particularly for the marginalised and more vulnerable. We define
and capture inclusion as the equitable distribution of social and
economic gains, enhanced well-being and capabilities, with social
and political empowerment. Finally, using simple cross-country
regressions, we find the initial COVID-19 cases, changes in mobility
and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita as key characteristics
that were significantly associated with our measured extent of
inclusiveness in countries’ response packages in the immediate
aftermath of the crisis.
Funding
Default funder
History
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Group
Citation
Saha, A.; Carreras, M. and Quak, E. (2022) 'Investigating Initial Policy Responses to COVID-19: Evidence Across 59 Countries', International Review of Applied Economics, DOI: 10.1080/02692171.2022.2130187